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| Glamdring |
![]() Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:38 pm |
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 575
Location:
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--- description ---
This article explains the many uses of Glamdring.
--- end description ---
Table of Contents:
Hi fellas! Here is a list of everything I put in this article, and use ctrl+F and type in the numbers or letters to find what you need.
1.Introduction
2.Explanation of Glamdring
3.Popularity
4.Ups and Downs
5.Prime Strategies with Glamdring
6.The many types of Glamdrings
6.1.1.Glamdring
6.1.1.1.Trust Me As You Once Did deck
6.1.2.Glamdring, Lightning Brand
6.1.2.1.Gandalf Spell deck
6.1.3.Glamdring, Elven Blade
6.1.3.1.Rangers with Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
6.1.4.Glamdring, Foe-Hammer
6.1.4.1.Knights with splashed in Gandalf
7.Conclusion
8.End Credits
8.1.To J.R.R. Tolkein
8.2.To Felipe Musco
8.3.To Conor Brace
8.4.To Decipher
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1.Introduction:
This is a very different article, but is an article that is about the many uses of different Glamdrings(Gandalf’s sword) and how to use them in your decks. I will go through every Glamdring, and give an explanation about each one, and how to use it in your games. I will also rate them 1-5* on how good they are (5* means best). I will also put a deck by each Glamdring to show how useful Glamdring is in your games. This strategy article might be kind of narrow, so I hope you enjoy reading through it.
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2.Explanation:
Glamdring, Gandalf’s sword which can be used in many games, depending on if you have Gandalf in your deck, and Glamdring serves the uses you want. There are many types of Glamdring, and many uses to Glamdring, so bear with me as I explain them. Also, don’t try to make a deck just based out of Glamdring! Glamdring is just there to help with the Fellowship side and serve purposes to it’s unique ability. Glamdring can be used in many games, so be aware of the possibilities in Glamdring.
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3.Popularity:
The Popularity of different types of Glamdrings all depends on what most people think is best. I personally think that Glamdring, Foe-Hammer is the most popular (so far!) unless Decipher comes out with some other Glamdrings in the later sets. Glamdring, Elven Blade is also a bit more popular than most, and is a bit more useful than most Glamdrings. Glamdring, the fellowship version, was popular, but it went down in popularity, because of the many shadow sides Decipher came up with, and it is not as universal as it used to be.
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4.Ups and Downs:
Downs:
The Downs of Glamdring is that you must have any type of Gandalf in your deck in order for Glamdring to be placed on the table. Also, Glamdring is a possession, and could be discarded by many gruesome cards, but other than that, Glamdring is superb.
Ups:
Glamdring has unique abilities to study and use in your games, so choose carefully, and is really a powerhouse when used correctly!
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5.Prime Strategies with Glamdring:
Usually when building decks, you rely on main focuses, rather than just Glamdring. Of course, Glamdring can be useful in many games, don’t try to build a deck based just on Glamdring. Just focus on what your deck’s most special strength in, then think about splashing in Gandalf, or Glamdring. Glamdring can be very useful in many games, so just think about the possibilities with Glamdring.
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6.The Many Types of Glamdrings:
The many types of Glamdrings are: Glamdring/Glamdring, Lightning Brand/Glamdring, Elven Blade/and Glamdring, Foe-Hammer. Only 4 variations of Glamdring?? Yes, and each one of them can be used in a lot of games, so don’t over look Glamdring, and I also put some decks that use Glamdring in that deck, so I hope you enjoy the decks plus the explanations of Glamdring. Here are the explanations with decks that use them under each of the explanations(All these decks are original, except for the first one designed by 2nd place world champion, Matthew Brochu)
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6.1.1.1.*Glamdring- This particular Glamdring is excellent at removing twilight during the Fellowship phase if your opponent is using any types of orcs. It is worthless against any other shadow sides, so this is probably the worst Glamdring, unless you play a lot of opponents who have orcs. If used right, it can be effective, but is probably the best in the Fellowship block, in which many opponents use orcs.
