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Total Votes : 16
NBarden
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:59 am
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
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Solo Smeagol has ruled the world of the Solo since reflections was released. His time of rule ends now, with these solo decks, Smeagol will fall...
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Smeagol, Bearer of Great Secrets has ruled the world of the solo deck, and rightly so, as his text doesn’t sit particularly well with unbound fellowships. However, the concept of building other solo decks is not that far-fetched.

Gimli, Bearer of Grudges. Gimli is very well suited for a solo deck, as he is tough, at a base strength 6, and its easy to increase his resistance.

Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom. Galadriel is a difficult ring-bearer to use, as she relies solely on other Elven companions. The elves lack of high-strength adding possessions also makes Galadriel tough to solo. However, with the proper support system, Galadriel could be a force to be reckoned with.

Smeagol, Bearer of Great Secrets. The king of the solo deck, the Smeagol culture’s tricky and diverse cards make him ideal for a crazy solo deck in which your opponent will be left guessing what’s next.

Boromir, Bearer of Council. With a modest text, Boromir is a decent ring-bearer. Unlike Gimli and Isildur, his alternate text to adding burdens only deals with him. And if you want to put on the One Ring, he only takes two burdens instead of three, but wearing the One Ring has its own set of consequences.

Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms. Being designed specifically for Gondor knights, Isildur could be difficult to build a deck around. His text relies on having other companions in play, leaving you to add two burdens each time he fights. However, a widely splashable card takes advantage of Gondor’s healing mechanisms to remove burdens...

Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled. Bilbo has a wide array of cards requiring him to be spotted. His twilight adding ability seems to defeat the purpose of the choke, but in actuality, it simply shifts it to a different phase.

Gandalf, Bearer of Obligation. The Gandalf culture gives good burden removal and resistance increasing. Most of these abilities, however, during the skirmish phase, so fellowship healing will be crucial to the deck’s survival.

Sam, Bearer of Great Need. Having no requirements to fight or move, and being resistance +1 for each hobbit you spot, Sam is a good ring-bearer to solo. With a Bilbo ally, Sam specific and Bilbo specific cards may be used in the deck, making him ideal for a hobbit solo.

Faramir, Bearer of Quality. From the new Rise of Saruman set, Faramir is a good build for a ring-bearer. Although being forced to add two burdens at the start of his skirmish, his ability to make minions roaming is nothing to sneeze at. Minion discarding and wounding allow him to get through without adding too many burdens, and with a high vitality and good healing mechanism, he can single-handedly wield the Ithilien Blade.

The Pippin Engine

Any article discussing solo strategies must mention the Pippin Engine. The Pippin engine revolves around Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence, with his ability to remove burdens and wounds off of companions. However, in order to fully utilize his text, you need some way to play him again and again. Make Haste returns him to your hand, to play him again. However, you need some way of grabbing Make Haste from your discard pile, so you can use this engine multiple times. Daddy Twofoot, Next-Door Neighbor allows you to pull it from your discard pile, to return Pippin to your hand, to play him again. Make sure that you play Daddy Twofoot to your ring-bearer, otherwise he gets discarded when Pippin does.

However, using Daddy Twofoot seems counterproductive. After all, isn’t Pippin’s whole point to peel off burdens? Well…with four copies of Home and Hearth, he peels off four burdens each time he’s played. And when you play Make Haste, you knock out a minion or choke the twilight pool.

So, the complete card list for the Pippin engine is as follows:

Pippin, Hobbit of some Intelligence
Make Haste x 4
Daddy Twofoot, next-door neighbor x 3
Home and Hearth x 4

This engine is a great addition to any solo deck, however, since these decks are true solos, I will not being using it in this article.

Solo Decks

Okay, now the part you’ve been waiting for, the analysis and decklists of the various solo decks.

