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| WitchKingBlkCapt |
![]() Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:01 pm |
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Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Minas Morgul
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--- description ---
The Men without Hats played it safe while the men with hats ran to save Middle-Earth.
--- end description ---
This article is going to focus on a fairly new Gandalf strategy that is not seen much. I have seen a few decks made around this strategy, but not very many of them get played very often. The Gandalf men are a very viable strategy that works just as well if not better than the Ents. Here is an overview of what we will be talking about in this article.
Introduction
1. Companions
2. Possessions and Artifacts
3. Followers
4. Events
5. Conditions
6. Decklist
7. Strategy
8. Match-ups
9. Special Thanks
Introduction
I am sure many of you have thought about putting together a deck with those Gandalf men. Most of you however have looked at them with little respect for their attributes simply because they are not well rounded. This article will explain how to get your Gandalf men to become a part of the bigger scheme. The scheme of course is winning the game. Now let’s dive right into a look at some of the key cards in this deck.
Companions
First off you need a Ring-bearer. Boromir Bearer of Council fits very nicely into this deck since he is a man. A lot of things center around just men instead of men from a specific culture. He also has a decent strength in case you were to get swarmed. His ability also works very nicely when it comes to the run game. You will also see that burdens are nothing to this deck.
Let’s take a look at the starting fellowship. I chose Ghan-Buri-Ghan, Chieftan of Woses and Jarnsmid Barding Emissary to start off my wonderful fellowship of men. I chose Ghan-Buri-Ghan because he has a nice viable starting strength that I can deal with while staying at a low cost. His ability to be defender +1 at a forest site also helps in case your opponent pulls out a miracle swarm at site two. I chose Jarnsmid be cause he is the soul of the burden removal. His strength doesn’t necessarily matter as we will see in a little bit.
Now let’s look at the two powerhouses of the deck, Gandalf The White Rider and Grimbeorn Beorning Chieftain. I chose Grimbeorn not only for his ability but also because he gets the benefits that all the other men do. These two things make him almost impossible to beat and most of the time he will be overwhelming enemies. Gandalf is a great helper in many different ways. He helps out our friend Jarnsmid with his burden removal since his ability works at the start of the skirmish. This leaves Gandalf to finish off that pesky minion and leave Jarnsmid alive for later use.
Finally, we to see some help from a couple of other companions. This is where Brand King of Dale and Radagast the Brown come into play. Brand is here because he gives a nice strength +1 bonus to all of your men. His ability is also very nice during a swarm. Radagast is here to help your beefy fellowship run down the path with no worries. His ability to add to the move limit is simply priceless.
Possessions and Artifacts
We will not be looking at very many possessions, because most of your power comes from the events, conditions and followers. Here are the four items I chose to help out our fellowship. I chose Glamdring Foe-hammer along with Gandalf’s Staff, Ash-staff and Shadowfax Roaring Wind to help out Gandalf. Glamdring not only helps his strength while removing burdens at the same time. His staff gives him some extra vitality yet it’s ability is great for reducing the minion count. Shadowfax makes a great strength addition along with his token ability, which we will see use of later.Boromir needs a weapon as well, therefore I added in the Blade of Gondor Sword of Boromir to help him out. This gives him a nice strength bonus while adding some damage as well.
Followers
There are two key followers when it comes to this deck. Alatar Final Envoy is a must have not only for his strength reducing ability, but as we will see later his token ability.
Pallando Far-travelling One is our other partner in the world of followers. Not only does he add strength, his condition removing ability is simply grand.
Events
We only need a few events to round off our fighting style. The first two are pretty much just your basic strength pumps. I chose For a while less dark because of the bonus it gives for bearing a follower. The other strength bonus I gave to our fellowship is the flame of arnor. The reason I chose this event was because it could also help Boromir in times of trouble. The third and final event is simply to help your run game. Out of the high airs is a must have in any deck that involves wizards and running.
Conditions
In this particular deck we only focus around two different conditions. The first of the two is Traveler’s Homestead simply because of it’s token use. This condition allows great combinations with Alatar and Shadowfax. The second condition is Confronting the eye because of it’s use with men and you can spot Boromir to use it’s ability.
Decklist
Here is what the deck looks like after it is all put together.
Ring and Bearer:
Boromir Bearer of Council
The One Ring The Ring of Rings
Companions:
2x *Brand, King of Dale
3x *Gandalf, The White Rider
1x *Ghan-buri-Ghan, Chieftain of the Woses
2x *Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x *Jarnsmid, Barding Emissary
2x *Radagast, The Brown
Possessions and Artifacts:
2x *Blade of Gondor, Sword of Boromir
2x *Glamdring, Foe-hammer
2x *Shadowfax, Roaring Wind
2x *Gandalf’s Staff, Ash-staff
Followers:
2x *Alatar, Final Envoy
2x *Pallando, Far-travelling One
Events:
2x For a While Less Dark
2x Out of the High Airs
3x The Flame of Anor
Conditions:
2x *Traveler’s Homestead
3x Confronting the Eye
The deck turns out to be a thirty-five card deck. It is nicely built so that you get your key companions early, along with the other things you need for your fellowship.
