Merry, From O'er the Brandywine (1C303)
 Merry, Friend to Sam (1R302)
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Noble Intentions (1C304) 
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| Set: | Fellowship of the Ring | ||
| Kind: | Free Peoples | ||
| Culture: | Shire | ||
| Twilight: | 1 | ||
| Card Type: | Companion • Hobbit | ||
| Strength: | 3 | ||
| Vitality: | 4 | ||
| Signet: | Aragorn | ||
| Game Text: | While Merry bears a weapon, he is strength +2. | ||
| Lore: | “‘I don't know why he's so upset, it's only a few carrots... my point is, he's overreacting.'” | ||
| Rarity: | C | ||
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General Strategy
The common Merry companion from the Fellowship of the Ring base set is the first indication of Merry's bravery as a fighter over his Hobbit friends. While bearing a Hand Weapon, Merry, From O'er the Brandywine receives an additional strength +2 bonus, making Merry bearing a Hobbit Sword a respectable strength 7 and bearing a Frying Pan strength 6. Future set releases like Merry's Sword or Merry's Dagger and Horn of the Mark can make this fighter a strength 8, vitality 4 stalwart with access to [Shire] stealth events that can dodge the largest minions. Merry's Armor and Everyone Knows provide further strength bonuses.
Sporting the Aragorn signet, Merry, From O'er the Brandywine can be healed each turn by Aragorn, King in Exile, making him a strong companion option in sealed play, particularly against Uruk-Hai and other minions with damage bonuses. Merry is a much more common starting companion combination with Boromir or Faramir than other 1-!twilight companions such as Pippin.
Boromir, Son of Denethor can make Merry, From O'er the Brandywine an even more valuable fighter in most formats. Even so, Merry often requires strength pumps to beat many minions and has very limited access to damage bonuses, several of which come from other cultures (Some examples being Dagger Strike, Voice of Rauros, Long Slow Wrath and Dwarven Embassy). Weather events, such as Saruman's Snows and Saruman's Frost can be particularly crippling for Merry.
Possession removal, such as Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur are devastating but can be avoided by assignments. Possession discarding in the shadow phase, such as Corsair Marauder, or the maneuver phase, such as Stricken Dumb or Ulaire Cantea, Faster than Winds can return Merry to the back of the company as another weak Hobbit companion.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strong Versus...
- Hobbit Sword, Merry's Sword, Merry's Dagger give Merry a double-strength bonus for the possession (triple bonus when bearing Frying Pan)
- High-vitality fighter against damage bonus minions
- Aragorn signet offers access to easy healing such as Aragorn, King in Exile and Hard Choice
- Access to [Shire] skirmish events, particularly canceling stealth events
- Best Hobbit fighter in Fellowship of the Ring block, particularly against high-strength minions
Weak Versus...
- Possession discarding, particularly before the assignment and skirmish phases
- Possession negation, such as Troop of Uruk-Hai or Parry
- Cards that target fighting Hobbits, such as Saruman's Frost