Solo Gimli

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

The Rest of the Deck:
Artifact:
Ring of Fury x 2

Possessions:
Gimli’s Battle Axe x 2
Hand Axe x 4
Arod, Rohirrim Steed
Gimli’s Helm
Gimli’s Pipe
Dwarven Bracers x 2
Dwarven Armor

Conditions:
Lord of Moria x 4
Proud and Able x 4

Events:
Flurry of Blows x 4
Honed x 4
Blood Runs Chill x 4

Gimli’s text increases his resistance the higher his damage bonus is. So the whole point to a Gimli deck is to make his damage so high, that he can just add burdens all day without being corrupted.

Fist of all, the ring. The ring for Gimli has to be The One Ring, The Ring of Rings. The resistance +2 bonus is a must for this deck.

Now, to make his resistance go through the roof. He starts out resistance 6 plus damage +1, for a total of resistance +1. Arod, Rohirrim Steed makes him resistance +1, and the Ring of Fury makes him damage +3, Gimli’s Battle Axe, damage +4, Lord of Moria, damage +8. With the text of Proud and Able, you spot all of his possessions to make him a total of damage +15, or resistance 22. If he fights a skirmish every single site, he will have four resistance left at the end of the game.

With several copies of Honed in the deck, Gimli can kill both a swarm and fierce minions. And Blood Runs Chill, since your choking the deck, ensures that condition heavy shadows, or any support area shadows, are obliterated.

If you don’t want to solo: Dwarves are geared towards choke. Durin III and either Dain Ironfoot, King Under The Mountain or one of the Dwarven Lords. Brand, King of Dale would be good for a strength bonus and good archery


Solo Galadriel

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:

Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

The Rest of the Deck:
Allies:
Celeborn, Lord of Lorien x 3
Elrond, Herald to Gil-Galad x 2
Rumil, Elven Protector
Orophin, Lorien Bowman

Conditions:
The Splendor of their Banners x 2
Elven Marksmanship x 2
Take up the Bow x 4
Shadow Between x 2

Possessions:
Elven Bow x 3
Sword of the Fallen x 2
Phial of Galadriel

Events:
Master of Healing x 2
Friends of Old x 2
Support of the Last Homely House x 3
Swan-Ship of the Galadhrim x 3
Feathered x 2

Solo-Galadriel is a weak and low resistance ring-bearer. However, with the proper cards, and an extensive ally support system, she can build a competitive archery deck.

The point of the deck is to abuse your allies by exerting them to play toil conditions free, exerting Rumil and Orophin to drop Orcs and Uruk-Hai or use them as elf archers to meet the criteria of Take up the Bow. And if you give Celeborn and Elrond each an elven bow, you can use them instead of Galadriel.

Oh, and then with Feathered, any minion that gets through the archery and thrown on Galadriel will have a tough time overwhelming her with a sword of the fallen.

Don’t use your Support of the Last Homely House or Swan Ship of the Galadhrim until you need them. Then when there are some tough minions, Elrond and Celeborn can fight, or Rumil or Orophin can throw out an extra archery wound.

As a general rule, keep Rumil and Orophin in good health, their texts can help a lot. And abuse the splendor of their banners. This can pump out up to three extra archery wounds, and then with your healing cards gets Galadriel into tip-top shape.

If you don’t want to solo: Elrond, witness to history would be a good addition to the deck, as he can pull your archery cards from the discard pile and slightly negate Anduin Confluence by bringing your allies back.


Solo Smeagol

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:

Smeagol, Bearer of Great Secrets
The One Ring, The Ring of Doom

The Rest of the Deck:

Possession:
Fishing Boat

Conditions:
Gladden Homestead x 1
Come Away x 2
Nice Fish x 4
There’s Another Way x 4
Poor Wretch x 2
Safe Passage

Events:
Clever Hobbits
Naked Waste x 4
Nasty x 4
Out of All Knowledge x 3
Release Them x 3
Still Far Ahead x 4


The king of the solo, Smeagol himself, has dominated the solo world. His tricky plays and incredible site playing and choking mechanism allow for complete control of the site path and denies your opponents the resources necessary to play anything.

