The light of the torches and the fire flickered about them, and on the table were two tall red beeswax candles. All the time they ate, Beorn in his deep rolling voice told tales of the wild lands on this side of the mountains, and especially of the dark and dangerous wood, that lay outstretched far to North and South a day’s ride before them, barring their way to the East, the terrible forest of Mirkwood. --The Hobbit.

An Alternate Art Starter Deck

Inspired by AutumnRose's work on her two incredible alt-art starter decks (Flight to the Ford and Where the Stars are Strange), I am releasing my fifth alternate art starter deck. This deck is inspired by Bilbo's visit with Beorn in The Hobbit and the tales that were shared between them. Beorn's tales focus on all manner of Elves from Noldor to Silvan, the nearby Woodman, and of course the Beorning themselves. Bilbo shares his tales in the best manner of storytelling to a Hobbit - with Songs. This deck includes the last remaining cards for each of those themes that were not included in any previous alternate art starter deck or within the revised content.

For those keeping track, this deck features four repeat cards. Bilbo Baggins, Love of Tales, and Song of Healing were included in my Root and Twig deck, while Master of the Forge was included in Autumn's Flight to the Ford deck. All repeated cards feature new artwork.

Beorning

The Beorning archetype is less developed than many others, but does feature some powerful cards. The only hero for this archetype is Beorn, and what a hero is he. Beorn shouldn't be your main blocker as his 1 will cause the damage to pile up as he cannot be healed, but he can be used in a pinch as he does not exhaust to defend. Where Beorn shines is his 5 , highest of all heroes in the game, which will allow him to make quick work of any enemies that come your way. Beorning Guardian and Beorning Beekeeper have decent attack to help chip in when needed, while also providing versatility with their abilities (Beekeeper for spreading damage if the enemies are piling up and Guarding for helping with location lock).

Woodman

Another archetype that is less developed, the Woodman trait was largely covered in the revised content. However, a handful of cards are missing and can be found in this deck. Haleth provides a big help while questing with 2 and an ability that functions as card draw in attachment-heavy decks that Woodman decks love. Eryn Galen Settler is a rare 2 ally in Lore with an ability than can help you get rid of nasty locations that may be piling up. Mirkwood Pioneer can help you in a pinch by temporarily negating the from a nasty location before serving as a chump blocker if needed. Woodman Lore is fantastic in any deck playing mostly Woodman heroes and allies, as you could easily ready 3+ characters for a single resource.

Elves

Most of the non-revised Noldor and Silvan cards have been included in Autumn's two decks or my own [Dear to Manwë](https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/43885_ deck, but a few were still available. Mirlonde is a solid contributor to either questing or combat depending on what you need and has a very under-appreciated ability that lowers the starting threat of heroes, herself included. For this deck, starting with only 27 threat will allow you plenty of time to build up your board. She is a good target for Rivendell Blade, setting her up to help Beorn strike down even the biggest enemies.

Haldir of Lórien is an expensive ally, but one with solid stats. In a deck with two heroes you should be able to play him relatively early, and he can use both the blade and Cloak of Lórien. If playing multiplayer, his ranged and sentinel abilities can let him be a versatile powerhouse ally chipping in wherever needed. Rivendell Minstrel lets you find whatever Song you might need in the moment, and then helps with questing. Master of the Forge is another way to get "attachment card draw", something valuable in a deck with so many songs. Harbor Master can be a decent blocker if you have heroes gaining extra resources multiple times in a round, but in this deck is just a secondary option due to the limitations of Love of Tales. Trollshaw Scout is another secondary attacker that you should be able to keep for a few rounds, with extra cards to discard from the accelerated card draw in this deck. Woodland Sentry is a powerful card to slot into any Victory Display focused deck.

Songs

Bilbo Baggins loves Songs, and he also loves drawing the first player cards. While he is over-costed, the reduction from Mirlonde helps balance it out. In this deck Bilbo should function as the main source of and needs to get Fireside Song on him as soon as possible. Fireside Song provides +1 per song attached to a hero, so you will want to keep adding as many songs as possible on Bilbo. Song of Travel will grant you the access to needed to play Fireside Song and is probably the card you want to see most in your opening hand. Considering how many Songs are included, Love of Tales should provide a resource almost every round. Song of Eärendil is a one-time source of card draw that has some bonus versatility in multiplayer. With plenty of card draw, you should have no problem using Song of Healing whenever needed to keep damage off of both Bilbo and Mirlonde who have low . The Fall of Gil-Galad can go on Bilbo as a "just in case" backup while also boosting Fireside Song. Song of Mocking does NOT work with Beorn, but can be used if you want to bounce damage between Mirlone and Bilbo to keep one alive as long as possible. Burst into Song is non-playable in this deck as constructed, but is the last remaining Song card so I have included it here to complete the archetype.

Card Draw

This deck is built to get you through your deck quickly. If you are playing single player, Bilbo is a free card to you every turn. Mithrandir's Advice is 1 resource for 2 cards in this deck without having to discard anything. Peace, and Thought is tricky to pull off, but if you have strong allies to support the five card draw can be worth it. Expert Treasure-hunter functions similarly to the already discussed Haleth and Master of the Forge in that it can dig for a specific card type, except you have to gamble and guess which card type is coming up next.

Tom Bombadil

Speaking of strange things that live in the woods, how could I almost forget Tom Bombadil! Bilbo lets you play the Song Tom Bombadillo! which adds a powerful ally to the encounter deck and can trigger some of your other Song-effects, but one that is expensive and inconsistent in its payoff. But it's Tom Bombadil, so that's fun!

Print this deck

I have set up a Make Playing Cards project with ALeP backs that can be found here. If you wish to use official backs, a PDF of the deck that can be sent to MBPrint can be found here. A photo album with high-res versions of each individual card is available here.