Smeagollum Deck

[sharkey]

Abandoned Mine Shaft
Caves of Agalrond
City Gates
Courtyard Parapet
Crags of Emyn Muil
Dammed Gate Stream
Osgiliath Reclaimed
Fords of Isen
Imladris

30 cards on each side:

Smeagol, BoGS
The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry

Possessions:
Fishing Boat

Followers:
Deagol, FF

Conditions:
Don't look at them
Gladden Homestead
Poor Wretch x4
Safe Passage
There's Another Way x4
Naked Waste
Nasty x3
Not Listening x4
Don't Follow the Lights x2
Still Far Ahead x3
Something Slimy x2
Time for Food
Where Shall we go? x2

Shadow:

Minions:
Gollum, Stinker x4
Shelob, Her Ladyship x4

Conditions:
Incited
Promise Keeping
Not yet Vanquished
Hidden Even From Her

Events:
Sting of Shelob
You're a Liar and a Thief x3
Wild Light of Madness
Trap is Sprung
Nasty, Foul Hobbits x4
Master Broke His Promise
Look at Him
From Deep in Shadow
Frenzied Attack
Desperate Move
Captured by the Ring x2
A Dark Shape Sprang

A fun deck to play. Classic choke/site control/ strength Smeagol with Classic Ninja Gollum. Works like a charm. And Not Listening is fun to pull out after surviving a Balrog and discarding it by adding 2 burdens, then moving again...

[sharkey]

How come there were no Smeagol Starter decks? Weird...

Also, how much is this deck worth, physically?

[sharkey]

Anyone? Suggestions?

[Smeagollum]

Yup! Why is Deagol in? You can't use it if smeagol is your only companion:

Game Text: To play, spot Smeagol. Aid - Add a burden. Skirmish: If bearer is not assigned to a skirmish, discard this from play to play an artifact or possession from your draw deck on bearer.

I would like to see another fishingboat an 2 more Gladden Homestead; Also another Nasty. So for 30/30 you'll need to take out 3 cards. In my opinion you should take out:

Something Slimy x2
Time for Food

Though I like the idea with solo-smeagol I'm not sure if I would play this deck, because I would like to play or mb or standard. A combination of them weakens in my opinion the fs.

I Like your intend to do a lot of cool tricks (I like trick's) but I think the shadow is to unballanced, because of it. I don't understand 'look at him' in this deck: You don't need a lot of twillight with just Gollum and Shelob. We're the cards that helps Gollum to win it's skirmish? That's the best way to add burdens instead of the cool trick's, because the cool trick's are nice but hard to get done. If you don't want your opponent to walk through then for example a combo of promise keeping & they stole it on table is much more scary then Master Broke His Promise. And you need more card's that makes sure you can play gollum. Just 2 x captured by the ring is unsficient. You really need 4 of them. Love the intention of your deck, but you need to pollish the diamant.

[sharkey]

Smeagol is there to add resistance, making smeagol 8. The idea with the Gollum side is that you play Gollum, then Shelob, Paralyze the companion who is most likely to cause trouble. Smeagol wins his skirmish, usually, and then you play all the cards like You're a Liar and a Thief and Nasty Foul Hobbits to do some damage. For each skirmish he wins, he is going to be aat least str. +1, probably str. +2 or 3 until the end of the game. with 9 burdens, Gollum can be str. 14! A dark shape sprang also helps... At one point, I had someone play sting when I had that... and 3 NFH and 2 YaLaaT. I added 5 burdens in the fellowship phase (They had ATAR).

[Smeagollum]

Smeagol is there to add resistance, making smeagol 8. The idea with the Gollum side is that you play Gollum, then Shelob, Paralyze the companion who is most likely to cause trouble. Smeagol wins his skirmish, usually, and then you play all the cards like You're a Liar and a Thief and Nasty Foul Hobbits to do some damage. For each skirmish he wins, he is going to be aat least str. +1, probably str. +2 or 3 until the end of the game. with 9 burdens, Gollum can be str. 14! A dark shape sprang also helps... At one point, I had someone play sting when I had that... and 3 NFH and 2 YaLaaT. I added 5 burdens in the fellowship phase (They had ATAR).

But then still deagol is useless: To have a temporary extra resistance you add everytime a burden? Makes no sense. Say you do this 8x is 8 burden extra for an extra temporary resistance of 2.

I know how the gollumside works, but your statement that Gollum usually wins his skirmish is not plausible: He's normally just a 5 str minion. Only when there are burdens he becomes stronger, so you'll need to add burdens so you still need to make sure that he wins the skirmish, before you can do all the tricks; That's why you need Not This Time! or They Stole it!
Then you still short of either:    We Must Have It or Captured by the ring. And if you play Not this time then there should also be a Fat One Wants It in the deck. You really can't do the tricks without winning with Gollum. Maybe you also like to play: Not Easily Avoided
Just make sure Gollum wins the skirmish and use YaLaaT for extra suprise (I actually love it that you play this card. In the Netherlands I was the first to play Ninja-Gollum deck's and I allways had one or two copies of this card in the deck).
And put in mind Gollum decks (like Beasterlingdecks) are weak against Hobbitdecks and Gandalfdecks, Because they remove burdens as fast as you add them. It's also weak against Smeagoldecks, because in all smeagol deck's there should be at least one Clever Hobbits in.

[sharkey]

Right. My idea was that if the opponent bids high to move first, I win (As Gollum would have to +2 or 3 str) and if they didn't, I'd go first and win.

[Smeagollum]

Right. My idea was that if the opponent bids high to move first, I win (As Gollum would have to +2 or 3 str) and if they didn't, I'd go first and win.

Ah, but then you forget one thing: The opponent may have a deck which makes you stop. The best way they can do that is an archerybomb at say site 7 or 8. It doesn't mean that if you go first you will win. I almost never bid high. I actually like to walk behind and wait for the moment to strike. I only bid high if I'm sure I can clear the burdens. Besides that there's also another trick for smeagoldeck's if they walk behind: Radagast.. I agrre with you that Smeagoldecks are strong but they are not totaly unvulnarable, otherwise everybody would play them.
But if I find time and energy I will see if I can post some decks which are not usual and rather fun to play with.

[sharkey]

Oh yeah. It's the type of deck that works once, if the opponent isn't expecting it. They have to shift strategies radically and quickly. And far too many players can't. I have a different deck using Pitiable guide to recycle key cards, but that is not pure Smeagol Gollum. I post that later, it's a deck I'm rather proud of.

[Gerontius]

Naked Waste is great in this type of deck, as all 60 of your cards are . I would be using 4 copies.