Aragorn WTG + Faramir BoQ = Madness! (...or does it?)

[DáinIronfoot]

Uncle Dáin has truly lost it now. Aragorn WTG with FARAMIR?!

For a long time, I've been trying to concoct a Faramir BoQ/Aragorn WTG fellowship, with mixed (but mostly encouraging) results. My earlier attempts centered around Faramir's ability to turn any minion into a roaming one...then using one of my all-time favorite conditions, Invigorated, as a way to heal him right back up and heal Aragorn at the same time. It also used those roamers, of course, with events like War and Valor for a nice boost. And it didn't shy away from Faramir skirmishing, using several copies of Hearts Raised to try and peel threats off Faramir wherever possible and using some artifacts with Scroll of Isildur to make Faramir harder to corrupt should the burdens start piling up.

I toyed with the idea of also tossing in Pippin WoBaS for mucho wounding and mass burden removal via Home and Hearth, but it has never worked as well as I hoped, nerfing Aragorn's two best traits (defender bonus and archer) and often leading to Pippin being assigned when I don't want him to be anyway.

But there ARE ways to have other characters in there without them being companions, right?


FREE PEOPLES (39 cards):

Faramir, Bearer of Quality w/ The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Aragorn, Well-Traveled Guide (starting)

Tom Bombadil, The Master x4
Thrarin, Dwarven Smith

Anduril, Sword That Was Broken
Scroll of Isildur
Faramir's Sword
Faramir's Bow
Coat of Mail x2
Ranger's Cloak x2

The Saga of Elendil
Boromir, My Brother
Invigorated x4
Gondor Bowmen x3
The Faithful Stone x2
Citadel of Minas Tirith

One Whom Men Would Follow x4
Swordarm of the White Tower x3
War and Valor x3
Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom x3


The basic elements of the BoQ/WTG partnership I described above are still there. Faramir still makes minions roaming when necessary, then uses that to heal with Invigorated and pump with War and Valor. He's still not all that afraid of skirmishing when the time calls for it with decent threat and burden removal (not with Hearts Raised here, though...read on to see how it's accomplished now) and a respectable 11 resistance with everything out. But if all goes well, he'll never have to skirmish at all, and if all goes REALLY well, Aragorn will get a few breaks, too.

First is archery. Moving into Expanded, we get to use Faramir's original bow, giving us 2 archery every site. Not bad at all. Toss in our Gondor Bowmen, and you can throw out 6 additional archery at once if you need it...and of course, the option of healing the required exertions for the Bowmen with our ever-useful Invigorated. Nifty.

But that's not the real beauty of this deck, or else I'd have as many Bowmen as I could stuff in. No, the real trick is to use and abuse an unlikely combo: Tom Bombadil and One Whom Men Would Follow.

You see, when powerful allies like Mr. Bombadil and Treebeard entered the game, Decipher began to fear allies a bit. They had this certain Horn of Boromir sitting around, a free possession that let Boromir turn a simple exertion into a strength +3 fighting friend. That wasn't so much a problem with the weak allies featured in the Fellowship and most of the Towers block, but with the 12-strength Treebeard and 14-strength Bombadil--both with high vitality to boot--Big D got scared and banned the Horn.

However, they didn't quite finish the job. There are still Expanded-legal events that let allies skirmish. The majority are limited to Elves, including Support of the Last Homely House. But the one that really slipped under their nose was the only event that gets four copies here: One Whom Men Would Follow.

This card essentially does for Aragorn what the Horn did for Boromir: though not QUITE as effectively. The ally is only +2, the event ain't free, and...well, it's an EVENT, not an already-in-play possession. That means more hand clog.

However, when paired with the beastly Tom Bombadil, I think it's worth it. Playing OWMWF means that for twilight (not much), one exertion (which, as I've repeated over and over, is easy to peel off in this deck), and a little patience, you get a 16/9 monster to fight for you. With those ridiculous stats, even Sauron has to pump up a lot to overwhelm him, meaning he'll more than likely just take wounds...of which he can absorb a LOT. That also makes him a fantastic archery pin cushion, as OWMWF lets Tom participate in archery, too.

