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Total Votes : 6
Anonymous Prodigy
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:56 pm
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States
--- description ---
This article examines a deck that focuses on discarding companions to pave your way to victory.
--- end description ---


When you think “strength pump,” you automatically think “skirmish event,” right? Wrong. With a couple of dandy cards from the Rise of Saruman, skirmish events are being shoved out of the way by…companions. Once you finish hyperventilating, take a moment and let me explain. This is how it works…wait, you’re still hyperventilating.

Okay, now we’re ready. Woodland Onod enables you to discard a companion from hand during the skirmish phase to make an Ent strength +2. Now, combine this beast’s text with Glamdring, Orc Beater. This gives the companions in your hand 3 options; discard them in the fellowship phase to heal the same companion, discard them in the skirmish phase to make an Ent strength +2, or discard them in the skirmish phase to prevent a wound to a companion.

Sweet, huh? Now, let’s add these cards to a deck and see how it looks…

Starting
Frodo, Weary from the Journey
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

Companions 18
Woodland Onod x 3
Treebeard, Enraged Shepherd x 2
Radagast, The Brown x 2
Gandalf, Leader of Men x 1 (starting)
Gandalf, Leader of the Company x 2
Gandalf, Mithrandir x 1
Huorn x 2 (1 starting)
Leaflock, Finglas x 2
Ent Avenger x 3

Conditions 6
New Authority x 2
Watch and Wait x 2
Echoes of Valinor x 2

Possessions 10
Glamdring, Orc Beater x 3
Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs x 2
Radagast’s Staff x 1
Salt from the Shire x 2
Wizard Staff x 2

Events 12
Traveled Leader x 2
Ease the Burden x 2
Have Patience x 2
Out of the High Airs x 2
Terrible And Evil x 2
Inspiration x 2

Other 2
Pallando, Far-travelling One x 2

At 48 cards, this deck is on the large side. Let’s slim it down a little…
We can drop all 3 copies of Have Patience; with the surplus of companions, healing will be easy. New Authority is best against corruption decks, so we can drop both copies. We can also cut a copy of Salt of the Shire, since The One Ring, The Ring of Rings brings Frodo up to 12 resistance. Not many minions will make survive to skirmish Frodo, so we can cut a copy of Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs. That makes the deck look like this…

Starting
Frodo, Weary from the Journey
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

Companions 18
Woodland Onod x 3
Treebeard, Enraged Shepherd x 2
Radagast, The Brown x 2
Gandalf, Leader of Men x 1 (starting)
Gandalf, Leader of the Company x 2
Gandalf, Mithrandir x 1
Huorn x 2 (1 starting)
Leaflock, Finglas x 2
Ent Avenger x 3

Possessions 8
Glamdring, Orc Beater x 3
Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs x 1
Radagast’s Staff x 1
Salt from the Shire x 1
Wizard Staff x 2

Conditions 4
Watch and Wait x 2
Echoes of Valinor x 2

Events 12
Traveled Leader x 2
Ease the Burden x 2
Have Patience x 2
Out of the High Airs x 2
Terrible And Evil x 2
Inspiration x 2

Other 2
Pallando, Far-travelling One x 2


The total cost for the deck comes to around $90-$100 USD (according to Cobra’s prices), and around $120 USD for a foil version.

Now, the deck is only 44 cards; large, but playable, due to the fact that you will be discarding companions left and right. Let’s take a look at the strategy behind each one of these cards…

• Frodo, Weary from the Journey •
He has built-in swarm resistance, plus already has 10 resistance.

• The One Ring, The Ring of Rings •
This version of The One Ring gives Frodo 2 extra resistance; plus, it can convert wounds to burdens in case Frodo ends up in a skirmish.

Woodland Onod
This guy is obvious; use his text to pump your Ents. Two companions discarded, and Treebeard is a 16 strength beast…

• Treebeard, Enraged Shepherd •
His main use is to have a ton of strength; he can take care of the big minions that your opponent throws at you.

