The Last Homely House

Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Fellowship => Topic started by: Witchkingx5 on March 04, 2023, 01:55:54 PM

Title: The best Deck for current GEMP Metagame
Post by: Witchkingx5 on March 04, 2023, 01:55:54 PM
Dear all,

This is a little gift from me, to everyone. Having played lots of Fellowship Block on GEMP recently, I noticed Nazgul being highly overrepresented, which led me to building and refining this deck. There might be possible regrets from my side that for making this deck public, but I feel like it's a great starting point to tackle the current metagame online, and many newer players might profit from having such an amazing weapon to their disposal.

So without further ado, here it goes:

Anti-Nazgul

Format: Fellowship Block

Author: Witchkinxg5

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
Ring: The One Ring, Isildur's Bane

Adventure deck:
Green Dragon Inn*
Bree Gate
Council Courtyard
Hollin
The Bridge of Khazad-dum*
Caras Galadhon*
Silverlode Banks
Pillars of the Kings
Slopes of Amon Hen

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Arwen, Daughter of Elrond
1x Legolas, Greenleaf
4x Aragorn, Heir to the White City
3x Boromir, Lord of Gondor
1x Sam, Son of Hamfast
1x Thrarin, Dwarven Smith
3x Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad
1x Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood
1x Gwemegil
1x Aragorn's Bow
1x Armor
3x Athelas
1x Blade of Gondor
2x Flaming Brand
1x Horn of Boromir
1x Ranger's Sword
1x Sting
1x Vilya
1x Secret Sentinels
2x Hobbit Stealth
2x The Last Alliance of Elves and Men
2x No Stranger to the Shadows
1x O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!

Shadow Draw Deck:
3x Lurtz, Servant of Isengard
4x Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
4x Troop of Uruk-hai
2x Uruk Captain
4x Uruk Lieutenant
4x Uruk Ravager
3x Uruk Warrior
1x Lurtz's Battle Cry
1x Saruman's Power
4x Savagery To Match Their Numbers
2x Greed
4x Saruman's Ambition

The strategy is very simple: Bid 3, go first, get Sam, eat all Burdens and then sac him off at the right time. Since he's usuallynot a part of my fellowship for Site 9, he can be used as great cannon fodder to throw under a Balrog, WK or Cave Troll.

The Deck is constructed in a way to be able to deal with the annoying Nazgul Conditions easily, hence the 3 Athelas. You can actually sac off and win with as few as 2 companions against Nazgul, since they do come out strong in the beginning, but even with an average Hand, doubling to 3 against Nazgul is often times a real possibility, even with a WK on the board. Other than that, you might want to preserve an ally or 2 in case of Anduin Confluence, but I often still discard Vilya quite early. Make your fighters (Aragorn, HttWC Boromir, LoG and Elrond, DoE) as large as possible, snipe off any minions that might make the math awkward with Legolas, and after a setup, you can choke your opponent pretty well while having several large companions in play. There's an abundance of healing effects to regenerate your fellowship over and over again.
Swarms can be annoying, but are very beatbale thanks to the allies and some archery. Uruks is not the most amazing matchup (only 1 armor), but the relatively high base strength of your buffed companions will demand lots of pumps from your opponent.

The Shadow is a typical Tier 1 Uruk deck with Saruman, KoI, just the way I like it. In my testing, BthoM was more often useless than any good, and I like the possibility to both Swarm and/or play a few large minions that hit hard. Cycle accordingly to your opponent's fellowship (e.g. Lurtz being bad against archery) and Saruman, KoI can often be played quite early as a move-stopper, particularly on Site 4.

The Deck is currently at 82% win rate, because of a few minor screw-ups in a very tired state. There were only 2-3 games which I legitimately could not win, the rest would have been winnable if I was a slightly better player. I'm not looking forward to my win% dropping soon, with people knowing about it, but that might make games more interesting again. At this point, whenever I feel like winning a game, a load it up and sit back while this well-oiled machine does its thing.

Enjoy.

Title: Re: The best Deck for current GEMP Metagame
Post by: pepenzie on March 18, 2023, 11:48:39 AM
Coming to the game back from very long hiatus and I have a dumb question:  How do you use Green Dragon Inn when u start with Frodo, Lego and Arwen?
Title: Re: The best Deck for current GEMP Metagame
Post by: Ringbearer on March 19, 2023, 04:23:05 AM
The original Green Dragon Inn for FOTR block just required a single exertion. The one you linked is from Shadows and further.
Title: Re: The best Deck for current GEMP Metagame
Post by: Witchkingx5 on March 19, 2023, 07:56:50 AM
My bad, I forgot that it links the new sites, I'll try to fix that. ;)