Faramir is a better ranger than Chuck Norris

[hrcho]

I've seen several ranger decks here lately and I felt compelled to bring mine up.

Now, the first remark I'll probably get from anyone here is that there are too many cards... that's my everlasting problem. Almost all of my decks have too many cards, but I just don't know what to kick out. Here goes:

Freeps:                                                                                     Shadow:

Boromir, BoC                                                                             Gollum, DaD                           x4
The One Ring, AtAR                                                                   The Witch-king, LotN              x4
                                                                                                 Ulaire Enquea, RiT                  x4
Mablung, Soldier of Gondor     x1 (start)                                   Ulaire Otsea, LoM                   x3
Gondorian Ranger                   x3 (start)                                   Morgul Brute                          x4
Faramir, Son of Denethor        x4                                              Morgul Destroyer                    x2
Pippin, WoBaS                           x2                                            Bill Ferny, SSF                         x1
Sam, SoH                                 x2
                                                                                                  Fell Beast                               x3
Athelas                                    x2                                               Ring of Rancor                        x2
Banner of Westernesse          x4                                               Nazgul Sword                         x1
Ranger's Bow                          x4                                               
Faramir's Bow                          x2                                               Out of Sight and Shot            x2
                                                                                                   Flung into the Fray                 x2
                                                                                                   His Terrible Servants              x3
Ithilien Trap                              x1
Boromir, My Brother                 x1                                                Morgul Gates                         x3 
Citadel of Minas Tirith              x4                                                Wraith World                          x2
Ancient Roads                          x3

New Errand                              x2
Curse Them                              x3
Arrows Thick in the Air              x2

Now, that's a 40/40 deck. I know it's much so I'd appreciate any help cutting it down.

Freeps kick #$&*@!... they destroy everything except Dunland. Hides kick ranger #$&*@!, the only way I can win against Dunland is to survive long enough to kill with Shadow if lucky. The only other problematic Shadow cards are Easterling Polearms but they are doable. The freeps are simple: start with Mablung and Gondorian Ranger. I have chosen this as a starting fellowship because I need Gondorian Ranger for his text and Mablung is the best ranger next to Faramir, SoD. Get Faramir, get bows and banners... Ancient Roads help with roaming, Citadel of Minas Tirith heals at the end of turn (theese Freeps don't lose skirmishes), Pippin can help a lot but I don't always play him, depending on the situation. I'd much rather go with another Gondorian Ranger if Greed is on the table, for example.
Banners help with the healing. Curse them helps when you don't have equipment on all your rangers and you want to heal at the of the turn, New Errand is good, but Arrows thick In the Air kick roaming #$&*@!... I love to play against Moria Swarm, the opponent having 20 minions on the table and I destroy them all with 1 Arrows thick in the Air. However, to use them, you need Gondorian Rangers, because Ancient Roads just work for 1 skirmish phase and Rangers work for each assigned minion.

Shadow is nothing special, just try to play Wikky every turn and make him fierce as much as possible. Ring and Out of Sight and Shot help getting him back. The shadow has proven quite effective and it doesn't clog my hand much even though it looks like it might.

[Cw0rk]

I suggest you to try to put Grima Wormtongue in there in case you meet a Durin that is stonger that your WK. Also, you will have a lot of trouble vs Knigths. So splashing some Grimas and a few Saruman's Power might help.

To be honest, I've just played vs his fellowship and I was impressed by New Errand. I've never seen that card being played before.

[Smeagollum]

Dunland should not be a problem if you use -vitality conditions properly.
Maybe you want to start with faramir and pippin? Or you start with Itilien ranger (or Mablung) and denethor and get out faramir at site 3.

Besides that I think a good easterling deck will hurt. As will most burdendecks... And Isengard Men will hurt as well with wounded.

[MuadDib85]

Besides that I think a good easterling deck will hurt. As will most burdendecks...

I disagree, this deck would match-up great against Easterlings, also with 2x Sam, SoH what more corruption protection do you want?

EDIT: Just noticed it's only Boromir with no scroll of Isildur, maybe corruption will cause some problems..

[TheJord]

I would recommend Isildur instead of Boromir, and Pippin, WoBaS and SoD to start.

[Witchkingx5]

I would recommend Isildur instead of Boromir, and Pippin, WoBaS and SoD to start.

that's what I wanted to say, and besides that, I've got some other nice tips for you:

If you decide to go New Errand, I'd suggest you play at least 3 of them. That cards has lots of Potential. Also a bit technical is the choice of your comps. I think playing 4 copies of Ancient Roads (just add one!) makes Gondorian Ranger pretty useless. Take somebody else instead of those guys. Also really cool is Faramir's Cloak, and I also discovered a lack of Condition/ Posession Discard. A Desert Lord with Seasoned Leader and Mumak will really hurt, same as Castimir+ Halberd or some  Easterlings with Polearm. Just some thoughts.

