Psycho Merry (FP only)

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

32 Cards

Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir w Isildur's Bane

Merry, Friend to Sam x2 (Starting)
Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence* (Starting)
Gimli, Lockbearer (Starting)
Legolas, Dauntless Hunter x2

Bilbo Baggins, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit x2
Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals x2
Hobbit Party Guest x2
Bounder

Mithril Coat
Bill the Pony x2
Hobbit Sword**** x3
Long Knives of Legolas*
Hand Axe
Dwarven Axe
Dwarven Bracers*

Everyone Knows x4
Consorting With Wizards x2
There and Back Again
A Talent for Not Being Seen
Endurance of Dwarves

The strategy of this free peoples side revolves around Merry, Friend to Sam and his skirmish ability. Freeps choke with Talent, Bill & Bilbo w Consorting, then Merry acts as a +9 'booster' every turn (with his sword and 4 copies of Everyone Knows), taking Gimli to strength 21 damage with no boosters if he has his stuff. Legolas and Gimli then soak up any leftover wounds from fierce skirmishes etc, and every fellowship Merry heals with the Old Bilbo's Heir+Maggot/Party Guest healing combo.

However I've got a bit of a format issue here. Bill makes the deck illegal for Movie, while Everyone Knows makes it illegal for Towers Standard. I'm happy enough to ditch Bill, so what cards could I include instead to make the deck more competitive for Movie format?

I know this deck can be better, especially if there's a way to heal Merry in the regroup for the double move...and a vitality boosting card would let Merry do his stunt twice (is there any other than ent draught?).

Also there's a bit of a lack of swarm protection since I took out frying pan and sting (more Movie block illegals). Any suggestions? I'll add site path and shadow side later if I've time, I was pairing this with Dunland/Nazgul but it wasn't a great shadow side, to be honest!

Thanks!

[NappyKorn]

If I'm reading this right you are going to exert Merry to give other companions a +9 strength boost with 4 copies of everyone knows out and a sword on him. If you mean this that will not work. I believe when you exert merry twice to do this his vitality falls below 3 meaning none of the Everyone Knows are giving him a pump anymore. Wounds subtract from the vitality a companion or minion has. So he if has 4 vitality and exerts twice his vitality is now 2 not 4. I could be wrong, but I don't believe so.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

eek. my strategy collapses and my deck with it! Oh well, maybe I'll take out Everyone Knows, keep Bill, add Frying Pan& Sting and make it into a TT standard deck. Darn!

So +5 boost then. How else can I make Merry bigger?

[Kralik]

Nappy is correct, which is a sad flaw in your deck. I have an Everyone Knows deck that makes Merry and Pippin killing machines! It uses Ent Draught and Escape. But with that portion of your deck falling through you may want to rethink your Merry strategy... Perhaps go for other strength boosts.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

hmmm, haven't seen Escape before, so say I have a guest Ent to put Ent Draught on Merry, plus Escape, then Everyone Knows will work then? A bit cumbersome, though. 

[Kralik]

I don't think you'd want to run Ent Draught with your Gimli/Legolas pair. Too much trouble trying to squeeze it in... I use it, but my deck is almost exclusively, with 4x Birchseed TS.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Strength of Spirit springs to mind if I was making a gandalf version of this deck..it's really the Merry engine i'm interested in as a strategy, not so much the rest of the deck. I want to find the best setting for it. But I'll need to acquire Escape.

[DáinIronfoot]

You COULD get Ent Draught in there without changing your deck too drastically. If you use Pippin, In The Bloom Of Health, you can spot an Ent and thus get your Draughts out. That would require taking it to Expanded format, of course, but it's something to at least consider.

With an Ent Draught and Escape, Merry has 6 vitality, so he could still be up at 7 strength (9 with a sword) if you had all four Everyone Knows out, even after exerting him twice for his ability.

Yes, combo-intensive, but once you have it all in place...wow.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

In The Bloom Of Health could work well, although I don't really play Shadows+ (no cards and don't like ) Are there any other vitality enhancing cards from later sets which could go with escape and ent draught? cos then all the copies of Everyone Knows would add +2 or poss more !!!

[SomeRandomDude]

Except...Movie Block. No ItBoH. But...I'm thinking you should explore Birchseed and Strength of Spirit.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

hmmm, yeah I think Kralik has nudged me down the Gandalf route, with ent draught and Strength of Spirit to annul the exertions. I'll see what I can come up with. By the way, how does the strength boost in Depart Silently work? How long does it last, since it's triggered in the Maneuver phase? Is this potential fodder for Merry or just another of my usual half-baked card misreadings? Oh, and more There and Back Again, obviously. Lots of ways to prepare Merry for his gallant interventions! Any other obvious cards I'm missing?

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Also, when do I stop being a Goblin? It's highly demeaning 

[NappyKorn]

Why not start an ent. Start with Quickbean and your 2 hobbits .

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Could do that, then do without Gandalf or not? I don't know whether to splash an ent in the deck listed above (with some mods) or rebuild as a Gandalf deck. So i'll prob try both Also, since the copies of Everyone Knows are no use without both Ent Draught and Escape, I'll need multiple copies of those cards, but they're limit one per bearer, so is there anything clever I can do with the leftover copies that're going to increase my other companions' vitality?

[NappyKorn]

Also in movie block run Manager of wizards with A light in his mind and shire countryside. Manager of wizards will lose you iniative triggering A light in his mind to peel a burden and with 2 shire countryside out Merry get healed fully from his 2 exertions. Not sure all this would fit in a deck out not but worth a try if you go with more of a gandalf style deck .