Come one, come all, to the Zoo of Arnor! We have the largest collection of enemies in all of Middle Earth! At the Zoo of Arnor we believe that all enemies are special and that the people of Eriador should be able to witness all types of enemies from near and far! We believe in the ethical treatment of enemies and refuse to attack them, even when we are all out of Forest Snares.

We have local enemies like Trolls, Goblins, and Undead! Come see the Wargs, Dunlendings, and Uruk-Hai from Isengard! If you're lucky, you might even be able to see Spiders, Orcs, or Nazgul all the way from Mordor!

Come join us and let our Hobbits show you around! Don't forget to stop by Barliman Butterbur's restaurant and try his world famous Warg legs!

Warning: Don't read any further if you have been avoiding the Angmar Awakens spoilers.

This deck is all about engaging lots of enemies, but never actually killing any of them. I started off with the goal of maximizing the use of Warden of Annuminas and Sarn Ford Sentry. The hard part is keeping multiple enemies engaged with you without getting killed or crippled by shadow cards. The cards that came to mind that would allow you to be engaged with multiple enemies long term were Forest Snare, Out of Sight, Hobbit Sense and Thicket of Spears. Thicket of Spears wouldn't work with a Spirit/Lore, so I used the other cards and made an all Hobbit secrecy deck!

**Heroes** (starting threat: 19)
Frodo Baggins (*Conflict at the Carrock*)
Merry (*The Wastes of Eriador*)
Pippin (*The Black Riders*)
**Allies** (17)
2x Barliman Butterbur (*The Black Riders*)
3x Celduin Traveler (*The Nin-in-Eilph*)
3x Ithilien Lookout (*The Dunland Trap*)
3x Northern Tracker (*Core Set*)
3x Sarn Ford Sentry (*The Lost Realm*)
3x Warden of Annúminas (*The Lost Realm*)
**Attachments** (11)
3x Fast Hitch (*The Dead Marshes*)
3x Forest Snare (*Core Set*)
2x Leaf Brooch (*The Three Trials*)
3x Resourceful (*The Watcher in the Water*)
**Events** (24)
3x A Test of Will (*Core Set*)
3x Daeron's Runes (*Foundations of Stone*)
2x Dwarven Tomb (*Core Set*)
3x Expert Trackers (*The Lost Realm*)
3x Hobbit-sense (*Encounter at Amon Dîn*)
3x Out of Sight (*The Long Dark*)
3x Peace, and Thought (*Shadow and Flame*)
3x The Galadhrim's Greeting (*Core Set*)
1x Will of the West (*Core Set*)
***
^Deck ^built ^with ^[Rivendell-Councilroom](http://github.com/ddddirk/lotrdb)

The first thing that makes this deck very different from the many other secrecy decks I've made is that it doesn't have Glorfindel, Hobbit Pipes, or Elrond's Council. By taking advantage of the new Merry hero, we can hopefully stay in secrecy without many events. But, I included some Galadhrim's Greetings just in case.

Early game you hope to get out resourcefuls, fast hitches, and some secrecy allies. The first resourceful should go on Pippin. The first fast hitch should probably go on Frodo, but you could put it on Merry if you really want to quest with all 3 Hobbits and use Merry's ability.

After a few turns you should be ready to start engaging enemies. One enemy shouldn't be much of a problem because Frodo or a Warden/Tracker can defend. Barliman Butterbur is there in case you have more attacks than you planned for. Ideally you just have to block one attack and then they get the Forest Snare.

Later on or when you run out of snares, you can start engaging an enemy every round and play either Out of Sight or Hobbit Sense to feint all of them. Hopefully you can get at least of couple of those between Pippin's card draw, Daeron's Runes, and Peace and Thought.

Once you start getting 4 or 5 enemies, the Wardens become questing machines and you can play the Sarn Ford Sentries for ridiculous card draw to dig for more Out of Sights and Hobbit Senses. Dwarven Tombs should be used for Out of Sight, unless you really need more Tests of Will or Galadhrim's Greetings. This may be my first time successfully using Leaf Brooch. With all the spirit events, I could see at least one leaf brooch being used almost every turn.

If this deck gets running, I think it would provide a ton of value to a group. Between the Northern Trackers and Expert Trackers (triggered by exhausting Ithilien Lookouts), there is a lot of location control. It's also effectively neutralizing one new enemy every turn (or more if they have very low engagement). It should quest for 6-10 pretty quickly and has the potential to get to 30+ late game with the Wardens.

I haven't actually tried this yet, but I've done some simulated games to see how fast it could get running. It takes a few turns to get the resource and card generation online, but it can usually start engaging some enemies by round 3 or 4, and by round 5-7 it can start engaging an enemy every turn while simultaneously questing for 10-15. By round 10 I often had 20-30 willpower.

Obviously it wouldn't work well against enemies that attack outside of combat, have archery, or have nasty engagement effects. I also don't think it would be very good as a solo deck because with fewer cards during staging Merry's ability is less likely to trigger and you could easily lose secrecy.

I think this deck will add an interesting level of suspense because it's kind of a ticking time bomb. Eventually you're going to run out of Out of Sights and Hobbit Senses. In some of the simulations I ran, I didn't start the turn with either of those, but then I played a Sarn Ford Sentry to draw 5+ cards and hoped and prayed to draw one. When you run out, you're probably dead. Maybe you can buy some time by blocking with allies, but there's only so many options when you have 5-10 enemies staring at you.

One other side effect that I'm curious to try out is the fact that you'll cycle through the encounter deck very quickly. With all the enemies and shadow cards every round, that deck will empty in a hurry. This deck might work well with a deck that neuters the encounter deck via Out of the Wild or similar cards.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! Part of me wants to somehow work in Hammer Stroke, but I'm not sure it would be worth the songs.

That's a really interesting way to think around those Dunedain cards, I like it. It's hard to say how well it'll work without trying it, but I like the new ways we have to deal with enemies now (and use them). Cool idea!

Thanks! I've tested this out a few times and it's pretty crazy. Starting in about the 5th or 6th round, you should be able to play Out of Sight or Hobbit Sense every round for 15 round straight. It relies on Peace and Thought in the beginning to get 2 or 3 in hand, but then the Sarn Ford Sentries get rolling and the card draw becomes ridiculous. Leaf Brooch is actually almost as effective as Resourceful. I'm tempted to take out Barliman and put in Hasty Strokes, since he's pretty much just there in case there are extra attacks that Frodo can't soak up.

I'm also tempted to put in one copy of Good Harvest and Hammer Stroke just for the late game situation where you can soak up all the enemies. That way for one round everyone can quest without needing to worry about enemies, and then after that the Wardens of Annuminas will be questing for double digits each.

You've gotta play this at our next meetup. Proxy Merry! I'll do a ranged thing. But not Brand because who cares if your Hobbits are readied!

Alright, we'll have to give it a try. Who knows, we might actually have Merry by then. He's on the boat now.