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| DáinIronfoot |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 3:21 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 4594
Location: Beltsville, MD, USA
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--- description ---
Get your Hobbit Ring-bearer assigned to a skirmish--on purpose--and then kick butt using your Rohirrim buddies and Where Now The Horse. Been done before, right? What if I told you that this deck still focuses on Frodo, but NOT as your Ring-bearer?
--- end description ---
Here’s a crazy idea I had. So crazy, that I simply HAD to write my first-ever article about it. 
The new fighting Ring-bearer  strategy is built around Where Now the Horse, right? The catch: it’s the only card in the bunch that doesn’t say "Ring-bearer" (or "Ringbearer" thanks to sloppy design  ), but instead says "Frodo". That got me thinking...why not use the only NON-Ring-bearer version of Frodo...and use a different Ring-bearer entirely?
The results are just crazy enough to work. I think. 
Free Peoples (41)
Sam, Bearer of Great Need (with The One Ring, The Ring of Rings)
Frodo, Frenzied Fighter (starting)
Eowyn, Northwoman (starting)
Merry, Noble Warrior
Gandalf, Defender of the West x2
Theoden, Northman, King of Rohan
Aragorn, Defender of Rohan
Eomer, Northman
Veteran Horseman
Rohan Stable Master x3
Horse of Great Stature x2
Firefoot, Eomer’s Steed
Rider’s Spear x2
Rider’s Bow x2
Where Now the Horse x4
Last Days of My House x2
Riding Like the Wind x2
They Sang as They Slew x2
Knights of His House x2
With Strength to Fight
On Your Doorstep x4
Long Live the Halflings x3
Measure of Comfort x3
New Chapter
The primary strategy here is using Eowyn to assign Sam to a skirmish and making minions in that skirmish lose keywords. Then use your other companions (who will be quite beefed up with Sam assigned) to beat up other minions. Save Sam’s skirmish until last, and at the last moment, swap in Frodo instead. Pump HIM up with Where Now the Horse, and watch your opponent stare dumbfounded as the little Hobbit rips apart whoever was supposed to tear up your Ring-bearer. 
Much of the rest of the deck is pretty self-explanatory: pure, unabashed pumps. No tricks here, folks: the rest of your companions are in there as beat-sticks.  Get everyone mounted with the mounts and Stable Masters; most of the events are focused on mounted companions. Throw in Riding Like the Wind if you need to move more quickly down the sitepath.
Sam, Bearer of Great Need
Since you’re obviously not giving the Ring to Frodo, this is the best alternate Ring-bearer to use with this deck. Not only is he one of only two ARBs without a major drawback (the other being Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom), but his text that works with followers makes him an especially good fit. I recommend The One Ring, The Ring of Rings; combined with the other 2 Hobbits, Sam will then have a very respectable 10 resistance without a whole lot of trouble. Who needs Frodo, anyway? 
Frodo, Frenzied Fighter
Oh, that’s right. I guess we DO still need him. He’s the card that makes the whole deck click, after all. I think I’ve already covered why.
Eowyn, Northwoman
She’s the easiest way to get a minion assigned to Sam and greatly weaken that minion at the same time. Fierceness is lost. Damage bonuses? Not anymore! Ambush? I don’t THINK so!
Merry, Noble Warrior
In truth, he’s in there to help boost Sam’s resistance a bit, but he can become a huge fighter, too. With all the companions out, his skirmish ability takes him up to a whopping 15 strength! And if worse comes to worst, he can soak up a lot of archery or something.
As an alternative, you could swap in Merry, Swordthain instead to ensure you always have your mounts and weapons to play with. Just a thought.
Gandalf, Defender of the West
I knew I wanted Gandalf so I could play On Your Doorstep, but it took me a little while to decide which version. I considered Gandalf, Leader of Men just to get him in the fellowship quickly and easily, but then he seemed to be just taking up space after that since he doesn’t have any support cards in the deck. Gandalf, Powerful Guide seemed like a good option, with above-average strength and decent cycling, and Gandalf, Leader of the Company is ALWAYS a good option, so he was in the running for a little while. But in the end, I settled on the "safe" pick of Defender of the West, as he’s pretty much ALWAYS guaranteed to be 9 strength. I put two copies in, just to help you get him as early as possible, but putting in just one copy and subbing another version of Gandalf (whichever floats your fancy) in the second slot wouldn’t be an entirely bad idea.