Come away and Still Far Ahead control the site path and choke the twilight pool at the same time. Synergy in the site path allows you to play Safe Passage, essentially eliminating the twilight pool generated in the skirmish phase. In the meantime, Poor Wretch pumps up Smeagol, Fishing Boat keeps him from dying, Release them gets discarded as soon as you reconcile to give Smeagol a resistance bonus, and then the events ensure Smeagol wins his skirmishes, or at least doesn’t die. For a grand finale, burn all your conditions with Clever Hobbits to obliterate any and all minions skirmishing Smeagol.

If you don’t want to solo:The Pippin Engine is impossible with Smeagol’s text, as it would speedily kill off Pippin as soon as the fellowship moves. However, if you were to run the Pippin engine with a ring-bound hobbit, it would be almost as effective. And starting Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence would allow you to bet that one extra burden, and then kill Pippin with Smeagol. Faramir, Son of Denethor would be good with stopping some minions’ special abilities.


Solo Boromir

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:

Boromir, Bearer of Council
The One Ring, The Ring of Doom

The Rest of the Deck:

Artifacts:
Scroll of Isildur x 2

Possessions:
Coat of Mail
Athelas x 4
Shield of Boromir
Blade of Gondor, Sword of Boromir
Flaming Brand
Bow of Minas Tirith
Brego, Loyal Steed x 2
Ranger’s Cloak
Kingfoil x 4

Conditions:
Houses of Healing x 2
Heirs of Gondor x 2
The Saga of Elendil
Gondor Bowmen x 4
Invigorated x 4

Events:
Guarded City x 4

An interesting Ring-Bearer to use, Boromir has a distinct advantage over his fellow Gondor ring-bearers with a text that affects only him. Of course, using Boromir’s alternative to adding burdens requires a pretty good healing mechanism.

This deck is somewhat complex as it runs two strategies at once. First is archery, and with Bow of Minas Tirith and Gondor Bowmen, its pretty easy to get the archery pretty high if necessary. If anything gets through archery, it gets finished off with the second strategy.

The second strategy is tokens. Guarded City is perfect with all the possessions we’re throwing on Boromir. And then with Brego, Loyal Steed to use them to wound minions, it wound tons of minions to be finished off with archery.

Boromir mantains a high resistance, as his 7 vitality and the healing mechanism allows you to use his alternate text to fight repeatedly. Scroll of Isildur increases his resistance, as does Ranger’s Cloak. At this, he’s resistance 8, which is pretty good, but if you feel you need higher defense against corruption, the One Ring, The Ring of Rings is a good alternative.

If you don’t want to solo: A good Choking mechanism would be Aragorn, Heir to the White City with No Stranger to Shadows. Of course this would only be legal in open format, but could be effective. Another option is Aragorn, Driven By Need with Aragorn’s Bow, Ranger’s Longbow, as well as Aragorn, Heir of Elendil with Anduril, King’s Blade.


Solo Isildur

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:

Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

The Rest of the Deck:

Artifacts:
Narsil, Blade of the Faithful
Scroll of Isildur

Possessions:
Ranger’s Cloak
Flaming Brand
Coat of Mail
Bow of Minas Tirith

Conditions:

Gondor Bowmen x 4
The Saga of Elendil
Citadel of Minas Tirith x 2
Houses of Healing x 2
Invigorated x 3

Events:

Defend it and hope x 4
No Travellers in this land x 4
Extraordinary Resilience x 4

Well…Isilidur’s alternate text will never be used, so we need some way to get rid minions before they get to a skirmish. This deck revolves around dropping minions before they even get to a skirmish. After playing maneuver events, most minions won’t make it through the maneuver or archery phases, but if they do, Isildur can hold his own with Narsil, Flaming Brand and a Coat of Mail.

Gondor is lacking in burden removal, but very good at healing. We can take advantage of this healing by splashing in a Shire card, extraordinary resilience. By healing, extraordinary resilience removes burdens, instead of wounds.

If you don’t want to solo: Go with Aragorn, Captain of Gondor. He would be good with Anduril, King’s Blade as he would be defender +1, and strength +1 with Isildur’s text. You can also play 4x Sapling of the White Tree to make Isildur explode with Narsil and Scroll of Isildur.

