Galadriel tank - 2 shadow builds

[Shelobplayer]

This is a list I threw together probably like 5 years ago, and never actually played it. I showed a bunch of unrefined ideas to friend returning to the game, so he can start building his own deck, and this one stuck. Then I refined it a bit and played a few games. It can definitely win games, and it is super consistent.

I paired it with my usual Gollum mix with 4x Not Easily Avoided and 3x Incited, but I feel it is completely unnecessary here, so I'll throw together a new shadow side for it shortly

Ring-bearer: Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
Ring: The One Ring, The Binding Ring

Adventure deck:
Buckland Homestead
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Steward's Tomb
Fords of Isen
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
Imladris
Mount Doom

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Ordulus, Young Warrior
1x Sméagol, Simple Stoor
1x Aragorn, Defender of Rohan
1x Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
1x Háma, Captain of the King's Guard
1x Éomer, Forthwith Banished
1x Éowyn, Northwoman
1x Déor
1x Léod, Westfold Herdsman
1x Léowyn
1x Weland, Smith of the Riddermark
1x Arwen's Dagger
1x Asfaloth, Elven Steed
1x Elven Brooch
1x Elven Cloak
1x Elven Rope
1x Naith Longbow
1x Phial of Galadriel
1x Sword of the Fallen
1x Flaming Brand
1x Brego
1x Erkenbrand's Horn
1x Heavy Chain
1x Rider's Spear
1x Éowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade
1x Galadriel's Silver Ewer
1x Nenya
1x Andúril, Flame of the West
2x Throne of the Golden Hall
3x Lothlórien Guides
4x Naked Waste
4x Not Listening
1x Softly Up Behind
4x Still Far Ahead
2x Last Days of My House
4x Simbelmynë
2x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Sméagol
2x Gladden Homestead
4x There's Another Way
1x Celebring, Elven-smith
1x Woodhall Elf, Exile
4x Déagol, Fateful Finder
1x Rohan Stable Master
1x Rohan Worker
1x Rohirrim Doorwarden

Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Gollum, Skulker
3x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Gríma, Wormtongue
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
1x Southron Leader
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Attëa, The Easterling
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
2x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
3x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
1x Web
1x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
3x Led Astray
4x Sudden Strike
1x We Must Have It
2x You're a Liar and a Thief
4x Deceit
4x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Fat One Wants It
1x Final Strike
3x Incited
4x Not Easily Avoided
2x Not This Time!
3x Promise Keeping
2x They Stole It
2x Treacherous Little Toad
1x Unabated in Malice
2x The Number Must Be Few
2x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

The idea is to make a beastly Galadriel then choke.
Site 1 fetch Erkenbrand's Horn -> Celebring [Galadriel's Silver Ewer]-> Rohirrim Doorwarden -> Deagol -> Woodhall Elf
Then Déagol can fetch Asfaloth, Elven Steed. If nothing else was drawn, that's already a str 11 ringbearer without a skirmish penalty on site 2.
Then Gamling can pull Elven Broch and Elven Cloak, and a steady stream of Déagols can get Sword of the Fallen, Naith Longbow, Awen's Dagger, Phial of Galadriel and Elven Rope (can be a pretty neat trick vs Gollum too).
2 items per turn without drawing only from the engine.

If I go first I usually start at Dammed Gate-Stream -> Still Far Ahead

Éowyn, Northwoman can tank problem minions, and diminish Demon of Might into a joke.

Simple Stoor also becomes a very potent fighter really fast, and fills the discard pile with Naked Waste Also removes burdens with Not Listening.

Fords of Isen can give free sites in the late game.

Then there is the vilager package:
Leowyn: I'm convinced that she is the best healing effect after Mithlond/Neekerbeeker's Bog, and she heals other vilagers
Weland: Heals Galadriel
Déor: with Woodhall Elf, he becomes a beast too.
Léod: can pump Sméagol if it has Rohan Stable Master attached. Simple Stoor winning is very high value.

It's main weakness is Her Ladyship, since without Galadriel handling business, the rest of the company is not that strong.

Háma is here so if I see a sign I fetch him ASAP. Grond is brutal against me, but Háma can make short work of it. Also good vs corsairs. Very underrated Chad.

Things to consider:
Don't Follow the Lights
One Good Turn Deserves Another
Elrond, Herald to Gil-Galad + Vilya + Suport of the Last Homely House (maybe) + Glimpse of Fate
Something Slimy (if I get Glimpse of Fate working)
More copies of Throne of the Golden Hall - Up to 2 now
More copies of Don't Look at Them
Sword of the Fallen instead of Elven Sword (but I like my discard outlets) ADDED

Works pretty fine already, here are some replays: (with the old shadow I used)
VS some forestguls
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$u7k9ujenll12v23f
Galadriel bullied them nazzies.

The man the myth himself (Sgtdraino):
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$ax77qf7qu9wezbo7
I lost this one, but the freeps went strong. The Number Must be Few probably takes this matchup home. We went 1-1 this time
And went at it again here for my revenge in a site 9 race:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$i7b1agx5n62va5vj
2-1

Here she is bullying trolls:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$rhoz3w2xhsxycvwp

A very competitive game vs forestguls and RB Gandalf:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$p19u2l7qhdtcg8y4

6-1 in 7 games for now, only loss to Madril. The freeps was never touched.