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6.1.2.1.Deck:
a trust me as you once did deck
Why use a Trust Me As You Once Did deck and what does it do?
A Trust Me As You Once Did deck is a pretty stable deck, and has very few weaknesses. It usually is a blowout and is good at making your companions stronger with trust me as you once did and other strength events. It also cancels skirmishes with Merry Friend to Sam, wounds minions with Defend It and Hope and prevents wounds with Eowyn, Lady of Rohan. Gandalf, the White Wizard gets stronger most of the time since this deck is a blowout. Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor recycles Gandalf’s skirmish events, and Glamdring removes extra twilight in emergencies if you opponent is playing some type of orcs. This is a very strong deck, and also very cheap in the USA (about $12.00 maximum) and it takes a lot of beating to hurt this build. So after all this explanation, here is a trust me as you once did build:
Starting:
Frodo, Tired Traveler
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith
Merry, Friend to Sam
Fellowship Side:
Albert Dreary, Entertainer from Bree
Aragorn, Ranger of the North
Armor
Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
Blade of Gondor
defend it and hope x3
Eowyn, Lady of Rohan
Faramir, Son of Denethor x3
Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal
Gandalf, The White Wizard x4
Glamdring
Mysterious Wizard x2
Sentinels of Numenor x2
Sleep, Caradhras
Sword of Gondor x2
Thrarin, Dwarven Smith
trust me as you once did x2
Borne Far Away x2
Strategy:
This build is a basic trust me as you once did deck revolving around Gandalf. Use Gandalf to pump up your other companions, Eowyn, Lady of Rohan is in there to prevents wounds, Borne Far Away exchanges extra companions in hand for the ones in the dead pile, and makes shadow players go crazy. Armor goes on the most important  companion and prevents excess wounds on bearer. defend it and hope wounds minions, and hurts Uruk-hai pretty bad. Sword of Gondor just boosts up the companions, and the same goes for Blade of Gondor. Note: You might want to put the new Boromir’s sword in instead of Blade of Gondor, because of it’s ability of skirmishing Merry’s skirmish. Of course, every deck has weaknesses, so let’s look at a few:
Forest Nazgûl: Forest Nazgûls are the worst matchup there is to this deck. They overwhelm my companions with lost in the woods, and beatdown until this Fellowship side crumbles.
Swarm: Really easy to beat, since you have thrarin, dwarven smith, Glamdring (removes twilight since most swarms are Orcs), trust me as you once did(makes Frodo stronger),and defend it and hope allhelp to deal with swarm.
Archery: I think Archery is pretty hard to beat, since some of your companions exert a lot, and wounds really hurt this build. borne far away helps a ton when people die, so maybe you might survive archery until the 7th or 8th site.
Evil Men Evil Men are really easy to beat since armor takes care of Armored Easterling, and borne far away recycles the people in the dead pile, pretty easy matchup.
Uruk-hai Super easy! They are really easy to destroy since defend it and hope will be a muncher, and armor will really help against their damage bonuses. This fellowship also heals pretty well with Boromir, defender of minas tirith.
Sauron Uruk-hai Sauron Uruk-hai are just like regular Uruk-hai, so ridiciously easy to cream, except for rank and file.
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6.1.2***Glamdring, Lightning Brand- This Glamdring is particularly good at killing minions in one skirmish with it’s special ability, and good with hobbits especially (if you use Gandalf, Powerful Guide) I sort of like this Glamdring because of it’s nice ability, each time you play a spell, make Gandalf Damage +1 until the regroup phase. It is great at killing High vitality minions, and gives Gandalf a little strength boost.
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6.1.2.1.Deck:
A Gandalf Spell deck
Why use a Gandalf Spell deck, and what does it do?
