Gandalf, Leader of the Company

[Gil-Estel]

Has anyone got a cool Gandalf deck?

[Elessar's Socks]

For awhile now I've been trying to come up with a deck where Gandalf can be front and center. He's a good splash for strength boosts or for utility cards like Roll of Thunder and Grown Suddenly Tall, but that seems... I dunno, lacking in Gandalf coolness.

Anyway, the version that jumped out at me was Gandalf, Powerful Guide. I think he can work great with Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien and Strength of Spirit. So not only do you place no token for Eowyn's exertion, but you can also get a directed wound out of it courtesy of Gandalf, and then exert Eowyn again for even more wounds! The rest is standard Shadowplay/Unheeded fare since we'll be needing 2 Hobbits to play Gandalf anyway.

Here's a sample deck list:

30 cards.

1 Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
1 The One Ring, The Great Ring

1 Merry, Swordthain (starting)
1 Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver (starting)
1 Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien (starting)
4 Gandalf, Powerful Guide

1 Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor

1 Brego
1 Coif
1 Spear of the Mark

1 Birthday Present
3 Home and Hearth
4 Shadowplay

2 A Wizard Is Never Late
1 Into Dark Tunnels
4 Strength of Spirit
4 Unheeded

Possible additions: Shadowfax, Roll of Thunder, Servant of the Secret Fire (spell), Terrible and Evil (spell), Daddy Twofoot, Robin Smallburrow, Smeagol, Always Helps...

[DáinIronfoot]

I like that, Drake!

Here's a fun deck I've made called "Gandalf's Knights" (35 cards).

Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms w/ The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

Gandalf, Leader of Men (starting)
Knight of Dol Amroth (starting)

Aragorn, Captain of Gondor x2
Boromir, Hero of Osgiliath
Denethor, Wizened Steward
Faramir, Wizard's Pupil
Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth
Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain x3

Pallando, Far-travelling One

Anduril, Sword That Was Broken
Narsil, Blade of the Faithful
Scroll of Isildur
Glamdring, Foe-hammer
Beorning Axe x2
Gondor Bow x2
Knight's Mount x2
Gondorian Steed

Fourth Level x4
Sixth Level
Watch and Wait x3

Sharpen Your Swords x4

For a long time, I wanted to build a deck that used and abused Sharpen Your Swords. It's an awesome event; jamming Gandalf in with as many Gondorians as possible makes it one of the best pumps in the game for its cost.

The appropriately-named Gandalf, Leader of Men gets to start with a knight, with three more to come from your deck. (You can easily swap in Faramir, Defender of Osgiliath instead of Wizard's Pupil and REALLY shore up your knights, but it's not strictly necessary. I just like the Gandalf flavor that Wizard's Pupil has.) Your Gondorians are pretty powerful on their own, really, with Aragorn and Boromir healing, the pair from Dol Amroth exerting/wounding minions, and Denethor acting in the unusual role of beatstick with easily 9 strength. Isildur is best kept out of battle, but with Narsil, his potential 11 resistance, and some burden removal from Watch and Wait and Foe-hammer, he can chip in when need be. And the best part is he makes all your knights strength +1. The fortifications (and the Sixth Level pulling them back) make sure that if your knights win, they kill...or any knight with a Gondor Bow needs only to exert to lay on that last wound, no winning required! NASTY, that combo.

The real key, though, is Gandalf and his buddy Grimbeorn. Gandalf lets you use Sharpen Your Swords for a powerful boost to your Gondorians, and Grimbeorn with his axe gets to pull it back to use again and again.

I've had mixed results with this deck: it did very well first couple times I used it, but got obliterated the first time I played AP's painful STBOoYV. *shudder* Not NEARLY enough healing. Against most NORMAL decks, though, it should hold its own.

On a similiar token, try mixing Gandalf, Sharpen Your Swords, and Pallando in with a bunch of Wraiths. Pallando is AWESOME with the Wraiths, since the exerting required to slap him on one is actually beneficial. It's fun to also toss in Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas if you need burden removal, since adding the threats is usually no problem with the Stronger and More Terrible any decent Wraith deck has in droves. I've even been tinkering with trying to get Gandalf, Bearer of Obligation going with GotM and Wraiths. Not so great so far, but I'm trying!

