Mad Ideas Thread

[Legion]

Hi all,

I haven't seen any thread like this before, so I decided to set one up.  The idea is for people to suggest any crazy combos they want to see, but cannot quite figure out a way to really get it to work, and others to say if they've made a deck that has had better luck.

So for example, has anyone ever made a deck that uses Gladden Homestead to strategically choose what card goes on top of your opponent's deck in the maneuver phase, and then used Catapult knowing the twilight cost of the card you're going to reveal?  Arwen's Dagger may help here.  This is obviously silly (what if your opponent doesn't play any conditions?), but you get the idea.

Rules for this thread-don't shout any idea down as being stupid.  You get nothing creative without a few test failures

Anyway, enjoy!!

[Not a Zombie]

I love the topic!

Here is my crazy idea:

Some kind of slow, build up fellowship that gets really strong but only single moves... till site 5. Move from 5 to 6, regroup phase at 6 play News from the Mark. Peek at their hand with Glamdring. Don't like what you see? Change of Plans. Peek again. If the hand looks ok, then use Out of the High Airs to get rid of their minions and move to site 9 for free. Not remotely practical, but I'd love to see a 5-9 move someday

[dmaz]

I love the topic!

Here is my crazy idea:

Some kind of slow, build up fellowship that gets really strong but only single moves... till site 5. Move from 5 to 6, regroup phase at 6 play News from the Mark. Peek at their hand with Glamdring. Don't like what you see? Change of Plans. Peek again. If the hand looks ok, then use Out of the High Airs to get rid of their minions and move to site 9 for free. Not remotely practical, but I'd love to see a 5-9 move someday

That's a really cool idea...never thought of using cards that mess with your opponents hand in conjunction with increasing the move limit.

News from the Mark would just have to be played in the fellowship phase of that turn.
Also, instead of Change of Plans, you could also use Shield of the White Tree. I guess the only risk there would be possession discarding.

The more I think about it, the more I think this could work, and, quite possibly, be very good!

Basically, since you've been single moving and building up your force, you should be able to have Grimbeorn with an axe. If they decide to play any minions after your second move, you could have Grimbeorn win a skirmish to pull Out of High Airs again haha.

If your opponent doesn't have any shadow cycling such as Fell Beast or the discarding Gollum, there hand should be clogged with Fellowship cards after the second or third move anyway

Would be fun to see!

--------------

I posted this on one of your other threads, and it was a little off-topic. But it's perfectly ON-topic here, so I'll paste it in

Here's how you can have the Watcher AND Gollum out at the same time.

Either Watcher (lets say Keeper of Westgate) is skirmishing Frodo bearing Phial of Galadriel, Star-glass. He uses it and removes the Watcher's game text, to remove his boost for the tentacles. Merry, Swordthain is discarded to play a Rohirrim Bow on Eomer that they had used to take down a tentacle in archery phase. Little does FP know that you have A Dark Shape Sprang and out comes Gollum to bite Eomer in the thigh!

[dmaz]

I used to have a deck where I would trick out Aragorn, Well-traveled Guide. I'll have to post it once I rebuild it...it was a lot of fun, though not always competitive. Once someone dropped Grima on me when Aragorn had 14 cards on him lol.

[dmaz]

Here's something I'd like to do, also using News from the Mark. Very NPE though.
Play 2 of them. I kind of wish that it MADE your opponent draw 6 cards, but this will have to do. In expanded peoples' decks run a little larger, so they won't mind discarding around 5 at next regroup to save the good stuff....at least they think they will!
After playing your News from the Marks, drop Mellon! Unless they have a Saruman's Power they might be in trouble hehe.

[idleninja]

Love this thread! Here is an awesome thread on CC that talks about crazy card ideas: http://lotrtcgwiki.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=4182&sid=2254aeacb1e6c3f76e42a8b4b4bb8efb, if you don't want to read (it's a good read!) he basically says the idea is to find an unusual AND useful card combo.

Has anyone ever made a deck that uses Gladden Homestead to strategically choose what card goes on top of your opponent's deck in the maneuver phase, and then used Catapult knowing the twilight cost of the card you're going to reveal?  Arwen's Dagger may help here.  This is obviously silly (what if your opponent doesn't play any conditions?), but you get the idea.

Not silly at all, are there any other cards that let you control the top of your opponent's deck? I can't think of any off the top of my head... Either way it would be a cool cycling method with Arwen's Dagger.

