This is a deck I built probably a year ago, but couldn't get to work. Tinkered around with it last night and got it closer to playable. The basic combo it wants to achieve is Merry+ranged, which means 1) all hobbit heroes for attack power and 2) an elf-friend + rivendell bow combo. Then he gets 2 weapons, or a weapon and Rohan Warhorse.

Meriadoc, Bow-Thain v1

Main Deck

Hero (3)
Frodo Baggins (Conflict at the Carrock)
Merry (The Black Riders)
Pippin (Encounter at Amon Dîn)

Ally (20)
3x Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens)
3x Ethir Swordsman (The Steward's Fear)
3x Galadriel's Handmaiden (Celebrimbor's Secret)
1x Gandalf (Core Set)
1x Sam Gamgee (The Thing in the Depths)
3x Trollshaw Scout (Foundations of Stone)
3x West Road Traveller (Return to Mirkwood)
3x Westfold Horse-breeder (The Voice of Isengard)

Attachment (19)
3x Dagger of Westernesse (The Black Riders)
3x Elf-friend (The Treachery of Rhudaur)
3x Hobbit Pipe (The Black Riders)
2x Hobbit Pony (The Wastes of Eriador)
3x Resourceful (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Rivendell Bow (The Watcher in the Water)
2x Rohan Warhorse (The Voice of Isengard)

Event (11)
3x Elevenses (The Thing in the Depths)
3x Elven-light (The Dread Realm)
3x Smoke Rings (The Black Riders)
2x The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core Set)

3 Heroes, 50 Cards
Cards up to The Thing in the Depths

Sideboard

Event (3)
3x A Test of Will (Core Set)

Deck built on RingsDB .

My goal is to get Merry set up by round 3. It doesn't achieve this in a vacuum (i.e. with no encounter cards in play) so I don't consider it playable yet. This is for multiplayer of course.

The deck doesn't really care how much threat it has except for Dagger of Westernesse, which honestly could be replaced with Bow of the Galadhrim. And threat matters for Resourceful. Pippin protects against unwanted engagement. Frodo is an emergency defender but could be replaced with Fatty (yep I just typed that). If no one at the table had Arwen in their deck, I would sub her in here for a West Road Traveler.

Trollshaw Scout is in there to enable draw with Elven-light. Could put Steed of Imladris in for that also but the Scout supports Merry and gives me a place to spend his resources.

I have two other versions of this deck. One uses Lore Pippin instead, and you get access to more draw. That one gets the combo set up faster but risks being irrelevant, it doesn't bring much else to the table. The current deck brings decent willpower.

The other version uses the classic Sam, Merry, Lore Pippin lineup. Instead of Rivendell Bow, it seeks Dunedain Cache and is largely a Lesdership deck. It also sets up Sam as a defender, so it is more interested in keeping threat low, but lacks good threat reduction (just Gandalf).

Would love to see this work in a 4 player setting some time. Merry has a powerful ability and it would be fun to spread it around. Any suggestions are welcome!

If you include Master of the Forge and mulligan hard for it you might have an easier time setting up the combo. You can play him on turn one and grab one attachment, and grab the second attachment on turn 3 if you're lucky.

The Dunedain Cache method seems a lot more reliable though. You could mulligan for either the Cache or the Master of the Forge and virtually guarantee a ranged Merry by turn 3.

Play Master of the Forge on round 1, by using 2 Lore heroes or what? Are you suggesting putting Lore Bilbo alongside Lore Pippin somewhere?

He probably want to say "play him on turn two", that why you can grab the second one on turn three if you are lucky enough :).

I join him to say that relly on dunedain cache seem a way more secure way.1

Since almost all your card are spirit elven-light don't seem a good way to get card advantage. Gleowine seem better.

You choose not to play any of the the good event (daeron's rune, test of will, hastly stroke, feint, hammer-foe). Why?

Yes, Rouxxor is right, I meant play him turn 2, and grab attachments you need on turn 2 and 3.

Even outside of combo decks, a deck that runs a lore hero and 20 attachments would benefit greatly from Master of the Forge.

The deck uses Spirit Pippin so there is no Lore. Maybe that is where the confusion arises? I have a version of the deck with Lore Pippin, and it does get the combo out faster/more reliably, but it brings less to the table overall (sacrifices better ability to play willpower allies).

The other power events just don't have a place in this deck. Feint, Hasty Stroke, and A Test of Will would slow down access to Merry's combo. They could replace willpower allies, but I decided to build i in a way that puts a permanent benefit on the table (ally willpower, as long as the ally is alive) as opposed to a one-off (a single use event). Foe-hammer doesn't work in this deck: if I have the ability to use it, that means Merry is already set up and I didn't need it. Daeron's Runes isn't in there because there's no Lore.

If you want quick and reliable card combos, you need either lore or Mirror of Galadriel, in my opinion. The other spheres just don't have the card draw power.

Lore offers a decent number of 2-cost for 2-willpower characters that you can replace some spirit allies with, it that's what you're concerned about.