As for Shadow, Nazzies were always my favorite culture, si I have some really good suggestions for you:

Drop:

3x Gollum, DaD
3x Otsea, LoM
1x or 2x Ulaire Enquea, RiT
1x Nazgul Sword 
1x His Terrible Servants
2x Wraith World 

If you wanna keep the same size add:
4x CbtR
1x or 2x Enquea, LoM (crowd control)
1x Fell Beast
1x Gollum, Stinker
3x Morgul Skulker
1x Bill Ferny, SSF

Trust me, this will make your Deck much more stable and will give you more versatility. it cycles a bit better and with Morgul Skulker, you may just bring back the cards you'll need. if you want some more details about some certain cards, tell me, and you'll see why I made these changes.

[Smeagollum]

Besides that I think a good easterling deck will hurt. As will most burdendecks...

I disagree, this deck would match-up great against Easterlings, also with 2x Sam, SoH what more corruption protection do you want?

EDIT: Just noticed it's only Boromir with no scroll of Isildur, maybe corruption will cause some problems..

But still easterlings will hurt: I'm certain that people can give you about 6 burdens for sure and that's enough (2 is even enough!).

[legolas3333]

If you want to trim it down, drop all Boromir, My Brother and both Athelas, a single Ancient Roads and one copy of Pippin, WobaS, that's down to 35

[MuadDib85]

But still easterlings will hurt: I'm certain that people can give you about 6 burdens for sure and that's enough (2 is even enough!).

Well, Sam will peel at least three of those, so nine burdens minimum would be required really. Which is not that bad. Isildur plus scroll and two other artifacts is about the same as Boromir plus two Sams. There are of course many solid corruption decks in movie block, but most free peoples will be corrupted by these, even resistance twelve Frodos..

[hrcho]

A good corruption deck can make it's way, true, but Easterlings wouldn't work well, mostly because everyone is ring-bound and getting rb assigned via Visions from Afar is not much of a problem. Isildur really might be a better choice; I kept Boromir because Blade of Gondor was originally in the deck and I recently played against Saruman's Snows which, combined with powerful minions can be disastrous for me, so I was thinking about Boromir's Cloak.

As for starting with Faramir and Pippin, I have found that Mablung and Gondorian ranger work better and I need 1 Gondorian ranger early in case of Nazgul or other low site minions.
Three other reasons why Gondorian Ranger beats Ancient Roads:
1. Ancient Roads is a conditon and thus easily discarded
2. Gondorian Ranger makes Arrows Thick in the Air work better
3. Gondorian Ranger works for my Boromir ring-bearer, because he is a ring-bound man, but not a ranger, so Ancient Roads don't work for him.

Castamir is pretty much defenseless against these rangers, only Corsair Marauder can cause some trouble if they constantly discard my bows. Desert Lord bearing everything he can bear is also not much of a trouble. He can exert some of my companions and then die during skirmish. And I will heal at the end of the turn.

@Smeagollum: I did have Citadel of the Stars for some time but decided against it as it gets discarded easily and events kick #$&*@!. I'll consider it some more, though.

Faramir's Cloak is a great card but pretty much useless in my deck as it is a wounding deck, I rarely win skirmishes based on strength.  As for the lack of condition discarding, I agree I need some, but that's the problem with Gondor, there is none. Athelas helps against Shadow conditions on my comps but support area cards are out of my reach unless I throw Gandalf in and that's too much.

@ Cw0rk: As for the shadow side, I agree that Grima with Saruman's Power would make a very powerful asset, thank you.

@ Witchkingx5: Morgul Skulker is a good idea, I forgot about that one. As for Enquea, LoM and crowd control, I don't think I really need that. You are correct about that making my deck more versatile, but I want it concentrated on RB kill or corruption. Wraith world does #$&*@!. Gollum, DaD helps a lot with RB exertions and Otsea, LoM helps keeping my Wikky fierce. Wikky is not so powerful if not fierce. However, I'll probably drop copies of Gollum for CbtR as threats can help at my site 8 to bring Gollum and add burdens.

[Smeagollum]

You forget one thing small hope and ROTK-Easterlings

[hrcho]

You forget one thing small hope and ROTK-Easterlings

Small Hope means no more then 2 burdens. As for ROTK Easterlings, I have never yet played against such a deck... I haven't seen anyone using Easterling healing and even if they did, as far as I know, it's quite expensive, removing burdens or exerting other minions which makes my job easier and Easterling Polearm the only thing that might cause some trouble.

[Smeagollum]

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/pages/LOTR04235.html

[Cw0rk]

I've just thought that instead of using Grima and Saruman's Power, you could have Ulaire Cantea, TotO to get rid of the ranger's bow and knight bow and Durin's gear.

EDIT: I'm talking about the Cantea that remove threats to discard possessions, not TOTO.