Solo Bilbo

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:

Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled
The One Ring, Such a weight to carry

The Rest of the Deck:
Artifacts:
Phial of Galadriel, The Light of Earendil

Possessions:
Bill the Pony
Red Book of Westmarch
Sam’s Pack
Salt from the Shire
Sting, Weapon of Heritage
Orc Armor

Conditions:
Stone Trolls
Consorting with Wizards x 3
Good Work x 2
The Tale of the Great Ring
Habits of Home
Sudden Fury x 4
Little Golden Flower
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!

Follower:
Daddy Twofoot, Next-Door Neighbor
The Gaffer, Master Gardener

Events:
Concerning Hobbits x 4
Hobbit Intuition x 4
Sorry About Everything x 4

Well…This Ring-Bearer is an interesting one. For one, he defeats the entire purpose of a choke, but on the other hand, you never have to add burdens. However, it is very simple to add two twilight during the fellowship phase, and if you find yourself unable to throw out the necessary twilight to circumvent his text, use Sam’s Pack. Then you choke the twilight pool by reducing the shadow number of sites and removing twilight when you move, with Bill the Pony and Habits of Home.

Bilbo’s choking mechanism is not foolproof, however, and so there must be some way for Bilbo to hold his own in a skirmish. The tale of the great ring is a must, and with the red book of westmarch, you get to draw a card whenever you play a tale. Consorting with wizards is a must for Bilbo, as he cannot take wounds and thus shuts down several major strategies, Southron Wounding, Twilight Nazgul, etc. Orc Armor reduces the strength of Orcs and Uruk-hai, Stone Trolls give Bilbo a bonus against Trolls and Uruk-hai and The Gaffer gives a nice strength +1 bonus. Sting and O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! give permanent strength bonuses. Losing skirmishes adds tokens on Sudden Fury, so he can win enough skirmishes to peel off burdens with Good Work.

So, Bilbo is a base strength 8, with pumps, and bonuses versus various minions and cannot take wounds during the skirmish phase, which means you never have to wear the one ring. He has various pumps, can’t be overwhelmed unless a Shadow event is played in his skirmish, while choking the twilight pool. Of course, for this deck to work well, you have to have an adventure deck of forests and dwellings.

Another idea is to add some Hobbit allies and four copies of Habits of Home to severely choke the twilight pool. Bounder would be perfect for this, as he could also save Bilbo’s life if need be.

If you don’t want to solo: Ring bound hobbits are a good Strategy. Sam, Great Elf Warrior with Frodo, Frenzied Fighter can easily stop a swarm, and Sam get pretty tough with Sting, Weapon of Heritage.


Solo Gandalf

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:
Gandalf, Bearer of Obligation
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

The Rest of the Deck:
Artifact:
Narya x 4
Gandalf’s Staff

Possessions:
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer x 2
Shadowfax, Unequaled Steed
Bilbo’s Pipe
The Gaffer’s Pipe
Gandalf’s Pipe x 2
Old Toby x 4
Longbottom Leaf x 2

Followers:
Alatar, Final Envoy
Radagast, Tender of Beasts
Pallando, Far-Travelling One

Event:
Ease the Burden x 4
Servant of the Secret Fire x 4

Allies:

Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer x 3
Melilot Brandybuck, Merry Dancer x 2

Well…Gandalf is a powerful ring-bearer and though his burden adding text triggers each turn, there are good burden adding cards. First off, if you don’t get Narya in your hand at site 1, mulligan. It is important to get Narya in your hand as soon as possible. Then, abuse Narya to the utmost.

Ease the Burden also peels of burdens, potentially two at a time. Then, if you get into a fight, Glamdring peels off burdens to. However, if your opponent sits back and plays nothing, depriving you of your burden removal, you have a problem. Corruption makes the problem even worse. You are going to be in for a battle to control the burden count. Radagast will give you enough of a resistance boost to handle one extra burden, so you can peel it off with Glamdring. Fierce minions actually help this deck, as winning skirmishes isn’t a problem, and you get to remove double burdens with fierce minions.

