LotR TCG Card Strategies - #10

Buckleberry Ferry

This card fits perfectly in the "duck and run" Hobbit strategy. If you can set it up right, you'll have an entire site with no skirmishes. Since Site 3 is a sanctuary, as long as you don't get overwhelmed in skirmishes at Site 3 you'll take very little damage on your way there and probably be able to heal it all.

How do you get the Ferry in play? Thror's Map is useful, and you'll obviously have a Hobbit to exert to use it. Pathfinder won't work unless they make a Hobbit Ranger someday. Best bet, however is to try and go second. Yes, this is one of the many reasons to bid to play second. Then the opponent moves first and that means you play Site 2. This even works in multiplayer since all Site 1 arrows point to the left.

Going second plays into this strategy very well for another reason. When the opponent moves, you get to play Shadow cards on them. By the end of their turn, you've played most of your Shadow cards from hand and hold a few Fellowship cards. When you draw, assuming you draw an even mix of both sides, your hand ends up with 6 or 7 Fellowship cards and only 1 or 2 Shadow. Players refer to this as having your hand optimized for Fellowship on turn 2. Of course, the opponent is optimized for Shadow in a similar way, but that doesn't matter as there's no skirmishes. You can play as many of those Fellowship cards as you want and the opponent can't hurt you, no matter what they have in their optimized hand. Go ahead and drop all those Bounders, Party Guests, Hobbit Swords, etc from your Fellowship-heavy hand.

Of course, the downside of planning for Buckleberry Ferry is what you *can't* use. Your starting Fellowship is limited the 4 Hobbits, and you can't play other Companions at site 1. You'll have to plan to draw your companions and play them later. That's not a problem if you stack a couple copies of each. Especially Boromir Son of Denethor, since he will probably use his ability often in a Hobbit deck, you can always use the extra copies to heal.

As the Shadow player, what can you do when faced with this site? My advice is to play the Minions anyways. If the Fellowship moves again, the Minions are already there. Why not just hold the Minions and save the Twilight for when they actually move? Because you get to draw more cards. Either you have more Shadow cards to play at Site 3, or if they don't move, you have a few more Fellowship cards and your turn is about to begin.

You can also use the Twilight for non-Minion cards like They Are Coming, Black Breath or Orc Bowmen. Even if they're not useful right away, you won't have to pay for them later. Archers still get to shoot at the Fellowship, so they're always useful.