Shadow Draw Deck #2:
1x Gollum, Hopeless
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Gollum, Skulker
1x Gollum, Threatening Guide
3x Shelob, Eater of Light
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Gríma, Wormtongue
1x Saruman, Black Traitor
1x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Black Gate Sentry
4x Black Land Chieftain
4x Black Land Overlord
1x Chamber Patrol
4x Desolation Orc
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
1x Orkish Fiend
4x Orkish Warrior
1x Watchful Orc
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
1x Larder
4x Web
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
1x So Polite
4x Sudden Strike
1x We Must Have It
4x Deceit
4x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Final Strike
2x Incited
3x Not Easily Avoided
1x Not This Time!
1x Promise Keeping
1x Unabated in Malice
I went for an Eater of Light build. I know it's not the most viable thing in exapnded because of Ithilien Blade, but I absolutely loved that shadow as a kid around the time when only WOTR block was out.

Still, I think it can be quite viable, and maybe slow Madril down enough so I can get a fellowship win.
Orc selection:
Desolation Orc: This dude is a beast, when I can play it, and in matchups where I can't I just get Larder out ASAP. Plus I can ditch it to Nenya and Sméagol's muster too, in a 140 card deck, I think it totally worths playing.
Orkish Warrior: usually a str 18 for 4, his drawback is meaningless when he goes on the Web
Gothmog: Shelob can tank the archery, and he can use the aid cost of followers and whatever other twilight to fill webs in regroup.
Black Land Chieftain + Overseer: this duo is OP as #$&*@!, I'm genuinly surprised they are not more common on GEMP.
Chamber Patrol, Black Gate Sentry: good value/cost minions, nothing crazy here, they worth a single copy for sure
Orkish Fiend: he can lock the fellowship to Cavern Entrance while also being pretty cost efficient (mini Demon of Might)
Watchful Orc: Nelya is usually used as a splash minion to a) get Cavern Entrance Out b) get Mount Doom out c) reuse an important site, like Mithlond. This dude does it all AND goes on webs.

Since the deck is 140 cards, Sudden Strike and Not Easily Avoided are making it more consistent, and the fact that Eater of Light searches up her stuff is also great.

Incited + lurker Gollum are absolute gold.

I'm considering cutting down on the conditions and lean more heavily into stuff, so I'm less vulerable to matchups where Shelob gets owned.

Replays with the new shadow:
When the orc pack puts in the work early:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$1fkaktr2bu7dqajq

And a more grindy game:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$gdeff9puu58v0wjb

The power of Not Easily Avoided:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$kf5yiwvdsxc040up


Let me know what you think!

[Shelobplayer]

Played a bunch of games with this deck, and made a new shadow for it with Eater of Light. Eater of Light is desrvingly so not very popular, but it's one of my favourite cards, so I'll try to make it work here

14-4 so far, but I managed to take away the enduring keyword from Enquea, ToTo on Ettenmoors once in an otherwise totally dominated game, so it's more like 15-3

[Dictionary]

Hello, I don't really play very much anymore but I really enjoyed this build so I wanted to drop a comment regardless. I have played a similar fellowship that uses Aragorn, Well-Traveled Guide. I have also tried using Eater of Light with Ted Sandyman. Neither of those builds was as efficient as this one though.

I am curious, do you not think that Eomer, Northman might be better than Eomer, Forthwith Banished? I am also curious about your reasoning for using The Binding Ring.

Hypothetically, do you think that the build would lose power if you made the list smaller? I am just wondering since a lot of my decks were 80 to 100 cards.

I was very happy to see Desolation Orc and Orkish Fiend, since I had those pegged as pretty useless cards.

Thanks for sharing the list!

[Shelobplayer]

Hello, I don't really play very much anymore but I really enjoyed this build so I wanted to drop a comment regardless. I have played a similar fellowship that uses Aragorn, Well-Traveled Guide. I have also tried using Eater of Light with Ted Sandyman. Neither of those builds was as efficient as this one though.

I am curious, do you not think that Eomer, Northman might be better than Eomer, Forthwith Banished? I am also curious about your reasoning for using The Binding Ring.

Hypothetically, do you think that the build would lose power if you made the list smaller? I am just wondering since a lot of my decks were 80 to 100 cards.

I was very happy to see Desolation Orc and Orkish Fiend, since I had those pegged as pretty useless cards.

Thanks for sharing the list!

I consider Éomer, Forthwith Banished is absolutely necessary to be able to set up safely (Aldred is too weak), and also having Éomer is not really required other than that. I often even discard Aragaorn too instead of playing him, and I think he is stronger than Éomer.

I play the Binding Ring because Nenya is strong, and it gives me easy access to it. The alternative I guess would be Ring of Doom, but losing the ability to tank archery on say a site 9 would be a big sacrifice.

Going with a smaller sized deck wouldn't make much sense. The fellowship is 100% consistent, and also filters and draws cards pretty efficiently. In games that go to site 9 I usually have 10-20 cards left, and with all the filtering going on I think that's absolutely the sweet spot.
Like here:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$duyhens2egm4iwae
Like, you know those games where your opponent's deck has 5 cards left and the last double is free? I think that's bad deck design, and I wouldn't like to fall into that.

EDIT: example of what I'm talking about:
https://play.lotrtcgpc.net/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$2mly471twhnvgwy0
Very tight deck, built like a MTG tournament deck. At site 8 the game demonstrates that it is not MTG.

[Shelobplayer]

I played this deck almost exclusively for the few match I had these past months. It is doing way above my original expectations, and it is insanely consistent.

I have a pretty spectacular 18-2 with the Ninja/Sudden Strike shadow (pretty sure the losses were both site 2 overextensions) and a respectable 12-5 with the Eater of Light shadow (with a loss at Ettenmoors to Enquea, ToTo after I took its enduring keyword with Northwoman ).

Overall I think this build is up there with the more commonly used top expanded strategies at this point. It covers all angles a deck has to in a competitve expanded enviroment.