Small People & Big Birds (updated) 2.0

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• 2.0
• 1.0

Updated Decklist

The original can be found here: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/22996/smallpeoplebigbirds-1.0

How the update came to pass

When playing the original deck during the Lure of Middle Earth, I was able to "acquire" a Halfast Gamgee from another player at the table using Lily Cotton. When I was able to play him for free to smooth out my ally setup and gain a resource, I wanted to have this effect more consistently.

Let's reiterate

The Last Alliance is an amazing card.

The old list was able to utilize the action once per round quite easily and the discount usually once per round.

But we want more. We want to use the discount twice per round as many rounds as possible. That usually means playing three or more allies to flip the balance. Of course, we want useful allies and pay as little as possible for them.

To be able to keep the balance between the traits, we need to have options to get rid of them, preferably in a benefitial manner. Luckily, there are many options for

Ally Control

Let's start with the Hobbits:

Gaffer Gamgee

We can return the Gaffer to our hand to keep an enemy from attacking us, if we meet the requirements. Quite benefitial I'd say. ;)

Lily Cotton

We can exhaust Lily to buff aand ready different hobbit ally and return him to our hands at the end of the round. With The Last Alliance we can do it with the eagles, too. Actually quite amazing. Even better, we can do it multiple times per round, when we attach a fast hitch.

That covers the hobbit cards we can utilize to control our allies on the board.

And now for the Eagles:

Vassal of the Windlord

This eagle is very cheap, provides a massive ranged attack and removes himself. Which works really well with the EoftMM. Nothing new really. We use him when necessary but initially we just use him to smooth our ally setup. He is a great choice for the 1st or 2nd eagle when you want to play two a round. He is free with the discount of The Last Alliance and Alagoswill generously provide a resource.

Winged Guardian

Similar to the one above, but provides a great sentinel defense and you can actually pay for him to stay in case he survives. He is more expensive. but still on the cheaper side regarding eagles.

Wilyador

An amazing eagle and a pretty much a combination between the Vassal and the Guardian. With the discount from The Last Alliance he is free and Alagos will give us an extra resource.

That covers the control of the eagles. There are a lot more options available, but we only have limited slots.

But what kind of benefits can we get from allies leaving the game?

Let's start with the eagles this time:

Eagles of the Misty Mountains

Already mentioned above, when we remove an eagle ally we can attach it to the EoftMM for a permanent buff. So we get a benefit when chose or have to lose an eagle (or a hobbit, when using The Last Alliance).

Hidden Roosts

While it does not remove an ally from play, it will allow us to capitalize on it. Either by reduzing our threat a lot or by a little and replacing itself.

Descendant of Thorondor

When he enters or leaves play we get to deal damage to enemies in the staging area. Which makes him a prime target for Lily Cotton. Since there are no extras, I would refrain from just sacrificing him for the EoftMM.

Meneldor

Another amazing eagle, similar to the Descendant he will trigger on entering and leaving the game. Instead of damage, he places two progress on a location. Since he is a bit cheaper and location lock is fairly annoying, I play two.

For the hobbits it is a bit different, since most trigger when they enter play. But this is a perfect reason to remove them, we can play them again.

Tom Cotton

When a hobbit enters the game, he provides a very respectable attack buff to the hobbit for the end of the round. Which in itself can be reason to play a hobbit. You can even extend the bonus to eagles, using The Last Alliance.

Gaffer Gamgee

We mentioned him above. He is still amazing. If you find doubles, just use The Last Alliance to attach them to the Eagles of the Misty Mountains.

Farmer Maggot

He is quite similar to the Descendant, but only deals damage when he enters play and only to engaged enemies. This can still be incredibly helpful. Not to mention thanks to Tom Cotton he attacks for four the turn he enters the game.

Merry

He provides a nice willpower buff to all unique allies we control, when he enters the game. We don't even have to think about using The Last Alliance on him, since he includes eagles right away. Since we have a lot of unique allies, this is quite welcome.

Halfast Gamgee

The extra resource he provides is obviously quite useful, but don't underestimate the color smoothing aspect by turing leadership resources in to lore or tactics resources.

• One side quest in the victory display: He can be played essentially for free, if we have the discount of The Last Alliance available.
• Two side quests in the victory display: He can provide an extra resource, if we the discount available.
• Three side quests in the victory display: He is free and will always provide the extra resource.

Apart from that he has respectable stats for questing and attacking the turn he comes into play and can benefit from Merry.

Cautious Halfling

She provides information and a potential draw, when she enters the game. With Toms attack bonus she can even help out in combat. Quite a late addition to the deck, but I noticed that Rosie Cotton does not really work that well in the deck besides providing defense or quest bonuses you might actually not need at all.

But how do we find all the cards we need?

