The Classics

[SomeRandomDude]

Welcome to open, newcomer. Before you start playing your deck, let's get a few things straight.

1). You will die off the bat.
Open is not like other Lord of the Rings. Those who play open to get access to Lady Redeemed or Aragorn, Heir to the White City ain't seen nothing yet. My first venture into open was actually a Lady Redeemed deck. Big mistake. Play casual if you want those decks, open is not the place for wimpy cards like that. Until you learn the ropes of how open goes, you're gonna die.

2). You will die quite easily.
Here's how open works. The closest an open game gets is one person going from 0-60 at site 4 as opposed to the other player going 0-60 at site 5. There are no close calls with the ring-bearer. One player is always slaughtered absolutely. There is absolutely NO WAY at ALL for there to be an "almost overwhelmed" Frodo among open players. If Frodo is overwhelmed, his strength will not be tripled, it will usually be 20x his strength. Isildur + Narsil + Coat of Mail can only hold up to 39 strength at most. That is quite easy to throw on the ring-bearer.

Welcome to open. I'm compiling a list of the classic open combos with which you can pummel an opponent of your choice. Or so you know what you're getting into if you enter these forsaken lands against a player like myself.

WARNING: This format is not for the faint-hearted. The Last Homely House is not liable for any injuries caused by entering this format. Procede at your own risk.

1). Fruit Loops.

Side: Free Peoples
Phase: Regroup
Objectives:

A: Discard all your opponent's minions.
B: Discard all your opponent's conditions.
C: Discard all your opponent's possessions.
D: Discard your opponent's draw deck.
E: Discard your opponent's hand.
F: Liberate each site.
G: Remove all threats.
H: Heal all companions.
I: Make the move limit infinite.

Okay, so now you're going...WTF?!?!?!?!

Allow me to quote a respected member of the old CobraCards.

Hey all,

This is just a broken combo known as Fruit Loops that you can use in Open Format. I made this a long time ago to prove to people that Open format is just crazy, since Combos like this one are legal.

Oh, and I'm not the guy who originally came up with the idea - I'm just the first (and only, AFAIK) guy to put it into a big list with step by step instructions.

Enjoy!

What You Need
Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood with Ent Draught
Aragorn, Driven By Need with Ent Draught
Gimli (any version) with Ent Draught
Smeagol (any version)
Gandalf (any version)
Forest Guardian x2
Ranger of Osgiliath with Ent Draught
Memories of Darkness
Preparations
Hlafwine, Village Farmhand
Fell Deeds Awake
No Safe Places (in your deck or hand)
Change of Plans (in your deck or hand)
Seeing Stone of Orthanc
Steadfast Champion (in discard pile)
Rest by Blind Night x2 (in your deck or hand)
Last Throw (in your deck or hand)

How To Do It
1: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion and make an opponent discard a Shadow condition.
2: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Treebeard 3 times and discard a minion.
3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until all Shadow conditions and minions in play are discarded.
4: Add 3 threats with the Seeing Stone to draw 3 cards.
5: Exert Aragorn 2 times to remove those threats.
6: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
7: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Aragorn 3 times.
8: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
9: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Treebeard 3 times.
10: Repeat steps 8 and 9 once.
11: Repeat steps 4-10 until you draw your entire deck.
12: Use Ranger of Osgiliath to discard Rest by Blind Night and any other card.
13: Exert Smeagol with No Safe Places to reveal an opponent's hand. They will discard at least 1 card (unless their hand is already empty).
14: Exert Ranger of Osgiliath with Change of Plans to make your opponent get 8 cards in their hand again.
15: Exert Gimli with Preparations to stack No Safe Places on Preparations.
16: Exert Gimli with Preparations to stack Change of Plans on Preparations.
17: Exert Gimli with Preparations to stack Rest by Blind Night on Preparations.
18: Play Rest by Blind Night to shuffle Preparations back into your deck.
19: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
20: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Gimli 3 times.
21: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
22: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Treebeard 3 times.
23: Repeat steps 19 and 20 once.
24: Add 4 threats with the Seeing Stone to draw the 4 cards that are in your draw deck.
25: Exert Aragorn 4 times to remove those threats.
26: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
27: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Aragorn 3 times.
28: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
29: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Treebeard 3 times.
30: Repeat steps 28 and 29 once.
31: Repeat steps 26 through 30 once.
32: Use Ranger of Osgiliath to discard all of your hand except No Safe Places and Rest by Blind Night.
33: Since you just lost initiative, play Preparations from your discard pile with Memories of Darkness.
34: Since you just lost initiative, liberate a site with Fell Deeds Awake.
35: Repeat steps 12 through 34 until your opponent's deck and hand is discarded, except alternate keeping No Safe Places with Change of Plans. This will mean that you'll skip either action 13 or 14. Also, whenever you need to, use Treebeard to heal Ranger of Osgiliath and/or Smeagol.
36: Play Last Throw to make the move limit +1.
37: Exert Gimli to stack Last Throw on Preparations.
38: Exert Gimli with Preparations to stack Rest by Blind Night on Preparations.
39: Play Rest by Blind Night to shuffle Preparations back into your deck.
40: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
41: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Gimli 3 times.
42: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
43: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Treebeard 3 times.
44: Repeat steps 42 and 43 once.
45: Add 3 threats with the Seeing Stone to draw the 3 cards that are in your draw deck.
46: Exert Aragorn 2 times to remove those threats.
47: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
48: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Aragorn 3 times.
49: Exert Treebeard twice to play Steadfast Champion.
50: Discard Steadfast Champion to heal Treebeard 3 times.
51: Repeat steps 49 and 50 once.
52: Use Ranger of Osgiliath to discard all of your hand except Last Throw and Rest by Blind Night.
53: Since you just lost initiative, play Preparations from your discard pile with Memories of Darkness.
54: Repeat steps 36 through 53 to make the move limit +6. 