Gandalf should win the majority of his skirmishes, thanks to all the pumps in the deck. Play the pipes on your allies and use Gandalf’s Pipe to remove burdens. Then use Bilbo to shuffle the pipeweed back into your deck. Altogether, this deck should be able to remove a good share of burdens, allowing you to survive to site nine.

If you don’t want to solo: Gandalf men is a good strategy. Brand, King of Dale would be perfect for a choke as his ability kills off some minions, and makes other Gandalf men stronger.


Solo Sam

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:
Sam, Bearer of Great Need
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles

The Rest of the Deck:
Allies:
Rosie Cotton, Hobbiton Lass
Hobbit Party Guest
Bounder x 4
Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer x 2

Artifacts:
Phial of Galadriel, The Light of Earendil
Salt from the Shire
Mithril-Coat, Dwarf-Mail

Possessions:
Bill the Pony
Sting, Weapon of Heritage

Followers:
The Gaffer, Master Gardener

Conditions:
Rare Good Ballast
The Tale of the Great Ring
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
Stone Trolls
Habits of Home x 4
Sudden Fury x 4

Events:
Impatient and Angry x 4
Power according to his stature x 4

Well, with all these allies, Sam’s resistance goes through the roof. Rosie Cotton is there for a strength boost and to heal Sam, with Hobbit Party Guest healing her. 4 copies of Bounder makes sure Sam isn’t overwhelmed, and you have an extensive ally support system. Using Bilbo’s text, you can shuffle cards back into your draw deck, and then heal him with Hobbit Party Guest.

Bill the Pony and Habits of Home choke the twilight pool a lot. Of course, you need to couple the deck with a site path that runs lots of forests and dwelling sites.

Sting, Stone Trolls, O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! and Rosie Cotton all give Sam strength bonuses, with Impatient and Angry there to make him even stronger and peel off burdens.

Sam here is a base strength of 7, and can use the ring if necessary. With Mithril-Coat, Dwarf-Mail he can also stop fierce minions.

If you don’t want to solo: Ring-Bound hobbits with the Sam Ring-Bearer is pretty good. Frodo, Frenzied Fighter is good for saving Sam, and 4x A Promise would be nice. Bilbo, Aged Ring-Bearer helps in pulling off burdens as well.


Solo Faramir

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship:
Faramir, Bearer of Quality
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles

The Rest of the Deck:

Possessions:
Ithilien Blade x 3
Faramir’s Bow
Ranger’s Cloak

Conditions:
The Saga of Elendil
Boromir, My Brother
Invigorated x 4
Gondor Bowmen x 2
Henneth Annun x 4
Sixth level x 2
Second Level x 4
Citadel of Minas Tirith x 2

Events:
Defend it and hope x 4
No Travellers in this land x 4
Power According to his Stature x 2

The Faramir Ring-Bearer has the same problems as the Isildur Ring-Bearer. His alternate text requires having companions in play. So, once again, we must make sure we get rid of most minions during the maneuver phase. Ithilien Blade takes care of minions easily, and with second level and sixth level, minions become roaming later, allowing Ithilien Blade to be used longer than usual.

After the Ithilien Blade outlives its effectiveness, more generic wounding cards such as Defend it and Hope and No Travellers in this land take care of minions, with Gondor Bowmen finishing them off. And don’t forget that Faramir is an archer.

Finally, anything that gets to a skirmish faces Faramir’s last line of defense, make minions roaming, heal him with Invigorated, and drop them with Henneth Annun.

Since Faramir rarely loses skirmishes, Citadel of Minas Tirith heals quite well. Invigorated is also good for skirmish healing, allowing you to use Faramir’s skirmish special ability.

If you don’t want to solo: Obvious ring-bound wounding would be a good deck with this Faramir. Instant roaming with Arrows Thick in the air would be good. 2x Gondorian Ranger would make minions pretty roaming, and Ancient Roads would as well. Then of course, Madril, Defender of Osgiliath.


That wraps it up for the alternate ring-bearers. But what about Frodo? Solo Frodo can be a good strategy, and chokes the twilight pool significantly.

