Bearer of Obligation/Northmen Rohan

[sgtdraino]

8-2 record with the deck after 2 days of playing it.

8-3 <evil grin>

I'm loving it, probably more than any other expanded deck I played before (although it's by no means the strongest one). The 2 losses honestly came from horrid draws (no minion till site 4 and no form of burden removal after getting 58 cards out of the deck).

Why not try your Long-stemmed Pipe trick? 4x of that and 4x AWINL would double your chances of getting a turn 1 SFTF (via Barliman). Of course, you'd be adding potentially 16 more cards to do that... but you could mitigate that somewhat by doing what I did, and taking out copies of other duplicate events that you can pull later with Long-stemmed Pipe.

[Shelobplayer]

8-2 record with the deck after 2 days of playing it.

8-3 <evil grin>

I'm loving it, probably more than any other expanded deck I played before (although it's by no means the strongest one). The 2 losses honestly came from horrid draws (no minion till site 4 and no form of burden removal after getting 58 cards out of the deck).

Why not try your Long-stemmed Pipe trick? 4x of that and 4x AWINL would double your chances of getting a turn 1 SFTF (via Barliman). Of course, you'd be adding potentially 16 more cards to do that... but you could mitigate that somewhat by doing what I did, and taking out copies of other duplicate events that you can pull later with Long-stemmed Pipe.

9-3

For the Long-Stemmed Pipe tech I'd need to add Sméagol to work efficiently, and as I've said before, that'd make me exceptionally vulnerable against corruption strategies on site 2. Ofc I could add 4 copies of everything but I'm absolutely not going to do that :p

A more traditional mono-gandy BoO list is probably stronger, but this version is so much fun!

[sgtdraino]

For the Long-Stemmed Pipe tech I'd need to add Sméagol to work efficiently,

Not necessarily. If you just add 4x Long-stemmed pipe, that doubles your chances (from 4 to 8) of pulling a SFTF out of your deck. Of course if you use Long-stemmed pipe to pull it, you'd also need Barliman to get it in your hand, which is why 4x AWINL doubles your chances (from 4 to 8) to get Barliman out very quickly. If the most important thing is getting SFTF asap, then that is the way to maximize your chances of doing it. You might try removing:

1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick
2x Citadel to Gate
1x Speak 'Friend' and Enter
1x Traveled Leader

...then you'd only be adding 3 more FP cards and 3 more Shadow. Or you could drop 3 more Rohan cards and keep the deck the same size. Long-stemmed Pipe would also let you discard conditions in Regroup, which could come in handy. If you get in a bind with the burdens, just kill off a guy, distribute threats, remove with GOTM, and move to Mithlond.

[Shelobplayer]

Updated the list in the first post. My record with this deck from the beginning of it's developement is 21 wins and 5 losses (one loss comming from concession do to RL stuff), so all in all at this point I find it pretty competitive, even if not Madril/Powerful Guide tier. The shadow side is way more powerful than I originally gave it credit for, if the opposing freeps side is not packed with possession removal it is fairly easy to get 10-15 minions out from twilight generated by War Galleys and cards by Under Foot (all that recycled with Ships of Great Draught) on a double move backed up by Shelob (and possibly other silver bullets or a Demon of Might), and the freeps side often forces the opponents to double move.

Here is a replay of a game I just played and enjoyed a lot: (it is against a Powerful Guide/forestgul deck)
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$xj0y9kbyndw25mrq

I made a huge mistake of burning Gamling with SFTF after I already draw 3 cards, but still managed to overpower the nazguls.

[sgtdraino]

Cool replay! I don't get why your opponent conceded though.

So you don't think this is on the same tier as Powerful Guide? That surprises me. In what ways do you think it's weaker than that? Let's see if we can't eliminate those weaknesses!

[Shelobplayer]

Cool replay! I don't get why your opponent conceded though.

So you don't think this is on the same tier as Powerful Guide? That surprises me. In what ways do you think it's weaker than that? Let's see if we can't eliminate those weaknesses!

He conceded because next site would have been Cavern Entrance and Shelob would have taken out a 3rd companion from skirmishes (Treebeard and Grimbeorn were already out) and I'd have easily had another 6-8 minions out next site, and if he doesn't triple I just simply walk in. Based on his Moving this Way usage, his freeps were most likely out of gas at that point too, and the nazguls couldn't even scratch my guys.

The deck doesn't have a specific weakness imo, it's just simply not as efficient at killing stuff as Madril and Powerful Guide are, and also not as good at controlling the sitepath because of the lack of Sméagol. I'm using way more cards to kill minions than the afformentioned 2, and also I devote a fair share of resources to maintain BoO, which leaves less space for control and tricks.

[Shelobplayer]

Edited the first post of the thread with the updated list. Finally found a reliable healing source for Gandalf in the form of Weland + Leowyn. Ditched Perspectives as I usually don't care about stuff like shotgun Enquea or Southron Leader and assignment tricks can be negated with Éowyn's ability (also 2 threat equals 2 burdens fairly often with this deck).

Here is a replay link that shows how well Weland works out:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$y127m2vzutjitvy0

[sgtdraino]

Those allies work very effectively for you! Next time I'll definitely make taking them out a priority. As you noted, that's pretty tough to do! Throne can prevent wounds, Eowyn can prevent assignments. Still, not impossible. I reckon I would try to exhaust Eowyn with Mumak Commander, throw down Steward's Tomb, then go to town with Dunlending Ravager.

[Shelobplayer]

Those allies work very effectively for you! Next time I'll definitely make taking them out a priority. As you noted, that's pretty tough to do! Throne can prevent wounds, Eowyn can prevent assignments. Still, not impossible. I reckon I would try to exhaust Eowyn with Mumak Commander, throw down Steward's Tomb, then go to town with Dunlending Ravager.

I can still just hit Ravager with the allies (as I did in the replay link). I prefer Attea, The Easterling for ally kills. Maybe Tower Assassin, but that one won't work well against a long list of decks. Attea can take out Powerful Guide builds' Barliman, works under Steward's Legacy, Shadowplay/ Unheeded and so on.

Thinking about adding Faramir's Company. Could use Armor and Flaming Brand to make use of it. Also added Guma, he is not as good as Weland, but can heal Weland and just generally good value with Mithlond and stuff.

[sgtdraino]

I see what you mean about Attea, The Easterling, although I'm not thrilled about his cost. Plus it would mean removing the only Dunland card from my deck, which currently employs every single Shadow culture!

[Shelobplayer]

Updated the list in the opening post. Added Ottar, Hugin and a single copy of AWINL. Hugin is a very strong card in a deck with a lot of search cards, Ottar is solid 1 of card that gets additional value from Mithlond and with the addition of these two I can finally play AWINL (making it so that I have a 5th functional Barliman). Cut some fluff possessions that always just used to make me worry about Wormtongue. I'm considering Elrond, Lord of Rivendell but that could lead to 4 FP cultures, which could be devastating.

Added an extra Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders and a Dark Horseman to the shadow.

Edited the opening post with a fresh strategy writeup, the old one was fairly outdated

[sgtdraino]

Sounds like your deck is gradually becoming more and more like mine!