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DáinIronfoot |
Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:11 am |
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 4594
Location: Beltsville, MD, USA
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The basics of this deck? Take one old FP favorite (Noble Leaders), an old Shadow favorite (Forestguls), mix them together with an all-new ingredient (Gandalf and Sent Back), and the end result is sweet as sugar for you, and bitter and nasty for your opponent.
Free Peoples (41 cards):
Ring-bearer w/ Ring:
Boromir, Bearer of Council
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Companions (9 cards):
Denethor, Wizened Steward (starting)
Faramir, Prince of Ithilien (starting)
Aragorn, Strider (starting)
Gandalf, The White Rider x4
Ghân-buri-Ghân, Chieftain of Woses x2
Possessions/Artifacts (8 cards):
Andúril, Flame of the West x2
Ithilien Blade x2
Ranger’s Cloak x4
Conditions (16 cards):
Noble Leaders x3
Sent Back x4
Unexpected Visitor x2
Ranger of the North x2
No Stranger to the Shadows
I Will Go
Watch and Wait x2
Houses of Healing
Events (8 cards):
The Terror of His Coming x3
Wielder of the Flame x2
Have Patience x2
Elendil’s Valor
The starting fellowship is an oldie (but a goodie) way of getting all your Noble Leaders from the get-go. After that, they do the things you’d expect them to do...mostly. Noble Leaders itself gets several copies here to ensure you get it as early as possible and then keep it around, since this deck lacks any way to really prevent your conditions from being discarded. The Ithilien Blade/Ranger’s Cloak combo is big here, and it’s oh so beautiful. The only reason there aren’t more blades is so that Aragorn can get a lesser-used version of Anduril and help control the sitepath...why is something we’ll get to shortly, but for now, just know that it involves forests (which is good for Ranger’s Cloak, anyway! )
Now, things get more interesting. Gandalf is a big part of this deck, and most of the rest of the deck revolves around him. His ability lets you exert him and another unbound companion to basically swap them in the middle of a skirmish (assuming Gandalf is unassigned). I learned from AKiE how one can use and abuse this ability by comboing it with Sent Back and a defender-pumped Man, assigning lots of minions to that Man, then swapping in Gandalf and killing him with Sent Back to discard them all. So why ? Because they have some of the easiest ways to add defender in the game.
Ranger of the North is excellent for early sites, and even provides some healing, which is perfect for when you use Gandalf’s ability; exert Gandalf and a Man, swap in Gandalf, then later discard the condition to heal that Man you just exerted! Not too shabby.
Elendil’s Valor is another easy defender bonus, and Gandalf’s Wielder of the Flame can work well also (and, worst case, will help choke instead).
But perhaps the best way to get lots of minions assigned to your Man is with the little-used Unexpected Visitor. Now, EVERY minion will be assigned to your Man, and then you can have Gandalf ride in and save that Man’s hide, and THEN discard the condition when the dust settles to remove twilight and choke!
The Terror of His Coming is an old favorite of mine, and it not only pumps Gandalf (and Ghân-buri-Ghân) when they’re actually going to fight, but it lets you pull back Sent Back as needed. Have Patience and Houses of Healing help keep everyone healed up, perhaps well enough to even skip a sanctuary (or both if things go REALLY well). Watch and Wait peels off burdens in case you’re facing a burden-adding deck, and No Stranger to the Shadows is never a bad idea when you’ve got Aragorn...especially Strider.
Now, we need a Shadow side to pair this with. Since the Ranger’s Cloaks and Ghân-buri-Ghân benefit from forest anyway, and such a large deck needs serious help cycling, I opted to go with cycling Forestguls, based loosly off a deck created by NBarden.