But Tom's usefulness isn't limited to fighting. You get to remove 2 burdens or 2 threats when you play him...which is, coincidentally, exactly what you have to add when you fight with Faramir. So basically, you get a "free" Faramir skirmish in there. And after that, Tom STILL chips in by using NfFatRoD to remove MORE burdens or threats...ALSO for free. Yes, he has to exert, but with 9 vitality, that's hardly a problem, now is it? :hey:

The downside, however, is obvious: Tom is pretty expensive. is not the kind of twilight you want to be throwing out in what should primarily be a choking deck. That's why I have four copies in here, to help ensure you get him early when the twilight won't hurt you too badly. Better to add in Region 1 then Region 3, right?

There's one more ally here: Thrarin. He doesn't require any events at all, though his low strength means he's little more than a speed bump. Still, he's cheap and doesn't require any help to skirmish, so that can go a LONG way here.

But that's not all that can keep Faramir and Aragorn out of battle. The Faithful Stone is also rather pricey, but can further help ensure your Gondorians don't take too much heat. As minions are played (and hopefully assigned to allies), they add tokens to your Stone, and for every three you get to take a minion out of the fight completely. Not a bad trade-off for , and between that and the allies, hopefully enough to more than be worth it.

Unless things line up perfectly, though, eventually Aragorn (and perhaps Faramir) are going to have to skirmish. There's help for that, too. The events NOT named OWMWF -- Swordarm of the White Tower and War and Valor -- will clog your hand a bit, but they pay off in droves with +3 or even +4 pumps. Oh, and they're both free, which is ALWAYS good in a WTG deck, right? Aragorn and Faramir also get possessions and conditions to help them out: each gets their own sword for a +2 boost, the Coats of Mail help ensure overwhelming isn't a big problem, the Cloaks give them more vitality to absorb wounds, and the two vitality +1 conditions -- Saga of Elendil for Aragorn and Boromir, My Brother for Faramir -- not only provide yet MORE vitality, but give them strength pumps if you're desperate for them, too.

One of the keys with all this will be the sitepath. With the extra twilight you're investing in Tom Bombadil and The Faithful Stone, you don't want a lot of expensive sites. You also want, if at all possible, a good number of forests to work with Faramir's Sword and the Ranger Cloaks. And most importantly, you don't want anti-ally sites like Anduin Confluence and Westemnet Village popping up and wrecking an important part of your strategy. You need some pretty good sitepath manipulation.

actually has pretty good sitepath control. There are two companions that can do it, but they're no good to us here. That leaves the events Pathfinder and, aptly, Well-Traveled, either of which WOULD work here. Anduril, Flame of the West wouldn't be bad either (and believe me, I've considered it, but deemed that Sword That Was Broken could be more of a potential lifesaver with the condition discarding). However, notice that I haven't included ANY of these on the FP side. So that means two things:

1.) You want to make sure the other player goes first. Bid 2 or even 3 to ensure it, and don't worry too much about the burdens...Tom can remove 2 when you play him, remember?

2.) You want to play a Shadow side that's good at controlling the path...AND features cheap forest sites. Oh, and with such a large deck, some cycling would be nice, too...Boromir, My Brother cannot alone compensate for such a massive deck.

Fortunately, my favorite Shadow side does all of that and more. Enter Expanded Forestguls.


SHADOW (39 cards):

The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders x3
The Witch-king, Lord of Angmar
Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur
Ulaire Cantea, Fourth of the Nine Riders
Ulaire Enquea, Duplicitous Lieutenant x2
Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x4
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman
Ulaire Nertea, Ninth of the Nine Riders
Ulaire Lemenya, Lieutenant of Morgul x2
Ulaire Lemenya, Assailing Minion
Ulaire Otsea, Duplicitous Specter x2
Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow x3
Ulaire Toldea, Eighth of the Nine Riders

