Unheeded Riders of Rohan / Unheeded Sméagol's Hobbits (FP only)

[DáinIronfoot]

These decks are inspired by recent discussion in the Archives of Minas Tirith in this thread and this one. People kept saying someone should build a deck around the ideas therein, but no one has. So I built two! :hey:


FREE PEOPLES (37 cards):

Frodo, Master of the Precious w/ The Great Ring

Sam, Great Elf Warrior (starting)
Farmer Maggot, Hobbit of the Marish (starting)
Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver (starting)
Smeagol, Always Helps (starting)

Bilbo, Retired Adventurer x2
Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor x2

Sting, Elven Long Knife x2
Hobbit Sword x2

Birthday Present x2
Shadowplay x2
Home and Hearth x2
Hornblower Leaf x4
Halfling Leaf x4
Never x3
Don't Look At Them

Unheeded x4
One Good Turn Deserves Another x2
Very Nice Friends

The point is to use and abuse Smeagol's ability to exhaust minions and then kill them off with Unheeded. It works like this:

- Assignment: Add 2 threats with Smeagol's ability to assign a minion to him and exhaust that minion.
- Assignment: Play Unheeded, wounding and killing that exhausted minion.
- Skirmish: If you don't happen to have an Unheeded available, use Don't Look At Them to kill the exhausted minion instead.
- Regroup: Remove the threats added by Smeagol with any combination of Elven Long Knife, pipeweeds, and Never. If you don't HAVE to use pipeweeds for threats, you can discard it to rid yourself of some more minions instead and set up a double move.
- Fellowship: Pull Unheeded and/or pipeweeds back from discard using Birthday Present and Retired Adventurer. If necessary, use Frodo's text during your next fellowship phase to get Smeagol back from discard (if you used Never) and rinse and repeat.

Ideally, NfFatRoD would be the perfect way to remove the 2 threats added by Smeagol's ability...except that it would mess up one of the primary methods we use to get Unheeded back every turn: Birthday Present. This nifty condition lets us pull events back from discard, and if we happen to have one or multiple copies of one particular event (Unheeded, in this case) and NO other events, we get to pull back that event without the opponent having any say in the matter. So with no NfFatRoD (or any other events besides Unheeded, for that matter), we can ALWAYS use Birthday Present to get Unheeded back. Bilbo, Retired Adventurer can do the same, and he can also pull back pipeweeds used to peel burdens if necessary, too. And assuming our companions don't take too many lumps along the way, we can heal Bilbo up at sanctuaries and have him ready to go again in the next region. Oh, and don't forget Daddy Twofoot, who provides yet ANOTHER way to get Unheeded back. Basically, if you aren't able to pull off the lethal Smeagol/Unheeded combo AT LEAST once per turn, there's really no excuse.

Shadowplay lets us potentially use Unheeded to kill minions before they ever GET to the assignment phase, exerting when the minion is played, followed by a quick wound. 2-vitality minions are toast.

Between Daddy Twofoot and Birthday Present, though, we're adding a goodly number of burdens. That's where Pippin WoBaS and Home and Hearth come in: use Pippin's ability to pull him back into hand (and hopefully wound a minion twice, at least early on), then play him back to remove a couple burdens with Home and Hearth. And if you're able to use One Good Turn Deserves Another and/or Very Nice Friends to control the sitepath and play a well-timed dwelling, you can heal Frodo up too...after he has exerted with Sting a couple times to remove threats, of course.

As a bonus, this deck fields 2 Hobbits that, armed with swords, can be as high as 9 strength, helping dust off leftover minions and REALLY helping combat any 1-vitality minions you might run into (probably the biggest bane of this deck). Sam GEF has 7 strength while all your Hobbits are out, and again, with the sitepath controlled through Smeagol and/or your Shadow side and ensuring the right sites are out, Farmer Maggot HotM is 7 as well. With the Hobbits Swords, of course, they each shoot up to 9. Not too shabby.

If all REALLY goes to pot, even Frodo can survive well enough in battle thanks to The Great Ring.

Some other cards I wanted to squeeze in but simply couldn't find room for:

- A Dragon's Tale. Awesome way to dish out the exerting and Unheeded wounding in the maneuver phase. Alas, putting in the four copies I'd want doesn't really work too well.

- NfFatRoD. For reasons already discussed.

- Be Back Soon and Scouting. Nice way to all but guarantee a 3-vitality minion is discard ONE way or another, but again, doesn't really fit here.


