Legion's Site 2 Change

[Legion]

I've seen a few threads asking who could be the strongest companion. However, all of these seem to descend into silliness as it always seems as though you can add more cards. So my question is this:

What is the highest strength you can get a companion at site 2?

You may choose:
•Your site 1.
•Your starting fellowship.
•The order of your deck (so starting hand and any cards you may draw)
•Which site 2 you move to.
•Which companion you wish to beef up.

Your opponent will then play a strength 0 vitality 1 minion with no race that cannot take wounds or be roaming. They will do nothing else.

The current leaderboard is as follows:
Fellowship Block: 201 - Phallen Cassidy (not yet posted)
Towers Standard: 359 - Legion (not yet posted)
Open: infinity - Legion

I haven't yet bothered to do the other blocks. Anyone think they can do better?

[Phallen Cassidy]

I've got Fellowship Block at 201 if I can exploit a hole in your rules! 188 without. Should I show my proof and you can check for errors, or wait and see if anyone can best it first (which will be really funny when there are errors)?

[Legion]

Well played! That's a lot better than mine, though I admit I spent more time on the TS version. Interestingly, Movie is being quite underwhelming.

The only rule I forgot to mention is that your opponent has no hand and there is only one opponent. I don't want you drawing 20 cards from Cast it into the Fire. If that's not it, please go right ahead (though a piddly 13 strength is hardly an abuse, it's just Lurtz!) I'll edit the first post with your record.

One reason I'm letting you choose the sites 1 and 2 is that I'm assuming this is a mirror matchup. Therefore, feel free to have your fellowship go second (it may be useful to put cards in the discard pile during your first shadow phase). In FotR block you can reconcile 1 away and abandon 12 for madness. I'll call that infinite.

[Legion]

By the way, for open, do the following:

Sites:
1. Cavern Entrance
2. Mount Doom

Starting fellowship:
Frodo, Son of Drogo with The Great Ring (bid 0 to start)
Gandalf, The Grey Wizard

Hand/deck in order:
Merry, Swordthain
Erland, Dale Counselor
Mysterious Wizard
The Shire Countryside
A Light in His Mind
Goblin Runner x3

Method:
1. Play all fellowship cards. Gandalf is now strength 11 with Mysterious Wizard
2. Use Erland to pull Mysterious Wizard from discard
3. Add a burden with The Great Ring
4. Play Mysterious Wizard making Gandalf strength +4,  losing initiative, triggering ALihM, removing a burden and healing Erland with TSC.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you get bored.

In fact both Gandalf and Frodo are now strength infinity.

[Phallen Cassidy]

The only rule I forgot to mention is that your opponent has no hand and there is only one opponent. I don't want you drawing 20 cards from Cast it into the Fire. If that's not it, please go right ahead (though a piddly 13 strength is hardly an abuse, it's just Lurtz!) I'll edit the first post with your record.

Yeah, it had to do with the opponent's hand -- I just didn't think to be as abusive as I could have! Here's my Fellowship Block bid (looks like I did make an error somewhere, it comes out to 200 or 187, not 201 or 188), it's pretty obvious what I'll do:

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Son of Drogo
Ring: The One Ring, Isildur's Bane

Adventure deck:
Hobbiton Party Field
Trollshaw Forest

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Arwen, Daughter of Elrond (Starting)
1x Lorien Elf (Starting)
1x Merry, Friend to Sam (Starting)
1x Boromir, Son of Denethor
2x Songs of the Blessed Realm
3x The Shire Countryside
1x Hobbit Intuition
4x Banner of the White Tree [cheating]
4x Might of Numenor [cheating]
4x Voice of Nimrodel
1x Swordarm of the White Tower [or 1x Hobbit Intuition if not cheating]
1x Bilbo, Retired Adventurer
1x Red Book of Westmarch
1x The Saga of Elendil
1x The Last Alliance of Elves and Men
1x There and Back Again

