Pure Gollum

[Gwaihir]

When I last played, about 4 years ago, one deck I enjoyed was a pure deck.  I don't remember what it looked like then, but I thought I would reconstruct it.  Tell me what you think.

Ringbearer
Smeagol Bearer of Great Secrets
The One Ring Answer to All Riddles

Free Cards
4 Never
4 Nasty
4 Don't Look At Them
4 Not Listening
4 Follow Smeagol
4 Still Far Ahead
4 Poor Wretch
4 Clever Hobbits
3 Sneaking

Shadow Cards

Gollum Plotting Deceiver*
Gollum Vile Creature
Gollum Mad Thing
Gollum Stinker
4 Captured by the Ring
4 We Must Have It
4 Slippery As Fishes
4 Nasty Foul Hobbitses
3 Hobbitses Are Dead
2 Unabated In Malice
2 Fat One Wants It
2 Heavy Burden
2 They Stole It
2 Master Broke His Promise
1 Final Strike
1 Let Her Deal With Them

Sites

Isengard Ruined
King's Tent
The Dimholt
Anduin Banks
City Gates
Minas Tirith First Circle
Ruined Capitol
Northern Ithilien
Dagorlad

The way I try to win with this deck is to race to the end.  Limiting the available lets me move fast and leads to a clogged opposing player hand.  Smeagol can be very strong with his various boosters, but generally won't need it for a while since there will be so little twilight for the shadow to use against him.

The shadow side is mostly a speed bump, though it can cause some trouble.  When I played before I used Shelob, but I thought that the extra minion might make it easier for the other player to unclog his hand so I dropped her.  This also let me focus more exclusively on Gollum and trying to be sure he can make trouble.  Also, by dropping Shelob I face less risk of my hand getting clogged if there isn't enough twilight to play her.  I should be able to play Gollum just about any time.

I have a free card and a shadow card to help me cycle my hand:  Don't Look at Them and They Stole It.

I use four versions of Gollum so that I can pick the one that will be most useful at any given moment.  Captured By the Ring, We Must Have It, Final Strike and Northern Ithilien all let me play whichever one I want, so I may as well have options.

When I played before, I generally was able to stay in front the whole game.  Sites 8 and 9 were tough though.  The other player would finally have enough to create some hassles.  I may not have had as many healing cards then so this may work better.

Anyway, comments and critiques are welcome.  What do you think?

*Changes from original.

[Cw0rk]

You cannot cancel the Ring-Bearer skirmish... so Sneaking won't work. Power according to his stature could be a card to consider. You could also put Pippin, HoSI in your starting fellowship to remove a burden. Mmm... but if you want to only use Gollum cards you can't do that.

I also tend to prefer Wounding Gollum... you could use Promise Keeping which is devastating when combined to They stole it. Is it really worth it to use 4 Slippery as fishes? I personally like Shelob, but if you don't like to use her, it's your choice.

[Gwaihir]

Yeah, sneaking is just there for healing.  Some other cards can't be used for their text, and are just extra contidions to count for Smeagol boosting.

[Gwaihir]

Good call.  Don't need Old Villain because I have other cycling cards.  That is an easy replacement.  Why didn't I do that in the first place.

clockwork--
Promise Keeping does look good.  May have to find a way to work it in.  Maybe I don't need so many slippery.  I just like the though of Gollum being S13 before pumping with other cards.  Could drop one or two to bring in Promise Keeping.

I did use Shelob in this deck before.  Just not sure she helps enough to be useful.

[ket_the_jet]

I don't think Slippery As Fishes is necessary at all. I used four copies in a Ninja Gollum deck, then realized you didn't need it if you played They Stole It and Promise Keeping.
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

Slippery as fishes is nice if you have many river, mountains and underground sites. However the movie block sitepath doesn't contain that many.

Additional question:
Do you want to only use culture cards to keep it pure? Or can we suggest cards from other cultures?

[Gwaihir]

Just cards, nothing else to keep a pure theme.

[ket_the_jet]

Master Broke His Promise: Worst card of all time.

Imagine this...
They Stole It...wound.
Promise Keeping...exert a companion.
You're A Liar and a Thief...wound that companion...
Promise Keeping...exert a companion...
Threats trigger...
Promise Keeping...exert a companion per threat.

Using Shelob, Paralyzer of Durin is a nice way to make sure that Gollum gets assigned to a smaller companion. Also, with So Polite twilight, burdens, and threats, a copy or two of Sauron, the Lord of the Rings is never a bad idea, even if it is off of your -only deck.

Ninja is #$&*@! mean!
-wtk

[Gwaihir]

You're right about master.  Can't quite remember what it is doing there?

[Alazzar]

This is more of a ruling point than a deckbuilding point, but... I'm fairly certain that you can't use Sneaking to heal UNLESS you don't meet the "cancel skirmish" requirement.  Once again, I'm not positive (and I can't find anything definitive in the comprehensive rulebook), but I think that when you have parenthetical things like that that change the effect of a card, you don't get to choose -- you do whichever one is possible.  i.e., the parenthetical text will actually override the initial text, often against the player's will.

For example, an Isengard Smith is capable of discarding Anduril, because it's a weapon (even though it's an artifact).  However, if you can spot 5 companions, his text changes, and he now discards all POSSESSIONS, meaning Anduril would be beyond his reach.  I'm fairly certain you don't have the option of saying, "Well, I'm just not going to spot the 5 companions," because his text says "(... if you CAN spot 5 companions)."  Not "(... if you CHOOSE to spot 5 companions)."

I know this isn't by any means official, but the Lord of the Rings Online game plays cards that way.  In fact, if you play Secret Sentinels and there's an Orc out, you HAVE to discard two conditions, even if one of them is your own.

But, once again, I couldn't find anything in the comprehensive rulebook about it.  But if things DO go this way, then you'd only be able to heal Smeagol if he has less vitality than the minions he's skirmishing.  If he had MORE vitality, it would trigger the "cancel skirmish" effect, which obviously doesn't work because he's the Ring-bearer.

Anyway... does anyone have an official ruling on this?  I'll keep scouring the rulebook, but I don't have high hopes of finding anything conclusive.  =P

[TheJord]

There is someting in the CRD about this, you are correct

[Kralik]

Alazzar, I also think you are correct, but the Secret Sentinels line... yikes! I never realized that. Yet in many cases when I am playing a condition-less Shadow in FotR, I've seen opponents play it "to burn." Now I can burn them back by informing them to pick one of their own conditions to discard!

[Gwaihir]

Just played a game with the deck and wow does it need shelob.  Archery ripped poor gollum to shreds.  There was no way I could slow the other player.

[Gil-Estel]

Sweeter Meats is wound prevention, but indeed, her Ladyship is sooo good. Allthough I won a game yesterday with Gollum as the only minion, mhuahahaha. Sorry King, my draws were awesome.

[Elessar's Socks]

She gets Gollum past Faramir SoD, and one less companion to deal with means Gollum can skirmish the RB early.

I think a wounding build on the Shadow end would be stronger, too, if you don't mind which pure to run. In addition to the burden package (except possibly Stinker), IMO Hobbitses Are Dead, Master Broke His Promise, and Let Her Deal With Them can be dropped... maybe Slippery As Fishes as well.

Then--keeping with pure --I'd add Shelob HL, Web, Hidden Even From Her, Promise Keeping, and YaLaaT.