A Spell build uses spells to wound minions, and use the wounds to make minions skirmishing Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men strength minus a lot and her win skirmishes and discard conditions with Hadafang. Gandalf’s Staff cancels skirmishes involving Gandalf that you cannot win, and long i fell is a spell and also prevents wounds from minions. This type of build is a pretty good build, although not as good as the Trust Me As You Once Did, but great at wounding minions, and discarding conditions. So here is my Gandalf Spell deck:
Starting:
Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men
Merry, Loyal Companion
Aragorn, Strider
Fellowship:(33 cards)
Gandalf, Powerful Guide x4
Glamdring, Lightning Brand x2
Fireworks x3
Hobbit Sword x2
Gandalf’s Staff
Long I Fell x4
Intimidate x3
The More, The Merrier x3
a light in his mind x1
Threw Down My Enemy x4
Have Patience x3
Hadafang x1
Recommended sites:
Pinnacle of Zigzarigle
Strategy:
(Note: I would like to stick in Shadowplay/Defend It and Hope/A Ranger’s Versatility. Please, any comments available about this deck) Bid 2, if you win, go first (Don’t forget to mulligan if you need to) Wound Minions with Gandalf, Powerful Guide, and combine that with Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men. Aragorn, Strider is in there as replacement for a hobbit, and plus his strength is pretty nice. Merry, Loyal Companion is a hobbit to spot for Gandalf’s text, and gets pretty high strength for a hobbit. Glamdring, Lightning Brand is in there for killing minions in one skirmish with Gandalf where as Gandalf’s Staff is in there to cancel skirmishes just in case he can’t win them. Long I Fell/Intimidated are the spells for Gandalf to cast wonders. Where as, The More, The Merrier is for quick burden removal and Fireworks for recycling any Gandalf/Shire card in your draw deck. Of course, every deck has a weakness, so let’s look at them:
Corruption: Corruption has a toll on this deck since you do use a lot of burdens and have Gandalf wounding minions with burdens. It is not impossible to beat, but is a little harder.
Wound Prevention: Wound Prevention is in many shadow cultures, but probably the worst is the new  culture, since most of their minions have to do with preventing wounds to minions. Probably the one of the worst matchups.
Archery: Any type of Archery hurts this deck since it doesn’t have much wound prevention/healing, so archery would be a bane against this build.
Easterling Beatdown: Easterling Beatdown is the hardest against this build since they can usually spot 2 burdens, then they can’t take wounds and just wipe your fellowship off the board. Stay away from Captain Crunch!!
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6.1.3.****Glamdring, Elven Blade- This Glamdring rocks! Because of it’s nice ability to exert minions, goes well with many decks, and is also good at losing initiative and cycling through your hand. This Glamdring works well with, Rohan/Gondor/Any type of wounding deck. I think it is one of the more useful Glamdring in LOTR, especially with any type of direct wounding/archery/and wounding fellowship sides.
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6.1.3.1Deck:
A Ranger with Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver deck
Why use Rangers with Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver and what does it do?
This build mostly revolves around wounding roaming minions with Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver/Hardy Garrison/Shadowplay/Mablung/Defend It and Hope/Terrible and Evil/Glamdring, Elven Blade/Madril. It also has good burden removal, healing ability and wounding minions. It is great at killing minions, and winning skirmishes also.
Starting:
Frodo, Resolute Halfling
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Faramir, Captain of Gondor
Aragorn, Strider
Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
Fellowship: (33 cards)
Gandalf, The White Wizard x4
Ancient Roads x4
Shadowplay x3
Home and Hearth x2
Glamdring, Elven Blade x2
Hardy Garrison x2
Madril, Faramir’s Aid
Invigorated x4
Mablung, Soldier of Gondor
defend it and hope x3
Terrible and Evil x2
Faramir’s Sword
Faramir’s Bow
Strategy:
Bid 5 to start. Once you get Home and Hearth, you remove burdens by playing Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver every fellowship phase, then return him to hand when needed(to wound minions, etc. Use Shadowplay when needed, Ancient Roads makes minions roaming, and Hardy Garrison wounds minions when you lose initiative. Gandalf, The White Wizard becomes stronger when there are extra twilight tokens in the pool. Combine Terrible and Evil with Shadowplay/defend it and hope/Mablung/Pippin/Glamdring/Hardy Garrison to kill off minions viciously. Invigorated is in there to heal your companions, and when combined with Mablung, it is a killer. As all decks have weaknesses, I will explain them:
Easterling Beatdown/Small Hope: Easterling Beatdown is hard to beat, since they add burdens and the Easterling Polearm makes Easterling Captain can’t take wounds, it is just scary.