[Gil-Estel]

WHY ARE YOU ALL SPAMMING IN MY TOPICS?!!  :roll:I like your idea very much Dain, and you could add that shield from T&D to make also Faramir and Denethor knights. The wounding deck with Gandalf must be very annoying too. But is there not one good deck, which stands above all others that uses Leader of the Company?

[DáinIronfoot]

Probably hard to pinpoint just one, because LotC is SO easily splashable. I mean, you can toss into ANY deck and it fits. I have a deck and a deck that both use him, but neither is built around him, per se.

If anyone has one, I'd be curious to see it too, though.

[Elessar's Socks]

I like that, Drake!

...What? I am no dragon (or duck), but a simple pair of socks, at your service!

And Gil-Estel, despite the title I thought you were asking for any "cool" Gandalf deck. Spam? I could've saved myself a fair bit of time otherwise. If you just want any ultra-competitive deck using LotC, DGMA and the LOTRO TCG site should have tournament deck lists available (might need updating).

[Gil-Estel]

too bad you di'dn't notice the rolling eyes my dear friend.... , I was/am indeed looking for a competitive LotC deck, and I wanted to use the great experience of the CC community.....But I could switch to any Gandalf deck, I have some of my own as well ..I will share later.

[DáinIronfoot]

I like that, Drake!

...What? I am no dragon (or duck), but a simple pair of socks, at your service!

Whoops. For some odd reason, I mistook you for AgentDrake. No, I don't know why.

[Gil-Estel]

 starting:
Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry
merry, learned guide 4c310
pippin, woolly-footed rascal 4c314
Sam, Faithful Companion, 1r310

free peoples

aragorn's pipe 1u91 x2
Gandalf's Pipe 1u74 x2
The Gaffer's pipe 1u292 x2
longbottom leaf 1c300 x4
Old Toby 1c305 x4
Aragorn, ranger of the north 1r91 x3
Gandalf, Greyhame 4r89 x2
Glamdring 1r75 x2
fireworks 3c32 x2
turn of the tide 5u20 x2
aragorn's bow 1r90 x2
sleep caradhras 1c84
Wielder of the Flame 2u28 x2
No Stranger to the Shadows 1u108
Ranger's Sword 1u112
bill the pony 3u106

So nice, to make little twilight, remove it, remove burdens, heal and discard the Hobbits.....

[AgentDrake]

I like that, Drake!

...What? I am no dragon (or duck), but a simple pair of socks, at your service!

Whoops. For some odd reason, I mistook you for AgentDrake. No, I don't know why.

Must be the fact that it's such excellent deck idea!

At any rate, I like it, too.

I was going to eventually try to build a deck based around Gandalf, Defender of the West, Legolas, Elven Comrade, and Gimli, Unbidden Guest with Trust Me as you Once Did and Down From the Hills. Never actually got around to building or testing it, but I can give you the decklist. Needs updating, though. It's All Reflections/preReflections-era stuff.

[Thranduil]

I have a deck like yours AD. It's alright, not fantastic.

As for LotC, as already mentioned, there are so many decks that can use him you couldn't possibly specify a particular deck for him. That said, he's awesome in Rohandalf and Men who both have a lot of global strength bonuses which LotC can add to. In fact, I have a toolbox that goes in a lot of my decks which consists of these 8 cards:

4x Gandalf, Leader of the Company
3x G for Grand
1x Sting, Weapon of Heritage

That stuff can go in almost any deck and rock.

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

Do you not find 3 G for grands are ridiculously expensive and not worth the payout MOST of the time? Especially with all the condition discard about?

[Thranduil]

No, not really.

Add it to Brand, the Librarian and LotC and all of your Men are strength +5/6! Grimbeorn with base strength 10?

Thranduil

[Mythdracon]

Hmmm...does anyone have a deck build for a Rohan + Gandalf deck which uses Hearken To Me and such? :S

[TheJord]

I tried a Gandalf, BoO with Theoden, throw in King's Mail, Hearken to Me, Herugrim-you-cant-kill-me and his exhausting Snowmane