The Hobbit – Mines of Moria Version

by Matthew Clemans

There's a wise Wizard, a Hobbit with a magic ring, a crew of Dwarves, and a whole mess of Orcs. If you can picture the Balrog as a Dragon named Smaug, you've got the cast and crew of Tolkien's first book – The Hobbit.

Ring-bearer
    Frodo – Reluctant Adventurer
    The One Ring – Isildur's Bane

Adventure Deck
    [1] Westfarthing
    [2] Midgewater Moors
    [3] Frodo's Bedroom
    [4] The Great Chasm
    [5] The Bridge of Khazad-dum
    [6] Dimril Dale
    [7] Anduin Confluence
    [8] Brownlands
    [9] Emyn Muil

Free Peoples
    Gimli – Dwarf of the Mountain Race (starting)
    Farin – Dwarven Emissary (starting)
    Gandalf – The Grey Pilgrim x2
    Fror – Gimli's Kinsman
    Gloin – Friend to Thorin
    Hand Axe x3
    Dwarven Axe x3
    Gimli's Axe x2
    Gandalf's Staff
    Glamdring
    Sting
    Albert Dreary – Entertainer from Bree
    Grimir – Dwarven Elder
    Servant Secret Fire x3
    Axe Strike x3
    Sleep, Carahras x2
    Delving x3
    Tidings of Erebor x2
    Flurry of Blows x3
    Thror's Map

Shadow
    Archer commander x2 (35)
    Goblin Bowmen x3
    Goblin Marksman x3
    Moria Archer x2
    Moria Archer Troop x2
    Goblin Scavengers x3
    Goblin Runner x3
    Balrog – Durin's Bane
    Goblin Scimitar x3
    Moria Axe x1
    Goblin Armory x3
    They are coming x2
    Host of Thousands x4
    Bitter Hatred x2
    Goblin Domain x2

Strategy

This deck takes advantage of the card drawing powers of the Dwarves and of the new Gandalf to cycle through cards and weaken your opponent's fellowship with archery to the point where your Orcs can kill or overwhelm the ring-bearer. Let's look at some of the pieces of the deck to see how this is accomplished.

Any time you build a deck you're trying to figure out a way to win. In a Lord of the Rings deck, you can choose to focus on winning with one half of the deck while stalling your opponent with the other. For example, a Hobbit deck is usually designed not to run to site nine, but to survive anything your opponent can throw at it while your Shadow deck wins the game. This deck follows a similar theory – your fellowship is strong, and can win the game for you, but generally you will win with your shadow deck.

Free Peoples

Gimli is your main fighter in this deck. When armed with his axe and a Hand Axe you can kill almost any minion in the game with a Flurry of Blows. His ability to wound an Orc when he wins a skirmish will often save you against Moria swarm decks and can also stop all those nasty Sauron Orcs that can exert to wound a companion. Fror and Farin each get strength bonuses when they face certain minions, Orcs and Uruk-hai respectively. The other Dwarves can pack a punch when armed with a pair of axes. Since everyone should be armed with an axe, you can use your Axe Strikes to the fullest potential and the recycle them back into your deck with Grimir.

While the Dwarves can pack an offensive punch, their card drawing powers are equally important. Delving allows you to draw cards during your fellowship phase – allowing you to play more and Tidings of Erebor will enable you to move two sites more often by replenishing your hand in the Regroup phase. Most importantly, these cards allow you to cycle through your deck and set up a good Shadow hand every turn.

Gandalf also plays an important part in your fellowship. His ability to draw a card at the beginning of every turn basically increases the size of your fellowship hand by one. He also explains the striking absence of any Free Peoples conditions. It was decided that it is more important to this deck to deny the shadow player their conditions than to use any of its own. Sleep, Caradhras and Albert Dreary will achieve this goal. Glamdring and Gandalf's Staff will allow Gandalf to assume an offensive role in your fellowship and give you the ability to avoid big minions – like the Balrog.

Shadow (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Archers)

While the fellowship of this deck is strong, the Shadow side should win games for you. There are 12 minion archers in the deck, each with special abilities. The Goblin Bowmen and Goblin Marksmen are the bread and butter of the deck. They have low vitality, but the also have low cost and (of course) contribute to the archery total. The Archer Commander will provide the Bowmen and Moria Archers with a much needed strength bonus, which, when combined with a Goblin Scimitar or Moria Axe, can defeat the best the fellowship has to offer. The Moria Archer Troop is perhaps the strongest Minion in this deck, for both his three vitality and for his game text. While you can spot another Moria archer minion, the archery total is +1. This means that a Moria Archery Troop and any other archer will provide three archery!

The archery potential in this deck can be fully utilized by taking advantage of the other Shadow cards. Moria Archers are not as cheap as other Moria minions, but the Goblin Armorys and the Goblin Runners can assure you have enough twilight to play all your archers when you need it. Especially near the end of the adventure path, your opponent will be generating great amounts of twilight. This will allow you to use The Host of Thousands and They Are coming to play your choice of minions from the discard pile. Once you get out Goblin Domain, any reinforcements they bring out will be prime bait for your archers.

There is one other minion in the deck – The Balrog. He is in there to assure that at the very least your opponent will take some wounds at the Bridge of Khazad-dum. If your opponent is unprepared, you can exhaust or kill several companions at the bridge and then finish him off with archery when he moves to site six.

There are several weaknesses to this deck type, which have been countered by certain cards. Directed archery, such as Legolas, Greenleaf or Aragorn's Bow can cause havoc to Moria decks because of the low vitality of most Moria minions. Bitter Hatred is very useful in this scenario to kill off or wound Legolas before he can pick off your archers. You can also use them to get rid of Rumil or any other Elf allies. The Goblin Armories can also assist you against directed archery or even against Power According to his Stature.

One other problem this deck faces is low average strength. The weapons, which can be retrieved with the Scavengers, will help out the little guys, as will the Archer Commander. Remember that the point is not to win skirmishes but to continually punish your opponent with archery fire.

Sites

Going first is not crucial in this deck. In fact, you should bid low as there is no burden removal. If you happen to go first, you'll play Westfarthing, which denies your opponent Prancing Pony for Aragorn, or whatever other site they chose. The choice of sites doesn't become very important until site 4. The Great Chasm allows you to play a Moria Archer for -2 cost. This is crucial to adding on wounds before your opponent travels to the bridge. On the other side of the bridge you again get the benefit of a reduced cost minion at the Dimrill Dale. Your archery total is then further increased by Brown Lands at site 8. With some strategic thinking, it's not uncommon to have an archery total close to ten here! What fellowship can survive that?