Archery: Basically, any type of Archery is pretty hard to beat, but you probably will be able to survive it until sites 6-9 and since you heal well, it will probably take a big beating to send your fellowship to ashes.
Wound Prevention: Any type of wound prevention kind of hurts this deck, because you do use a lot of wounding. The culture is probably the worst matchup, since most of the minions protect themselves from wounds.
Forest Nazgûl: Forest Nazgûl are tough, they play Buckland Homestead discard your conditions, and then recycle it back with Ulaire Nelya, 6 of the 9 Riders. Just terrible playing against these men in black.
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6.1.4.*****Glamdring, Foe-Hammer- Probably the most popular Glamdring in LOTR, because of it’s ability to remove burdens. A must have for any deck that needs burden removal (that is of course, if you have Gandalf) and works great with knights, since they don’t have any burden removal. Also works well with Rohan/Hobbits/Gondor/Any type of deck with needed burden removal. If you combine this with Shire Countryside, it would be a killer in Open Format! By the way, Glamdring, Foe-Hammer is about $4.00 USA. No wonder why it is so popular!
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6.1.4.1.Deck:
A Gondor Knights with Gandalf deck
Why use a Gondor Knight deck with Glamdring, Foe-Hammer, and what does it do?
A Gondor Knight deck with a splashed Gandalf in it, works pretty well against corruption, which happens to be many Knight’s weaknesses. The way to win skirmishes is to use Fifth Level/First Level/and to use Fourth Level combined with Gondor Bow to kill high vitality minions. Don’t try this on enduring Nazguls!! They will heal until they win the skirmish. This build also has good healing ability and great double moving ability. Garrison of Gondor is in there to protect heavy swarm and being a knight, helps with spotting knights to transfer you fortifications over. So after all this explanation, here is a knight deck with Gandalf Splashed in:
Starting:
Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Gandalf, Leader of Men
Ingold
Fellowship Side: (33 cards)
Gondor Bow x3
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer x2
fifth level x3
City Wall x2
Aragorn, Captain of Gondor x2
Faramir, Defender of Osgiliath x2
Garrison of Gondor
Boromir, Hero of Osgiliath
fourth level x3
sixth level x2
Men of Numenor x3
Banner of Westernesse x2
Citadel of the Stars x2
first level x3
Vapor and Steam x1
Strategy:
(Note: If you want a 33 card draw deck, you can take out Vapor and Steam) This deck uses fortifications to make minions strength less, to use Glamdring, Foe-Hammer’s ability and other gondor men’s abilities. Use Gondor Bow with Fourth Level to kill the big nasty minions, and use Boromir, Hero of Osgiliath and Banner of Westernesse to heal companions. Bid 4 to start, since you have good burden removal, and double move up the site path. This deck has great healing ability, and is good at removing burdens with Glamdring’s text. The strengths of this deck is Beatdown (I think)/Swarm/Tank/Southron/Dunland/Uruk-hai/Orcs/and surviving Easterling corruption/Beatdown with Glamdring. This deck also has weaknesses so I will explain them:
Lurker Swarm: Lurker Swarm is deadly in open tournaments, but when playing Standard or Expanded, there is no need to worry about playing against them since Demoralized is X-Listed. What Lurker Swarm does is they exert companions with Rallying Orc, have more twilight with Demoralized, and they beatdown terribly evil. I have played against these guys, and they are hard to beat, especially when you can’t use Sixth Level to recycle your fortifications!
Morgul Archery: Morgul Archery is hard to beat to since they can get the archery up to 10+ in one turn, so that really hurts your guts.
Condition Discarding Shadow Sides: Any type of condition discarding really messes this deck up since all of your fortifications are conditions. Sure you can bring back the conditions....but it won’t be the same....
