The Last Homely House

Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Expanded => Topic started by: Gate Troll on October 23, 2008, 10:22:52 AM

Title: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on October 23, 2008, 10:22:52 AM
Free Peoples (30):

Starting:
[Ring] The One Ring, Ring of Rings x1 (Ring)
[Gollum] Smeagol, Bearer of Great Secrets x1 (Ringbearer)
[Gondor] Faramir, Captain of Gondor x1 (Starting)
[Gondor] Ranger of Ithilien x1 (Starting)

Companions:
[Gondor] Ranger of Ithilien x1
[Gondor] Mablung, Soldier of Gondor x2

Possessions:
[Gondor] Faramir’s Sword x1
[Gondor] Gondorian Blade x4
[Gondor] Faramir’s Bow, Ithilien Longbow x1
[Gondor] Ranger’s Bow x4
[Gondor] Faramir's Cloak x1

Conditions:
[Gondor] Boromir, My Brother x1
[Gondor] Ithilien Trap x1
[Gondor] Ancient Roads x4
[Gondor] Invigorated x2
[Gollum] Poor Wretch x2

Events:
[Gondor] Arrows Thick in the Air x2
[Gondor] War and Valor x2
[Gollum] Not Listening x2



Shadow: (30)

Minions:
[Uruk] Force of Uruk-hai x2
[Uruk] Invincible Uruk x2
[Uruk] Uruk Common x2
[Uruk] Mauhur, Relentless Hunter x2
[Uruk] White Hand Butcher x2

Possessions:
[Uruk] Isengard Siege bow x3 
[Uruk] Spear of the White Hand x2
[Uruk] Weapon of Opportunity x2

Conditions:
[Isengard] Suffered much loss x4
[Uruk] Cleaved x4
[Uruk] Fortitude x1

Events:
[Uruk] Brutality x4



Sites List:

Sites (9):
[1] Fortress of Orthanc
[2] Slag Mounds
[3] Hill of Sight
[4] City of Kings
[5] Helm's Gate
[6] Osgiliath Reclaimed
[7] The Great Gates
[8] Gate of Mordor
[9] Mount Doom


Strategy: Get out plenty of Ancient Roads out to make the minion's site number's higher. Use Arrows Thick in the Air, Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien and Mablung, Soldier of Gondor to exhaust minions. Gondorian Ranger adds to the high site limit ensuring that 
even Dunlendings will have trouble staying un-roaming while Gondor archery takes out minion after minion. Smeagol can vaporize left-over
minions and use Poor Wretch to keep himself from being overwhelmed. Not listening allows you to repair the Ringbearer and Ring of Rings keeps his resistance 9. Pathfinder allows you to play Battleground sites instead of your opponent's sites to help Faramir's Sword and you shadow side. Take advantage of Suffered Much Loss to make all your sites gain Battleground.  Use Fortitude to keep your Uruks alive and flatten companions with your mix of Hunters and Battleground Uruks. Brutality gets nasty quickly, as all sites are Battleground thanks to Suffered much Loss and this deck has several powerful Hunter Uruks up its sleeve to keep things unpredictable. Cleaved hurts archers like Greenleaf and packs a punch vs. any archery deck. Any questions, comments, or constructive critiscm would be appreciated.  ;)
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: leokula on October 23, 2008, 10:40:29 AM
Nice twist for RB rangers to add smeagol :) cool!

Think Damrod is a waste... you should add a Ranger of Ithilien, cause he's tough. I wouldn't use 2x Men the Walls since you already have 4x Ancient Roads and 2x Gondorian Rangers.

Your deck has 35 cards and only 3 of them are companions... I really think you can have a hard time drawing them...I have an elven telepathy deck with 37 cards and sometimes have a hard time getting one of my 4x gandalf, mow. I'd definitely add more or even start denethor, lomt to pull them later, not mentioning denethor can set you up with whatever other card u need.

Just my 2 cents, nice idea ;)
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on October 23, 2008, 10:52:37 AM
Yeah, but Denethor would die because he's unbound. See Bearer of Great Secrets gametext. BTW, I replaced both Man the Walls with  two Rangers of Ithilien to help cycling comps and changed Damrod to a Ranger of Ithilien.
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: leokula on October 23, 2008, 10:56:12 AM
hey ho!! ur absolutely right :suspect: completely ignored smeagol's drawback...

edit: nice changes ;) think it looks more solid now... ranger of ithilien with a sword is a 10 damage+1 companion! :twisted:
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: DáinIronfoot on October 23, 2008, 11:19:20 AM
Suggestions:

- Start with one of the Rangers of Ithilien. I know Mablung is all kinds of awesome, but it would be a shame to NOT take advantage of Ranger of Ithilien's starting cost reduction. Throw in an extra copy of Mablung to ensure you get him eventually.

- Add Faramir's Cloak. Almost a must in this kind of deck.