Bid 8 to go first. Starting hand: Boromir, 2 Songs of the Blessed Realm, 3 The Shire Countryside, Red Book of Westmarch, and The Saga of Elendil. Use Hobbiton Party Field to play Bilbo, then play Red Book and Saga to draw The Last Alliance of Elves and Men and There and Back Again. Play those to draw Hobbit Intuition and either Banner of the White Tree (if we're cheating) or Voice of Nimrodel. In the maneuver phase use There and Back Again. If we're cheating, play Banner of the White Tree to draw Might of Numenor (and reveal a card twilight cost 1 or more) to draw Banner until you've played 4x of each to make Boromir strength +12 and drawn Voice of Nimrodel.

In the skirmish phase, play Hobbit Intuition to make Merry strength 8. Exert Boromir three times to make Merry strength 17, exert Merry twice to make Boromir strength [26 playing fair / 38 cheating], exert Arwen to play Voice of Nimrodel: draw another one, remove 2 burdens with Songs of the Blessed Realm, and heal all 6 exertions. That's the first loop, the next 3 result in
2) Merry strength 26, Boromir strength [52 / 64]
3) Merry strength 35, Boromir strength [87 / 99]
4) Merry strength 44, Boromir strength [131 / 143]

Everyone is healed, there are no burdens, and the last Voice of Nimrodel either draws a Swordarm of the White Tower or Hobbit Intuition. Play that event, exert Boromir x3 to make Merry strength +9 [53 + 3 = 56 / 53], exert Merry x2 to make Boromir strength [187 / 196 + 4 = 200], and watch that minion cower before the might of Boromir. Unless I've made another mistake, haha.

[JamesCB]

I'll go fellowship block.
Bid 4 to go first

Sites:
1: The Prancing Pony
2: Ettenmoors

Starting:
Frodo, RA
Arwen, DoE
Sam, SoH

You draw:
Songs of the Blessed Realm
Voice of Nimrodel x2
Shire Countryside
Swordarm of the White Tower x4

1. Add a burden to play Aragorn, RotN
2. Play Shire Countryside and SotBR
3. Move to ettenmoors
4. Exert RotN once to make him defender +1
5. Play Voice of Nimrodel to remove a burden
6. Heal Aragorn from Shire Countryside
7. Exert him from Ettenmoors to make him plus two.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 until you can't (which is four times)
10. Use all four of Swordarm of the White Towers to make him +16

I think that makes him + 28, so a total of 36... ok not the best one out there...

[Legion]

Nice to see some interest!

I did get slightly higher than 201 strength by pumping Gimli, SoG (using a similar setup to Phallen). I lost the calculations, may redo when I get some time. But keep them coming!

[Durin's Heir]

Everyone is healed, there are no burdens, and the last Voice of Nimrodel either draws a Swordarm of the White Tower or Hobbit Intuition. Play that event, exert Boromir x3 to make Merry strength +9 [53 + 3 = 56 / 53], exert Merry x2 to make Boromir strength [187 / 196 + 4 = 200], and watch that minion cower before the might of Boromir. Unless I've made another mistake, haha.

Hobbit Intuition is useless as pump before site 5. But you can use Noble Intentions instead up to 2 times (as Lorien Elf + Arwen will provide 2 spare vitality). So the math should be the same anyway.

Now, there is a single card that would give a much better result if drawn by the last Voice of Nimrodel: the very underrated Stout and Sturdy. Instead of giving +3 to Merry by Noble Intentions / +4 to Boromir by Swordarm of the White Tower and then making Merry give +53/56 just once, play Stout and Sturdy so Merry recovers enough vitality for 2 pumps instead, each of +53 (+106 instead of +56). Leaving Boromir with a total strength of 237 / 249.

Finally, if you replace TLAOEAM with Stone Trolls in Fellowship phase, that gives Boromir str +1 when overwhelming skirmishing a Troll / Uruk. 238 / 250.