Durin's Secret Society of Dear Friends

[Witchkingx5]

True, hand clog can be really horrible...

Anyway, what youbt some other recycling freeps cards to set up a little Shadow? Maybe just one or two, but as mentioned before, having some "endless" engines like Shelob, EoL + Web can be pretty useful when you decked out.

[ket_the_jet]

I broke this deck out for a few games on Gemp. Thanks for the memories.
-wtk

Want to watch the game? Cheers:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=chet manly$1qrsgdd7j0t64mys

[lmiller]

Could you pair this deck with a tentacle swarm. Use gollum and evil smelling fens to bring back the watcher in the water and then play all your discarded tentacles.

[Kralik]

I broke this deck out for a few games on Gemp. Thanks for the memories.
-wtk

Want to watch the game? Cheers:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=chet manly$1qrsgdd7j0t64mys

Glad to hear it passes the Gemp legality checks!

Watching it now -- that was quite a nice starting hand.

EDIT: Finished watching. Too bad you lost Eowyn early, but otherwise it all went well. Nice finish with Deep in Thought! It's a good show for anyone who wants to see what this is all about (though the early discarding was slow to watch...)

Could you pair this deck with a tentacle swarm. Use gollum and evil smelling fens to bring back the watcher in the water and then play all your discarded tentacles.

The point of this deck is to crush with your Free Peoples. While you might get the Shadow cards you need before discarding your deck, you'd only get one shot at tentacles, which don't work consistently in Movie.

[bibfortuna25]

Just a question, what do you do if you don't have Constantly Threatening or any other minion recursion in your hand? Your opponent would just get a free ride to site 9 if you don't have something to slow him down.

[Kralik]

Just a question, what do you do if you don't have Constantly Threatening or any other minion recursion in your hand? Your opponent would just get a free ride to site 9 if you don't have something to slow him down.

It doesn't matter. Did you see the move schedule I proposed? You just triple to 9. The only threat would be if your opponent can also triple (Radagast, etc.) If they haven't seen this deck before and they don't double every turn, you have even more leeway.

You start: 1-2
Opponent (running): 1-3
You: 2-3
Opponent: 3-5
You: 3-6
Opponent 5-7
You: 6-9

If your opponent only moves 1-2 the first turn and even 2-3 (sometimes if you either get minions or they aren't sure WHAT you're doing), it just gives you more time to setup.

Also, quite often it's just as well NOT to play any minions even if you can, because your opponent's hand will tend to clog as they can't use various Freeps Manuever/Archery/Skirmish events they hold. I've played this deck probably 15-20 times, and the triple move is the usually easiest because they rarely have much to play after emptying their hand of Shadow for the first and second move.

The real threat to this deck is that key characters will be killed before site 3 because of the immense amount of twilight for relatively little safety it generates before then. That and getting supremely unlucky with early card draws.

[neopium]

Hi !

I'm resurrecting the thread once more :-)

I built your deck in real life because I really liked the concept. I am still learning how to use it and had some very bad surprises at first attempts.

For instance, I did not have a second birthday present in hand or draw deck and then had to face Castamir of Umbar and Discovered at site 2. Worst case scenario. I lost birthday present and two companions and had an empty draw deck!

Now I always get a second birthday present in hand with dear friends.

One of the main weaknesses I found with this deck is that the setup is very slow (and if you encounter saruman's power, you have to start setting up again). If your opponent is running like crazy, you may not be able to catch him.

The second weakness I saw is when my opponent killed Sam with Shotgun Enquea... No more A light in his mind, no more the shire countryside and useless No help for it.

And when you lose the amazing healing power, it's quite hard to triple move. Without burden removal techniques, you are in trouble as well...

Did you think about ways to prevent this from happenning? I was thinking about adding Pippin, wearer of black and silver to have at least one more hobbit. Sure, No help for it still does not work, but you can at least use a light in his mind and the shire countryside. I don't know however what to remove... maybe Aiglos?

