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| LunaticFringe |
![]() Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:40 am |
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Joined: 03 Sep 2005
Posts: 60
Location:
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*please see edit below*
...or, "How I Learned to Stop Hating and Now Love to Bomb (Out of Tournaments)". I’ll apologize for the legnth now instead of later, as my short term memory...
Oh, wait, what was I going to say?
Boromir, Bearer of Counsel
The One Ring, Ring of Rings
Fellowship: (36)
Companions-
Faramir, Captain of Gondor (s)
Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith (s)
Aragorn, Isildur’s Heir x2
Elendil, High-King of Gondor
Gandalf, The White Rider x4
Possessions / Artifacts-
Anduril, Flame of the West
Narsil, Blade of the Faithful
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer
Ring of Barahir
Faramir’s Sword
Faramir’s Bow
Sapling of the White Tree x2
Scroll of Isildur
Conditions-
Garrison of Osgiliath x2 (Thanks for catching that hblika!)
Heirs of Gondor
Houses of Healing
Ithilien Trap
Noble Leaders x2
Steward’s Legacy x2
Storied Homestead
Sent Back
Watch and Wait
Events-
Defend It and Hope x2
Grown Suddenly Tall
New-Awakened x2
Traveled Leader
Shadow: (36)
Minions-
Invincible Uruk x4
Swarming Uruk x4
Watchman Uruk x4
Crushing Uruk x3
Breeding Pit Conscript x3
Lookout Uruk x2
Force of Uruk-Hai
Uruk Decimator
Possessions-
Broad-Bladed Sword x2
Weapon of Opportunity
Conditions-
Suffered Much Loss x4
Events-
Strange Device x4
Devastation x2
Brutality
Comments:
I’ve only been working on this the last few days, but here goes. I’m like most everyone else, and normally try to focus on one angle and pound it into the ground to build a deck. There has been a real separation between "Token Gondor" and "Legacy Gondor" since the introduction of Bloodlines showing up in places like the deck bible on the fanhq forums; naturally, people are trying to keep things simple and reliable, but like peanut butter and jelly, trying to blur the two can taste great while sticking to the roof of your mouth.
It would appear to me that Steward’s Legacy, and not Jarnsmid and Erland, is the reason behind the White Rider version of Gandalf. Unless you’re playing wounding, Gondor dies in short order without the Istari showing up to rid the table of nasty conditions. While the LOTC Gandalf helps give many fellowships time early to get set up, having another built-in exertion engine for Steward’s seems to offset the bonuses in playtesting.
Sent Back shows up to pull double duty; it was popular for about all of five minutes and then went away. Everyone knows to pull the old man back in the Regroup phase (personally, I hate running 4 of a card only to have it invalidated because of a lucky opposing draw), but here it also makes a fine target for New-Awakened if your opponent isn’t cooperating, and it beats the snot out of popping token conditions. Grown Suddenly Tall, while kind of the odd man on campus with all those token bearing cards, is a desparation reset button that can do just enough to break new Orcs (Goblin Hordes can rot in Hell) and Forest Nazgul (LITW can join GH in the 5th circle). Up against either of those, situations can quickly arise where I’ll take my chances with just the second copy token condition(s) I have drawn into rather than put up with repeated beatings as such.
The shadow is pretty basic. Battleground Uruks, with the ability to swarm out with a bad hand with those Strange Devices they like to run around with and the drawing Uruk minions. Seems to kill Elf fellowships like it’s going out of style, and can generally stall everybody else from site 4 on. Pitching Elendil to hold the Invincibles you just drew into makes the world go round. I’d swap a Crushing Uruk for another Lookout Uruk if I owned another of the latter, but them’s the breaks.
I realize the shadow side is a lot tighter build wise than the fellowship, but the drawing factored in by the minions seems to set things up nicely. King’s Legacy doesn’t seem to fit since a), I don’t run Isildur, and b), a lot of the time I wind up holding onto Elendil (or pitching him to draw on the shadow) because of the 6 companion bullseye, and unless I draw into Storied Homestead right off, his text doesn’t seem to get used except to set up the late game kamikaze run with Aragorn.
