Updated the list with what I'm currently playing offline. This is my go to deck when not playing on GEMP and its various iterations have served me for nearly 15 years now. The reason for the update is that I added 2 new tech to its arsenal in the form of
Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor and
Keep Your Forked Tongue.
Ring-bearer:
Frodo, Old Bilbo's HeirRing:
The One Ring, The Great RingAdventure deck:
Buckland HomesteadSteward's TombCavern EntranceNeekerbreekers' BogMithlondFalls of RaurosDammed Gate-streamMount DoomSirannon RuinsFree Peoples Draw Deck:
1x
Erland, Dale Counselor2x
Gandalf, Powerful Guide1x
Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain1x
Quickbeam, Bregalad1x
Radagast, The Brown1x
Treebeard, Enraged Shepherd1x
Smeagol, Always Helps1x
Merry, In the Bloom of Health1x
Pippin, In the Bloom of Health4x
Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor1x
Bounder1x
The Gaffer, Sam's Father2x
Beorning Axe1x
Glamdring, Foe-hammer2x
Radagast's Herb Bag1x
Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas1x
Sting, Elven Long Knife1x
Gandalf's Staff4x
A Wizard is Never Late1x
Deep in Thought1x
Keep Your Forked Tongue4x
Momentous Gathering1x
Roll of Thunder1x
Saved From the Fire4x
Servant of the Secret Fire2x Speak \Friend\ and Enter
4x
Strength of Spirit1x
Traveled Leader2x
Something Slimy2x
Long-stemmed Pipe1x
Perspective1x
Watch and Wait1x
Don't Look at Them1x
Follow Smeagol1x
Gladden Homestead1x
Scouring of the Shire1x
Shadowplay1x
Pallando, Far-travelling One3x
Deagol, Fateful Finder1x
Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff Cock-RobinShadow Draw Deck:
1x
Gollum, Her Sneak1x
Gollum, Old Villain1x
Gollum, Plotting Deceiver1x
Shelob, Her Ladyship1x
Grima, Chief Counselor1x
Grima, Servant of Another Master1x
Grima, Wormtongue2x
The Balrog, Demon of Might4x
Castamir of Umbar4x
Corsair Boatswain4x
Corsair Lookout4x
Corsair Marauder4x
Corsair Plunderer1x
Southron Leader1x
Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
2x Úlairë
Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders1x Úlairë Nertëa,
Dark Horseman1x
Web4x
Black Sails of Umbar3x
Corsair War Galley2x
Ships of Great Draught4x
Captured by the Ring4x
Sudden Strike3x
Saruman's Power4x
Evil-smelling Fens3x
Under FootOnce again it's an enormous 63/63 deck, yet I haven't had consistency problems with it thanks to all the search effects available. The core of the deck is generic
Powerful Guide goodness:
Strength of Spirit and
Servant of the Secret Fire fueling
Powerful Guide and
Radagast's Herb Bag with as many triggers as one can want with Erland and
Beorning Axe making sure that the events are available.
Some notable tricks:
-this is a
SFTF deck with only 1
SFTF, which is enabled by
Long-Stemmed Pipe - it has a
burn package as well on top of the obvious.
-get an activation out of
Falls of Rauros to be able to play a 10th companion
-using Strenght of Spirit to prevent the cost of
Shadowplay activations can result in 2 wounds on a minion with Gandalf + Herb Bag, which can prevent "when you play" effects (discarded when played rule)
-2nd
Long-Stemmed Pipe can get key events
Example: Corasair Marauder is played, you activate
Shadowplay, respond with
Strength of Spirit, wound it once with Gandalf and Herb Bag each, thus dies before he would get to use his ability. Now don't forget that you can activate
Shadowplay as many times as you want to do this more than once a turn. You wouldn't get an effect out of it the second time, but if you are just looking for a chance to kill minions in the shadow phase with
Strength of Spirit, it is there.
-Keep Your Forked Tongue can be bonkers in some matchups. When going for it, having
Pallando and
Robin Smallburrow is very handy. Both
Radagast and Frodo have the Gandalf signet, and Erland can take this event back ad nauseam, making it exceptionally difficult for some strategies (mainly gollum ninja) to touch the FP side. Playing it when killing off a companion to remove all threats without taking wounds is also an exceptionally powerful play
-Sauron,
Dark Lord of Mordor is a very potent finisher with this list, often comming to play for 1 or 0 in the 3rd region thanks to Gollum and the corsairs. I would not play a corsair deck without him anymore. I found Sauron so good in fact that I might play a 2nd copy (need to get one first though)
-there are essentially 14 cards that allow grabbing Gandalf on site 1: 4
AWINL, 4
Momentous Gathering, 2
Powerful Guide are the obvious ones. I almost always bid 1 to go first, so
Dammed Gate-Stream can allow to
Something Slimy into
Long-Stemmed Pipe into
Momentous Gathering and then
Barliman Butterbur, PPP also becomes a Gandalf enabler (and still gets
Perspective, or a 2nd pipe for
SFTF)
For Gemp play I would probably add
Unequaled Steed due to the overabundance of Too Strong and Terrible, but it's not that abundant in our group (yet).