Strategy
The strategy is not very difficult. I would say this deck is moderate for the beginners and the learning. The bidding doesn’t matter because it doesn’t matter whether you beat him out of the gate or not. in the end you will prevail. The basic strategy is to abuse Gandalf and Jarnsmid so that your burdens stay off while the minions keep dying. Grimbeorn is another one of your key fighters so you want to make sure and slap a few large minions in your shadow side to help him out. Brand helps with strength along th Confronting the eye to make sure your guys lose as few skirmishes as possible. Radagast and Out of the High airs come into play to help you make that desperate triple move form site six to site nine and pull of the win. The best shadow side that I found for this deck is a besieger deck. A few reasons is that it does carry quite a few large minions to help out Grimbeorn, but is very powerful in itself. This makes this deck very tough for your opponent to win on either side of the ring.
Matchups
Archery
This deck should have very little trouble fighting an archery deck. The ability to slap on the ring is enough to make your opponent cringe simply because of the amount of burden removal. The other reason is because there are several high vitality companions that can soak up those wounds.
Swarm
This deck should have very little trouble against a swarm deck. The deck packs several companions and has strength bonuses for everyone. The flame of Arnor is also there to help Boromir in case he runs into some swarm trouble. Ghan-Buri-Ghan can also be defender +1 to help the cause.
Corruption
This deck thrives against corruption. Being able to remove a maximum of six burdens in one skirmish phase on top of eight resistance leaves corruption in the dust. This makes for an easy run against these deck types unless you are facing the orc version with that nasty Goblin Hordes.
Beatdown
This deck should do fairly well against the beatdown. Your companions will have enough strength to be able to fight the big minions your opponent is packing. Grimbeorn alone can do enough to kill a decent sized minion. Gandalf helps out the cause with his Strength +3 bonus when you use his text. The followers give strength bonuses along with the events. This should be another easy win for this fellowship.
Corsairs
This deck will have a tough time against these guys simply because of how powerful they are. The Corsair Marauder will do very little considering there are not that many possessions. The main thing would be the Castamir of Umber, Raider Halberd, Red Wrath combo. It could be devastating if you do not play it correctly. Fierce in despair shouldn’t be as big of a problem since there are multiple copies of your companions.
Special Thanks
To J.R.R. Tolkien: For creating such a great string of novels that all fantasy lovers enjoy.
To Decipher: For making J.R.R. Tolkien’s legacy into a wonderful TCG that ll can enjoy.
To Conor Brace: For letting us use his forums and holding great competitions like this one.
To Elf Lvr: For encouraging me to keep trying my hand at the strategy articles.
To AnxiousChieftain: For letting me use his Anarion article to form my article.
To You: For taking the time to read my article and post your thoughts on it.
Once again thanks to all who will read this and vote. |
Last edited by WitchKingBlkCapt on Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:54 am; edited 3 times in total"Do not stand between a nazgul and his prey."
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| taipan |
![]() Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:51 am |
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Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 177
Location: DF - BRAZIL
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Very nice! I was thinking about a deck around this guys a while ago and you inspires me. The good thing about your deck (IMHO) is the fact that it have a clean and esay strategy, very easy to see it works.
I liked the layout of your article too. Clean, with the right size. I mean I liked a lot that way of FM do his article (is a kindda of rules here and we have to use it a lot) but, see this everytime in every article is really boring.
I don’t remember any card that I could suggest to you right now, but I’ll back as soon as I remember
Good job WKBC. |
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| corvus |
![]() Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 1:03 pm |
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 1696
Location: Roaming, but dangerous!!!
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I will vote a 5 cause i liked it!
Some suggestions: Use Erland to repeatedly (ab)use your events, besides, he is a man! 
And wait there! You said sth about hats, so where is Gandalf’s hat? |
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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| WitchKingBlkCapt |
![]() Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 1:06 pm |
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Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Minas Morgul
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| The reason I did not put Erland in here is because I don’t have room. I likje to keep my decks small which allows for a better cycle. |
"Do not stand between a nazgul and his prey."
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| Turin06 |
![]() Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:34 pm |
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Joined: 24 Oct 2006
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Location: Good Question
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| bobtheorc |
![]() Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:00 pm |
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Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 1218
Location: Wow, its hot in Iowa
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:21 am |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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Nice article...you did have a couple typos.
In the start of the article"Ghan-Buri-Ghan Chieftain of the Woses" should have a comma.
In the decklist:
"Out of High Airs" should be "Out of the High Airs"
"The Flame of Arnor" should be "The Flame of Anor" |
| "ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
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| WitchKingBlkCapt |
![]() Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:05 pm |
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Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Minas Morgul
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| Thanks for pointing those out. I did fix them but I am unsure why the staff won’;t v=create a proper link. I think it’s because there is an earlier version. |
"Do not stand between a nazgul and his prey."
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:15 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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Location: Maryland
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WitchKingBlkCapt wrote: Thanks for pointing those out. I did fix them but I am unsure why the staff won’t create a proper link.
Actually, it’s because you’re you were spelling it like this:
Gandalf’s Staff, Ash Staff
The correct title is:
Gandalf’s Staff, Ash-staff
I took the liberty of fixing it for you.  |
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| WitchKingBlkCapt |
![]() Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:15 pm |
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Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Minas Morgul
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| Thanks AC I thought that might be the problem. But don’t forget to vote! |
"Do not stand between a nazgul and his prey."
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