Bilbo Baggins, At Your Service 1.0

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• 1.0

With the new ALeP contract Beyond the Original Bargain and the Master Burglar attachment, it is possible to use both The Grey Wanderer and The Riddle-game to make a Bilbo Baggins that starts at 12 , quests for 5 , has access to both and secrecy cards, and draws 3 cards per round at setup.

Setup

Bilbo Baggins gets Stone of Elostirion, Song of Kings, and Master Burglar (represented here with A Burglar Indeed! in the sideboard, since Master Burglar isn't on RingsDB yet).

Mulligan for Timely Aid and Resourceful. Risk Some Light is also great to see to help you win the The Riddle-game.

Winning the Riddle-game

With 3 extra cards per round and 1 starting resource on The Riddle-game because Bilbo is a Hobbit, it shouldn't be too risky to beat the Hungry Creature to 3 points. Just make sure to keep 0, 1, 2, and 3 cost cards in your hand until you win! Specifically, don't play all our 0-cost cards. This deck is low on these, with just 3x Daeron's Runes, 3x The Shirefolk, and 1x each of Ioreth, Boots from Erebor, and Gather Information. So hoard them.

Other early game

Celduin Traveler is great to boost early questing, but remember it has to be played first in the round due to the contract's limitations. You also can't play it the same round as Spare Pipe. Staying in Secrecy should be easy for most quests, so try to avoid engaging enemies unless you can Sneak Attack Gandalf or Fear! Fire! Foes! to get rid of them quickly. Don't hesitate to spam the contract to have enough resources to hard play Firyal or one of the other strong questing 4/5-cost allies (though hopefully you can cheat some into play with Timely Aid).

Mid/late game

Gaffer Gamgee is your golden card for avoiding dangerous enemies during the mid-game, so try to keep one around at all costs (and undefended attack will almost always be game over!). If threat/engagement cost is an issue, Halbarad may help. Your main goal is to build up a strong slate of allies by hook or by crook.

Side quests

I've included Gather Information as the default side quest as it's easy to clear, 0-cost, and always useful. I've included Double Back in the sideboard as it's better for some scenarios -- the main downside is that it's so interferes with playing Celduin Traveler and Spare Pipe. The side quest is mostly useful for Thalion and the lone Halfling Bounder, and could be cut for something like Deep Knowledge or another 0-cost useful card.

Other card ideas

One option is to lean more into secrecy with cards like Leaf Brooch, Out of the Wild, or more Dúnedain Wanderer, but I haven't found that to be necessary in my test games.

There's probably a case to be made for 3x We Are Not Idle to help with The Riddle-game, though it dilutes Timely Aid further and is a cheesy card.

Halbarad and Halfling Bounder are the weakest ally choices, and could be subbed out for anyone else you might like.

You could also optimize with The One Ring shenanigans, but I generally avoid that card unless power-decking.