Smoking Frodo-folk

[DáinIronfoot]

This is one of my favorite decks, and apparently others like it too: it won one of the rounds of the deck-building contest I held a while back. Hopefully you'll like it as well!

FREE PEOPLES (39 cards):

Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir w/ The One Ring, Isildur's Bane

Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain-race (starting)
Legolas, Greenleaf (starting)
Aragorn, Heir To The White City (pull with The Prancing Pony)
Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk x4

Bilbo, Retired Adventurer x2

Frodo's Pipe x2
Gimli's Pipe
Aragorn's Pipe x2
Gandalf's Pipe x2
The Gaffer's Pipe
Sting
Gimli's Battle Axe
Long-knives of Legolas
Ranger's Sword
Aragorn's Bow
Armor
Glamdring

Old Toby x4
Longbottom Leaf x4

Servant of the Secret Fire x3
Sleep, Caradhras
Fireworks
Durin's Secret
Orc-bane

Notice that all the companions (except Frodo himself) have the Frodo signet. We use and abuse this fact with our pipeweed; Frodo's Pipe can heal anyone here besides Frodo himself, and with as many as five pipes around (or potentially even MORE using the ability of Gimli's Pipe), that means you can heal up any one of these companions from exhaustion to fully healthy with a single pipeweed. That turns Greenleaf and a bow-equipped Aragorn into archery monsters, enabling you to use their wounding to the fullest and then heal them up completely later. Aragorn's Pipe can spread the healing around if you're taking more widespread wounds...and again, with all your pipes out, he can heal your entire fellowship this way with a single pipeweed. Not bad, not bad. Gandalf's Pipe lets you remove mass burdens, The Gaffer's Pipe lets you remove lots of twilight (and chokes very effectively when paired with Aragorn HttWC), and Gimli's Pipe generates extra pipe spotting when/if needed...and remember, you can then heal Gimli up with Frodo's Pipe (this time without having to wait until a later phase), so the exerting required by Gimli's Pipe is virtually meaningless.

The companions also get their normal toys to play with, and fully loaded, their base strengths come in at 5 for Frodo, 8 for Gimli, 7 for Legolas, 10 (and tough to overwhelm with Armor) for Aragorn, and a whopping 12 for Gandalf. (Always LOVED Friend of the Shirefolk!) You might not win all your skirmishes, but with the healing you'll have at your disposal, you don't have to...you just have to survive until the next fellowship phase. And the strengths here should be high enough to pull that off consistently. If you DO end up in a bind, though, Servant of the Secret Fire can be a lifesaver.

Sleep, Caradhras can be a lifesaver, and doesn't hurt you since you have NO conditions here. Orc-bane can lay down extra pre-skirmish wounding if Aragorn and Legolas aren't enough. Durin's Secret can be a nasty surprise for your opponent if sprung once your pipeweed support system is fully in place. Fireworks and Bilbo pull back your pipeweeds and/or cards you want back from discard.

Let's see...massive deck...Fellowship block...wonder what my Shadow side could be?

SHADOW (39 cards):

The Balrog, Flame of Udun
Cave Troll of Moria, Scourge of the Black Pit
Ancient Chieftain
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur
Goblin Runner x4
Goblin Scavengers x3
Goblin Scrabbler x3
Goblin Wallcrawler x3
Moria Scout x3
Goblin Warrior

Goblin Scimitar x4
Moria Axe

Goblin Armory x4
Goblin Swarms x3
Relics of Moria
Goblin Domain

Host of Thousands x4

Nothing too out of the ordinary here. Draw and create twilight like mad with the scimitars (and Scavengers to get them back) and armories, swarm with your goblins, tackle big companions with your heavy hitters like The Balrog and the Cave Troll. Rinse and repeat as necessary each turn to wear your opponent down and simply overwhelm them. At the very least, you should be able to slow them down enough for HttWC's twilight saving to come into play several times.

So that just leaves....

SITES:

The Prancing Pony
Ettenmoors
Rivendell Waterfall
Mithril Mine
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Dimrill Dale
Silverlode Banks
Shores of Nen Hithoel
Summit of Amon Hen

Pretty self-explanatory for the most part. The Prancing Pony pulls Aragorn, so make sure you bid enough to go first (the burdens should be no issue once you get Gandalf's Pipe out). Rivendell Waterfall can change the course of the game if you set up early enough. Mithril Mine is awesome if your Shadow is set up early with a couple scimitars and armories. Dimrill Dale is obvious with . Silverlode Banks can only help as long as Aragorn is still around, so if things start falling apart, try and hold onto him at least until then. Shores of Nen Hithoel pairs nicely with all our goblins.

[sickofpalantirs]

very snazzy...only suggesetion is tale of gil-galad/ saga of elendil for legolas and aragorn.

could cut a frodo's pipe and speak friend and enter to make room for them.

[Kralik]

Gotta love pipeweed! Usually I use Gandy signets, but I like the Frodo twist.

[SomeRandomDude]

Dain...........

TOO BIG!

39/39 is way too big. At the very least, pack A Wizard Is Never Late over the superfluous Gandalfs. It'll help filter out a little.

I would cut...

Durin's Secret
Speak Friend and Enter
Orc-bane
Frodo's Pipe

ADD

Power According To His Stature

CUT

Goblin Swarms
Moria Axe
Goblin Domain

My advice. 36/36 seems a bit better for this deck. I'd usually recommend smaller still, but with Pipeweed and Moria, 36/36 could fly.

[Gil-Estel]

39-39 is very well doable with moria and pipeweed. I would probably add Sleep Caradhras, because you have no conditions and a fully packed Goblin Swarms is going to kill you, also Sauron Grind could give you some trouble due to the limited double move you have. I mean 1 time some exertions and a few arrows are something you can survive, but if you double move it could cause some trouble for you cannot heal during the fellowship. Other than that, I love it!

[Kralik]

I agree with G-E that size is fine. I have a similar TMAYOD-Pipeweed/Moria deck @ 40/40 and it does just fine. Old Toby helps cycle (my particular version has that card-drawing Elrond too), Longbottom Leaf gets rid of clog.

[DáinIronfoot]

Doubling IS a real concern, yes...it's probably this deck's biggest weakness. But my hope was that the Shadow side would slow things down enough for you to keep pace. And since you're bidding to go first, keeping pace is all you have to do.

Sleep, Caradhras is an EXCELLENT thought; I dropped Durin's Secret to squeeze it in. Thanks, G-E! I also fiddled with the number of pipes, dropping a copy of Frodo's Pipe (since between two of those and 2 copies of Aragorn's Pipe, you should get SOME form of healing quickly enough) and picking up an extra Gandalf's Pipe to help combat burdens.

[FM]

To be entirely honest, a Moria Swarm Shadow is not usually the kind that slows down an opponent (it simply kills them out of the blue). You really wanna slow them down, drop the deck size a bit and play with Uruk-hais, Savagery to Match Their Numbers, Keeper of Isengard, etc. THAT usually slows down fellowships.