Ithil Stone

Lost In The Woods x4
In Twilight x2
Moving This Way
Shapes Slowly Advancing x2

Dark Approach x4


Much of my Standard Forestgul stuff is in here, which certain players like AP and NK have grown to loathe. My Forestguls use Duplicitous Specter, In Twilight, Moving This Way, and the Ithil Stone to help make this deck cycle surprisingly well. It also doesn't hurt that I should routinely be able to be play 3+ Nazgul once we've gotten about halfway down the sitepath (especially with Black Shadow pulling Dark Approach back over and over), and those cycling cards help me pull more into hand on my Shadow turns. Other than Shapes Slowly Advancing -- which gives the FP player something else to worry about -- the rest is pretty much just tossing in some of my rotated Nazzie favorites (Wikkie LoA, Attea KoDG, and the famous Ulaire Enquea LoM) with my regular Forestgul stuff and going to town. A particular note on Ulaire Lemenya, Lieutenant of Morgul: he is particularly mean here since several companions will hopefully be bearing Lost In The Woods.


Oh, and as for those sites that TotNR (and EotNR, to a lesser degree) will help play for you:

The Angle
Buckland Homestead
Woody-End
Hill of Sight
Cavern Entrance
Caras Galadhon
Trollshaw Forest
Crossroads of the Fallen Kings
Imladris

Six of these are forests, so your Forestguls should be running very smoothly from early on in the game. The three NON-forests either greatly benefit your Nazzies (Buckland Homestead), your FP side (Imladris, which can remove burdens if they begin to pile on), or potentially both (Cavern Entance). With judicious use of TotNR, you can hammer your opponent with the expensive ones and then scoop them up before your fellowship hits 'em, and/or replay certain particularly useful ones (like Imladris). Caras Galadhon is slightly risky, since it's expensive and eliminates Aragorn's defender benefit, but it's a good one to use early on (like as Site 2) and get an early forest. The rest are here mainly because they're forests and they're cheap, but The Angle, Woody-End, and the non-forest Buckland Homestead are Forestgul staples.


Sadly, this deck has only had one real "field test", though I thought it demonstrated that it can at least work, and perhaps that it could even work REALLY well. I faced a tentacle swarm, which is probably the worst thing a 2-companion fellowship could go up against, and made it into Region 3 pretty much unscathed, and without having to use Thrarin OR Tom yet! I had 2 OWMWF in my hand, so it would have been interesting to see if I made it to the end...but my Nazgul won it for me first, picking off four companions along the way and finally overwhelming the Ring-bearer. I was very happy to see that, as I think EITHER side of this deck could win the game for you.

But what do YOU think? Any suggestions to make it better? The worthy opponent I played this deck against said I should post it, and I'm sure it could use some expert opinions. Or if not, maybe someone else would want to try it out for themselves? Imitation (or blatant copying ) is the greatest form of flattery, after all.

[AgentDrake]

Previous discussion sent to The Barrow Downs. Just minor confusion caused by a deleted post.

Definitely a good deck. Weird, granted, but good. I would note, though, Dain that you corrupted, not overwhelmed my RB. (Of course, I was corrupted by putting on the ring so as not to be overwhelmed, but that's not the point! )

[SomeRandomDude]

Nice ideas, but you must cut 9 cards. For the deck to work properly, it must set up fast, consistently. Anything greater than 30 cards is too big. Or run it 35 with MORIA, no other shadow.

[Ulmo]

I'm pretty new to deck building but what about adding a Blade Tip, Black Breath combo (unless they're not legal in this format).  Don't know what you'd remove.

[Elendil!Urukfear]

Nice ideas, but you must cut 9 cards. For the deck to work properly, it must set up fast, consistently. Anything greater than 30 cards is too big. Or run it 35 with MORIA, no other shadow.

, Ummm, I don't really think it matters as long as your shadow is only 1 or 2 cards off of the amount that your fellowship is.

[FingolfinFinwe]

Actually the Shadow has to match the Fellowship exactly in size. EG: 30-30 or 35-35.  NBarden was just saying that he thinks that this deck would work better if it were closer to 60 cards total (or 70 if Moria is the shadow culture because of its ability to move quickly).  I think that as long as Dain adds in at least 2 more Moving This Way then he'll be fine with around 70 or 72.