• Radagast, The Brown •
Two words: triple move.

• Gandalf, Leader of Men •
This is the most eligible Gandalf for your starting fellowship.

• Gandalf, Leader of the Company •
The text of this Gandalf is awesome; his strength pumps only further compliment the text of Woodland Onod and Glamdring, Orc Beater. What’s that you said? Two different Gandalfs? Ah, I can see your cause for concern. Stop hyperventilating! Just wait, and you’ll see how it all comes together.

• Gandalf, Mithrandir •
This guys high strength and damage +1 can come in handy, especially later on the site paht.

• Huorn •
This guy is awesome. His text enables him to be a 9 or 10 strength companion with no problems. Plus, he is damage +1! To top it all off, he is a great lifesaver for your Ents that are low on vitality.

• Leaflock, Finglas •
This guy’s cost is lowered to a 3 or 4 if you already have a few Ents in play. You even have a shot at making him a 12 strength if 4 other Ents are in play.

• Ent Avenger •
The simplest of the simple, but he is still a great companion.

• Watch and Wait •
This condition is great for peeling off burdens.

• Echoes of Valinor •
This card is here to keep your deck cycling smoothly.

Glamdring, Orc Beater
This possession is Part II of the companion discarding machine. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to make Gandalf strength +2 and damage +1.

• Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs •
This possession is awesome if a fierce minion with low strength is on the table; assign the minion to Frodo, put on The One, The Ring of Rings to convert the wounds (if any) to burdens, then add a threat to discard the minion if it is still alive.

• Radagast’s Staff •
This staff is handy in picking up extra cards after a double move.

• Salt from the Shire •
Another 2 resistance for Frodo; sweet!

• Wizard Staff •
This possession gives Gandalf an extra strength, plus has a sweet skirmish ability.

• Traveled Leader •
You can manipulate the site path again and again with this event; need I say more?

• Ease the Burden •
Just because Frodo has 14 resistance with Salt from the Shire and The One Ring, The Ring of Rings doesn’t mean that he is immune to corruption. A couple copies of this card is there for insurance.

• Out of the High Airs •
This card is crucial in setting up a triple move using Radagast, The Brown.

• Terrible And Evil •
This card can take some of the potency out of Nazgul corruption using Dark Fell About Him.

• Inspiration •
This is a great event to dock strength from minions.

• Pallando, Far-travelling One •
This little guy can safeguard against Goblin Hordes, Retribution, Lost in the Woods, Wielding the Ring, etc.

Now, let’s take a look at the sites for this deck…


0 Fangorn Glade
0 Crags of Emyn Muil
1 Isengard Ruined
1 Slag Mounds
2 Westemnet Village
2 Caras Galadhon
3 Falls of Rauros
3 North Undeep
3 Imladris

The defense of this deck consists of many components. Ease the Burden and Watch and Wait against corruption; Have Patience against archery / exertions / wounding. Terrible and Evil is useful in preventing a Dark Fell About Him corruption loop; Pallando, Far-travelling One can discard nasty Shadow conditions.

On the offense, the plan is simple. Use and abuse the text of Woodland Onod and Glamdring, Orc Beater to discard companions like crazy. Inspiration provides help in skirmishes, and Radagast, The Brown combined with Out of the High Airs allows for a triple move. Echoes of Valinor provides hand cycling, and Huorn can cripple minions with his damage bonus, plus his strength boost from spotting other Ents.

Here is where the fun part of the strategy comes into play. Play Gandalf, Leader of Men in your starting fellowship with Huorn to conserve twilight; in region 2, then kill off Gandalf and use Traveled with Falls of Rauros to play Gandalf, Leader of the Company or Gandalf, Mithrandir. If that isn’t cool, then AC is a newbie. Wink

All in all, this is a fun and competitive deck to play. Go have some fun with this companion discarding machine, and thanks for reading! Smile
Last edited by Anonymous Prodigy on Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:18 pm; edited 14 times in totalI had to put something here.
NBarden
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:17 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
What happened to Gandalf, the White Rider from the first decklist? And it should be Gandalf, Leader of the company in the second list.
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corvus
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:09 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 1696 Location: Roaming, but dangerous!!!
OK this is a nicely written article, and a good prelude to the companion user deck, but it has some vital problems.