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7.Conclusion:
I hope you guys enjoyed this article and read through all of it. By the way, that is all the Glamdrings in LOTR card games (unless Decipher comes out with more) and I hope you found everything useful and helpful about Glamdring in your games. Remember, Glamdring is not just a sword, it is a useful weapon!(By the way, that is why I chose my username) So from now on, I hoped you realized the usefulness of Glamdring! (By the way, if you face a lot of opponents that use orcs/Uruk-hai, I would stick in 1 or 2 Orc-Bane in your decks!)
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8.End Credits:
End Credits goes to:
8.1.To J.R.R. Tolkien
For having written the most awesome stories ever told, and sharing with us.
8.2.To Felipe Muscoe
For designing a good way to organize our articles, and thanks for letting Elf Lvr, myself and many other usernames to use the way you organize your articles.
8.3.To Conor Brace
For designing an amazing website so that we all can enjoy the benefits of usernames and communicating about LOTR cards and such.
8.4.To Decipher
For creating such a wonderful card game that we all can enjoy, and have fun.
Thanks for reading through and (hopefully!) enjoying it,
-Glamdring-
"...that was good. Let’s get another one!" |
| Last edited by Glamdring on Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:40 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:42 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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First off, titles 3 and are messe up, might wanna fix that.
Also, on 2, you mention the word Glamdring like, 200 million times in one peragraph, you might want to change that.
Hey, I’ve got Special Thanks! Now I can’t wait to get to that part! |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:58 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Hey, thanks again for the credits!  Well, as I pointed above, I’m having a bit of writing issues with the article itself, I think you should skim over it again and edit it accordingly. Also, I think you should review your builds before posting them, it takes credibility away when you read a deck that "may survive until site X against archery" or that Forestuguls will "beat this deck until it crumbles". If your builds are having issues, play them, brainstorm on it, ask around, and THEN post them, so they’ll have much less weaknesses.
Other than that, I thought the article was original, I’ll give you that, but I think the article kinda backfires, since it claims to be an article on Glamdring, while you actually warn us to NOT build a deck around Glamdring at all. Also, I think you should dig deeper on WHY that particular Glamdring is so good on that build, and what would/could happen if Glamdring was not around for the rescue, and all.
I’m not sure how to rate this one, so I’ll probably have to put some serious thinking into it for now. |
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| elf lvr |
![]() Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 5:04 pm |
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 3065
Location: Rivendell
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I just skimmed (for now) and have come up with one issue. You promise us an article on the uses of glamdring and (if I haven’t messed up in my skimming) only provide us with one deck per version. I would like to see how each glamdring functions in different styles of decks, which is the most common splash, and why... you might not even need to include a decklist at all. I want to know how each glamdring could combo with other cards and be usefull in a host of different deck strategies.
But like I said, I will read more later.
(by the way, I like how you included matchups. good job there) |
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| Glamdring |
![]() Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:42 pm |
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
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Okay, FM. I fixed the problems, and sorry about mentioning Glamdring a dozen times, I sorta forgot about it!  |
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| Glamdring |
![]() Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:44 pm |
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
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| Well, I didn’t know the personnal preference of everybody, and each Glamdring can be splashed in a deck depending on it’s ability, I just wanted to get the basic idea out of each Glamdring. |
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| corvus |
![]() Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:02 am |
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 1696
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Glamdring wrote: Okay, FM. I fixed the problems, and sorry about mentioning Glamdring a dozen times, I sorta forgot about it!
You can edit it to remove say, half "Glamdring"  |
Click here if you want to trade some foils away 
Far, Far beyond the island we dwelt in shapes of twilight
Through draught and weary days
Through grief and endless pain |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 8:54 am |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
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| good article i didn’t catch my interest a whole lot and each of the decks had quite a few weaknesses...overall fairly good though. |
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Spammers really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you.  |
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| Celebrimbor |
![]() Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 11:44 pm |
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Joined: 12 Sep 2006
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Neat article ’bout Glamdring -- Funny, same as your login name 
Nicely organized, but found I didn’t learn too much. I give a 4. |
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| Glamdring |
![]() Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:45 pm |
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| Are you going to rate my deck soon? |
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