But the biggest plus to including lore might be Fast Hitch for Merry. You've gone to all the trouble to set him up, might as well get multiple uses.

Something like this: http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/69879

Thanks for all the help. After running attempts in OCTGN, definitely Dunedain Cache is the safer way to go (no brainer, it doesn't require a combo). I tend to favor the spirit/tactics deck even though it's less reliable. It's a more reliable support in a 4 player game, maybe, because it puts willpower on the table faster. And it offers the novelty of playing Spirit Pippin, hah!

So if you reject both lore (for the best pippin) and leadership (for dunedain cache) does your decklist get any improvement since your last tests?

You all offered nice suggestions, but basically you were suggesting I scrap my deck and run a different one. I already have 3 versions of this deck with 3 different hero lineups, as mentioned in the original post. I was hoping for some ideas to improve the spirit/tactics version. So no, the decklist above hasn't changed.

Ok. So here is some thought:

1- in Spirit / Tactics I really like combining knight of swan and ethir swordmen. Those two are the best outlands, the ones who are already okay when you have only one in play. You already play

2- I have no idea for getting elf-friend but for rivendell bow you may look after a card who come in a few time: open the armory.

3- If a friend play a ranged enemy you can engage an enemy, make is attack undefended and get threat with Frodo. Then attack with bot merry and his hero. It is the same that attacking in her home.

4- If you have additional strength you even can handle by yourself some enemies. But you need some attacking ally that can also quest. Sam is good for that and I will play another one if I was you. knight of the swan are also good for that. A little treebear and/or Gandalf II can be interesting too. A Glorfindel ally is also great.

5- I'm not a fan of you troll / elven-light combo. The two together doesn't do something exceptional. And we you ony have one you simply can't use it.

6- I think there is never too many test of will. 12 for 4 players is enough but not too many ;).

May be I will have additional suggestion for you after that but it is enough for the moment

I definitely like that Open the Armory, it's a natural fit for what I'm trying to do in the deck. I don't like to proxy cards but it'll go in once I get my hands on it.

I like the ideas about the big allies. I think they, and Test of Will, are sideboard cards for now and get slotted in depending on the scenario.

I'd like to talk about this Trollshaw Scout / Elven-light combo for a moment though. I'd never used it before and I'd never seen anyone put it in a deck. Turns out it's pretty solid. I like it more than I thought I would. Mainly it's in there because the deck is desperate for draw. And it does support the purpose of the deck (ranged attacks with Merry). Unfortunately, every possible spirit/tactics draw card requires a combo in itself, excepting Ancient Mathom, which is not great in 4-player. Elven-light doesn't work on its own because there's no native discard in this deck. In the case of Trollshaw/Elven-light, it's a really good draw combo if your deck has money to burn (which this deck does, with Resourcefuls active). When Rod of the Steward came out, people said "2 resources for 1 card? Too weak, but 1 resource for 1 card would have been too powerful." Well, in a 4-player game, Trollshaw Scout/Elven-light is basically "pay X spirit resources to draw X cards." The "X" value is only limited by the number of enemies on the table. It is pretty amazing when you get it going. As long as you have money, in a 4-player game there will be plenty of enemy targets. Still, it's a combo that you need to draw into. I wouldn't include it in this deck if I had better draw options.

You are indeed stuck with few draw option. The problem don't came from the sphere but from this specific hero. With a Noldor hero you can get into something really strongest though (Glorfindel with a real secrecy stuff who rely on hobbit pipe, Galadriel with his ability and mirror, Arwen with elven-light).

I haven't see that Trollshaw Scout does not exhaust to attack. He is better like this. Still not enough to make me support this (still poorly card separately) but I understand what this is for :).

Not tempted by knight of the swan? Can either attack at home or quest. Probably better that playing one million (wich in fact is 16) small allies that can only go questing. Especially if you can convert spirit resource into drawing with a benefit so you will alway be able to play a spirit ally each turn.

Good point about Knight of the Swan, I totally forgot that Ethir Swordsman affects him too. I'll admit I haven't ever used any of the Outlands allies except for that Ethir Swordsman.

Another good sideboard card here would be Gather Information, if other players are willing to do it and in a scenario that doesn't penalize you for ignoring the main quest. Of course, then you have to draw into that 1-of card.

Did you ever consider Sam/Merry/Pippin (s), or is that another deck? You don't need to shift it to leadership, just include cache and errad riders (and maybe a couple of more cards). You would start out with more wp, but be in bred of drawing deras rider. And, you could add Steward to your Troll/scout combo.

Of course gather information is a must have. I regularly play it in my deck even if there is quests where then can't be accomplish. But I sideboard only for make decks according well to each other, not depending on the quest.

I haven't tried Sam with Spirit Pippin. Their abilities seem to work against each other. It would be a Dunedain Cache deck for sure, rather than the janky Elf-friend+Rivendell Bow combo that I'm trying to pull off here, but it would run into most of the same problems with card draw.

ask your friends to add Deep Knowledge and Campfire Tales in their decks