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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:38 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
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Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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--- description ---
Have you ever felt the sudden urge to unleash a broken combo? An LOTR Open Tournament just might be the way to settle this urge! (Open Free Peoples Strategies; Part 1 of 2)
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"Everything is broken,/Everything is broken,/Everything is breaking down, breaking down..." (Switchfoot, Politicians)
Okay, I admit that it’s a bit cheesy to start with a Switchfoot song lyric pulled waaay out of context, but it’s the best hook I could think of at the time. I mean, you’re still reading, aren’t you? And I’m sure you’re wondering just why I’m writing yet another article. Well, this time it’s about Open Tournaments. You gotta love ’em, because they’re the one form of LOTR where everybody gets to pull off impossibly powerful combinations on both Free Peoples and Shadow. For that same reason, you gotta hate ’em, so it’s basically a love-hate thing...you get it? Okay, so maybe you don’t. Time for the article.
When you come to an Open Tournament, there’s one rule that you must keep in mind: "Abuse it or lose it." You must pack at least one broken combo into your deck, or you’re basically toast. Everyone else is going to be doing the same thing to you as well, so you’ll need to be able to have a means for stopping those broken combos. After we go over the broken combos you can use, we’ll look at cards you can use to protect yourself from broken Open. So, let’s dive right into the Free Peoples, shall we?
Something Smells Fruity...
One of the most revered and insane combos in Open is the famed "Fruit Loops" combo. Simply put, it uses an incredibly lengthy series of regroup actions and abilities to discard your opponent’s entire draw deck and minions, heal every companion, remove every burden, and make the move limit infinite. In other words, you win. This combo originated when Mount Doom came around, and still is the only sure-fire guarantee of a win. I’m not going to go into depth here, for two reasons:
1. It’s far too lengthy and complicated to put in a single strategy article.
2. It requires a precise setup, and so isn’t very reliable. You have to have the right cards, or it won’t work.
However, it’s quite an impressive combo, if you can pull it off. But it’s not my preferred Free Peoples combo...
Again, Again!
There’s a wonderful thing about loops-they just keep going! And Infinite Gandalf is no exception. This combo is very simple to pull off, and requires nine cards: The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles, any Gandalf, two hobbits, Erland, Dale Counselor, Smeagol, Poor Creature, Servant of the Secret Fire, The Shire Countryside, and A Light In His Mind. Here’s how it works...
1. Have Servant of the Secret Fire in hand, all listed companions out, and A light in his mind and 2x The Shire Countryside in play.
2. Skirmish phase: use Smeagol, Poor Creature to get down to 4 cards in hand, including servant of the secret fire.
3. Play servant of the secret fire on a minion-you lose initiative, and so trigger a light in his mind. That triggers 2x the Shire Countryside, so you heal two companions.
4. Exert Erland, Dale Counselor to grab Servant of the Secret Fire from your discard pile. You now have 4 cards in hand again.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all companions are healed, all burdens have been removed, and all minions are at 0 strength. If needed, use The One Ring to add burdens to be removed by A light in his mind.
Why do I love this combo over Fruit Loops? It’s one of the easiest of them all to set up. You can make a starting fellowship with Gandalf, Bearer of Obligation, Merry, Pippin, Erland, Dale Counselor, and Smeagol, Poor Creature right off the bat. Even better, Something Slimy allows you to pull those key conditions from your deck early on, especially if you start Dammed Gate-Stream (and recycle it with Traveled Leader). Make sure to include Traveled Leader to stop Cavern Entrance, and have plenty of  cards to discard with Gandalf, Bearer of Obligation. Don’t forget Radagast, The Brown...just in case you fall behind on the site path. This can be the best combo in the game, if played right. But it’s not the only way to go, either...
We Love Loops!
There’s yet another loop in the world of Open...and this is the one that actually provided the initial impetus for Fruit Loops: Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood + Steadfast Champion. Take a good look at that combination: all you have to do is discard Steadfast Champion from your hand before the regroup phase (easy to do with cards such as Smeagol, Poor Creature) and voila! There’s some easy healing to be had there. If Treebeard has Ent Draught on him, you simply have to use Steadfast Champion to heal him fully, then use it to heal all the rest of the companions, making sure you leave Treebeard with at least 3 vitality before each discarding of Steadfast Champion.