Solo Frodo

Ring-Bearer/Starting Fellowship

Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles

The Rest of the Deck:
Allies:
Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer x 2
Hobbit Party Guest x 2

Artifacts:
Mithril-Coat

Possessions:
Salt from the Shire
Sting, Baggins Heirloom
Red Book of Westmarch
Bill the Pony
Sam’s Pack


Conditions:
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
Stone Trolls
The Tale of the Great Ring
Sudden Fury x 4
Good Work x 2
Habits of Home x 4

Events:
Power According to His Stature x 2
Concerning Hobbits x 4
Hobbit Intuition x 4

Bilbo Baggins provides a whole array of cards we can use, if only we spot Bilbo. So, the Bilbo ally is the ideal card to use. If only there was a way to combine the benefits of Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer and Frodo, Old Bilbo’s Heir. But there is. Hobbit Party Guest accomplishes the exact same thing as Old Bilbo’s Heir, and we still have the choking abilities of Reluctant Adventurer.

So, Bilbo Baggins allows us to play Stone Trolls and Red Book of Westmarch. We can also play Habits of Home on him and the two copies of Hobbit Party Guest. And if you don’t have the party guest out at the right time to play Habits of Home on him, discard it and use Bilbo’s text later to get it back in the deck. And then with Bill the Pony, you severely reduce the twilight thrown out by Frodo (not to mention every artifact, possession, and tale is twilight cost -1).

And then, of course, Sting pumps Frodo up. This particular version of Sting is the only version that would aid in a solo deck, except for the original Sting, which is x-listed. Sudden Fury adds tokens whenever we lose skirmishes, so we can win the important ones to reinforce Good Work, and consequently remove burdens. The ring can also be used if necessary.

Power according to his stature is a good card to use anywhere, as it has the potential of dropping an entire swarm. Concerning Hobbits and Hobbit Intuition are there to help you win the crucial skirmishes, but don’t waste them on the unimportant skirmishes that add tokens on Sudden Fury.

If you don’t want to solo: Just about any deck can use a Frodo Ring-Bearer. Ring-Bound hobbits would be good for this deck, with Sam, Great Elf Warrior and Bilbo, Aged Ring-Bearer.


With all the potential behind the other ring-bearers, maybe Smeagol will no longer be the king of the solo, and Solo Frodo will become as popular as Solo Smeagol.

Special Thanks:
Bibfortuna25, for the solo Smeagol decklist.
Macheteman and JayPL for comments on the Solo Galadriel decklist.
Sickofpalantirs, Carpe Guitarrem, elf lvr, Celebrimbor (did I spell it right? Very Happy), and sperzdechly for commenting on my original Solo Gimli.
Last edited by NBarden on Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:04 pm; edited 13 times in total
sickofpalantirs
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:25 pm
Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 7750 Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
I GOT MENTIONED! anyway, great article, but I noticed you had the book of mazarbul, as far as I can tell, it is relatively worthless. the card drawing doesn’t work, and personally I don’t think it is worth it for proud and able. and with galadriel, as far as I can tell a good corruption would well, bite. Ditto desperate defense of the ring. Otherwise pretty good.
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NBarden
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:36 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
Yeah...I was thinking maybe ditching the feathered for elf song in Galadriel, but you might need feathered pretty bad in a couple scenarios...

And I think I will cut the Book of Mazarbul. Why did Decipher make the stupid rules about FotR, TT, RotK, and Shadow sites?
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Anonymous Prodigy
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:04 pm
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States
The decks look like they might have a little trouble setting up early on the site path; getting all of the right conditions on the table, plus having the right skirmish events in hand at the right time, etc. Also, it would be good to include the total number of cards in each deck below the decklist. Otherwise, it was a very well written article. I give it a 4. Applause
I had to put something here.
ingold55
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 7:41 pm
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 1199 Location: Out on the front line
well written, and very nice! Applause

A bit long, and a little dry, certain places I found myself looking for the next paragraph. but it was a good article!


one strategy you can go on with Solo Boromir is the Ally assault.

