Pipes deck - fellowship only - probably nothing new here

[chompers]

Frodo Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring Isildur's Bane

Start
Legolas Greenleaf
Gimli Dwarf of the Mountain Race

Deck
3 x Aragorn Heir to the White City
3 x Gandalf Friend of the Shirefolk
2 x Aragorn's Pipe
1 x The Gaffer's Pipe
1 x Gimli's Pipe
2 x Gandalf's Pipe
4 x Longbottom Leaf
4 x Old Toby
2 x Glamdring
2 x Frying Pan
2 x Aragorn's Bow
1 x Rangers Sword
1 x Long-knives of Legolas
2 x Sleep, Caradhras
4 x Delving
1 x Gimli's Battle Axe
1 x Dwarven Bracers

Site 1 - The Prancing Pony

Strategy:
* Bid to go first, but not too much. There are 3 Aragorns in deck for protection is you lose and opponent goes first and does not play Prancing Pony.
* Choke opponent with Aragorn, The Gaffer's Pipe, Glamdring (if your lucky) and Gimli
* Use pipes to heal like crazy, remove burdens, remove shadow, whatever you need
* Ruin opponents shadow with Sleep Caradhas
* Directed wounds to kill minions with Legolas, Aragorn's Bow and Frying Pan (if your lucky)
* Delving to draw lots of cards

Pretty simple - if i can win with it then it must be a pretty solid deck as i am good at sabotaging my games with stupid decisions.

I play with Uruk-Hai - they do a good job of messing up fellowship decks with all their strength increases - and then make things worse with Worry.

I still have issues with Hate (thats why i put Dwarven Bracers in but Legolas or Aragorn tends to be the target of Hate). Moria swarm or Archery decks (Orc Bowmen) are not a problem. I have been corrupted by Twilight Nazgul but that was mostly my fault by bidding too high and getting Gandalf killed by Shotgun Enquea (no more burden removal).

Any thoughts?

[Gil-Estel]

Frodo's Pipe! He is ace, especially with all the frodo-signets. Heal Aragorn multiple times, when he has used his bow's ability. And I would consider Betrayel of Isengard to kill Saruman KoI, which is always threatening.

[legolas3333]

Fireworks to get your pipeweed back, also if someone discards your pipes with Isengard smith

[Gil-Estel]

Isengard Smith get's his sorry soft tissue stuffed with arrows. I would seriously add armor, since Uruks are so powerful in Fotr. And with 5 companions it isn't that hard to play StMtN, which is nasty.

[ket_the_jet]

Frodo, Son of Drogo is hilarious with Frodo's Pipe. One turn after Frodo absorbs a few arrows, transfer the wounds to Gandalf or Aragorn and then use Frodo's Pipe to clear all wounds from that character.

I'll be honest that I think your deck won't win many skirmishes, I'd much rather see four Servant of the Secret Fire than Delving.

Where is Gandalf's Staff? Gimli's Pipe? Bow of the Galadrim is preferred (to me) as extra protection and I've always used Sting over Frying Pan.

Like previously mentioned, one copy of Fireworks is nice in case you have to use a few weeds early or Glamdring or something gets discarded at site 2.

3 Gandalf is not enough. I run 4 in a 37 card Free Peoples side and still don't draw him early some times. He and his Pipe are far more important than Aragorn (2 copies and The Prancing Pony are plenty).

If you are running Uruk-Hai, use Abandoning Reason For Madness for additional cycling.
-wtk

[jdizzy001]

you could use dear friends instead of fireworks, that way you can retrieve any freep card, well 2 actually if you're playing frodo sig. I did it once and it worked amazingly well. In fact if you run more than one copy of Dear Friends you can retrieve a copy with the second copy and have an infinite deck.

[ket_the_jet]

Well, my problem with retrieving Free Peoples cards is that by the end of the game you are going to want your deck to be Shadow heavy. So I wouldn't recommend going too far with that...like I said, I just have one copy of Fireworks in the rare case that I have to use two or three leafs at site two or Glamdring or something gets discarded really early.
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

Your deck looks quite efficient. I would remove 2 or 3 Delving for 1 Servant of the Secret Fire and 1 Hobbit Stealth.

[chompers]

I love Delving. The wound means nothing as i heal so often, and Legolas appears to be the target of Hate, so no problems with Gimli getting killed off early. Four copies draws me alot of cards, allowing a larger deck size.

I was running Elrond LOR and 4x Servant of the Secret Fire (also SotSF makes Gandalf a target for Hate and losing him is bad news for this deck) and Barliman Butterbur but found it inefficient as i rarely draw Elrond or Barliman at the right time and don't have the space for multiple copies. Also had 3x A Wizard is Never Late to get Gandalf (and only one Gandalf in deck) to aid in getting Barliman. Dumped them all for extra possessions for my companions. Orcs, swarm and archery get owned by this deck - that leaves Nazgul and Uruk Hai - not sure how i will go against them.

So far i found that I don't seem to need skirmish events, as minions rarely survive the archery and lack of shadow. And those that do don't do enough damage to be a problem.

Frodo's Pipe may be a good choice (I didn't realise that almost every companion has Frodo Signet). But i like the shadow removal from The Gaffer's Pipe (Glamdring only works against Orcs, as does Sting) so it is a good backup. Frying Pan destroys Moria Swarm, and hurts all Orc decks so again i am a fan.

I am tempted to drop Dwarven Bracers for Sam SoH - he can use the second frying pan and removes burdens in a pinch. I do worry about having a sixth companion when Shotgun Enquea turns up however.

Dear Friends is tempting - but i am not a fan of shuffling cards back into my deck. On second thoughts, a discard deck might hurt this deck if the wrong cards hit the discard pile.

Abandoning Reason for Madness - i will put that card straight in (and it migh allow me to increase the deck size slightly).

Thanks for feedback.

[Cw0rk]

You do not need Sam, SoH. Gandalf's Pipe is enough.

[ket_the_jet]

You do not need Sam, SoH. Gandalf's Pipe is enough.

I haven't run Son of Hamfast in any of my Pipeweed decks.
-wtk

[jdizzy001]

Well, my problem with retrieving Free Peoples cards is that by the end of the game you are going to want your deck to be Shadow heavy. So I wouldn't recommend going too far with that...like I said, I just have one copy of Fireworks in the rare case that I have to use two or three leafs at site two or Glamdring or something gets discarded really early.
-wtk

That is a good point, I ran my pipe deck with moria swarm so I wasn't worried about freep weight at the end of the game because I had all kinds of shadow in my draw deck and stacked on conditions

[Mythdracon]

How come Frodo's Pipe isn't in the decklist with all those Frodo signet companions? O_o

[Hobbiton Lad]

You also need Frodo, Son of Drogo rather than Frodo, RA