Some kind of slow, build up fellowship that gets really strong but only single moves... till site 5. Move from 5 to 6, regroup phase at 6 play News from the Mark. Peek at their hand with Glamdring. Don't like what you see? Change of Plans. Peek again. If the hand looks ok, then use Out of the High Airs to get rid of their minions and move to site 9 for free. Not remotely practical, but I'd love to see a 5-9 move someday

I like this idea! What if you combined it with These Are My People and Beneath the Mountains? Hold News, Change of Plans, TAMP, and Out of the High Airs, deck out, drop NFtM and TAMP, use javelins and hand axes to take out minions with archery, use Glamdring with Change of Plans and Out of the High Airs, bam!

Alternatively you could use NFtM with discard, or to bluff discard! Your opponent either draws a million cards they have to reconcile away, or they let you run to site 9 in one turn. Combined with The Irresistible Shadow in your support area I would be very hesitant to draw the extra cards.

I used to have a deck where I would trick out Aragorn, Well-traveled Guide. I'll have to post it once I rebuild it...it was a lot of fun, though not always competitive. Once someone dropped Grima on me when Aragorn had 14 cards on him lol.

WtG with WoBaS + Shadowplay + Unheeded + Birthday Present? Exert minions with Pippin then put him back in your hand so WtG can destroy whatever is left? This would also take care of Grima!

Here's how you can have the Watcher AND Gollum out at the same time.

Either Watcher (lets say Keeper of Westgate) is skirmishing Frodo bearing Phial of Galadriel, Star-glass. He uses it and removes the Watcher's game text, to remove his boost for the tentacles. Merry, Swordthain is discarded to play a Rohirrim Bow on Eomer that they had used to take down a tentacle in archery phase. Little does FP know that you have A Dark Shape Sprang and out comes Gollum to bite Eomer in the thigh!

Hah! I know you can use Watcher to keep removing + replaying Gollum with Northern Ithilien in King/Movie to add a ton of burdens in one turn!

Here's something I'd like to do, also using News from the Mark. Very NPE though.
Play 2 of them. I kind of wish that it MADE your opponent draw 6 cards, but this will have to do. In expanded peoples' decks run a little larger, so they won't mind discarding around 5 at next regroup to save the good stuff....at least they think they will!
After playing your News from the Marks, drop Mellon! Unless they have a Saruman's Power they might be in trouble hehe.

Initiative manipulation and tampering with opponent's hand at the same time, Mellon by itself is nasty!

I have some mad ideas (one I've posted before):

1: Shadow phase corruption. It uses Mordor Fighter with Gorgoroth Stormer + Gothmog's Warg + The Ring is Mine, and Attea WoW + Toldea WoW? Theoretically your opponent can't stop you from adding burdens unless they use Melilot Brandybuck or Shadowplay... It hasn't worked the few times I tried it on GEMP.

2: Make a shadow deck with NO minions in it. It's easy to bluff an opponent when they see certain cards on the table, what about a deck that only has those red flag cards in it? A lot of cycling so you can help your FP out.

3: On Your Doorstep. I feel like this card has huge potential. Maybe not. It's recyclable with PPP and puts a card from discard on top of your draw deck, the inverse of Dear Friends.

[sgtdraino]

So for example, has anyone ever made a deck that uses Gladden Homestead to strategically choose what card goes on top of your opponent's deck in the maneuver phase, and then used Catapult knowing the twilight cost of the card you're going to reveal?

A few people have tried doing Catapult-centered decks, me included. Mostly talked about in this thread:

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8696.msg85378.html#msg85378

I think the general conclusion was that Gladden Homestead is pretty much the only way to put a specific card on their draw deck, and unfortunately most conditions are very low twilight.

I like this idea! What if you combined it with These Are My People and Beneath the Mountains? Hold News, Change of Plans, TAMP, and Out of the High Airs, deck out, drop NFtM and TAMP, use javelins and hand axes to take out minions with archery, use Glamdring with Change of Plans and Out of the High Airs, bam!

I'd submit the Movie Block deck I made:

These Are My Dear Friends' Birthday Presents

...which took FULL advantage of These Are My People, by decking yourself out early in the game, only to play every possession you've got from your discard pile! Kind of amusing. Might be interesting to see a version for Open Format. It's not legal for Expanded.

[simplegarak]

I'd like to try a deck focused on Frodo, Resolute Hobbit, and EVERYTHING else I could find to pump resistance (followers alone would give +13) just to see how high I could get it.

RB-Sam would also be hilarious in a Hobbit Hospital deck.

[Legion]

Nice to see some interest!  SgtDraino is definitely the first person I've seen to use These are My People so kudos to you there.  Kralik certainly deserves a mention for inspiring the mechanics.

