I gotta say, Bill the Pony is a perfect ally to back up the hobbits (and the fact that with Sam in play, he is free makes it even better!) I really like how nearly all the hobbit-specific cards give an incentive to attack enemies with higher engagement costs than your current threat. I do wish Spirit and Leadership would have received three unique player cards a piece like Lore and Tactics did, though. At any rate, I guess I can officially start visualizing some fun hobbit decks now!

I'm diggin Fatty. He is a repeatable Radagast's Cunning. You just have to build your deck around threat-lowering options, which makes sense for hobbits anyway.

..............

thanks for making my evening with the spoilers

WOW!!!! This saga expansion is going to be epic!! Bill, Elf Stone, The pipe the tactics cards they are all amazing. Fatty seems interesting but i will likely go for the other three hobbits. I think the saga event card in this expansion is better than the hobbit ones. Anyway i can´t wait to get this cards!!

Sneaky little hobbitses, my preciousssssssssssssssss

I'm diggin Fatty. He is a repeatable Radagast's Cunning. You just have to build your deck around threat-lowering options, which makes sense for hobbits anyway.

I guess my hang up with Fatty is that I dont see the net gain of his ability as substantial. Your negating the threat cost of an enemy whom if they did count, you would what? Quest negatively and increase your threat any anyway? It is good if you are getting land locked and really need to clear a location or on that last stage of the quest and need just a few more points of progress, but I feel as tho those occasions are few and far between. The ability would have been nicer if it were response and not requiring to exhaust him although this can be easily mitigated with throwing a fast hitch on him.

If I'm also running lore I think I'd rather just use ithilien tracker. Much better

in multiplayer if someone is pulling off the wandering took/song of erandil combo, he may be of more use

I guess I was just expecting something better after the reveal of Sam, Merry, and Pippin. I'd still use him over spirit Pippin and the art is fantastic for what that's worth

So, I'm straying a bit off topic and into the future with this but here goes...

I normally play two-handed solo, so I am trying to think of all possible combinations to use for a nice duo of hobbit decks. Now, I am assuming that the Black Riders version of Frodo will work similarly to the Hobbit saga's version of Bilbo in which the first player always takes control of Frodo; so, there's only going to be five unique hobbit heroes to choose from (Sam, Merry, Pippin, Fatty, and Bilbo.) That's 1 Leadership, 1 Tactics, 2 Spirit, and 2 Lore. (I counted Pippin as Spirit and Lore for both his versions.)

Any ideas on combinations?

Edit - When not playing the Black Rider quests, there's also the Spirit version of Frodo - which would make 6 hobbits altogether.

I think it depends on whether you're going to put Strider into play in your second hand or only two hobbitses.

Hmm. I think you'd have to go with Strider if you are trying to keep theme. I think Faramir would work great, too. Strider (or Faramir, or Mirlonde), Bilbo, and Pippin could make a mono lore hobbit/trap deck. Then Fatty, Sam, and Merry could make the pure hobbit deck. It would be better to have Sam and Pippin in the same deck, but the ability to run mono lore opens up a lot of options.

I know this is super quick but isn't Fatty just terrible, I mean just terrible, though a bit better with all the threat reduction I guess.

I think it depends on whether you're going to put Strider into play in your second hand or only two hobbitses.

That's true. There's many heroes that could be paired with the hobbits for thematic decks. Strider, Glorfindel, etc.

For strictly hobbit decks, I'm thinking Samwise, Frodo, and Fatty (1 Leadership, 2 Spirit)... and Merry, Pippin, and Bilbo (1 Tactics, 2 Lore) That's just an idea. I'd most likely replace Bilbo with Strider to add to the theme, though.

I know this is super quick but isn't Fatty just terrible, I mean just terrible, though a bit better with all the threat reduction I guess.

Personally, I don't think Spirit Frodo is that great either. I was just brainstorming ideas of how to make all-hobbit themed decks, regardless of their playability.

In all honesty though, I prefer a healthy mix of theme and playability because a fun theme is always nice but if it can't beat most of the quests, what's the point?

And isn't Elfstone just what mono-Lore decks needed? All those 3+ cost allies could enter play much cheaper this way,,,

So, I'm straying a bit off topic and into the future with this but here goes...