AC left out a fun card to toss into the deck, For The Mark and suddenly you've opened another loop that discards all possessions.

Decklist

2). Infinite Gandalf

Side: Free Peoples
Phase: Skirmish and Regroup Phase
Objectives:

Skirmish Loop-
A: Remove all burdens
B: Heal all companions
C: Discard all conditions
D: Kill all minions

Regroup Loop-

A: Heal all companions
B: Discard all conditions
C: Discard all minions

(Basically, backup plan in case 1st loop goes awry).

Skirmish Phase Loop- In order to execute this loop, you must have...

The One Ring, The Great Ring
Erland, Dale Counselor
Servant of the Secret Fire in your discard pile (with Gandalf)
The Shire Countryside x 2
A Light in His Mind with the required number of hobbits.
Brooding on Tomorrow

You must have 3 cards in your hand somehow during the skirmish. Exert Erland to take Servant of the Secret Fire into hand from your discard pile. Play it, triggering Brooding on Tomorrow and A Light In His Mind, triggering The Shire Countryside, removing a burden, discarding a condition and making a minion strength -3.

Repeat as necessary, adding burdens with The Great Ring as necessary.

Regroup Phase Loop- This loop is essentially a toned down version of fruit loops. In order to execute this loop, you must have.

Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood
Gandalf
Steadfast Champion
Ent Draught (or any vitality booster)

1. Treebeard with 6 vitality exerts twice to play Steadfast Champion and heal any companion. (6 - 2 = 4 vitality)
2. He then exerts twice again to heal himself. (4 - 2 + 3 = 5 vitality)
3. He exerts twice to heal a companion. (5 - 2 = 3 vitality)
4. He exerts as necessary to heal himself (Back to 6 vitality)
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4.

This deck isn't as powerful as Fruit Loops, but is much easier to pull off as a Saved from the Fire can essentially set up the deck instantaneously.

Decklist

3). Mordor Fiend

Side: Shadow
Phase: Shadow
Objective:

A: Take draw deck into hand.
B: Play all conditions and possessions.
C: Leave tons of twilight (notice that I say tons, not infinite)

Use a free peoples Gamling's Horn deck to completely filter your draw deck. Keep it at exactly 30 cards, and abuse Robin Smallburrow and Woodhall Elf, Exile as much as is possible (Glorfindel/Prancing Pony is preferrable).

Then, once you draw The Dark Lord's Summons and Mordor Fiend, your completely draw your deck using the Fiend to add the twilight necessary to get Dark Lord's Summons working. Draw your entire deck, playing conditions and possessions (usually engines). From this point, drop Troll of Gorgoroth, Abomination of Sauron, 4 Great Hill Troll, and, if you manipulated Fiend right, 4 Orc Butchers for 9 giant minions, 5 of which are fierce. Oh, and toss some Forces of Mordor onto the fire with...uh...9 minions, that's a total of an 19 minion swarm, with 9 of them being strength 15+ (Butcher with 11 conditions = 17!)

Decklist

Those are the classic open decks. Respect them, revere them, play them or kill them. Welcome to open buddy.

