Hi everone, new to this game having only owned and played it for about 2 weeks now. Played first quest in the core set with only cards from it. I got some very lucky cards do and was curious what other players have gotten as their best setup hands without pulling a Mulligan. My cards where: 2 Gandalf, 1 The favor of the lady, 1 Celebrians Stone, 1 The Galadhrims Greeting, 1 sneak attack. After a couple off rounds i got another sneak attack and ended the Passage through Mirkwood scenario on 7threat ( really good for me, last time i won that scenario i had a threat in the 30s). I was playing with Theodred, Aragorn and Eowyn as my heroes.

Aggrak said:

well i was running a card draw / protector of lorien deck with hobbits and got protector / gleowine / gandalf and fast hitch which was exactly what i was wanting. my set up hand needs change per quest so its hard to tell whats best or not

Except for The Favour of the Lady (which you'll discover isn't that good of a card once you get a few AP and have access to more player cards), that was a great hand. I would have traded that Favor for A Test of Will anytime however (other nice replacements would have included Northern Tracker, Steward of Gondor and Unexpect Courage).

I don't always like having 2 Gandalf to start with, especialy with your Sneak Attack. You'll rarely have enough resources to play 2 Gandalf back to back (at least, without having Steward of Gondor out) anyway, so it's better to draw them 2 turns apart (but hey, it beats not seeing the old geezer for a whole game!)