Gandy+Rohan/UrukArchery

[YellowFuzzle]

Here's a deck that I like the idea of, but can't quite get to work most of the time.

Freeps (34):

1x Eowyn, Daughter of Eomund
1x Gamling, Warrior of Rohan
1x Theoden, Lord of the Mark
4x Gandalf, the White Wizard

1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick
1x King's Mail
2x Herugrim
3x Rider's Spear
3x Rider's Mount
2x Shadowfax
3x Rohirrim Bow
3x Rohirrim Shield

2x Fortress Never Fallen
2x Hearken to Me

2x Keep Your Forked Tongue
3x Under the Living Earth

Shadow (34):

2x Elite Crossbowmen
2x Ranged Commander
4x Uruk Crossbow Troop
3x Uruk Crossbowman
2x Beserk Savage
2x Beserk Slayer
3x Uruk Engineer
3x Uruk Sapper

2x Devilry of Orthanc
3x Siege Engine
4x Weapons of Isengard

4x Cloud of Arrows

General strategy: Start Gamling and Eowyn, get Gandalf with draw, and Theoden with Site 3. Use Gamling's and Eowyn's abilities to add twilight after shadow phase to make sure Gandy has the strength boost. Theoden gets the benefit of Hearken to me as well. Unfortunately, it isn't that smooth in real life, and I usually end up losing a companion before getting set-up all the way. 

Any advice?

[DáinIronfoot]

Eh, you could start Third Marshal of Riddermark or Rohirrim Captain along with Gamling or Eowyn to have a stronger starting fellowship. Perhaps go with this:

1x Eowyn, Daughter of Eomund (starting)
1x Eomer, Rohirrim Captain (or Third Marshal of Riddermark) (starting)
3x Gamling, Warrior of Rohan
1x Theoden, Lord of the Mark
4x Gandalf, the White Wizard

1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick
1x King's Mail
2x Herugrim
3x Rider's Spear
3x Rider's Mount
1x Shadowfax
3x Rohirrim Bow
3x Rohirrim Shield

2x Fortress Never Fallen
1x Hearken to Me

2x Keep Your Forked Tongue
2x Under the Living Earth

Now you're a bit tougher from the start with Eomer--who, depending on which version you go with, can either make himself or any other Man stronger in battle--and Eowyn, who can heal wounds she takes if you're really hurting. They should be strong enough to survive until you get more companions to help.

However, that means that Gamling and his useful ability go to your deck, so I threw in a couple more copies. To make room, I snipped support cards for Theoden and Gandalf, who are already pretty strong without the help. As much as I love Hearken To Me, I cut one copy (since it's the card that probably has the most clogging potential if drawn at the wrong time). I also dropped a Shadowfax and Under the Living Earth; both are awesome here, yes, but Gandalf should have at least 10 strength most of the time, so he doesn't need the help as much as the rest of your companions.

Just my thoughts, and I won't be offended at all if you go with something else entirely. The combo between Gandalf (with his Walking Stick and UtLE), Gamling, Eowyn, and Theoden is a sweet one which I had never even considered before. Major props for the ideas. Have a , and I look forward to other ideas you have!

EDIT: One last thought. Instead of Fortress Never Fallen, which I admit is a great card, perhaps consider Let Us Be Swift, which discards two conditions (and liberates a site, to boot) by spotting 3 valiant companions.

[Kralik]

Dain, I've made this mistake before, but note that neither version of Eomer can start with Gamling. It's a catch-22 setup.

[YellowFuzzle]

Wow. Thanks for the help Dain. I'll try it out that way.  I do now have 6 companions, is that as much of a problem in TT as it was in FotR or Movie?

P.S. Can you clarify why Gamling and Eomer can't start together? I'm missing something I'm sure...

[Kralik]

Starting companions are played one-at-a-time. Gamling can't be played first (you must spot a man) and if you play Eomer first, he costs , leaving only for Gamling.

[YellowFuzzle]

ah, didn't notice the spotting requirement for Gamling, thanks.

[Creator]

I've been fooling around with this deck a bit. The fellowship side is actually pretty strong. The Gandy/Rohan beastly companion combo is freaking awesome. The shadow side is ok. I went with a berzerker-focused shadow instead and it's got incredible stopping power. I got 8 tokens on Devilry of Orthanc in one turn, bombed the fellowship with it, took some fellowship archery and let it kill off my sappers and engineers, then killed a companion with Berzerk Savage. All in one turn. Berzerk Savage got killed in the Regroup, but with every companion wounded and a companion in the dead pile, the freeps player is almost always going to stay put.

The biggest problem with the fellowship is too few companions and vulnerability to conditions, which shouldn't be the case in any deck with Gandalf in it. I tried Let Us Be Swift and quickly realized it was completely useless because there are only 2 valiant companions in the deck. Condition vulnerability was this deck's biggest issue. Originally I had my starting fellowship as Eowyn and Eomer, TMoR, but then Theoden's cards clogged terribly, because there was only 1 of him and I couldn't draw him in time. Eowyn gets murdered pretty fast either way. The only other alternative is to start with Eowyn and Theoden, but Theoden's low vitality is a major liability, and given how many Theoden-dependent cards there are in this deck, cycling is a nightmare if he dies at site 2 or 3.

So now I have a dilemna. I start with Theoden and Eowyn, which is a weak starting fellowship, and pray I get Gamling and Eomer in time, or I start with Eowyn and Eomer, which is a much more stable starting fellowship, but then cycling slows way down as I wait for Theoden to appear.