Think of this combo in Ent Decks: after they soak up all those wounds, they can heal them all away, ready to double-move past that now-useless sanctuary! Not only that, but this combo can infinitely loop to discard your opponent’s entire support area! No Howdah, no Rapid Reload, no Demoralized, no The Palantir of Orthanc! If you’re looking for a way to make those ents unstoppable...I think you’ve got your solution right here. The one downside to this combo: twilight flooding. Two excellent ways to counter this, especially since we have automatic healing, are Glamdring and Let Folly Be Our Cloak. But if you really care about twilight...
Choke, Choke, Choke the Shadow, Gently Down the Site Path...
Many of the cards on the X-list deal with choking: A Talent for Not Being Seen, Gimli, Dwarf of the Mountain Race, Legolas, Dauntless Hunter. "Talent" and "Dauntless Hunter" are an excellent combination for choke, and Gimli’s game text is incredible when coupled with Shadows sites. Also in this category is No Stranger to the Shadows, a great card for denying twilight. Out of all these choke cards, it’s possible to construct an insane choking strategy.
If you want to risk Rule of 5 haNOLINKte, try this approach to choking: any Frodo, Aragorn, Wingfoot, Legolas, Dauntless Hunter, any Pippin, any Merry, another unbound hobbit. Basically, this makes every site have a shadow number of  or  , causes Shadow conditions and events to be insanely costly, and Wingfoot finishes off minions for a double move. Add to this No Stranger to the Shadows, and you’re only giving out an average of  every turn! Just put in Natural Cover to counteract Anduin Banks, and put in some Hobbit allies to make Legolas and Aragorn even better! Don’t forget some copies of An Able Guide, as well as Lightfootedness (in case you don’t pull Natural Cover in time). Or, if you don’t care about double-moving, use Aragorn, Heir to the White City to basically neutralize the cost of those hobbits.
There’s also another great way to twilight choke: rangers. No Stranger to the Shadows times 4 = one gigantic pain for the Shadow. It makes each site a guaranteed site, giving out only or so twilight. Combine with that Ithilien Blade and What Are They?, and you’ve already got some nasty stuff there.
A Few More Cards...
Many of the Free Peoples X-listed cards were X-listed simply because they were too good. Take, for example, Galadriel, Lady Redeemed. In any decent Elven Telepathy deck (a deck which features lots of  events and sticks them back on top of your deck or in your hand), she’s the ultimate way to knock out conditions like Rapid Reload. Aggression is another example: it’s basically an automatic damage +4 bonus, which-comboed with Proud and Able and Honed-is a lethal force. Imagine: Durin III, Dwarven Lord at 26 strength! Flaming Brand 2x is an incredible strength boost for the Gondorians-against a Nazgul, the bearer is strength +6! And Get on and get away lends itself easily to some crazy site path manipulation.
Defend Yourself!
Of course, you also know that the Shadow player is going to be doing the same thing: using broken combos. So, let’s have a look at how to beat some of the most common...
Rapid Reload + Demoralized
There’s two good ways to go about beating this. The first way is Legolas, Dauntless Hunter + twilight choke. That way, the Shadow player will never be able to play both the condition and the minion required to spot it. Both of those combos can cost from  - twilight apiece! That doesn’t leave a lot of room for minions, does it?
The second way to beat this is by using Galadriel, Lady Redeemed with Elven Telepathy. The events in your hand are disposable, especially if the reward is the elimination of Rapid Reload! Then, you can take the archery and overwhelm the archers with the Elven twins Elladan and Elrohir.
The Palantir of Orthanc
Yeowch! This is quite possibly the most broken card out there, all by itself. If there’s  in the pool...you can kiss your hand goodbye. All the Shadow needs to do is spot an  minion. Obviously, Infinite Gandalf will run into problems here. Erland, Advisor to Brand can’t be played, because Erland, Dale Counselor is already out. So...the best you can do is to use Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver and Questions that Need Answering to keep enough cards in hand so that you can lose initiative. If needed, exert Erland to get events from your discard pile.