Now, remember how I promised TWO decks? This next one is quite different....

FREE PEOPLES (37 cards):

Frodo, Resolute Hobbit w/ The Great Ring

Merry, Swordthain (starting)
Aldred, Eored Soldier (starting)
Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (starting)

Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark
Riders of the Mark

Bilbo, Retired Adventurer
Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor

Eomer's Spear, Trusty Weapon
Banner of the Mark
Eomer's Bow
Riddermark Javelin x2
Firefoot, Eomer's Steed
Brego
Rider's Mount x2
Rohirrim Helm x2
Rohirrim Shield x2

Birthday Present x2
Home and Hearth x2
Shadowplay x2
Thundering Host x2
Rush of Steeds
Border Patrol

Unheeded x4
Simbelmyne x3

Same basic strategy, completely different way of going about it.

Notice the lack of Smeagol here. This deck doesn't exhaust many minions...but it exerts them like crazy. The mounts all exert minions at the start of skirmishes...and one on Theodred exerts a minion twice. Banner of the Mark exerts when companions win skirmishes. Shadowplay and Border Patrol exert when minions are played. Rush of Steeds exerts when conditions are played. Riders of the Mark exhausts a minion when played, leading to a potential insta-kill with Unheeded. Eomer's Bow can exert during archery. No phase is safe!

Since this deck doesn't have the same guaranteed instant killing potential as the Smeagol one, we compensate by either giving the Shadow player more wounds to worry about (like with Riddermark Javelin and Eomer's Spear, Trusty Weapon), pumping up Eomer TMoR, and canceling skirmishing when nothing else works by use of Rohirrim Helm...the only "out" for the Shadow playing being to exert instead. Mwaha...now THERE is a tough choice.

The chances for wounds are a little greater here than with the other deck, so there's plenty of healing to go around through use of Brego, Thundering Host, and Rohirrim Shield.

Unheeded is once again pulled back through use of Birthday Present, Retired Adventurer, and Daddy Twofoot. We once again have a bouncing Hobbit to combo with Home and Hearth and combat the burdens we're adding, though this time it's Merry, Swordthain, who has the added bonus of pulling back all those possessions we're discarding left and right.

Simbelmyne helps us cycle, grabbing companions or possessions as needed.


And that's about it! Let me know what you think of these decks, and feel free to add your own. I'm loving this Unheeded/Birthday Present combo!

[NappyKorn]

I have a deck like your smeagol one. I run Son of drogo with sting, elven long knife with some other frodo signet comps. I use gondor ones though. Since you are running Shadowplay unheeded and other ways to wound maybe you could go with a few Mind Your Own Affairs and run Sam, Resolute Halfling, and Merry, Learned Guide. That way when you add those threats to use Smeagol he can practically kill 2 minions during assignment and for regroup phase exert Frodo to use sting and get rid if the threats then for the next fellowship phase exert Sam to heal Frodo then drop unneeded cards to heal Sam back up . Throw in a Light in His mind so when you discard to heal sam you can peel burdens used to pump Frodo with the Great Ring when he has to fight . Merry can always exert the RB to be discarded in case he gets caught fighting. Since you won't be discarding Smeagol to peel threats anymore replace the x3 never with x3 Knocked on the Head so you can get your discarded Merry back . Just a few ideas for you, let me know what you think. Also replace the threat removing pipeweeds with more Shadowplay and maybe another Sting. Here is a decklist perhaps:

Freeps (34):

Frodo, Son of Drogo w/ The Great Ring

Sam, Resolute Halfling (starting)
Merry, Learned Guide (starting)
Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver (starting)
Smeagol, Always Helps (starting)

Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor

Sting, Elven Long Knife x2
Hobbit Sword x2


Shadowplay x4
A Light in his Mind x2
Knocked on the Head x3
Don't Look At Them x2

Community Living x3
Unheeded x4
One Good Turn Deserves Another x3
Mind Your Own Affairs x4

Run down Smeagol can kill 2 minions for assignment, Frodo exerts to peel the threats for next turn, next fellowship phase exert Sam to heal Frodo then discard to reheal Sam. Discarding to heal Sam triggers A Light in His Mind to peel burdens. One Good Turn Deserves Another plays your cheap sites. Most all cards are cheap so if Merry gets assign they shouldn't have the to remove to discard him. Regroups Knocked on the Head replays Merry. Let me know what you think .