Slinker-Wizards Pupil

[legolas3333]

So the other day I was roaming the boards and found the Jord's comment that wounding decks are the best free peoples deck, I thought about this for a while and then concluded that while he's not necessarily wrong, that you would have to put out 25+ wounds a game to kill every minion, something no deck can do. Then I came across Kralik's pacifist Gandalf deck, and realized that wound prevention might be better than direct/indirect wounding. I decided to make a deck that focused on preventing (almost) every wound, theorizing that it would be easier to prevent 3-5 wounds every site than wound a minion 3-5 times. So...

32 Cards

Free Peoples

Frodo, Tired Traveller
The One Ring, Such A Weight To Carry

Gandalf, Leader Of Men (Starting)
Gondorian Knight (Starting)
Smeagol, Slinker (Starting)
Faramir, Wizard's Pupil
Sam, Son Of Hamfast x2
Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim

Coat Of Mail
Knights Spear x2

I Will Go
Moment Of Respite x2
Sent Back
Tale Of The Great Ring

Wielder Of The Flame x4
Elendil's Valor x3
Saved From The Fire x4
Make Haste x4
Out Of The High Airs x2

Bid low as you want to play your site 5 (no Stewards Tomb) burn Gandalf first for Sent Back, Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim and another Saved, single move then burn Gondorian Knight for Faramir, Wizards Pupil, I Will Go and Coat Of Mail. From then on use Elendil's Valor and Wielder Of The Flame to make Faramir, Wizards Pupil and Smeagol, Slinker Defender +1, once you get a Knight's Spear on Faramir he is very hard to kill and can take minions up to 26 strength without dying.  assign all minions to them and prevent the wounds with Faramir's ability with Gandalf, then heal Gandalf in the regroup with Moment Of Respite and play Out Of The High Airs if you want to double. Sam, Son Of Hamfast is there to remove the burdens added by Smeagol, bounce him back to your hand with Make Haste and play him with Frodo, Tired Traveller to remove an extra burden, you can probably remove 4 burdens a turn with Sam. The deck cycles well with Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim and Moment Of Respite, the toughest match-up is probably corruption as it can render Smeagol, Slinker useless, beatdown and swarm are both easy matchups, wounding as well because you won't take any wounds during the skirmish phase.

[Smeagollum]

Why don't you insert Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver so you can start with Faramir. In that case instead of burning it down you could insert 4 gandalf's and 4 wizards is never late to get out Gandalf real fast. Then I also would use A light in his mind to remove burdens instead of using 2x sam. The only thing you ought to need is to make a minion skirmishing faramir roaming. You could the only ally that gondor has to do so. Just a different interpretation with almost same tactics.

[legolas3333]

why would I want pippin? he goes against the theory of the deck, I'm trying to prevent wounds not add them, plus with saved I am guaranteed a coat of mail and I will go instead of waiting for them, A Light In His Mind is a bad idea too cause I want to maintain initiative for I Will Go, same for Gondorian Merchant. I also need to remove lots of burdens at a time for smeagol, hence sam.

[hrcho]

Nice deck. Although I don't think you're so safe against swarm... Perhaps Footman's Armor instead of Coat of Mail. 27 strength is really not so hard to come by and you only need initiative during the assignment (unless all minions are fierce), plus it helps cycle the hand. Actually it's not really swarm I have in mind (site controlling besiegers). I put 3-4 minions down, but they get very high str bonuses.
Or even better than Footman's armor, a few Swordarm of the White Tower would do wonders making Faramir str +4 which means that your opponent need +12 str to overwhelm him.

[legolas3333]

yeah but remember you can use wielder of the flam on smeagol and i have no room for swordarm

[Kralik]

My Pacifist Gandalf deck that didn't work?!

I saw this deck in action and love the Son of Hamfast / Make Haste Combo. I think perhaps you could sneak in another companion (maybe Ranger of the North) since with Make Haste you can instantly remove the threat of Enquea and 6 comps.

Smeagollum, I think you completely missed the point by suggesting removing Sam. Did you notice that he can peel off 4 burdens a pop? A Light In His Mind is a nice card, but it's (usually) only 1 burden a turn... not 4. Sam, on the other hand, just keeps coming back for more.

[sharkey]

No intimidate? No Strength of Spirit?

[macheteman]

do you have any way to get those make haste back into hand once you've played them? i mean, you might not need to use it more than 4 times.

[hrcho]

Adding 2 or 3 Swordarms wouldn't make a big deck. As I said, really nice idea for a deck, although warg riders would be the bane of it. Foul Horde in particular.

[legolas3333]

hmm Rotn is unneeded cause i've got i will go and 4x elendil's valor and 4x wielder of the flame

Intimidate wouldn't really be needed unless your playing a heavy archery deck, but you can always exhause faramir and smeagol cause they can't take wounds, strength of spirit is basically useless because I'm only exerting gandalf who gets healed with moment of respite

I don't think i need to pull them back as each one of them is -4 burdens, add the original 3 and one from healing sam by discarding the other one and you basically have a 30 resistance frodo (10+16+3+1)

Barlimin is a good idea... maybe I'll add 2x of him, just where to fit him in though because it is a SftF hybrid deck

the main problem with adding more cards is that i really need a sftf because the starting fellowship is pathetic with only smeagol able to take a beating.

[Cw0rk]

It looks okay on paper, but is it gonna work during games? Have you tried it yet?

If you don't want to use RotN is suggest Aragorn, HoE.

[legolas3333]

undefeated through 4 games granted 3 of them have been shadow kills
thats the other thing, this deck can run but i would probably advise not to cause if you dont have out of the high airs they will swarm you, or overwhelm faramir/smeagol
another note, dont use anduin banks* kinda ruins the smeagol idea, almost lost gandalf
after the first couple sites all you're playing is sam so it chokes pretty well too
@hrco played against besiegers and won... anyway
I don't want to run another companion because if i have no make haste, bye-bye faramir... plus i usually end up having extra elendil's valor in hand because he is naturally defender with I will go...

[Cw0rk]

plus i usually end up having extra elendil's valor in hand because he is naturally defender with I will go...

Then you could remove 1 and add something like The Tale of the Great Ring or Sleep Caradhras.

[Smeagollum]

With Light

My Pacifist Gandalf deck that didn't work?!

I saw this deck in action and love the Son of Hamfast / Make Haste Combo. I think perhaps you could sneak in another companion (maybe Ranger of the North) since with Make Haste you can instantly remove the threat of Enquea and 6 comps.

Smeagollum, I think you completely missed the point by suggesting removing Sam. Did you notice that he can peel off 4 burdens a pop? A Light In His Mind is a nice card, but it's (usually) only 1 burden a turn... not 4. Sam, on the other hand, just keeps coming back for more.

Uhm you forget the point that when you use Pippin in combo with light in his mind and you use smeagol combo don;t look at them then you can loose innitiative 2x. Besides that I think 2x Sam is 1 x Sam to much. I rather play this kinds of deck with pippin and Smeagol, Always Helps. Usa a don't look at them to finnish on the job with Smeagol and loose innitiative. Take Pipin back which can take exertions and wounds, from archery and maneuver and stuff (Unheeded and Nine fingered frodo for example), before you take him back to your hand.  Sure you add exertions and wounds and you remove them immidiatly.
Don't miss any point but I just take this to an other direction.

[Smeagollum]

And make haste does? To me those odds are even. And you'll add more twillight each time you do this. Don't get me wrong. I like the trick, but why not doing both?