Dauntless Hobbits and Easterlings

[Kralik]

Works pretty well! 70 cards total:

Ring and Bearer
Ring-bearer 9R+14 Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring 9R+1 The One Ring, The Binding Ring

Adventure Deck
1 7U332 Rohirrim Road
2 7U337 West Road
3 7U339 Hall of the Kings
4 7U342 Osgiliath Fallen
5 7U344 City Gates
6 7U350 Minas Tirith Seventh Circle
7 7U355 Ruined Capitol
8 7U356 Cross Roads
9 7U360 Dagorlad

Free Peoples
1x 4R73 Legolas, Dauntless Hunter (starting)
1x 1R302 Merry, Friend to Sam (starting)
1x 7R324 Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver (starting)
3x 5U13 Taurnil, Sharp-eyed Bowman

2x 1R284 Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer
2x 3R13 Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad

2x 4R300 Escape
4x 3R113 The Shire Countryside
3x 10U108 A Light in his Mind

1x 3R23 Nenya
1x 3R27 Vilya

2x 4C64 Elven Sword
2x 6C21 Naith Longbow

1x 3R21 Long-knives of Legolas
1x 1R33 Bow of the Galadhrim

2x 9R18 Merry's Dagger
2x 9R21 Pippin's Dagger

2x 10C112 Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom
2x 1R308 Power According to His Stature

Shadow
3x 4C224 Easterling Axeman
3x 4R225 Easterling Captain
3x 4C226 Easterling Guard
3x 4C227 Easterling Infantry
3x 4C228 Easterling Lieutenant
2x 7R145 Easterling Regiment
4x 4R229 Easterling Skirmisher

3x 6U79 Easterling Polearm
3x 7C155 Raider Bow

3x 7R159 Small Hope

2x 4R223 Discovered
3x 4R259 Vision From Afar

Free Peoples Strategy Summary:
So, this deck is designed to peel off burdens continually and do mass healing with The Shire Countryside. No luck with Galadriel's Silver Ewer in Movie Block, but you should be able to keep burdens to a manageable level. Dauntless Hunter and Taurnil restrict your opponent's twilight... being able to add +2 to conditions, events and possessions HURTS. Once you have Elrond out, you can use the Binding Ring to nab Vilya and force two conditions back to their hand for some clog.

Merry and Pippin both play important roles: Merry is a +5 (with dagger) strength boost to any companion, and with Escape, he can do it twice. Pippin WoBaS is some early protection against roaming minions, but also gains the ability to wound minions skirmishing an Elf (which would include the RB) with his nifty discardable dagger. We're talking about a potential five wounds on the first turn if you get the dagger and include Lego's archery. With Escape and a dagger, he can do this trick twice. Since twilight is precious, hopefully your opponent won't be able to remove often.

Now for the heart of the deck: A Light in His Mind + The Shire Countryside. You can lose initiative in many ways which should give you mass healing as long as there are burdens to remove. Hence the choice of the Binding Ring -- add two or more burdens for free in the Fellowship phase without putting on the ring. Elven Sword lets you lose initiative by discarding 2+ cards, and Vilya lets you lose/regain initiative in regroup. This could be especially helpful if you have four cards in hand: Discard one (lose initiative), draw one (gain again), discard to reconcile (lose again). WoBaS can even help by letting you regain initiative before regroup if you have three cards in hand. I was thinking of trying to work in Banner of Elbereth for additional hand manipulation, but it didn't seem to fit.

NFFatRoD also lets you remove a burden for mass healing. The nice thing is that it costs and is done during the skirmish phase. Merry has four wounds and you want his strength boost? No problem! Between playing NFFatRoD and/or losing initiative with an Elven Sword, you should be able to get him healed up.

Finally, Bilbo, Retired Adventurer, lets you recycle up to two NFFatRoD's per turn with Elrond's help. And if A Light in His Mind or The Shire Countryside gets discarded, get it back in your draw deck! With all of your opponent's events costing +2, your conditions should be harder to discard anyway.

One of the problems that this deck faces is that it really needs all companions to stay alive. Corruption seems to be a little risky, but... hmmm... Other thoughts: More RB protection (Asfaloth, O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!)? Ditch Lego's fancy weapons to have more Elven Sword's and Naith Longbow's?