Gandalf and Eomer basically carry this deck so I can't cut them out, and Theoden with Eowyn is too unstable a starting fellowship, so I added 2 simbelmyne to help pull Theoden faster:

Freeps (33):

Frodo, Curteous Halfling + The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

1x Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (starting)
1x Eowyn, Daughter of Eomund (starting)
3x Gamling, Warrior of Rohan
1x Theoden, Lord of the Mark
4x Gandalf, The White Wizard

1x King's Mail
1x Herugrim
3x Rider's Spear
3x Rider's Mount
3x Rohirrim Bow
3x Rohirrim Shield
1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick
1x Shadowfax

2x Simbelmyne
2x Fortress Never Fallen
2x Under the Living Earth
1x Hearken To Me

Shadow:

4x Berzerk Savage
3x Berzerk Slayer
2x Berzerk Butcher
4x Uruk Crossbow Troop
4x Uruk Engineer
4x Uruk Sapper
2x Ranged Commander
1x Elite Crossbowmen

2x Devilry of Orthanc
4x Siege Engine
3x Weapons of Isengard

The Shadow needs a little fine-tuning still, but overall it's been pretty effective.

[hsiale]

I think the best would be to simply cut out Theoden. Towers Theodens are weak and need a lot of support to work. Two vitality hurts a lot.

But I guess that this deck's idea is to actually use Theoden and he must stay. If yes, I think it could be reworked a bit and more competitive then. I'd start with something like this:

Frodo, Courteous Halfling
The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

1x Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (starting)
1x Theoden, Lord of the Mark(starting)
1x Gamling, Warrior of Rohan
1x Eowyn, Lady of Rohan
4x Gandalf, The White Wizard
1x Hrethel, Rider of Rohan
2x Elite Rider

1x Herugrim
1x Eomer's Spear
1x Rider's Spear
1x Sting, Baggins' Heirloom
1x Brego
1x Firefoot
1x Rider's Mount
1x Shadowfax
1x Rohirrim Bow
1x Rohirrim Helm
1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick

2x Hearken to Me

4x Simbelmyne
4x An Honorable Charge
1x Grown Suddenly Tall

Eomer, Theoden and Gandalf are main companions, others can be killed if needed. 4 Simbelmyne lets you get whatever you need early. An Honorable Charge is IMO way better than Under the Living Earth, it can help everyone except Frodo. If you don't expect 4-cultures hate, Hrethel or Elite Rider can be replaced with some general usability splash companion - Faramir, Son of Denethor (problem with him is that your pumps don't work on him) or Aragorn, Heir of Elendil.

[Not a Zombie]

You have gone completely away from his original theme

[Creator]

That's an interesting setup, hsiale. What if I were to cut Theoden out? It would probably be more efficient:

(33)

1x Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (starting)
1x Eowyn, Daughter of Eomund (starting)
3x Gamling, Warrior of Rohan
1x Hrethel
1x Elite Rider
4x Gandalf, The White Wizard

1x Eomer's Spear
2x Rider's Spear
1x Sting, Baggins Heirloom
1x Brego
1x Firefoot
1x Rider's Mount
1x Shadowfax
1x Rohirrim Bow
1x Rohirrim Helm
1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick

1x Fortress Never Fallen

4x An Honorable Charge
4x Simbelmyne
2x Grown Suddenly Tall

Between Gamling, Eomer and Gandalf, there should be enough big companions to win skirmishes. Were this Towers Standard, I'd probably go with Deep in Thought over Grown Suddenly Tall. What do you think of the Shadow?

Not a Zombie, unfortunately in Towers, having Theoden in here is more of a liability and slows cycling. I thought the original theme was Gandalf/Rohan cooperation?

[hsiale]

1x Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (starting)
1x Eowyn, Daughter of Eomund (starting) IMO Lady of Rohan is much more useful
3x Gamling, Warrior of Rohan x1, you have Simbelmyne, you don't need multiples
1x Hrethel
1x Elite Rider
4x Gandalf, The White Wizard

1x Eomer's Spear
2x Rider's Spear
1x Sting, Baggins Heirloom
1x Brego
1x Firefoot
1x Rider's Mount
1x Shadowfax
1x Rohirrim Bow
1x Rohirrim Helm
1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick

1x Fortress Never Fallen Not needed if you have Grown Suddenly Tall

4x An Honorable Charge
4x Simbelmyne
2x Grown Suddenly Tall

About Shadow: I played against a similar deck yesterday, first I thought it's too combo intensive, but it worked really nice and was fun. That one used more machines - also Assault Ladder and Scaling Ladder (second is good to make sure that you can use Berserk Slayer's ability even if something wounds him before). Devilry of Orthanc + Berserk Slayer at one site really hurts.

[Creator]

I like scaling ladder a lot, I forgot about that. I think I'm going to toss Weapons of Isengard and use that instead. I can also get rid of some of the archers to throw in some larger, cheaper uruks that win more skirmishes; I find that the archers are either unique or too expensive to really be useful in a deck with so few other archers. Scaling ladder is really useful vs. mounted companions, since as soon as the skirmishes starts they basically can't use their special abilities.

[hsiale]

This is the build I used yesterday and it was really fun to play

3x Berserk Slayer
2x Berserk Butcher
1x Berserk Rager
4x Uruk Crossbow Troop
4x Uruk Engineer
4x Uruk Sapper

4x Weapons of Isengard
4x Siege Engine
3x Devilry of Orthanc
3x Scaling Ladder
2x Assault Ladder

The only archer I have is Uruk Crossbow Troop. Which is used mostly because he adds another token, that one more wound is nice but not essential. At site 5, 7 8 and 9 it's really possible to load Devilry of Orthanc from 0 to full power and use it instantly, or build a machine with 5 tokens for Berserk Slayer.