Slinker tries to be the Freep's best Friend

[Gil-Estel]

Wtk is always telling about Towers Standard, how we all should play it and all, so I gave it a try. I had like 15 minutes to build a deck and this is what I came up with. First I will try to explain the way I was thinking, haha.

As some of you know, I love pipeweed. Being a non-smoker myself, that might seem weird to people, but I just love it. I mean, I am a relative peaceloving person. Indians smoked pipes to make peace, hippies smoked pipes, ehm, weed, and they are also very peaceful. So adding this peaceflavor to my deck, it comes naturally.

Towers Standard, well first thing that came to mind was Slinker. I love the card, being possibly very strong and able to get no wounds. What is not to love? Problem: adding burdens. How to peel them off? There are multiple ways. SoH, but he is not consistant. You have to heal him. That event, but that takes ages. No, the best way is to smoke them away. And that makes sense too. I know diehard smokers, that when life kinda lays a burden on them, smoking a sigaret is a sheer delight. So Gandalf's Pipe is the obvious way to go. Well, that was an excuse to go crazy on pipes. What else do we like? Healing! Well, let's add Gorn's Pipe as well, oh and Frodo's pipe is good too. Towers Standard...hmm, maybe Dunland, maybe Easterling, maybe Sauron, well, either way, roaming minions or man minions. Let's play Faramir, SoD. Aragorn doesn't mind to share his pipe (again, very friendly, very peaceful) oh and best thing? Faramir has the frodo signet, so he can be healed a gazzilion times. So we have Slinker, we have Faramir SoD and we need Gandalf. Well, the shadow is kind of borrowed. In my defence, I love Unferth, and I had little time. I made a few adjustments though, that -in my humble opinion serve the deck best.
Anyway, I had a large shadow, 37 cards total. I needed cycling (which is good for health, stamina, and peaceful feelings, if done in a non-competitive way  :hey:) and I had Old Toby and Longbottom Leaf, both very good in drawing/tossing cards. This Gandalf suited my intentions best. Draw a card at the start of my turn. Handexpansion is always a good thing. And since I was -when all goes well- going to heal like crazy, winning skirmishes wasn't the main focus, so a stronger Gandalf wasn't needed. Oh and last but not least, I wanted a friend. So Merry joined our squad. He was more than willingly to give some strength to those who need it most...friendly bloke, is he not?

There you have it, 5 companions, all serving eachother, all serving the same purpose. We come in peace, but we are determined to destroy the Ring.

Frodo And Ring
*The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)
*Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer (2C102)

Sites
(1T)Rocks of Emyn Muil (6U115)
(2T)Uruk Camp (4U335)
(3T)Barrows of Edoras (4U337)
(4T)White Mountains (4U345)
(5T)Helm's Gate (4U349)
(6T)Hornburg Armory (4U354)
(7T)Hornburg Causeway (4U356)
(8T)Valley of Saruman (6U119)
(9T)Palantir Chamber (4U363)

Fellowship (37)
1x *Gandalf's Staff (2R22)
1x *Narya (3R34)
3x *Faramir, Son of Denethor (4C117)
1x *Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim (2P122)
3x *Merry, Friend to Sam (1R302)
1x *Smeagol, Slinker (5R29)
4x The Shire Countryside (3R113)
2x Swiftly and Softly (4C321)
2x *Aragorn's Pipe (1U91)
1x *Faramir's Bow (4R118)
1x *Frodo's Cloak (4R303)
2x *Frodo's Pipe (3U107)
2x *Gandalf's Pipe (1U74)
1x *Glamdring (1R75)
1x *Sting, Baggins Heirloom (5R116)
2x *The Gaffer's Pipe (1U292)
1x Hobbit Sword (4C306)
4x Longbottom Leaf (1C300)
4x Old Toby (1C305)

Shadow (37)
3x Banished (4R139)
4x Under the Watching Eye (1C281)
1x You Bring Great Evil (1C283)
4x Hate (1R250)
3x *Desert Lord (4R219)
1x *Grima, Wormtongue (4R154)
1x *Grishnakh, Orc Captain (5R100)
2x *Orc Insurgent (6U104)
2x *Orc Patrol (5U107)
3x *Unferth, Grima's Bodyguard (4C178)
2x Morgul Hunter (1R256)
3x Orc Hunters (1U267)
3x Orc Scouting Band (1U270)
2x Orc Soldier (1C271)
1x Orc War Band (1R272)
2x Southron Bowman (4C248)


Wow, you made it all the way down here!

Cards that could be good:

Escape: extra vitality for Merry
Fireworks: bringing those cards back in the deck, like the weeds or Shire Countryside
Roll of Thunder: War Clubs, Wargs, Polearms, Mumaks...well, obvious

More thoughts are more than welcome!

[Cw0rk]

I don't understand why you want to use Shire Countryside as you already have healing provided by the pipes. It's not as if you had many exertions to do each turn. You could use 1 or 2 Shire Countyside only and still have enough healing.

[Gil-Estel]

You are right, but.... It can be discarded, 1 by 1, or all at once and it gives me more options. Pipes give healing, but I have these pipes as sidekicks for the most important one: Gandalf's Pipe. I rather focus on burdens with my pipeweeds than to do all the other tricks as well. But what would you suggest, by dropping the 2 TSC?

[TheJord]

You and your cheesy titles...

[legolas3333]

fireworks definitely, with three of them you can put 2 pipeweed possessions back into your deck each turn...

[sharkey]

I love slinker. I had to physically give him away because he would corrupt my ringbearer... "Oh, Balrog, Dom.... I assign to Smeagol, add 4 burdens. For the second skirmish, the same!"

[Kralik]

My brother used to play the same way. Use Slinker with reckless abandon -- who cares about a nasty, fat hobbit such as Frodo?

[sharkey]

Yeah... I figured out it didn't work... so I physically traded it for Durin, Dwarven Lord. YEAH! I think I got a good bargain.

[legolas3333]

i did that too, then i put my only copy of slinker into a binder with the rest of my HD collection to stop myself...

[Gerontius]

I usually use him with No Help For It and YMHU, but this could work too. I would be tempted to use Down From the Hills, healing with Frodo's Pipe, but the deck is looking a little crammed already.

[sharkey]

I vote Smeagol, Stinker Slinker, should have his name recognized by the autolinker as Smeagol, Massively Addictive.

[Kralik]

Stinker or Slinker?

[sharkey]

Oops, slinker!

[Kralik]

You could always do it like this:

Slinker, Massively Addictive

[sharkey]

Okay, that works! Awesome!