Shadow (41 cards):
Minions (29 cards):
The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders x3
Úlairë Cantëa, Black Assassin x3
Úlairë Enquëa, Duplicitous Lieutenant x3
Úlairë Lemenya, Assailing Minion x3
Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x4
Úlairë Nertëa, Ninth of the Nine Riders x4
Úlairë Otsëa, Duplicitous Spectre x4
Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow x2
Úlairë Toldëa, Eighth of the Nine Riders x2
Morgul Brute
Conditions (8 cards):
Lost In The Woods x4
Moving This Way x4
Events (4 cards:
Dark Approach x4
The Third and Eighth Riders (in combination with Anduril from your FP side) should control the sitepath easily enough to have plenty of forests for use with Lost In The Woods and Dark Approach (and the Ninth Rider ). The other two versions of Toldëa (Black Shadow) help pull back Dark Approach when needed. Otsëa, Enquëa, and the Brute help make Cantëa absolutely deadly. Failing that, Lemenya should be huge most of the time. The Witch-king is great all the time, but especially if your opponent is choking. With the right combo of forest sites, Dark Approach, and a couple other Nazzies (preferrably those with higher vitality), you should be able to get Wikkie out against all but the most concentrated chokes at SOME point...and once that happens, chances are you can do some serious damage against a deck choking THAT badly.
Otsëa does double duty as a cycling card (which is why I have 4 versions of him), and Moving This Way is obviously a wonderful cycling card here. This deck should feel a lot smaller than 82 total cards.
Finally, for our sites:
The Angle
Woody-end
Crossroads of the Fallen Kings
Trollshaw Forest
Hill of Sight
Buckland Homestead
Courtyard Parapet
Heights of Isengard
Mount Doom
Several forests, obviously, though perhaps not as many as you’d expect. That’s okay...with the site control this deck offers, you shouldn’t be lacking forests when you need them. The rest are mostly there to benefit the fellowship, especially Heights of Isengard (which combos well with Gandalf and also The Terror of His Coming). Mount Doom may be a surprising choice, but it’s here to lock down a couple forests in case your opponent has delusions of sitepath control grandeur themselves.
And that’s it. Looks pretty potent to me, but I guess it will take a couple games to know for sure. What do YOu think? |
Best regards, Dáin, Vice Aftokrator of the Chosen Ones
Check out Lasting Alliances, The Road Ahead, and Ages of Middle-earth, three of my five dream card sets that make up Wars of the Ring. Oh, and I have a trade list now!
Also, if you're into DCs or RPGs (or even if you're not!), check out Realms of Middle-earth, the sequel to CG's "DC Adventure", Realms of the North! |
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Thranduil |
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:41 am |
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Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 2256
Location:
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I would certainly replace one of the Andurils with an ithilien blade. Remember that the ability of ranger’s cloak with forests is useless (comparitively) for ithilien blade so it’s really not that important to have forests - you just want the occasional one so you can kill 2 minions when Ghan-Buri-Ghan morphs into Gandalf!
If you’re really serious about Ithilien blade, it might be worth considering replacing one Terror of His Coming with another Have Patience.
This kind of deck rocks with Saved From the Fire (which is simply an awesome card). You could start Leader of Men, for example, burn him on the first turn and take into hand Sent Back, the White Rider and any other card you feel like. It might also help you set up your noble leaders by starting a rubbish cost guy and throwing him into the fire as well. And it would make your forestguls even deadlier with super fetching. But that’s kind of a different deck.
My main worry is that you probably have too many cards. Cutting about 5 or 6 will not go amiss, or having cards like Dark Power Strengthened.
Thranduil |
'We do what we do because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves.'
- Dream of the Endless
Check out my block based on The Hobbit, my remake of Age's End, and the Fall of Eregion
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Elessar's Socks |
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:40 am |
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Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Posts: 349
Location:
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The Gandalf combo is sheer genius. XD
I’d suggest shaving some cards to streamline the deck and get everything set up that much faster. IMO a tight deck that sticks to the essentials is generally more consistent than a large deck that depends on cycling to draw said essentials--because first you have to draw the cycling cards, and then you have to move stuff out of the way. So I’ll be looking to cut out cards, but hey, feel free to add them right back if that better fits your playing style.
So first up, companions. Wizened Steward could probably be replaced with Lord of Minas Tirith. Same strength unless you add another Man, but with LoMT you have a guaranteed way of pulling Noble Leaders early. Toss in Hard Choice and LoMT can grab any three cards you want! I’ll drop Ghan-Buri-Ghan for now until I have a better idea of what the final deck size will be.
Next, conditions. I just wanted to clarify that Unexpected Visitor doesn’t circumvent the one-to-one rule (barring defender bonuses), nor does it force the Shadow player to assign every minion in play to its bearer even if the defender bonus is high enough to allow that. Apologies if I misunderstood what you were saying, but just in case. I’d drop both copies because they seem more like a nuisance to the Free Peoples player.
