Sounds quite fun indeed! What quests did you try it against and how did it preform against each one? I dont have SF yet, what would you suggest as replacement cards for the 6 SF cards I don't have? (I don't want to use proxies) Or would the deck be kinda ruined without those cards? I don't see needing peace and thought that much but the other one with the name I don't even want to try and spell , seems like it could be important.

We tested the deck against the incredibly challenging scenario of Passage through Mirkwood...!

Hah, we've taken it easy so far because I expected the deck to fail pretty hard. We did PtM 2-player and 3-player with no trouble, then Seventh Level very easily as well. That was fun -- Small Target on a Chieftain of the Pit = one splattered Goblin Spearman. Had our easiest game of the Hunt for Gollum ever this evening while using this deck, but I attribute that to insanely easy encounter draw. 2 Clues on us in the first 2-3 turns, and only 2 enemies were drawn in the whole game -- it was all location inundation and Northern Tracker was in my partner's starting hand. No special hobbit tricks there.

When I tried this as a Secrecy deck, we took it against Into the Pit. We had a chance at winning and had some memorable moments but I wasn't using my brain and it cost us the game. We failed to clear a Patrol Leader due to his Forced effect, which required kind of a heavy character commitment for the attack. That carried on for about three rounds while other enemies began to swarm us and the staging area filled up. We probably could have won if I had used O Elbereth! on that guy, which I realized later I was holding in my hand. *SMACK*

The nicest thing about our current 2 decks are that they give us a ton of flexibility regarding questing and planning. The other deck uses Imrahil, Eowyn and Glorfindel (spirit). In the action window preceding quest resolution, we can discard for Eowyn, play spirit Bofur (and subsequently ready Imrahil when he leaves), and use Late Adventurer in the hobbit deck, not to mention the 4 willpower we get from having Gandalf OHaUH in the party. I will probably try this against the Redhorn Gate next, but I'm not sure how much little hairy hobbit feet can withstand the cold of Caradhras. At least Fast Hitch provides some insurance against the dreaded quest card 2B to 3B transition.

And you're right about Peace and Thought -- I took it out. I put Risk Some Light in its place, to combo with Good Meal (or not-- Bilbo doesn't have a whole lot to spend his money on otherwise).

Failed the Redhorn Gate solo, with about 9 progress tokens on 2B and 5 enemies engaged. Then we trounced it in 2-player, with a final score of 35 (using the old scoring system. Probably around 135 if using the updated system). Then 2-player against Encounter at Amon Din for a solid victory.

Overall it works well, but plays with a pretty different strategy than most other decks I've built. It feels just right though -- very suspenseful when enemies are around, always looking for ways to hide and avoid them, with few ways to remove them from the table. Always waiting for Gandalf to show up. Just a fun alternative, and decently effective if doing a standard (non-Battle/Siege) quest. You have to play fast though, because the hobbit deck has a dangerous addiction to threat raising. It's only got The Galadhrim's Greeting to lower threat, and plenty of ways to raise it.

So my question is, can this deck still function good and play well without all SaF cards?

Yeah it'll work. I took out Peace, and Thought already. O Elbereth! is a good card for this deck, but in many games I never get a chance to use it anyway. It's more like an insurance policy.