Feedback and thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[SomeRandomDude]

Lockbearer! Actually, I'm seeing this go a good Wingfoot route, with him and his bow thrown in over Taurnil (now you're getting too specific and taking a rock/paper/scissors approach). If it works right, you can get Gorn + Bow working with Bow of the Galadhrim to drop minions fighting hobbits, then heal up with Shire Countryside. Increased punch power and a good way to double.

[Kralik]

My goal was to not make a three hunters deck, but instead do something a little different (the Last Alliance of Elves and... Hobbits). I'd like to run it more like a choke, moving slowly and clogging my opponent's hand w/ Elrond. I'd be glad to go second, though I'd slap down Rohirrim Road if made to go first. Replacing Taurnil with Gorn or Gimli loses the benefits of Pippin's Dagger for those two. Besides, Taurnil's possession restriction is too valuable: Think Web, Grond HotU, Raider Bow, Mumak, War Club, Fell Beast, GOBLIN SCIMITAR... Having to pay a "roaming" cost on practically all non-minion cards hurts badly. Still thinking of removing Lego's bow for another Naith Longbow so that it works earlier.

EDIT: What did you mean by:

(now you're getting too specific and taking a rock/paper/scissors approach)

[SomeRandomDude]

Well...a pure minion deck comes to mind, like, the Uruk swarm deck (not the site control version, though, IMO, that could do damage even with the +2 twilight cost), I could see it ripping this deck apart. So you absolutely kill some decks, and absolutely get killed by others.

[Kralik]

So you absolutely kill some decks, and absolutely get killed by others.

That's the name of the game, isn't it? Though site control would be another reason to try and fit in Banner of Elbereth. Any other thoughts on improving the deck while keeping it to / ?

[SomeRandomDude]

PATHS. I mean, you got recursion and burden peeling, so its kinda a must have at least 1 card. And it combos nicely with Bow of the Galadhrim.

[Kralik]

Ah, good call on PATHS. Ironic that both PATHS and NFFatRoD are specific to Frodo but will be used with Galadriel. The Galadriel RB needs a picture like Terrible as the Dawn. So keep Lego's bow, any recommendations for cards to remove to make space for PATHS?

[SomeRandomDude]

1 each Pip's Dagger and NFFatrod

[DáinIronfoot]

1 each Pip's Dagger and NFFatrod

Noooo! Don't listen to him! He just hates NfFatRoD! Hates it forever!






...actually, I agree. Those are probably the ones I'd cut, too. Love the deck idea, by the way. I've always wanted to tinker with Dauntless Hunter, Lockbearer, and/or Wingfoot....

[SomeRandomDude]

Actually, here, it is pretty good. But usually it stinks.

[Kralik]

Here is what I was thinking of pairing it with:

3x 4C224 Easterling Axeman
3x 4R225 Easterling Captain
3x 4C226 Easterling Guard
2x 4C227 Easterling Infantry
3x 4C228 Easterling Lieutenant
2x 7R145 Easterling Regiment
4x 4R229 Easterling Skirmisher
2x 4U230 Easterling Trooper

3x 6U79 Easterling Polearm

3x 7R159 Small Hope
2x 7R169 Surging Up

2x 4R223 Discovered
3x 4R259 Vision From Afar

[Gate Troll]

I'd throw in a Golden Perch Ale. 

[TheJord]

GPA is from T&D and not movie block legal.

I like Easterlings they are fun. But get rid of Easterling Trooper and Surging Up and put in 4x Raider Bow! Make the Easterling Captain a monster!

[Kralik]

GPA is from T&D and not movie block legal.

Not to mention I don't think Str. 5 hobbits are going to win many skirmishes.

I like Easterlings they are fun. But get rid of Easterling Trooper and Surging Up and put in 4x Raider Bow! Make the Easterling Captain a monster!

Surging Up was to prevent too many doubles by my opponent is my Freeps creep along... hmm. Will definitely consider Raider Bow. Works great with the fierce Captain...

[Kralik]

I just got a chance to play this against my brother (not on these forums) and it worked quite well! It's very cool that when your opponent has or less twilight you have no fear of any Shadow skirmish events. Makes planning assignments easy. +2 to events and conditions severely cramped his corruption deck. He got out of a hand clog by discarding 7 cards at Pelennor Flat.

Easterlings did very well considering that he was running Ring-bound rangers. Although they rendered the Easterling Guard and Easterling Lieutenant useless, they lost at the end to Easterling Regiment, Easterling Captain, and Raider Bow. The game ended with all companions dead and the Ring-bearer overwhelmed at 93 to... 4.