I’d also drop No Stranger to the Shadows, which seems kind of random in there. With the amount of twilight you’re giving off (just by having 5-6 companions, not to mention playing Gandalf) it’s not worth using up a card slot to remove one twilight. I’ll hold off on the rest of the conditions for now.
For events I’d generally limit cards because they need to key off Gandalf, and of course there’s always the risk of not drawing Gandalf early. To that end I’d convert both copies of Wielder of the Flame to Elendil’s Valor (which I think is superior anyway because it can’t be prevented). And I’d drop both copies of Have Patience in favor of -based healing.
For possessions I’m not quite sure how Ithilien Blade and Ranger’s Cloak combo together. Ithilien Blade is a great splash though. My second pick would be Gondorian Sword to help with cycling. Ranger’s Cloak could help with Ranger of the North but running 4 copies seems overkill. I’d cut to 1 copy.
So currently we have:
Companions (7 cards):
1 Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith (starting)
1 Faramir, Prince of Ithilien (starting)
1 Aragorn, Strider (starting)
4 Gandalf, The White Rider
Possessions/Artifacts (5 cards):
2 Andúril, Flame of the West
2 Ithilien Blade
1 Ranger’s Cloak
Conditions (9 cards):
3 Noble Leaders
4 Sent Back
1 Ranger of the North
1 I Will Go
Events (6 cards):
3 The Terror of His Coming
3 Elendil’s Valor
The count is at 27 cards. I’d recommend adding at most 7 cards for goodies (with a card count at 34), lower if possible. And now this isn’t so much a review as bouncing around ideas and seeing what sticks.
I cut most of your healing so I think it’s only fair to put something back. Houses of Healing isn’t bad, but Ring of Barahir might do it one better.
I’d also put something in to reinforce tokens for Noble Leaders. Throne of Minas Tirith or Soldier’s Cache, I’m thinking, if not both.
Oh, and Hard Choice if you decide to go with LoMT.
And to come full circle, the fate of your sixth companion. Nothing against good ol’ Ghan-buri-Ghan and his defender bonus, but you do have a few options. Maybe Erland, Dale Counselor if you want to grab The Terror of His Coming back (downside is that he needs to spot a companion), or Tradesman From Lebennin to reinforce a token (downside is that his ability adds twilight). Whatever you like best.
Going by the above, the decklist would look something like this:
Ring-bearer w/Ring:
1 Boromir, Bearer of Council
1 The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Free Peoples (30):
1 Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith (starting)
1 Faramir, Prince of Ithilien (starting)
1 Aragorn, Strider (starting)
4 Gandalf, The White Rider
2 Andúril, Flame of the West
2 Ithilien Blade
1 Ranger’s Cloak
1 Ring of Barahir
1 Throne of Minas Tirith
3 Noble Leaders
4 Sent Back
1 Ranger of the North
1 I Will Go
3 The Terror of His Coming
3 Elendil’s Valor
1 Hard Choice
0-4 slots left. Sixth companion, Watch and Wait, etc.
LoMT grabs Noble Leaders, Throne of Minas Tirith, and Ithilien Blade/Ranger of the North/Ring of Barahir. Decisions, decisions. XD |
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lem0nhead |
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:12 am |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 2981
Location: Blood Island
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Ok Dain few points.
1. Drop no stranger to the shadows. 1 is pointless and yours isnt a choke deck anyway ur adding lots of pool.
2. Swap wizened steward for LOMT. Better stats and more useful.
3. Unexpected visitor is an optional effect for the shadow player and it doesnt mean more than 1 minion can be assigned to bearer. Its useless and wasting space. Drop both.
4. Add more elendils valor. If you want defender +1 this is the best card as it cant be prevented like wielder of the flame.
5. Drop the have patience for Hard Choice as it can heal denethor twice and its cheaper.
Cheers |
Ban shampoo, demand real poo.
My Trade List and CC References
"Smart guy, especially considering his head is filled with lemon juice and seeds. That boy’s juicy brain is FULL of good stuff" ~ DainIronfoot
"No fair! And all I got was an oily unconscious steward!" ~ Pippin.
"Okay, stop me if you've heard this one. An elf, a man, and a dwarf walk into the Riddermark..." ~ Eomer |
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NBarden |
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:18 am |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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