Merry's Sword/Nazgûl

[Tunadan]

Ring-bearer: Faramir, Bearer of Quality
Ring: The One Ring, The Ring of Doom

Adventure deck:
Buckland Homestead
The Angle
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Caras Galadhon
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
Imladris
Mount Doom

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Returned
1x Smeagol, Poor Creature
1x Aldred, Eored Soldier
1x Aragorn, Defender of Rohan
1x Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
1x Éomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark
1x Éowyn, Lady of Ithilien
1x Merry, Swordthain
3x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Hugin, Emissary from Laketown
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
1x Faramir's Bow
1x Faramir's Sword
1x Brego
1x Coif
1x Eomer's Spear, Trusty Weapon
1x Erkenbrand's Horn
1x Firefoot
1x Horse of Great Stature
2x Merry's Sword
1x Rider's Mount
1x Rider's Spear
1x Spear of the Mark
1x Sting, Weapon of Heritage
1x Throne of the Golden Hall
4x A Wizard is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
2x Deep in Thought
1x Roll of Thunder
1x Saved From the Fire
1x Speak \Friend\ and Enter
1x Traveled Leader
4x Something Slimy
4x Simbelmyne
2x Long-stemmed Pipe
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Sword Rack
1x Weapon Store
2x Home and Hearth
1x Pallando, Far-travelling One
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Rohirrim Doorwarden

Shadow Draw Deck:
2x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
2x Grima, Servant of Another Master
1x Grima, Wormtongue
1x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
1x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
3x Southron Leader
1x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
2x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
3x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
2x Úlairë Otsëa, Duplicitous Specter
3x Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow
1x Web
2x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
4x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
1x Their Power Is In Terror
3x Too Great and Terrible
4x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Final Strike
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

This is a build I've put together fairly recently, but I can't seem to make it work properly. The basic strategy is to get set up with a few guys (hopefully Eowyn, Eomer, and Aragorn) and Merry's Sword to direct wound minions to death. Faramir + Pallando + Stewards' Legacy is to counter stuff like Cantea, FTW and Cantea, Black Assassin. You have a host of fetching tools, Deagol, Simbelmyne, AWINL, Long-Stemmed Pipe, SFTF, etc. There's a few tricks like Deal on Aragorn into Ranger's Longbow, Trusty Weapon and Swordthain. However, most of the time, I can't draw the tools to get SFTF quickly enough, can't get any Simbelmyne or companions, and there's no consistency like most larger decks that I play. The shadow has been fun, no complaints there. I can usually do enough damage to slow them down or kill. Saruman's Power for condition heavy decks like Gondor Tokens and Hobbit Hospital, Grima for Dwarves, Enquea for large freeps, Balrog for Madril, and Southern Leader + Lemeya, ET for multicultural shenanigans.

So to summarize, I have issues
A) getting Gandalf at the right time,
B) getting companions out fast, and
C) surviving any sort of setup.

Any suggestions?

[Tunadan]

I revamped the fellowship slightly, adding Ecglaf for recursion and swapping eomers to Horsemaster. Also chose to co with Courteous Halfling and The Great Ring, so as to survive early minions easier, and to prevent annoying discard decks from removing a card as I run a lot of singles. Upped Gandalf to 4x, and added Perspective to block Cantea, FTW hopefully. However, usually he's dropped in conjunction with Enquea and I can exhaust Enquea before losing Merry's Sword. Swapped Poor Creature for Always Helps for more wounding power.

Ideas:

Swap Gandalf, Returned for Powerful Guide or Wise Guide (leaning towards Wise Guide)
Deagol can fetch Shadowfax, and adding a second copy won't be a huge problem.

Drop a few silver bullets (GATS, Sauron, Etc.) and add a few Black Riders to make for a more Fierce Nazgûl style build.

Add Robin Smallburrow. He's a solid cycling card, and with Poor Creature out, he could help a lot. Plus an extra point of site nine resistance.

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Courteous Halfling
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring

Adventure deck:
Buckland Homestead
The Angle
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Caras Galadhon
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
Imladris
Mount Doom

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
4x Gandalf, Returned
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
1x Aldred, Eored Soldier
1x Aragorn, Defender of Rohan
1x Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
1x Éomer, Horsemaster
1x Éowyn, Lady of Ithilien
1x Merry, Swordthain
3x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Hugin, Emissary from Laketown
1x Ecglaf, Courageous Farmer
1x Leowyn
1x Rohirrim Herdsman
1x Weland, Smith of the Riddermark
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
1x Brego
1x Coif
1x Eomer's Spear, Trusty Weapon
1x Erkenbrand's Horn
1x Firefoot
2x Merry's Sword
1x Rider's Mount
1x Rider's Spear
1x Spear of the Mark
1x Sting, Elven Long Knife
1x Throne of the Golden Hall
4x A Wizard is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
1x Deep in Thought
1x Roll of Thunder
1x Saved From the Fire
1x Speak \Friend\ and Enter
1x Traveled Leader
4x Something Slimy
4x Simbelmyne
2x Long-stemmed Pipe
1x Perspective
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Weapon Store
2x Home and Hearth
1x Pallando, Far-travelling One
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Rohirrim Doorwarden

Shadow Draw Deck:
2x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
2x Grima, Servant of Another Master
1x Grima, Wormtongue
1x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
1x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
3x Southron Leader
1x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
2x Úlairë Attëa, Black Predator
2x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
3x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
2x Úlairë Otsëa, Duplicitous Specter
3x Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow
1x Web
2x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
4x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
1x Their Power Is In Terror
3x Too Great and Terrible
4x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

[Shelobplayer]

I'd bump up Home and Heart to 4, add Daddy Twofoot and Unheeded, and drop Gandalf alltogether. Play Fortress Never Fallen and Dispatched with Haste, and Smeagol stuff for sitepath manipulation. There is no real need for Gandalf here.