A much better course of action to take is to splash Gandalf into an Elven Event deck with Galadriel, Lady Redeemed. Then, you can add Erland, Dale Counselor and prevent this from happening! I will let you know that this is the number one danger you could possibly face.
A third way to beat this is by going to the Dwarves, and using Aggression or No Pauses, No Spills to extend your hand. That way, the Shadow can’t get rid of your whole hand...and Dwarves are naturally something of a choke culture, due to their possessions’ low twilight cost.
Mordor Fiend + The Underdeeps of Moria
This is quite a nasty combo, but it’s not hard to beat. Infinite Gandalf obviously doesn’t care how many minions are out there, since they’ll all get overwhelmed quite easily (as they’re at strength 0...) Dauntless Hunter choke works well here too, since it will be a while before the Shadow can play The Underdeeps of Moria. Finally, Galadriel, Lady Redeemed can knock out Underdeeps quite easily.
I hope you’ve enjoyed our little jaunt through the Free Peoples side of Open Tournaments. If you’re in the mood for some good ol’ broken-combo slinging, sign up...and if not-well, just stick to Expanded and Standard. There’s nothing wrong with them...and I actually like them a whole lot more. And stay tuned-the broken minions are coming up! |
| Last edited by CarpeGuitarrem on Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:31 pm; edited 2 times in total"ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
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| TheShyzle |
![]() Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:05 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2006
Posts: 289
Location: Grand Blanc, MI
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| Good article. I would like to see a couple more broken combos. Do you know of any others? I know there is some nasty Nazgul burden adding potential but that is not to say it is broken. I will vote later. Switchfoot rocks. |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:12 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
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Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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| Ah, yes... Dark Fell About Him + Gates of the Dead City. I don’t count that as a real broken combo, because it requires 5 comps and 3 of them exhausted. |
| "ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
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| elf lvr |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:28 pm |
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
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Location: Rivendell
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Good article. Nice explaination of open and some of its borken combos. Might have been more effective if you posted both the fellowship and shadow articles together, you know? Simply put, long articles impress me. But hey, just a personal preferance.
Very nice. Good formatting, very easy and enjoyable to read. |
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| bobtheorc |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:17 pm |
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Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 1218
Location: Wow, its hot in Iowa
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Nice article. It could maybe have used another match-up or two.
Your intro was very well written, although I didn’t like the switchfoot lyrics  .
Maybe just have a bit more about tournament play in general, this seems to be more an article about broken open combos than Tournaments. So maybe change the title since I was expecting something different than what you had. Still a great article just not well named IMHO.
Just my two cents. |
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| TheShyzle |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:19 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2006
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Location: Grand Blanc, MI
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One more thing on your endless Gandalf I think you need Smeagol Slinker to keep adding the burdens you need to trigger the remova a burden text to heal someone with The Shire Countryside, otherwise you can only add one with the ring and whatever you have to begin with when you start the combo. Then you will run out of burdens. Tell me if I’m wrong.  As far as getting down to 4 cards I don’t know how else to do that except just play down to there. |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:24 pm |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
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the best way to stop rapid reload demoralized GsT ot S,C
automatic condition removal.’
of course it would kill your deck if you were using conditions.
also where are is the lurker orc swarm?
that can play your entire deck of minions in one turn,
also include the link to the topic where fruit loops is discussed.
Good article though! |
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| TheShyzle |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:29 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2006
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Location: Grand Blanc, MI
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| Yes I would definatly mention the general broken-osity of Lurker Orc Demorilized madness. |
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| bobtheorc |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:47 pm |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:34 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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TheShyzle wrote: One more thing on your endless Gandalf I think you need Smeagol Slinker to keep adding the burdens you need to trigger the remova a burden text to heal someone with The Shire Countryside, otherwise you can only add one with the ring and whatever you have to begin with when you start the combo. Then you will run out of burdens. Tell me if I’m wrong. As far as getting down to 4 cards I don’t know how else to do that except just play down to there.
The One Ring, Answer to All riddles takes care of that. You can take the action as many times as you want, since you can always pay the cost.
And regarding Lurker Swarm...two things.
1. I don’t consider it a broken combo, but a very powerful decktype.
2. This article, as noted in the description, is Free Peoples Open. Shadow will come in Part 2.
But I will keep it in mind while writing Part 2! |
| "ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
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