[GarrisonofGondor]

 Are you sure it has to match exactly? Because I thought somewhere in the Starter rules it said it dosen't have to be exact.

[DáinIronfoot]

Wow...talk about reviving an OLD topic.

I've gone back and trimmed down each side to 35. Still a bit big, but I think the Shadow side especially cycles better now. Let me know what YOU think!


FREE PEOPLES (35 cards):

Faramir, Bearer of Quality w/ The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Aragorn, Well-Traveled Guide (starting)

Tom Bombadil, The Master x4
Thrarin, Dwarven Smith

Anduril, Sword That Was Broken
Scroll of Isildur
Faramir's Sword
Faramir's Bow
Coat of Mail x2
Ranger's Cloak x2

The Saga of Elendil
Boromir, My Brother
Invigorated x4
Gondor Bowmen x2
The Faithful Stone

One Whom Men Would Follow x4
Swordarm of the White Tower x3
War and Valor x3
Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom x2


SHADOW (35 cards):

The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders x3
Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur
Ulaire Cantea, Fourth of the Nine Riders
Ulaire Enquea, Duplicitous Lieutenant
Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x4
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman
Ulaire Nertea, Ninth of the Nine Riders
Ulaire Lemenya, Lieutenant of Morgul x2
Ulaire Otsea, Duplicitous Specter x2
Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow x3
Ulaire Toldea, Eighth of the Nine Riders

Ithil Stone

Lost In The Woods x4
Moving This Way x2
Shapes Slowly Advancing x2

Dark Approach x4

[TheJord]

@ GoG and E!U - the minimum size a deck can be is 71, and that includes 30 Shadow, 30 FP, Ring and RB and your 9 sites. And yes the Shadow and FP always have to be equal.

[Elendil!Urukfear]

Man, I thought they just had to be over 30.
Thanks for the info. 

[Vroengard]

cool idea, dain, never thought of playing with faramir maybe with boromir is nice, too, perhaps with his horn and elrond ally

[Gil-Estel]

Boromir stinks as a RB, especially when you have little to no other companions. The chance you have to assign him is fairly high, the chance to survive are very limited. His skirmish back draw is too big.

[Elendil!Urukfear]

Hahaha! that's funny
Vroengard is like: wow this is a cool deck then Gilastel is like: Boromir flat out stinks! hahahah
I think I've lost it...No wait...yep I've lost it.

[SomeRandomDude]

hey Dain, you should try playing a 30/30 deck sometime. I always built big decks, but as soon as I played with a 30/30 deck a few times, I became a big fan of them. The consistency helps the decks win more often. I even run Dwarf decks at around 32 a lot.

[jdizzy001]

Boromir stinks as a RB, especially when you have little to no other companions. The chance you have to assign him is fairly high, the chance to survive are very limited. His skirmish back draw is too big.

Boromir isn't too bad if you play one of the rings that grant him extra vitality.

I built a wtg and faramir deck.  It's in casual.  They are some fun decks to play.

[ephen]

Seems like Boromir, BoC wouldn't be that different, either way you are going to be adding burdens, because with just 2 companions you can't add a bunch of threats.

[jdizzy001]

but with the ring of rings, wounding him twice will only add 2 burdens instead of 3.  You can give him his horn and boost his resistnce with scrolls of isildur and a cloak or horse.  And with answer to all the riddles, you can wound him twice and he will still have 3 vitality.  Throw in saga of elinidil and a ranger's cloak and viola, you have a 7 vitality boromir!

[Gil-Estel]

Threats are way better handled by Gondor than burdens. Dain's option to add Tom Bombadil is a nice one. I would definatelly go with Faramir....

[jdizzy001]

Oh, I don't disagree about using faramir as the rb.  I just think boromir is largely under valued as an rb.  If its burden removal your worried about, use answer to all the riddles and stack some healing events.  Gondor has some awesome healing cards.