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Turin06

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:47 pm

Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 197 Location: Good Question

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The first in a series of Article’s about the culture token mechanic
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Hello and welcome to the first of my articles about Culture Tokens and the various decks and combo’s they are used in. We were first introduced to culture tokens way back in Tower block but they never really became a big mechanic in the game. But with the newer sets, especially Bloodlines which was positively packed with tokeny goodness, the mechanic has come back to prominence.
This first article will be focusing on a great expanded deck which I have come to use recently as one of my main Fellowship’s. It even includes a card from the up and coming Rise of Saruman set! Now if that wasn’t enough to get your taste buds going then I don’t know what will. The deck is also expanded and uses cards from a wide variety of sets so many players will be able to make it.

Ok let’s look at the key companions which form the heart of this deck.

Companions
Aragorn, Defender of Free Peoples
The original token master himself he will take on half of your skirmish winning duties. Out of his abilities it is the first skirmish ability which the deck will focus upon although we will be returning to one of his other abilities slightly later.

Arwen, She-Elf
Arwen will do the other half of your skirmish winning. Her ability is basically a slightly worse version of Aragorn’s although you will see later that you will want her to take on more skirmishes than Aragorn does.

Elrond, Witness to History
Is in here because he is a reasonably strong elven companion. His ability also means that if your token cards are used up or if they have been discarded by your opponent you can retrieve them.

Gandalf, Returned
This is the card from Rise of Saruman that I mentioned earlier. Naturally I am not using him at the moment as he is not out yet. But as he is perfect for this deck I felt he needed to be mentioned. He has the ability to reinforce any culture token when he wins a skirmish. This is fantastic as you need as many Elven

culture tokens as possible. Also with his ability to play a possession on himself from his draw deck when you play him he makes a great splash companion. Up until now I have been playing Gandalf, Friend of the Shire Folk simply because he makes a good splash companion and with Glamdring can remove burdens but get this Gandalf as soon as Rise of Saruman comes out because he is best for this deck.

Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
I have gone for Gimli as my Ring-bearer as a dwarf is needed to play one of the decks key token adding cards. But I found having him as a normal companion took up too much deck space (because he was so crucial I had to have 3 copies of him in the deck). And I found the task of protecting Frodo was proving too difficult. So I killed two birds with one stone and made Gimli my Ring-bearer. With Glamdring, Foe Hammer equipped to Gandalf burden removal is reasonably simple. All you need with Gimli are a couple of Lords of Moria, a Ring and an Axe to keep his damage (and by connection his resistance) up and he is a pretty solid Ring-bearer.

Legolas, Greenleaf
Starts with Arwen. Is there just because he makes a good starting companion. He will probably have died by site 5 so don’t worry if he does because you have 3 solid companions to replace him with.

Token cards
These companions would be useless if it weren’t for the following cards all of which add culture tokens.

Strands of Elven Hair
One of the main token adding cards in the deck. It is this card that makes Gimli essential. Also it has a nice easy way of getting rid of itself when you draw a new one.

Uncertain Future
This is your other big token card. It adds one more token than Strands but its use is not as flexible as Strands as it is discarded in the Manoeuvre phase rather than the Fellowship. This means you cannot play a new one straight after using up the tokens on the card you have in play. So these two cards are equally important to the deck.

Strength of Arms
This is another essential condition for this deck. It is because of this card that you want Arwen to take on the most skirmishes. The ability to recycle tokens is invaluable. This card is especially useful earlier on when your opponent may be throwing out one or two low power minions to play conditions off or to cycle because you can then store up tokens for later sites.

Gift of the Evenstar, Blessed Light
This is great for the same reason that Strength of Arms is. If you can get both in play reasonably early on then you should have a good store of tokens for the difficult later sites as each time an elf wins a skirmish you can add two tokens.

Secluded Homestead
Useful later on in the game where it can add a hefty amount of tokens if you’ve gotten your river and forest sites out. If you get it early on in the game then don’t bother keeping it in your hand as cycling isn’t all that easy with this deck. Instead just play it because its second ability will help a lot with your cycling.

Chamber of Records
This allows for some emergency Ring-bearer healing by using Aragorn’s second skirmish ability . Will come in very useful against serious wounding decks like Hate and Ninja Gollum.

So what should the final deck look like? Here is the version I am currently using.

Ring-bearer
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
The One Ring, ATAR

Starting Companions
Legolas, Greenleaf
Arwen, She-Elf

Companions
3x Aragorn, Defender of Free Peoples
1x Elrond, Witness to History
1x Gandalf, Friend of the Shire Folk (replaced with Gandalf, returned with the release of Rise of Saruman)

Possesions/Artifacts
3x Strands of Elven Hair
1x Hadafang
1x Gimli’s Battle Axe
1x Ring of Fury
1x Rangers Sword
1x Aragorn’s Bow
1x Gift of the Evenstar, Blessed Light
1x Asfaloth, Swift Blossom
1x Glamdring, Foe-hammer

Conditions
3x Uncertain Future
1x Strength Of Arms
1x Secluded Homestead
1x chamber of records
3x Lord of Moria
Events
3x Inside a Song
4x Final Shot
1x The Seen and The Unseen