[DáinIronfoot]

I would ALMOST think AP's StBooYV deck should go here. It's just about as painful.

Seriously, though, good summary. I've heard of those before, but it's good to have them organized in one place. Bravo! Have some gold.

[SomeRandomDude]

Nowhere near close to being broken. Actually, I didn't find his deck to be all that powerful. He's taken the combat triangle approach to decks, and in rock/paper/scissors fashion, he's pummeled you. Against certain other decks (like mine ) he's toast. However, there is no combat triangle in Fruit Loops or Infi Gandy, they pretty much just pummel everything, and the Fiend deck isn't to easy to take down either.

FYI, there are some other broken comboes/infinite loops in open format, but these are the classics that everyone recognizes as the Open killers.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Where's Infinite Gandalf, for real?

Gandalf
Erland, Dale Counselor
The one strength -3 event...name escapes me at the moment
The Shire Countryside x2
A Light In His Mind

You discard down to five cards in hand, play that event to make a minion strength -3. A Light In His Mind triggers (lost initiative), and you remove a burden and heal two companions. Exert Erland, Dale Counselor to take the event back into hand. Lose initiative by playing it again. Remove a burden, heal Erland and another companion. Wash, rise, repeat until all minions are strength 0, you have no burdens, and all companions are healed.

[SomeRandomDude]

You mean discard down to 3, and then exert Erland to nab back, right? Fixed.

[Mythdracon]

Decklists would help us see the brokenage of these decks more clearly. *hint hint*

[alehaak]

On infinite gandalf:

regroup:
To play Treebeard you must spot 3 gandalf companions, and you just have gandalf and erland. You need another companion on that deck and Treebeard + ent draught make a 5 vitality ent, not 6 vitality

[sickofpalantirs]

I would ALMOST think AP's StBooYV deck should go here. It's just about as painful.

what is this deck?

[TheJord]

It isnt Open, its Standard or Expanded

[Vroengard]

can anybody post some of these broken decks? haven't seen lists before

[legolas3333]

here's an add on for a fiend deck that I play, sauron's might to remove all tokens and add threats

[Not a Zombie]

I would ALMOST think AP's StBooYV deck should go here. It's just about as painful.

I wanna see this deck...

[Gil-Estel]

it is in the standard section...and lego, what else than just add 1 threat does Sauron's Might do?

[sickofpalantirs]

well if you place it on the bottom you could remove 3 to draw it again...

[Gil-Estel]

True, it could be a nice addition, but then again, who needs threats when you play Mordor Fiend?.....

[sharkey]

I wonder what the first person to play against the Fruit Loops deck reaction was like...

[Ringbearer]

I guess.... WTF
Then it be YAWNNNN

[Witchkingx5]

First: What do #$&*@! (/f***)is that?
Second: How?
Third: Why ME?!?!?

[Gil-Estel]

Well first time I played against it - I did so kind of intentionally- I just kicked the crap out of it, mhuahahahaha. NBarden wants a rematch eversince, but I treasure my victory to much and he isn't around that much either, hahaha

[Witchkingx5]

Well first time I played against it - I did so kind of intentionally- I just kicked the crap out of it, mhuahahahaha. NBarden wants a rematch eversince, but I treasure my victory to much and he isn't around that much either, hahaha

There are many ways to stay unbeatable....

[Gil-Estel]

well actually I am not, but in this case...I like my record of being probably 1 of the few to ever beaten this deck

[sharkey]

I'm not sure. It has to be set up right, you need the right cards down. In the meantime, it could be possible to kill treebeard and other such stuff. It's not invincible, not even once it's got all the stuff in place. They have to wait for regroup phase. So, assuming you can delay them until site 7( Which is reasonable), it's possible to get to site 9 first. It's also possible, due to treebeard's twilight cost, that somone may be able to swarm the turn treebeard is put down.

[Imrahil]

I believe Fiend generally kicks the tar out of Fruit Loops, because, as Sharkey said, it takes a while to set up, whereas Fiend doesn't.  Therefore playing it in open is impractical unless you have a very innocent (and patient) opponent who still thinks The Dark Lord's Summons is one of the more useless cards ever created.

[rydhus]

My first Fiend deck was with Underdeeps of Moria. It wouldn't matter what Freeps i played, as long as i had those two cards and at least one Relentless. I guess you could play an hobbit deck versus those fiend deck and avoid skirmish at low site's with Hobbit stealth and such.

Had fun surprising friends with fiend and loads of goblins