• Raise the Shire lets us look most of the time through our deck to find the hobbit we are looking for. When using The Last Alliance we can even fetch an eagle. It will even return the ally at the end of the round, so we can play it again.
• The Eagles Are Coming! only looks at the top 5 cards but gives us all the eagle cards and when using The Last Alliance all the hobbits, too. Most of the time, just eagle cards is fine though, since there are quite a lot in the deck.
• Drinking Song amazing in itself, but even better here after you played the The Eagles Are Coming!, played the eagle you wanted and get to have a bigger midgame mulligan.
• Gather Information is another great card to find a missing piece and we want to have side quests anyway, since we want to play Halfast Gamgee a lot.
• Send for Aid just gives us an extra ally. Which is great in itself and can also fix the trait balance for the next round. Again, it is a side quest which will help Halfast.

Playing the deck

Now I have explained why a lot of the cards are in the deck, but how do I use them regularly?

Basic Combo

One of the most satisfying combos in the deck is Wilyador with Lily Cotton and Alagos.

• Play Wilyador for free (in case you have more hobbits)
• Use Alagos for an extra resource on any hero
• Defend or attack with Wilyador
• Use The Last Alliance on Lily Cotton
• Use Lily Cotton on Wilyador to ready him to defend or attack again. (Defense 3 with Sentinel, Attack 4 with ranged)
• Bounce Wilyador back to your hand to repeat next turn.
• In the meantime you gained an extra resource to develop your boardstate further.

(Thanks to @Seastan to point out to me that Lily actually readies the character, too. Turns out, reading the cards completely can make them even better...)

This combo can be available from turn one. Since the extra resource allows you to play Lily in addition to Wilyador.

Advanced Combo

The above combo has the potential to become even better later in the game. When you had some time to develop your board state. (3 side quests, Fast Hitch on Lily)

Assuming you have more eagles then hobbits (4:3 would be quite typical).

• Play Gaffer Gamgee for 1 resource (using the discount of The Last Alliance)
• Play Halfast Gamgee with the discount based on the side quests, preferably for free to gain a resource
• Now that we have a 3:5 ratio between eagles and hobbits we can play Wilyador for free again
• And gain an extra resource via Alagos
• If you have a Fast Hitch on Lily Cotton you activate her in the quest phase to boost Halfast to 3 and return him to your hand at the end of the phase. (The ready effect is not as important here.)
• In the combat phase you use Gaffer Gamgee on an engaged enemy to prevent his attack and to bounce Gaffer back to your hand.
• And you use Lily and Wilyador as outlined above, to allow Wilyador to do double duty.

All in all this combo costs you:

• 1 resource

and gives you:

• 2 resources of your choice (so a gain of one net resource)
• 3 for questing via Halfast Gamgee
• 1 for questing via Gaffer Gamgee
• The use of Gaffer Gamgee to avoid attacks from one enemy.
• 2 activations of Wilyador in combat (Defense 3 with Sentinel, or Attack 4 with Ranged)
• And restores the inital trait ratio to repeat it again next turn.

Typical Plays

But those are a lot of combo pieces, so lets look at some typical plays that will develop your board state and slowly get you there.

• Play Vassal of the Windlord or Wilyador in round one and use Drinking Song to look for Lily Cotton
• Have an enemy with enough threat engaged in the planning phase and use The Last Alliance on Tom Cotton to play Eagles of the Misty Mountains without requiring a resource match.
• Use The Last Alliance on Fast Hitch to play it on the Eagles of the Misty Mountains.
• Use The Last Alliance on the Eagles of the Misty Mountains when you draw into duplicates of Gaffer Gamgee to attach him to the Eagles when he leaves play.
• Use The Last Alliance on Alagos to gain 2 resources from Halfast Gamgee. That way he becomes our little hobbit steward. :)
• Use The Last Alliance on Hidden Roosts to play it when Gaffer Gamgee leaves play to reduce your threat and draw a card.
• Use The Eagles Are Coming!, possibly multiple times, to fill up your hand. Play the eagle you want, if applicable and then just play a Drinking Song for a more diverse hand.
• Use The Last Alliance on The Eagles Are Coming! or Raise the Shire to have your cake and eat it, too.

There are a lot more combos available and a lot depend on the current situation.

Once you have enough resources, you adapt the combos to bounce different allies and get there benefits.

Weak Points

The deck has a few weak points, that you either have to live with or hope your friends pick up the slack

• Healing, the deck has only a bit of pseudo healing by just playing the allies again when they get some damage on them. But real healing is has to be done by someone else.
• Encounter card cancelation is another weak point. you can look at the top card with the Cautious Halfling but you just have to suffer through whatever the encounter cards deal to you.
• Shadow cards can be super annoying, too. Luckily you will defend with allies most of the times and Tom Cotton is just a backup, so will most likely be fine most of the times.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot going on, and usually you want to use The Last Alliance more then once per turn, so you need to plan accordingly.

When looking at the original decklist you will find that I removed Rosie Cotton from the deck. The reason was quite simple, she didn't add enough benefit. She helped when defending/attacking with Tom or when questing with Pippin, but that was it. Having that extra hobbit ally on the board on the other hand, was a real hassle sometimes in the early game, when you try to balance the traits.

The sideboard contains the other allies and events I consider playing, depending on the quests. The attachments in the sideboard are a lot less useful, but can be fun.

As always, I am looking forward to all comments and suggestions.