1)This deck CANNOT TRIPLE. Not without caras ghaladon in the site path, certainly not without 2-3 copies of out of the high airs.

2)NO ANTI-CONDITION SYSTEM!!!! Not even pallando, the far-broken one?

3)No protection against archery! Not without north undeep in the site path and (see #2) condition removal!!! Also, no protection against wounds! New wargs bite this deck to the death...

4)No swarm protection! just a sting you hope to pull.what if you got 5 companions and i got 6 minions?

5)Without condition removal and copies of terrible and evil, NO CORRUPTION COUNTER! 12 recistance with some pumps of a medium 15 recistance are a nothing when 4 copies of the condition that say add a burden cause my bearer wasn’t assigned in a skirmish add a burden each due to BNAP, and Enquea adds another 2-3 burdens himself, plus whatever he may add in the regroup with dark fell about him. That’s a total of about 8 burdens per good round....

I’ll wait for corrections before i vote....
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sickofpalantirs
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:05 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.
turbo corruption is good anyway... its fairly good, but I think you could add some of the things corvus suggested(pallando, watch & wait, with refuge, and glamdring I think you will be fine wounds wise) right now it is a high 3, but with changes you could get a 4-5.
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Anonymous Prodigy
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:09 pm
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States
Thanks for the reviews! Very Happy I edited the article accordingly, with the exception of adding Refuge.
I had to put something here.
AnxiousChieftain
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:20 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 3947 Location: Maryland
Anonymous Prodigy wrote:
At 48 cards, this deck is on the large side. Let’s slim it down a little…

And then later:

Anonymous Prodigy wrote:
Now, the deck is only 49 cards; large, but playable

Not only does it not make sense, it also WAY too big a deck to work. You don’t even have a card drawing stuff, so there’s no way you’ll be able to cycle through your deck. It’s just too large to work.

You need to drop at least 10 cards, more like 15 in order for the deck to work.

Also, where is Inspiration? IMHO, it’s a lot better than The Sap is in the Bough, especially since Inspiration can be used to help Frodo unlike The Sap is in the Bough.

Anonymous Prodigy wrote:
Here is where the fun part of the strategy comes into play. Play Gandalf, Leader of Men in your starting fellowship with Huorn to conserve twilight; in region 2, kill off Gandalf and use Traveled with Falls of Rauros to play Gandalf, Leader of Men.

That seems a bit risky, and it’ll clog your hand for a bit. It would also be used past when Gandalf, Leader of the Company’s text would really help, so the idea doesn’t seem that cool to me.

Right now I’m tempted to give you a 3, but I’ll wait a bit before voting so you can edit your article.

- AC
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Anonymous Prodigy
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:44 pm
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States
I added Inspiration, and I added Echoes of Valinor for card drawing. Thanks for the review!

AnxiousChieftain wrote:
Right now I’m tempted to give you a 3, but I’ll wait a bit before voting so you can edit your article.

Examine your post carefully; you said that you were tempted, meaning that you being persuaded by evil forces. Deep inside you, there is something that wants to give me a better rating. Wink
I had to put something here.
Pipeweed
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:48 pm
Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 1010 Location: Earth (I think)
Hmm. The deck looks like it could work, but some cards really need to be dropped. I’m hovering at a 3 right now, but with some changes and compression, I could go for a 4 or 5.

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sickofpalantirs
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:57 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.
you need to link the ROS cards to a place where we can see there text.
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Spammers really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you. Razz
Anonymous Prodigy
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:01 pm
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States
I slimmed the final draft of the deck to 41 cards... thanks for the review! Very Happy
I had to put something here.

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