Theoden, Northman, King of Rohan
It might be silly having two subtitles, but all jokes with this companion end there. He’s a very powerful card in this deck, essentially giving all the companions a permanent strength +1 pump thanks to the fact that your Ring-bearer will be assigned so much. His regroup ability is a nice bonus against certain Shadow decks, and should be easy enough to use when you need it thanks to the followers in this deck.
Aragorn, Defender of Rohan
Much like Theoden, Aragorn gives a boost to all your guys. This one can either be just as useful (a strength +1 pump against non-hunters) or even moreso (taking away big hunter bonuses on minions).
Eomer, Northman
He could easily be your biggest and baddest companion of all, since he’s a minimum of 10 strength when Sam is assigned. Since he’s likely to be mounted, you can also use his maneuver ability to soak up a couple minions should you get swarmed.
Veteran Horseman
Normally he’d be pretty so-so, but in this deck, a simple exertion can give him as much as a +6 strength boost. Not too shabby. If nothing else, he makes good archery fodder.
Rohan Stable Master
These are mainly to get your Hobbits and Gandalf mounted, which is very important (as you’ll see in a minute), but the +1 strength boost certainly doesn’t hurt.
Horse of Great Stature
These are for your companions, obviously. I chose these because of their versatility: they have the nice exertion text common with mounts, but also give you an additional strength pump for when you really need it.
Firefoot, Eomer’s Steed
A cheap way to get Eomer mounted, and it gives you the option of at least TRYING to get rid of your opponent’s conditions.
Rider’s Spear
A nice, simple weapon that will more than likely have that damage bonus activated at all times.
Rider’s Bow
A good weapon for your most powerful Rohirrim, which probably means you want to give one to Eomer, since he’s likely to win a lot of skirmishes. Again, the mounts running rampant means the extra strength +1 is likely to be in use.
Where Now the Horse
Another very key card, as this is the second blow of the one-two punch that snatches Sam out of harm’s way and turns Frodo into a truly frenzied fighter. 
Last Days of My House
Just a little extra help for pulling your companions when you need them, or those followers should that be a more pressing need.
They Sang as They Slew
An awesome way to finish off minions in regroup, and better set up the next card.
Riding Like the Wind
Once you’ve got two mounts out, this becomes a nice bonus, letting you move down the sitepath quickly and get to those important sanctuaries...or just rush to the finish line.
Knights of His House
An obvious splash since you’ll have potentially 6 mounted companions when you play it. This makes the opponent choose whether they want to be starved for cards or twilight.
With Strength to Fight
This is a last-minute addition to provide some extra healing for your Rohan guys. They’ll probably need it with all that exerting.
On Your Doorstep
Critical. Without this, there’s no way to get cards like Where Now the Horse back. In a pinch, you can also use it to get any other events or conditions you lose and need back. And should things go poorly with Where Now The Horse, you can snatch your companions back from the discard pile, too!
Long Live the Halflings
Your fellowship is not exactly the strongest in terms of resistance, but even if only one or two companions have resistance 7 or more when you trigger the skirmish ability, it’s still a very nice addition in this deck.
Measure of Comfort
This card, however, helps ensure you have more than just one or two companions with high resistance.
New Chapter
Seems kind of lonely in this deck, but it’s an excellent way of healing. With only three followers, it might seem weak, but a potential three healings (or more if you use it on Sam) isn’t bad for only 2 twilight.
Now, for the Shadow side, I took an excellent suggestion from AC and tweaked it a little bit. Special thanks to both him and AP for helping me put this whole thing together. 
Shadow (41)
Goblin Hordes x4
Unforgiving Depths x4
Chamber Patrol x2
Ordnance Grunt x3
Denizen of Moria x3
Scurrying Goblin x4
Orkish Scout x4
Orkish Runner x3
Orkish Worker x2
Orkish Smith x4
Massing Strength x2
Conquered Halls x2
Unreasonable Choice x2
Spurred to Battle x2
Nothing fancy here. It’s all-out swarming, with your minions either being cheap (Denizen of Moria down to Orkish Worker) or just big (Ordnance Grunt and Chamber Patrol). Unforgiving Depths has two purposes: making sites underground, and getting LOTS of muster potential so you can cycle through your deck more quickly. Massing Strength is a nice pump when you need one BIG minion, and Conquered Halls will likely fill in the times where you need a smaller but still powerful pump. Unreasonable Choice hopefully gets rid of some conditions, and along with Spurred to Battle, can also get some twilight back to help pay for your more expensive cards. Speaking of which, Ordnance Grunt can keep coming back as needed, as long as you don’t mind parting with one of your conditions, and Chamber Patrol is powerful, but also makes your other minions better (and even helps you get underground sites!).