Strategy
I once made a very basic version of this deck after Reflections came out. Back then it could only get whole groups of tokens at once through Strands of Elven hair and those would be used for Aragorn’s skirmishes so Strength of Arms didn’t gain me much support. The deck would just survive against Shadows. But now the deck is capaple of getting many, many more tokens to feed Arwen and Aragorn.
To get the most out of your tokens you want to bid low and go second. Firstly to get your forest sites out, this will mean that Secluded homestead will hopefully give you a nice big token boost later on. Secondly this is to cycle out your shadow cards in case of a bad draw because this deck doesn’t cycle brilliantly. In your first Fellowship hand you want a companion first and foremost, preferably Aragorn, one or both of Strands of Elven Hair and Uncertain future and one or both of Strength of Arms and Gift of the Evenstar, Blessed Light. if you don’t get any of those cards then mulligan (even if you get Aragorn but no token cards i would mulligan because the token cards are essential to survival). Don’t feel you have to move too much earlier on. Take your time to set up because if you can get a good load of tokens then you will be able to move a lot later on. Because of this early slowness I would play a shadow which (a) cycles well and (b) will prevent your opponent double moving. A good Swarm works well as do Corsairs and Southron Threat decks.
The perfect set up to have on the field at any one point will be Aragorn, Arwen, Elrond and Gandalf fully set up (Legolas will probably have died by the time you get all three, if he hasn’t you can either risk going to six comps or choose to kill someone off, personally I usually kill off Legolas because he’s not quite as usefull as the others). You will hopefully have a Strands of Elven hair in play and an Uncertain Future. With just these two alone an equipped Aragorn can take on a 24 strength minion and win. Arwen also fully equipped could take an 18 strength minion. the one problem is that you cannot of course use the same tokens for both of them. This is why Strength of Arms and Gift of the Evenstar are essential. Whenever any smaller minions come along send them to either Arwen or Elrond because the tokens that will come from it are invaluable. If you do not have enough tokens in play to deal with the minions you are up against on any one turn the use the skirmsih events. When it comes to a choice between which cards to take your tokens from empty the renewable sources like Strength of Arms and Gift of the Evenstar first because quite simply they are renewable whereas with the other two once the tokens are used you need to hope that you’ll draw another copy. Hopefully if your draw is ok you should have a good amount of tokens by the last few sites. the other day I had 21 tokens on these cards at site 7. that was the most I have ever had but 15 is a more common number I have found by that point.
And there you have it. The deck performs reasonably well against most shadows. At first it seems like it’s reliance on the support area is a weakness but because half of the token cards are conditions (Uncertain Future, Strength of Arms and Secluded Homestead) and half are possessions or artefacts (Strands of Elven Hair and Gift of the Evenstar) you cannot lose all your tokens in an instance (unless you are playing a deck with both condition and possession discarding by the bucket load, but that is very unusual).
As you can see from this deck and from my article last month (Gggggggollum and the Wraiths) I like to create original decks and while this deck is not top tier it is inventive and fun so I would definitely recommend it to you if you are looking for something that isn’t used by a million other people.

See you next month
Turin06

Last edited by Turin06 on Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:48 am; edited 2 times in total

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:57 pm

Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 7750 Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.

seemed more like a deck clinic post... needed a little more strategy IMO
it isn’t the most inventive I have seen but OK i guess. I will see if you add anything.

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

(mm)"SoP: you will always be the Official CC Spammer in my heart"
"DáinIronfoot"
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. Razz

TheHobbit13

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:32 pm

Joined: 27 Jul 2006 Posts: 1303 Location: minnesota

Ya, i agree we SOP I think it has great potential. But needs more strategie and maybe A little back ground Info I will defenitly vote If I like the Changes you make.

OH and why do you have both Gwemigal And Hadafang d'oh!

[/quote]

Turin06

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 6:42 am

Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 197 Location: Good Question

I have put in quite a big strategy section.

LeoKula

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:29 am

Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 479 Location: SP, Brazil

I haven’t seen it before you put in the strategy section, but as it is now I think it’s great! It has a sort of refugee feel to it since it’s multiculture and a versatille kind of deck.

I’m not going to say "well, saruman’s power would kill this deck off" and stuff, because I think reviewing articles is not saying what cards can beat it and this is quite obvious... we all know what can beat our decks, but that doesn’t make us stop playing them!

I give you a 4 for creativity and consistency, it’s just not 5 because the formatting is not perfect and 5 would have to be, but your content is definitely 5 for me!

corvus

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 8:15 am

Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 1696 Location: Roaming, but dangerous!!!

Great deck. Very original and straightforward, just the way i like it. But it does focus just on a deck, and it doesn’t show much respect to Greenleaf, so you get a 4 from me. You can still edit the Greenleaf part before i vote though! Wink

Click here if you want to trade some foils away Wink

Far, Far beyond the island we dwelt in shapes of twilight
Through draught and weary days
Through grief and endless pain

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 8:26 am

Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 7750 Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.

my word you did! Shocked

I need to read it but expect a 5
Fereveldir, Son of Thandronen could be useful to finish off gigantic wounded minions that legolas started on. (I guess that wouldn’t be that helpful*slaps self in face*)

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

ingold55

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:50 pm

Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 1199 Location: Out on the front line

very nice article! it is neat, not too short, but not to long, and very explanitory. i enjoyed it. Very Happy