- IF you find that healing is an issue, toss in some Invigorated. Simply awesome in this deck.

- And again, IF you can find room, Tireless wouldn't be bad since you should be able to meet all four conditions at times and get the maximum strength +4 boost.

- I've never found much use for it myself, but a copy or two of Concealment wouldn't be a terrible idea.

So, overall:

Move one copy of Ranger of Ithilien to starting fellowship
+1 Mablung, Soldier of Gondor (move both copies to deck)
-2 Gondorian Ranger (really don't see the need to have them with all those Ancient Roads)
+1 Faramir's Cloak
-3 War and Valor
+1 Invigorated
+2 Tireless

Just my suggestions. I won't be offended at all if you leave it unchanged. I would STRONGLY recommend finding a place for Faramir's Cloak, though. :up:
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on October 23, 2008, 11:45:15 AM
I added Faramir's Cloak and an Invigorated. I didn't add Tireless though, because it relies too heavily on chance,
and it's [1] with a possible strength +4 instead of War and Valor which is (0) with a almost definite strength +3 damage +1 bonus. :up:
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: MR. Lurtzy on October 23, 2008, 01:50:45 PM
You have two faramir's in your starting fellowship. :suspect:
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on October 23, 2008, 01:59:58 PM
You have two faramir's in your starting fellowship. :suspect:

Where?  ???

•EDIT• 500th post! w00t!  \:D/
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: MR. Lurtzy on October 23, 2008, 02:04:45 PM
I see you just changed it. :ninja:
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on October 23, 2008, 02:09:45 PM
Yeah, after I posted. I meant to write Ranger of Ithilien and ended writing Ithilien Ranger.  :roll:
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on October 23, 2008, 02:26:37 PM
Okay, really stupid question but, does your starting fellowship count towards your card total? SdA doesn't seem to think so.
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: MR. Lurtzy on October 23, 2008, 02:27:49 PM
Besides the ring-bearer and ring it does.
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: SomeRandomDude on October 23, 2008, 09:12:16 PM
Um...why Smeagol? Style points? Do something with him, or drop him. Smeagol
+ rangers are begging for a choke deck. So I'd run like, some sorta choke engine. Safe Passage + We Must Go Warily, anyone?

Cut Poor Wretch and Boromir, My Brother, Not Listening, Pathfinder.

Add Safe Passage, We Must Go Warily x 4 (free move if played right), play Ring of Doom (board wipe Smeagol only used in best circumstances, and he has a good resistance already, vitality will help more), then run a Smeagol based site-path control engine, like, the card that makes the site number -2, and run the Uruks on the back of Suffered Much Loss. But pick a site type that runs Battlegrounds as well as another site type.
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on November 02, 2008, 04:39:23 PM
NBarden, the deck wasn't made to be specifically a choke deck. We Must go Warily is unnecessary and Safe Passage is useless as the deck runs only Battleground sites. After playtesting I cut x2 We must go warily, a few [uruk] possessions a pathfinder and a few [gondor] events. The deck is now as small as possible. :up:
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: SomeRandomDude on November 02, 2008, 09:42:52 PM
Hm...well, if you're not running choke, then why are you running the Smeagol ring-bearer? If you run the Smeagol ring-bearer, run choke. Otherwise, Boromir's always a nice RB. Or Frodo. Because right now, Smeagol is only there for style points, with no synergy with the rest of the deck, and requiring a lot of protection. :P I'd just as soon run Boromir.

You see, Smeagol + Ring-Bound rangers really works as a blending of the best of two choke cultures, Smeagol and Gondor.

As for Safe Passage, if you notice, I mentioned that the Uruks could be run on the back of Suffered Much Loss. Vulnerable? Yeah, but I mean, virtually every deck is running sitepath control anymore. Except IB, which you're toast against anyways. You can maybe run it with Plains, there tend to be Battleground/Plains sites, and then Suffered Much Loss is a good way to ensure battlegrounds.

No mean to be harsh, but my opinion is that Smeagol just doesn't work in this deck. If you want Smeagol to work, you need to run it choke and pair it with something synergistic to a good sitepath (say, Forestguls). As is, I think your best bet is to run it with Boromir RB.
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on November 03, 2008, 05:45:44 AM
I run Smeagol for two reasons,
1: With x2 Poor Wretch he is 7/4/7
2: Board wipe

Board wipe is incredibly useful if you like moving again every turn.


Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: SomeRandomDude on November 03, 2008, 09:31:32 AM
Which is why you should be running with Let Us Go Warily and some sort of regroup choke.

With a Hobbit Sword, Frodo is 7/4/12...

I'm just trying to get you to maximize his potential by choking like heck. You don't need Safe Passage if you don't want.
Title: Re: Smeagol BOG Ring-bound Rangers/ Battleground Hunter Uruks
Post by: Gate Troll on November 19, 2008, 06:51:24 AM
I added Cleaved as a deterrent to archery decks.  :D