The Last Homely House
Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Expanded => Topic started by: Elessar's Socks on May 01, 2009, 06:05:31 PM
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The latest discussion on tentacles and the Gil-galad engine has got me tweaking my deck again. Just seeing how far I can run with this. :P
Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Adventure Path:
(0) Doors of Durin
(0) Streets of Bree
[1] Cavern Entrance
[1] City Gates
[1] Expanding Marshland
[2] Mere of Dead Faces
[3] Dammed Gate-stream (starting)
[3] East Wall of Rohan
[4] Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples (36):
1 Elven Guardian (starting)
1 Gandalf, Leader of Men (starting)
1 Smeagol, Poor Creature (starting)
2 Aragorn, Thorongil
3 Elven Guardian
4 Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor
1 Legolas, Of the Woodland Realm
2 Orophin, Silvan Elf
1 Rumil, Silvan Elf
4 Leaving Forever
4 Namarie
4 Uncertain Future
4 Saved From the Fire
4 Something Slimy
Shadow (36):
4 Foul Tentacle
4 Huge Tentacle
4 Reaching Tentacle
4 Strong Tentacle
4 Watcher in the Water, Many-tentacled Creature
1 Gollum, Old Villain
2 Evil-smelling Fens
2 Fat One Wants It
4 Captured by the Ring
3 Led Astray
4 So Polite
Preferably go second, since there's no guarantee of holding ESF at a non-marsh site. If you do go first, then use Something Slimy to pull whatever condition not already in your hand (preference toward Leaving Forever) that's needed for the loop. Burn the Elven Guardian to grab anything else.
In the meantime, you should be generating threats with FOWI, CbtR, and City Gates. You'll need at least 3 threats for So Polite to generate net twilight; obviously the more, the better.
Once the loop is set up, draw out your tentacles and discard them upon reconciling. The ideal situation would be to have the threats maxed out, in which case you can assemble the Watcher, Led Astray x3, and So Polite x4. Play one SP first, then the NOLINKLAs, then the Watcher, and then the other SPs. If you need more threats, replace one Led Astray with CbtR, and play CbtR first. That should be anywhere from 11-35 net twilight generation. Finally use the Watcher to play all the tentacles you can.
Edit - Looks like the So Polite strategy falls under the discarded-when-played restrictions, so twilight generation is down to Led Astray. The deck will have to be reorganized...
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hmm, as a site go for east wall of rohan to grab more guys for namarie, and what's with redhorn pass? that's a site that could completely kill your fellowship loop.
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Thanks, East Wall of Rohan is a good idea.
Redhorn Pass stood in for a marsh (there aren't too many of them), since it can prevent Namarie from discarding ESF. It does kill looping at that site, though, so removed for now.
Wonder if I should throw in Ulaire Nelya, TotNR in case I'm always ahead.
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hey i just tried this deck on sda and it worked great but i had a small twist, in hand after reconciling i had Watcher, So polite x4, led astray x1 gollum, DaD and Plotting so i did'nt bother to add threats i had all i needed with plotting!
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Plotting is sheer brilliance! Led Astray counters choke decks, and Plotting is an instant solution to large fellowships.
DaD is an interesting choice, too--squeezing out extra twilight? I figured Poor Creature and Old Villain together could cycle out anything not needed after every reconcile.
Combine it with a sturdier fellowship like the one McTono had, and this might be something to write home about. :lol:
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Question: how well does a tentacle bomb deck cycle? I'm in the process of making mine and I'm not sure which freep deck to put it with!
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the good thing about tentacle swarm, especially in Expanded, doesn't need much, except the Watcher in the Water from the last set. All other tentacles can be discarded, since they will return eventually. So you are able to cycle fairly well, since you don't need to hold on to certain cards...
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if you dont have the money to get a gil galad loop poor creature and old villain will work just as well
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This threat strategy is making my head spin!
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Here's my version...
1. Have a hand of the Watcher In The Water, Many-Tentacled Creature, Plotting, Gollum, Dark As Darkness (for a fellowship of 3 or less companions) 4x Led Astray + 1x So Polite OR (for a fellowship of 4 or more companions) 4x So Polite + 1x Led Astray
2. Play Gollum.
3. Play Plotting.
4. Play all the Led Astray you have.
5. Remove burdens to add twilight with Gollum, Dark As Darkness.
6. Play the Watcher In The Water. (discards Gollum)
7. Play Gollum with So Polite. (The Watcher discards Gollum as soon as he's played)
8. Repeat step 7 for as many So Polite you have.
9. Play all the tentacles you can with the Watcher's ability.
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Question: how well does a tentacle bomb deck cycle? I'm in the process of making mine and I'm not sure which freep deck to put it with!
I think the Gil-galad engine would work best for this particular build. Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor is the key card in a loop that, in its simplest form, can draw as many cards as needed in the regroup phase, at every site. Normally losing all those cards when reconciling your hand is a problem, but for tentacles it becomes an additional bonus. Suddenly The Watcher in the Water, Many-tentacled Creature has a whole bunch of tentacles to play, limited by the twilight available.
Another thing the Gil-galad engine does is to customize your hand, since you can choose what eight cards to keep. This is where the twilight generation side comes in. One direct method is to use Led Astray. Another method is to use So Polite (multiple copies can be played because the Watcher discards Gollum), which adds [1] for each threat you spot. Obviously the more threats the better, and legolas3333 hit on the idea of using Plotting (and Dark as Darkness for extra juice!). In any case, you just want lots of twilight.
Twilight bomb + tentacle bomb = swarm! ;)
A few caveats:
- The deck as it stands is like a what-if scenario--the fellowship side is completely geared into setting up the Gil-galad engine, which is to say it's rickety at best.
- The game doesn't have a player's committee at the moment, but I'd imagine the Gil-galad loop would be fixed once something official/semi-official gets done. The last few sets introduced some pretty crazy things.
- On the bright side, tentacles work just fine IMO without the Gil-galad engine (Gil-Estel's paired one with Smeagol choke), though for this build I think cycling into the "perfect" hand would be too slow without it. I think a fellowship should at least be able to discard cards at will, though (e.g. Poor Creature, Don't Look at Them).
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The loop itself goes like this:
Needed:
- Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor
- 2 [Elven] conditions that can add at least 3 [Elven] tokens when played (one can be in your discard pile)
- Leaving Forever (can be in your discard pile)
Loop:
1. Remove the first token to play Leaving Forever.
2. Discard Leaving Forever to draw 2 cards.
3. Remove the second token to play Leaving Forever.
4. Remove the third token to play the second token condition.
5. Discard Leaving Forever to discard the first token condition.
6. Repeat.
(The first step can be modified into playing an [Elven] condition of your choice, skipping the second step in that case.)
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well yeah since i dont have anything post-hunters (other than ages end) i use poor creature and old villan to cycle, also a couple of leaving forever to draw cards.
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Hm, what kind of Gollum Shadow would go well with this? I have so many Gollum Shadow cards, but the decks I make with him have trouble taking down big fellowships (except when paired with Sauron, but even then there are issues). The fellowship looks interesting. Pity I only have 2 High King of the Noldor or I'd make it IRL. XD
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Well, the FP was built specifically around the tentacle bomb. I would look at McTono's archery version and Kralik's "Broken Token" deck for sturdier uses of the Gil-galad loop that won't shoot Gollum in the foot.
Not sure there's a quick answer for large fellowships. One trick you could try if the FP is absorbing threats as burdens is to switch into Stinker and go for corruption. Hidden Even From Her gets Gollum into more skirmishes, and Incited / YaLaaT also increases damage. Maybe try to set off Plotting / Promise Keeping too.