[hsiale]

Second hobbit is nice, but there's no real space for him. All 9 companions are needed.

How was it possible to kill Sam? Slaked Thirst should take care of Enquea before it can do any serious damage.

Setup is not the quickest. But you go first and finish the game in 4 moves (1-2-3-6-9). If your opponent double moves all the time, or even triples once, he still will take the same 4 turns. So, to outrun you, he must triple twice. And most Movie decks don't have a viable way to do this.

Only ones that have are:
- Ents (if Ent player knows what you're up to and gets Radagast out with first Saved From the Fire, then it's usually autoloss, the only thing you can try is a Constantly Threatening swarm, but you need to be quick and do it before some event gets rid of your conditions,
- Noble Leaders, if they run 2x Narsil or Narsil + Last Throw. In this case chances for Constantly Threatening swarm are better, on the other hand this deck has excellent protection against it (strong ring-bearer with some pumps and Footman's Armor).

All other decks cannot consistently finish the game in less that 4 turns. So if you take 4 turns, you are at site 9 just in time.

[neopium]

I know there is no place for him, that's why I was asking :-)

My problem was that slaked thirst were not already stacked on preparations. You can only stack them at regroup.

Honestly, I don't remember exactly at what turn this happened, but I guess that I did not get Preparations soon enough.

I certainly tripled moved too late as well, because I thought I was not enough prepared for that... Still learning how to use it... And that's what is nice with this deck: you really need to think before playing :-)

[hsiale]

You have to play Preparations (and Gimli to save them*) during fellowship phase at site 2. And load them during regroup phase site 2. In this deck you don't have a choice of when to triple, you have to play 1-2-3-6-9 (double 1-3 is too risky 99% of the time).

*modification I made: Linnar in starting fellowship, Gimli played site 2, no Durin - that's one vitality less for Slacked Thirsts but gives you a starting companion of strength 7, which sometimes can really help.

[Kralik]

Just for fun, an essentially perfect run:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=Kralik$vgbk0pjlubteyqtg

A good run:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=Kralik$qzco83q5o3iza14k

A failed run (same deck as above):

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=Kralik$0il5q03am85ofjkn

As you can see with the failed run, the deck is very vulnerable in the early stages.

I promised both my opponents not to make them play DSSoDF again. They both commented that it was very boring.

I realized in these playthroughs that you really can't use Birthday Present at site one because of EMHR contributing with the Rule of 4. You need to get all the cards off of EMHR otherwise you will be forced to draw them when you discard your draw deck. So really it's EMHR on site 1, hope to get Birthday Present by site 2, and then plan according to the matchup you saw in what to stack. Waiting an extra turn also gives you the chance to get some Shadow cards out to slow your opponent and/or make them nervous enough not to double all the time.

[NappyKorn]

first time ive seen that deck played, it looks brutal but boring to play against kinda like a deck I have posted in movie (regroup loop thing I believe). When it works its fast to win but when it fails (mainly conditions getting wiped) it looks miserable LOL. Thanks for the links to the games they were fun to watch.

NK

[Kralik]

I recommend watching on the fastest speed forward.

[sgtdraino]

One of the main weaknesses I found with this deck is that the setup is very slow (and if you encounter saruman's power, you have to start setting up again).

This is my main question, as I ordinarily run 4x Saruman's Power. It seems to me that this deck is very vulnerable to condition discard, particularly with the Shire conditions. And unless I'm missing something, I don't really see a way to "set it up again." Is there a way to get all those Shire Countrysides back out again?

I also run massive condition discard on the freep side, so Constantly Threatening is not going to be out very long. What recourse do you have if you lose them?

I never noticed that The Shire Countryside and Sam, Son of Hamfast were legal for Movie! Wow, that seems kinda crazy.

[Grond]

You regularly run 4x Saruman's power? ROFL