What's better than one burglar?
Three burglars. Well, Argalad doesn't actually have the burglar trait, but he definitely should in this lineup. This is part of my Lore and Larceny Fellowship, and is designed to be played alongside the more musically-inclined friends. Check out that fellowship for a more complete description of how these decks play alongside each other. In short: direct damage, direct progress, and guarded attachments. That's what we're all about here.
Opening Hand
Mulligan for some economy cards early on that will get you extra resources and card draw: Master of the Forge, Bilbo's Spoons, Gandalf's Staff, and Saruman's Staff are the main ones. A Burglar Indeed! can also be an important early card to help get out the guarded attachments.
The Riddle-Game
Bilbo Baggins is our Thief and Stone of Elostirion is The Birthday Present. You get some extra card draw out of the Stone right out of the gate, and my advice would be that until you win the riddle-game, hold on to one of each card cost in your hand so that you have ammunition against the riddles.
The nuances of larceny
I am so impressed by the design of Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, well done ALeP team. Here are a couple nuances to using her that I greatly appreciate:
- Her action is not a planning action, so it allows you to play guarded cards after the staging step of the quest phase, after you're sure you can handle the extra encounter card.
- She can steal back guarded cards that are already guarded. In this particular deck that is probably not a good choice because you have better damage/progress output while they are guarded, thanks to Bilbo and A Burglar Indeed.