Anyways, any comments short of "this deck sucks" are appreciated, because I already kind of figured that one out. 
(EDIT: OMFG, I never realized until today that I had it listed as "Aragorn, Heir of Elendil" instead of "Isildur’s Heir". Hope that makes a lot more sense to folks...) |
| Last edited by LunaticFringe on Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:06 am; edited 2 times in total |
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| hblika |
![]() Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 6:21 am |
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Joined: 20 Jul 2005
Posts: 287
Location: Norway
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I assume you mean Garrison of Osgiliath instead of Garrison of Gondor, as one of the conditions you list. 
Other than that, this was a good read. Very well written!
I like the idea of using the White Rider with Steward's Legacy. Very interesting tactics. What strikes me though, is that there doesn't seem to be enough healing for all the exertions you will be doing. Houses of Healing, apart from being expensive, might not show up until late game, and you could certainly need it long before that.
I also think Pallando would be a great fit in this deck. He gives you an (almost) unlimited way of removing conditions, and still saving your own much needed conditions.
Another tip would be to run a few copies of Guarded City, in order to reinforce a few tokens. Having all those token conditions, and not being able to use them because of Aragorn's text, seems like a bit of a waste.
But as I said earlier, I really like the idea behind your fellowship. It just needs some playtesting and fine-tuning, to get the most out of it. I will definately try a similar build myself, since I've finally received my Bloodlines displays  |
| I'm not stupid. I'm just unlucky when I'm thinking. |
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| LunaticFringe |
![]() Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:37 pm |
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Joined: 03 Sep 2005
Posts: 60
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Thank you very much for the kind words, the ideas, and catching the goof with Garrison of Osgiliath. It's been edited accordingly.
I've been going through the rounds playtesting this against all sorts of opposition, and it seems reasonably strong. I've found that the White Rider with Glamdring on him makes those Evil Men swarms look like the boy's choir of your choice. They just die- assign the minions to the fellowship, and make with the tradeoff exertions to place them each against Gandalf in turn. They want to play the "not assigned" game, return the favor.  +3 'Til regroup works all sorts of magic, and none of the opposing minions survive to do their exertion tricks, lurkers included.
All that exertion though does bring to mind your healing warning. My pulls with Denethor are always ordered Houses, Aragorn, Ring of Barahir. Only if they came to hand do I start grabbing Anduril or another token condition.
Pallandro is hot alright. I unfortunately didn't pull one so far, but I'm going to work on that.
As of right now, I'm looking to get in another copy of Glamdring, a Gandalf's Staff (Walking Stick version- kill dead what you exert to combat, and get another exertion), and the Reflection's Narya ("thank you for the exertion sir, may I have another?"; not to mention that Stragglers sucks major...). Narsil is really looking to be an odd card out right now, since this Elendil doesn't set up the triple, and between Aragorn and Gandalf, the big minions get dealt with pretty well.
Anyways, let me know what you come up with using this fellowship. |
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| hblika |
![]() Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:45 am |
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Joined: 20 Jul 2005
Posts: 287
Location: Norway
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| I would consider using the Reflections Elendil instead of the Bloodlines one, just to get that triple move capability. Since you intend to use Faramir's sword/bow combo, you will need some site manipulation other than a singel Traveled Leader, or be prepared to keep your opponent ahead on the adventure path for the most part. If that's the case tripling with Elendil could be crucial. |
| I'm not stupid. I'm just unlucky when I'm thinking. |
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| unlimited_08 |
![]() Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:53 pm |
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Joined: 16 Dec 2005
Posts: 47
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| It's an alright deck. I like the fortification stuff but why gandalf? sure he can be used to discard conditions but i would take him out and put some events in it or do the guys here not do that i havnt seen a deck with events in it yet. The new school uruks are cool too but think da old school are better. but thats just me. Keep it reel unlimited_08 |
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