Another Loop Deck

[NappyKorn]

Here is my first attempt at an Open Format deck that I haven't seen posted about yet. Granted it isn't nearly as effective as the Original Fruit Loops deck but it seems to setup faster and with another skirmish based loop you can deck yourself out in the skirmish phase to abuse the regroup phase .

Bearer and Ring 
*The One Ring, The Ring of Rings (11R1) 
*Gimli, Bearer of Grudges (RB)(9R+4)

Fellowship (33)
1x *Bilbo, Melancholy Hobbit (12R119) 
1x *Gandalf, Leader of Men (8R15) 
1x *Merry, Swordthain (7R321) 
1x *Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence (12R127) 
1x *Smeagol, Poor Creature (6C45) 
2x Ranger of Osgiliath (7C116) 
1x *A Light in his Mind (10U108) 
1x *Brooding On Tomorrow (10U15) 
4x *Ever My Heart Rises (4R46) 
4x *Memories of Darkness (10U2) 
1x *Reckless Pride (7U13) 
2x Mines Of Khazad-Dum (3R3) 
1x Preparations (7R12) 
1x Battle in Earnest (8R2) 
1x Last Throw (10c34) 
1x No Worse for Wear (12S126) 
1x One Good Turn Deserves Another (11U49) 
2x Rest by Blind Night (4R54) 
4x Saved From The Fire (8R20) 
1x *Axe of Erebor (4R41) 
1x *Red Book of Westmarch (2R113) 

Strategy:

Bid 1 hope to go first and play Dammed Gate-Stream. Use the text to grab One Good Turn Deserves Another and play the next site adding a burden to send it back to hand. Burn Pippin with Saved From the Fire to grab Red Book of Westmarch, Bilbo, Melancholy Hobbit, and A Light in His Mind. When you come across one of the four Memories of Darkness and one of the four Ever My Heart Rises you are set to go. Bazarinbar grabs your Axe of Erebor as well so play that as your site 2 . For skirmish phase discard cards from hand with with Smeagol, Poor Creature to lose initiative which will trigger A Light in His Mind (peeling a burden) and Memories of Darkness (which will play Ever My Heart Rises). When you play Ever My Heart Rises you stack the top 6 cards of your draw deck on that condition (which happens to be a tale so you will draw a card with Red Book of Westmarch). Discard each card on the tale to pump Gimli +6 then toss the condition to pump him +1 more (thanks to the Axe of Erebor). Discard another card from hand with Smeagol again to repeat until Gimli wins or at least can survive . Next skirmish with Smeagol discarding cards from hand to pump him playing Ever My Heart Rises (stacking the cards and peeling burdens) until Smeagol can win or just survive and you are complete decked out. Bilbo, Melancholy Hobbit can fetch No Worse For Wear (and if at a Dwelling site can discard 2 more cards from hand in case your other hobbit is skirmishing too. Hopefully the monster minions are on Gandalf (which is basically fodder now), Gimli which can tank out, and smeagol which should be able to pump enough to at least not be overwhelmed .

Now on for regroups, I tried this deck out and found that it can give you the option to go for a shadow kill (via Fiend) or can boost the move limit through the ceiling, kill all the remaining minions and trash the condition based support area of the Opponent Basically just like your Fruit Loops, but with different cards playing the roll. Ranger of Osgiliath still discards to exhaust and Battle in Earnest kills them off. Losing initiative during the regroup phase by replaying One Good Turn Deserves Another over and over again. Adding the burden to take it back into hand is nullified by A Light in His Mind so go wild . Losing initiative also triggers Memories of Darkness which can play Ever My Heart Rises (paired with Mines of Khazad-dum means healing Gimli so he can exert to stack cards on Preparations) and Reckless Pride (which acts like the Seeing-stone of the Original Fruit Loops to keep drawing your cards).

If you are feeling like you have a shot at a shadow kill simply stack all your Fiend Cards on Preparations (shuffling them in as needed and replaying Ever My Heart Rises as Needed to heal. But If you want to just make a run for it stack your entire discard Pile back on to Preparations and shuffle it back into your deck, bump the move limit by constantly playing Last Throw (playing it, restacking it on Preparations and shuffling it into your draw deck and redrawing it with Reckless Pride).

Shadow (33) 
1x *Tower Walkway (7C315) 
1x *Troop Tower (7R316) 
4x Great Siege-towers (7U281) 
4x The Dark Lord's Summons (1U242) 
4x Their Marching Companies (8U107) 
1x Forces of Mordor (1C248) 
1x *Troll of Gorgoroth, Abomination of Sauron (8R108) 
4x Great Hill Troll (8C102) 
1x Mordor Fiend (10C91) 
4x Orc Ambusher (1C261) 
4x Orc Butcher (7C297) 
4x Orc Guard (3C95) 

Strategy:

Basic Fiend Deck, play Fiend (cycling him into hand with the freeps), play The Dark Lord's Summons, and we all know the rest. With all your trolls out for free you can start using the Orc Guards to eliminate some pesky Free People Conditions. Swarm like a mad man/woman and hope for the kill if it fails you have the option again and cycling them all right back into your deck with your Free Peoples and trying again or just run like crazy with them next turn .

Sites 
Streets of Bree (18U140) 
Courtyard Parapet (13U188) 
(1) Cavern Entrance (11S232)
(2) Hobbiton Market (12S189) 
(2) Barazinbar (11S229) 
(2) Westemnet Village (11S264) 
(3) Dammed Gate-stream (11U235) 
(3) The Prancing Pony (11S256) 
(3) Valley of the Silverlode (11S261) 

Basically wanted dwelling sites to help aid the hobbits in regrabbing No Worse For Wear to help keep tham alive best I could. Prancing Pony can be used to grab a Ranger of Osgiliath, Valley of the Silverlode and Heal the Hobbits who will be taking wounds as the fight, Barazinbar to grab your axe. Running Caver Entrance to put a damper on the nasty {rohan] horn if it comes into play (which could cause problems for you as well so best to not play it unless they run ahead on you and you can replace it with One Good Turn Deserves Another. Dammed Gate-Stream is here to grab your One Good Turn Deserves ANother from the get go . The Resy are just dwelling sites to work with Bilbo and the solo skirmish event.

As always would like to hear your input (whether good or bad) but remember this is my first attempt at my own Open Format build.

Thanks.


 

[SomeRandomDude]

Dude! Love the Memories of Darkness/Reckless Pride combo.

I'd have to play vs the deck. All loops look good on paper.

[TheJord]

I would add The Shire Countryside, because its Open loops fun.

[ephen]

What happens if the fiend ends up on the Ever my Heart Rises?

[TheJord]

You toss Ever My Heart Rises with Axe of Erebor, use the Regroup loop to pull it back with Preparations to keep Gimli healed.

[Not a Zombie]

dude, that is brilliant. you are only allowed 1x MoD, so add this combo: use merry, friend to sam instead with 3x the shire country side and 1x escape, instead of no worse for the wear, and 1x stairs of khazad-dum instead of the dwarf healer. opens up another loop, now during the first few iterations of the first loop, play sokd instead, add no twilight, heal merry twice, exert merry twice to cancle the skirmish, if they remove one, repeat the loop until they can't remove any more. Now cancel the merry skirmish and continue with your regular loop, healing merry twice each time through, then exert him twice to give a +3 boost to any companion :hey:
if you don't go that rout, use merry, loyal companion. he will be quite a bit stronger and thus harder to kill