I normally play two-handed solo, so I am trying to think of all possible combinations to use for a nice duo of hobbit decks. Now, I am assuming that the Black Riders version of Frodo will work similarly to the Hobbit saga's version of Bilbo in which the first player always takes control of Frodo; so, there's only going to be five unique hobbit heroes to choose from (Sam, Merry, Pippin, Fatty, and Bilbo.) That's 1 Leadership, 1 Tactics, 2 Spirit, and 2 Lore. (I counted Pippin as Spirit and Lore for both his versions.)

Any ideas on combinations?

Edit - When not playing the Black Rider quests, there's also the Spirit version of Frodo - which would make 6 hobbits altogether.

i made a deck when the hobbits were previewed that took advantage of pippins throw back ability, sams boost and son of arnor

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/86611-sam-son-of-arnor-born-aloft-pippin-spirit/

it had a lot of problems with it but it was mainly an idea

And isn't Elfstone just what mono-Lore decks needed? All those 3+ cost allies could enter play much cheaper this way,,,

I love Elf Stone so much I might proxy it into my current deck tonight.

Elf Stone is more remarkable for mixed-sphere decks I think. If you're playing a mono-Lore deck it isn't as hard to put Haldir, Gildor, etc. into play because you have enough resources but if you're playing a deck that only has 2 or even 1 Lore hero, it would take forever to save up to buy those allies. Elf Stone is just a great card - the only way it could be better would be if it were Neutral in sphere.

If solo I think the best bet is keeping Sam, Merry, and the new Pippin together and just throwing some songs of travel for the pipe cards. They just work so well together. If playing two decks you could have a very thematic play thru by keeping deck 1 the same as listed above and making deck 2 Fatty, Strider, and Glorfindel (spirit). This would literally represent all the main players in the first half of the fellowship.

If your intent is to make it as hobbitty as possible and include bilbo I think I would make deck 1 Sam, lore Pippin, and Bilbo and deck 2 Fatty, Merry, and spirit Glorfindel. (Giving Glorfindel to some of his tactics elf toys like rivendell blade and maybe rivendell bow) you could also throw attachments across the table like fast hitch, hobbit cloak, and blade of westernese

(All for playing the saga quests where frodo isn't available)

Ah, Spirit Glorfindel... He gets around in all my Middle-earth decks, let me tell you. Now he actually fits into the theme though! (unless you're going for a movie-based theme, and in that case I'd have to ditch Glorfindel altogether and throw in all my Arwen ally cards.)

Ah, Spirit Glorfindel... He gets around in all my Middle-earth decks, let me tell you. Now he actually fits into the theme though! (unless you're going for a movie-based theme, and in that case I'd have to ditch Glorfindel altogether and throw in all my Arwen ally cards.)

grrr...silly arwen getting lost and stealing glorfindel's horse...what would elrond say .....

I'm not saying I'm dissatisfied with the player cards at all, but just for practical reasons, aren't there some missing cards in the spoiler? Shouldn't there be 3 cards per sphere? If so, there's a missing Spirit and Leadership cards, am I right? And one neutral card.

I'm not saying I'm dissatisfied with the player cards at all, but just for practical reasons, aren't there some missing cards in the spoiler? Shouldn't there be 3 cards per sphere? If so, there's a missing Spirit and Leadership cards, am I right? And one neutral card.

Lets hope you are right!!

I'm not saying I'm dissatisfied with the player cards at all, but just for practical reasons, aren't there some missing cards in the spoiler? Shouldn't there be 3 cards per sphere? If so, there's a missing Spirit and Leadership cards, am I right? And one neutral card.

i dont believe so; in the original article for the black riders box it said we would get 33 new player cards (3 copies of 11 cards). Thats precisely how many were spoiled

And isn't Elfstone just what mono-Lore decks needed? All those 3+ cost allies could enter play much cheaper this way,,,

I love Elf Stone so much I might proxy it into my current deck tonight.

I agree 100%. This is fantastic for my elven deck.

Ah, you're right it seems Pharmboys. Anyway, just wanted to clear that out.

ugh i want all the cards so bad. this is awesome and unbearable at the same time