Speaking of sites (thanks again to AC for ideas!):
{1} Abandoned Mine Shaft
{2} West Gate of Moria
{3} Stables
{4} Chamber of Mazarbul
{5} Moria Stairway
{6} Crossroads of the Fallen Kings
{7} Mount Doom
{8} Caves of Aglarond
{9} Harrowdale
6 of these sites are underground, which is the main reason they’re in there, though a couple of particular note are West Gate of Moria (to remove some twilight) and Caves of Aglarond (which is really the only burden removal you have). Stables makes sure you have your mounts early, and then you can transfer them at Chamber of Mazarbul if needed. Crossroads of the Fallen Kings provides some much-needed healing, and Harrowdale helps ensure your war-weary fellowship doesn’t get clobbered at the end. You could also consider throwing Flats of Rohan in somewhere to help out Eomer should he make use of his defender bonus. Any other suggested replacements/reordering?
Matchups:
Swarm
Shouldn’t be a problem except early on. The earlier you get Eomer out, the better, because he can not only take on multiple minions, but he has a decent chance of actually WINNING, too. Even without that, though, it’s hard to swarm enough minions to take down large fellowships like this. And there’s plenty of ways of mopping up any minions that live until regroup, so only massive swarms will stop you from double-moving.
Big Beatdown Minions
Again, shouldn’t be anything you can’t handle. You may have to sacrifice a companion in the process, but you can afford to lose the Veteran Horseman, Merry, or another companion and still be okay. And unless it’s a REALLY big minion, you should at least be able to avoid being overwhelmed, and you have a decent chance at actually winning with all those pumps! Fully loaded with a mount, spear, and bow, and with Sam assigned, Eomer is strength 13 without any pumps! Wouldn’t take much for him to take down, say, The Balrog.
Corruption
A mild concern, since this deck doesn’t have much at all in the way of burden removal. But Sam starts with 9 resistance, so it’s not something you should lose sleep over. The only potential worry is that a few burdens combined with not getting a couple Measure of Comforts out can make Long Live the Halflings all but worthless, though you should have enough other pumps to not NEED it if the opponent is focusing that much on adding burdens.
Archery
This could hurt, especially with the new  archery coming out in T&D. (Of course, what DOESN’T that hurt?) There’s no big defense against it, but again, with so many companions, you can afford to sacrifice one or two should the arrows really start to fly. Knights of His House can hopefully eliminate any big archery events before they hurt you, though.
Direct Wounding/Exerting
If it’s extensive, or combined with decent archery, you could have a bit of a problem. Your companions need to be able to exert sometimes, and some wounds dished to Frodo or Eomer could hurt especially badly. If you’re worried about it, you could try taking out a couple of the pumps and throw in some extra healing, perhaps with more copies of With Strength to Fight.
Keywords
One of the strengths of this deck, in my opinion. If you have a minion loaded with keywords, you can shut him down with Eowyn’s ability, or trust that your other companions can win their skirmishes and thus negate the effects of fierce and damage. Lurker could be a bit of a problem though, because this is all about saving the Ring-bearer’s skirmish for last.
Special Abilities/Events
Depends largely on the ability, of course, but not many should scare you. Abilities that exert minions may actually help you finish them off, and any pumping...well, hopefully you’ll have enough to out-pump them. If not, there’s a suggestion below that may help.
Conditions
Some of them can hurt, no doubt, and aside from using Firefoot, there’s no way you can really get rid of them with this deck, which makes it potentially this deck’s biggest weakness. Hopefully you can hold on and use a combo of the above strategies, good cycling using your Shadow side, and moving quickly with Riding Like the Wind to get to the finish line before your opponent has all their conditions properly set up. If it’s killing you, though, you could toss in a Rush of Steeds to discourage it (and help with special abilities, to boot!)