I want to make The Shire Countryside work in Fellowship block.  It really is THE card that screams that it wants to be abused, but I just can't quite get it.  SotBR is out as every culture has a way to hit Elven conditions (Power, Shadow's Reach, The Pale Blade and Goblin Scrabbler) and it takes sooo much setting up.  Gandalf's Pipe is overkill as Pipes have enough healing with Aragorn's Pipe and there aren't many other ways to remove burdens.  At least I've worked out Hobbit Farmer and The Prancing Pony can add as many burdens as you like.  Any suggestions?

[dmaz]

Nice to see some interest!  SgtDraino is definitely the first person I've seen to use These are My People so kudos to you there.  Kralik certainly deserves a mention for inspiring the mechanics.

I want to make The Shire Countryside work in Fellowship block.  It really is THE card that screams that it wants to be abused, but I just can't quite get it.  SotBR is out as every culture has a way to hit Elven conditions (Power, Shadow's Reach, The Pale Blade and Goblin Scrabbler) and it takes sooo much setting up.  Gandalf's Pipe is overkill as Pipes have enough healing with Aragorn's Pipe and there aren't many other ways to remove burdens.  At least I've worked out Hobbit Farmer and The Prancing Pony can add as many burdens as you like.  Any suggestions?

I love thinking through these kinds of things

Ok let's look at all the cards that remove burdens, excluding Hobbit game text and SotBR (SotBR was the one that I'm most familiar with seeing, but as you pointed out, EVERY deck has a way of crippling it).

Elf-Song
Extraordinary Resilience
Sorry About Everything

I feel like I might be missing something...but it looks like other than Hobbit game text and SotBR they are all event-based removal.

Sorry About Everything was the first one that came to mind for me, but you're not really capitalizing on the healing when you only have 4 cards that can make use of Countryside. Sure you can play Bilbo, but his ability is marginal at best, since this isn't a filter deck like the Movie block's Dear Friends decks...
What I would consider is possibly using Frodo, Song of Drogo to have guaranteed use of Extraordinary Resilience (since you have to get the ringbearer to heal to trigger it). The best versions of your most important companions are Frodo signet anyway (FotSF, HttWC, Greenleaf, Friend to Sam).
What I would do would be start Greenleaf and Sam, Friend to Frodo. You get -1 Twilight right off the bat with Bill and you can use Sam as an exertion dummy to trigger Countryside until you decide to roll him under the bus to make room for new companions. By that time you should be able to be set up with a Hobbit Farmer to keep the burdens adding.
I'd recommend a couple copies of Thror's Map to avoid the confluence.
It shouldn't be TOO hard to keep wounds on Frodo with Sting, additionally, many deck types you go up against will provide easy wounds on him (any archery [you could make those into burdens too], Moria with small minions for him to fight, practically and Sauron deck), which would allow you to make use of Extraordinary Resilience.

I still feel like there's some breakthrough I'm not seeing...I'll have to chew on this for a while.

[dmaz]

Just remembered: Narya

Not necessarily a breakthrough, but a pretty decent way to heal potentially four companions for a relatively low cost at the beginning of every turn. The nice thing about it is its permanency. You don't need another event to combine with it. Just use the Pony through Farmer to add an extra burden to prepare for the next turn. The only thing that would mess you up is that Sauron discarding event that removes a burden.

[simplegarak]

If you need to add burdens, just use PAtHS (http://lotrtcgwiki.com/wiki/lotr01308).

[dmaz]

If you need to add burdens, just use PAtHS (http://lotrtcgwiki.com/wiki/lotr01308).

I definitely agree that this would be the most beneficial way to add the burdens, this deck should probably pack four. I was just thinking of permanent ways to have burdens on Frodo each turn.

[Legion]

Yes, and for that there's only the Hobbit Farmer.  Good call with Narya.  I think that might be enough to get it to work.

[sgtdraino]

I definitely agree that this would be the most beneficial way to add the burdens, this deck should probably pack four. I was just thinking of permanent ways to have burdens on Frodo each turn.

The simplest option is to use a One Ring that has a burden-adding cost.

I'm experimenting with a series one Movie deck that tanks up Thrarin, Dwarven Smith to ridiculous degrees. Since he's not a companion, you can pile as much stuff on him as you want, and he can't be targeted by Grima. I start Gimli, Feared Axeman to protect conditions, put some Endurance of Dwarves on Thrarin, and move wounds around with Shoulder to Shoulder and Elrond and Galadriel allies. Realm of the Dwarrowdelf to pump him up a bit. It's a work in progress, but kinda neat so far.