Throw in Tom Bombadil and Elrond ally, and Horn of Boromir. Also try not to add twilight, and exert Boromir to allow Elrond and Tom to skirmish.

the main plan is to keep minions skirmishing the allies, and not Boromir. only use Boromir when necessary. Smile
Last edited by ingold55 on Mon Feb 05, 2007 7:44 pm; edited 1 time in totalThere is a power in this world beyond any of us, and Jesus is that power and The Savior.

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AnxiousChieftain
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:59 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 3947 Location: Maryland
Cool article, but very very long. I would have liked to see a better opening & conclusion too.

After a quick skim through the decks, I think one of the cards that you don’t use enough is Power According to His Stature. That card rocks, especially in Solo Smeagol and Solo Galadriel since they don’t have drawbacks that add burdens.

You might want to mention in the section about the Pippin engine that you need to transfer Daddy Two-foot to the RB, not Pippin. This might seem obvious, but I’ve seen several people that thought that the engine was bad because the follower would be discarded when Pip gets returned to hand.

Now my comments on the decks:

---

The Gimli deck is probably just about as good as it can get for a true solo Gimli, but that being said I can’t see it working very well. It looks like it’d add a fair amount of twilight, and it could be corrupted pretty easily if the Shadow player just adds a small amount of burdens.

Have you ever tested the Galadriel deck? I just can’t see it functioning very well, but I suppose it’s possible that it works out better in real life than it looks on paper.

Solo Smeagol looks good.

For the Boromir deck, I really think you should drop the archery idea and change to trying to win on strength alone. The archery idea just might work though.

The Isildur deck looks decent, but it needs to drop Hardy Garrison, since it needs to spot 2 Gondor Men.

The Bilbo deck looks like it could use some more copies of Consorting with Wizards.

I don’t think that Solo Gandalf works right now. He’s just too vulnerable to the Shadow player playing no minions.

Solo Sam seems nice.

For Solo Faramir, you need to drop Hardy Garrison.

Solo Frodo looks pretty good, but my brother ran a version of it once and it worked very well without any allies to clog up the pool. Another optional idea is to pack lots of Brace of Coneys and Salt of the Shire (both of which are free with Reluctant Adventurer) and abuse Birthday Present.

---

So, in conclusion, you get a 4 from me. You definitely put a lot of hard work into this, but there were places where it could’ve been better, which prevents me from giving a 5.

Good job!

- AC
MODS RULE. - lem0nhead
NBarden
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:17 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
The drawback to PATHS is that it adds burdens, so I tried to shy away from it. Most of the ring-bearers can win without it.

And Horn of Boromir is xd.
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Pywils
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:53 pm
Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 100 Location:
couple of questions:
why use Invigorated when Kingsfoil adds the number of Boromir’s possessions inturn healing him more from the Houses of Healing?

Does Gandalf really not self-corrupt? It seems extremely dangerous.

I really like the Solo Galadriel, and the idea of which i used from yours about playing toils for free due to allies.
NBarden
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:10 am
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
Thanks for the review. Invigorated heals in the skirmish phase, which could be critical with his self-wounding text. A surprise archery could knock him out or worse, force him to add burdens (which Gondor has no mechanism for removing.) That’s why I prefer Invigorated.

My goal in writing this article was to summarize possibilities for every ring-bearer. The risk of Gandalf self-corrupting is high, but with Narya, resistance increasing, and burden removing events, it does the best you can with solo Gandy. This strategy also forces you opponent to play minions, allowing Glamdring to activate, or clog their hand, enabling you to kill them with your shadow. This deck would be better with a Pippin Engine, but then it wouldn’t be a true solo, eh?
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macheteman
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:30 pm
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 1200 Location: The Jungle
hey, i got mentioned too!! Very Happy

you showed a lot of hard work here, good job. it is tough to make workable decks for every ring-bearer. with that said, i don’t think the gandalf or galadriel solos will work. like AC said, the cards for a solo gandalf just aren’t there. and galadriel will be beaten easily by Anduin Confluence. plus Feathered and Sword of the Fallen would be useless against minions with one vitality such as dunland and moria, who both have wound prevention.

most of the others are very good, with a few glitches. AC is right on, get rid of hardy garrison.

overall all a good and, often, creative article.
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