Any other matchups you can think of?
This is the first time I’ve done anything like this, so I’m sure the deck is too huge or too varied or too weak in multiple areas...so be gentle.  But I think my general idea is sound. I hope, at least.
I also hope YOU find this useful. I think you could really surprise your opponent with this, and beat their pants off, too! 
Reviews are MOST appreciated. |
Last edited by DáinIronfoot on Fri May 04, 2007 10:52 am; edited 9 times in totalBest regards, Dáin, Vice Aftokrator of the Chosen Ones
Check out Lasting Alliances, The Road Ahead, and Ages of Middle-earth, three of my five dream card sets that make up Wars of the Ring. Oh, and I have a trade list now!
Also, if you're into DCs or RPGs (or even if you're not!), check out Realms of Middle-earth, the sequel to CG's "DC Adventure", Realms of the North! |
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| AgentDrake |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 3:36 pm |
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 667
Location: Halfway between eccentric and insane...
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Well written. Simple, but complete and in-depth. I like how you went and described the purpose of every card. I wish I had the attention span to do all that...
As far as purely writing form, you might want to impress a little more the importance of New Chapter, because you do ALOT of exerting. That’s about the only suggestion I can think of.
I’ll wait a bit before rating, but I like this. Well done. |
| Never kid about politicians. The more bizarre the joke, the more likely it is to come true. |
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 3:45 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 3947
Location: Maryland
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Here’s a site path:
Abandoned Mine Shaft
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Chamber of Mazarbul
West Gate of Moria
Stables
Mount Doom
Caves of Aglarond
Harrowdale
7 underground sites (I usually play them at sites 3-9), and 2 sites to help your Rohirrim.
- AC |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:05 pm |
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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.
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| there have been several articles about this...yours might still be original though. |
 Sop's haves/ top wants
(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. |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:53 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:54 pm |
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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.
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| sorry I forgot to read the intro...yeah it is new. |
Sop's haves/ top wants
(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. |
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| DáinIronfoot |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 8:25 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 4594
Location: Beltsville, MD, USA
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NBarden wrote: What happens if you win a prize, are you going to finally start playing LotR?
If I win something, then I just might.
Thanks for the kind words, all. And special thanks, once again, to AC for ideas, this time on sites.  I’ve updated the article with a sitepath and one extra card for each side of the deck, mostly to give a little more healing potential. |
Best regards, Dáin, Vice Aftokrator of the Chosen Ones
Check out Lasting Alliances, The Road Ahead, and Ages of Middle-earth, three of my five dream card sets that make up Wars of the Ring. Oh, and I have a trade list now!
Also, if you're into DCs or RPGs (or even if you're not!), check out Realms of Middle-earth, the sequel to CG's "DC Adventure", Realms of the North! |
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| lem0nhead |
![]() Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 3:14 am |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 2981
Location: Blood Island
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| Sweeeeeet idea Dain just for the inventiveness. Hehe good attention to details as well, must have been painstaking to write each cards effects in the deck. Well done! |
Ban shampoo, demand real poo.
 My Trade List and CC References
"Smart guy, especially considering his head is filled with lemon juice and seeds. That boy’s juicy brain is FULL of good stuff" ~ DainIronfoot
"No fair! And all I got was an oily unconscious steward!" ~ Pippin.
"Okay, stop me if you've heard this one. An elf, a man, and a dwarf walk into the Riddermark..." ~ Eomer |
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| DáinIronfoot |
![]() Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 8:22 am |
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 4594
Location: Beltsville, MD, USA
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Glad you all like it. It DID take a while...I’ve been picking at the idea all week. But after the positive responses so far, I just might have to write more of these things. Then Uncle Dáin will be EVERYWHERE!
Soooo...um, any ratings?  |
Best regards, Dáin, Vice Aftokrator of the Chosen Ones
Check out Lasting Alliances, The Road Ahead, and Ages of Middle-earth, three of my five dream card sets that make up Wars of the Ring. Oh, and I have a trade list now!
Also, if you're into DCs or RPGs (or even if you're not!), check out Realms of Middle-earth, the sequel to CG's "DC Adventure", Realms of the North! |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 8:46 am |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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Sweet stuff, Dain!
Great in-depth analysis of each card, and the formatting was cool.  The only missing is a matchups section. hint  |
| I had to put something here. |
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