Ally Deck

[Larry5000]

Been along time again since I was up here Sorry if this question is not in the right spot and also not under the page guys have set up for me to ask questions, as I use to ask a lot of questions at one time.

Anyway Has anybody built any decks primarily around a whole mess of Allies, maybe only one or two regular companions besides the ring-bearer of course and the rest in allies, letting the allies do most of the work through various cards. And of course most of the reason behind that is so you do not give your opponent so much twilight all the time?

[Phallen Cassidy]

Welcome back!

In a card, you want a Horn of Boromir deck. Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith stays in top shape while your allies do all the fighting. There are two basic takes on this. The first is to use Galadriel, Lady of Light to play a bunch of Elves for free and then Boromir calls them in to fight. They may add to the archery total and often don't even have to die. Celeborn, Lord of Lorien is 9 strength and gets healed for free every turn thanks to Galadriel. Elrond gets up to 11, 14 if you use the horn on him twice. Elrond, Lord of Rivendell is a fine choice, but Herald to Gil-galad will heal himself twice every turn or heal Boromir for a double. The Elven approach also opens up a whole host of Elven support tools: Secret Sentinels, Foul Creation, Curse Their Foul Feet, Hosts of the Last Alliance, The Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Don't try to fit all of these in the deck, of course, but you've got directions you can take it depending on what you face.

I actually can't quickly find a list for a "Horn of Boromir deck" that fits this bill. The reason is simple, a deck that does all this is only a few cards away from being a type of Last Alliance deck anyway and that deck doesn't fall apart when Boromir dies. There are 5 Last Alliance decks here which include Horn of Boromir to various degrees, you can reorient one of them around Boromir I'm sure: https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=12180.msg99411#msg99411

The other basic take isn't quite as obvious. Instead of calling Elves in to fight, call Hobbits in to die. It can be very effective though, Green Hill Country plays all your allies for free and because you're obviously including Hobbit Farmer you can get the effect even when you don't start. Your Hobbit allies have some nice perks, namely you can funnel all your Hobbit Party Guest exertions into Bilbo to remove twilight via Consorting with Wizards. Three Monstrous Trolls is the only way to keep Moria from adding more twilight than they started with, too. Silinde can be interesting with Frodo's Bedroom, it's better than Rivendell Valley because you can't combine that one with Galadriel's discount (since they're both phase actions you have to pick one). Hobbits can be both free and net you a card, which isn't altogether different from Elrond and Ottar, Man of Laketown but it's kinda cute. This decklist shows the concept fairly well: https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=11507.msg95214#msg95214

Note that Such a Little Thing was basically made to prevent this sort of deck from ruining Moria. You'll probably want backup possessions to sacrifice. Also, Saruman, Servant of the Eye will assign Boromir anyway, so make sure that he won't just die if this has to happen. Skirmishing with your companions as little as possible will only get you so far in the end. As the Last Alliance decklists show, if you focus a little less on Boromir you still end up with a solid deck with the upside that it won't crumble when any one specific companion dies. Here's a good example I found with that take, notice how it essentially uses companions as "super allies" as well -- they're all expendable: https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=8486.msg83392#msg83392

[Larry5000]

Thank you, you gave me a lot to think about. Was working on an Elf Ally deck using Site 6 Allies I was thinking of using Elrond, Witness to History as I wanted to try and keep retrieving the card  Swan-ship of the Galadhrim but I guess I could put Boromir in there as well. But just to be sure was you sayng besides the ring bearer to use only Boromir? Again I did not want to have to give to much twilight out.

[Phallen Cassidy]

What format do you want to make this deck for? This section is for Fellowship block decks. There's not many formats where you can use both Witness to History and Boromir's Horn, and the ones that do allow it also allow much, much stronger things, so I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're just playing with friends who have their own restrictions on what they'll allow. You can find the list of formats here on the forums: https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=120.0
Or here on the wiki: https://wiki.lotrtcgpc.net/wiki/Formats

I'll expand a bit assuming we're talking about Fellowship block. The trouble is that, without any extra companions to bear the load, Boromir will still have to fight after exhausting himself with the Horn against many decks. That will probably mean dying and then Frodo is hopeless a site or two later. I think with the Hobbit setup, Merry, Friend to Sam can go in your start and get healed by Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals + Hobbit Party Guest. Consorting with Wizards will take the edge off of Defender of Minas Tirith's twilight generation. Bill the Pony, A Talent for Not Being Seen, and No Stranger to the Shadows will keep your companions from adding twilight. The nice thing about A Talent is you can expand to 5 companions by adding Pippin and Sam, but you'll be adding twilight for only 3 (and then down to 1 with Bill and NSttS). You get the choke of just Frodo in the fellowship without losing the numbers. Plus Sam is one of the best companions to have and you're already wanting Rosie Cotton, Hobbiton Lass (who will make him a stronger Ring-bearer than Frodo).

With the Elf setup, I'd probably go for 4x Boromir in the deck and start Legolas, Greenleaf and Arwen, Daughter of Elrond. You can up your NSttS copies to 4x and include Aragorn, Heir to the White City to pull with Prancing Pony. There's plenty of choke and you won't need to use Boromir every turn thanks to the extra copies. You can kill off Legolas in matchups where he's not able to contribute much, probably Nazgul, to choke even more.

I would suppose you could instead make a pipe deck with The Gaffer's Pipe, Frodo's Pipe, and Aragorn's Pipe. Then you could use Boromir, Son of Denethor for some flexibility with his vitality (bring an ally in or buff Frodo). You'd probably need to draw 20 Free Peoples cards before you get set up though, between the pipes and the pipeweed and the allies, which will be at least 6 sites even with a slim cycling Shadow and I suspect it'll fall apart before that point. So I wouldn't recommend doing this. There is one upside, however: you don't have to worry about Such a Little Thing since you'll have a ton of possessions already.