Yet more initiative abuse

[Not a Zombie]

Ring-bearer   4R301   • Frodo, Courteous Halfling

The One Ring   7R2   • The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry

Adventure Deck
1   7U333   Sleeping Quarters
2   7U337   West Road
3   7U339   Hall of the Kings
4   7U343   Pelennor Plain
5   7U344   City Gates
6   7U347   Minas Tirith First Circle
7   7U354   Pelennor Grassland
8   7U356   Cross Roads
9   7U360   Dagorlad

Free Peoples Draw Deck

2x   7C34   Echoes of Valinor
4x   8R20   Saved From the Fire
1x   9R27   Sent Back
1x   5U15   • Birchseed, Tall Statesman
1x   5R19   • Lindenroot, Elder Shepherd
1x   3R34   • Narya
1x   9R+26   • Radagast, The Brown
1x   4R100   • Shadowfax
1x   7P364   • Aragorn, Driven by Need
2x   1C299   Hobbit Sword
4x   3R113   The Shire Countryside
2x   10U108   • A Light in his Mind
1x   1R302   • Merry, Friend to Sam
2x   10U15   • Brooding On Tomorrow
1x   2R22   • Gandalf's Staff
1x   8R15   • Gandalf, Leader of Men
1x   7R37   • Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
1x   7R324   • Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
2x   1R87   A Wizard Is Never Late
1x   9R24   Ent Draught
1x   4R300   Escape
1x   0P57   • Radagast's Staff
2x   4U99   Roll of Thunder

Free Peoples Total   35

Start leader of men, merry, and pippin. Bid 2 and go first. Mulligan if you don't get saved from the fire. If you do, pull your other gandy, sent back, and another saved to keep for site 2. At site 2, burn pippin and grab some shire country side and a light in his mind, or if you already have 2-3 shires, grab either a hobbit sword for merry or escape. Once you have 3 or so countrysides in play and echoes of valinor, you are set. Use merry to win skirmishes with gandalf, using gandalfs text to lose initiative and heal merry. when gandy wins, draw and regain initiative. Radagast with his staff are there for regaining initiative on the double move. Roll of thunder is there to knock out grond. Aragorn takes care of threats. This deck does well against direct wounding (duh) and tank decks, a little less well vs swarm, but it usually is fine, and dies terribly to sarumans power.

[Cw0rk]

The Board is Set vs Saruman's power! However it won't work as your ents will add 100 twilight tokens each turn.

[Not a Zombie]

That is actually not a bad idea, after site 4 or so, I don't usually add much twilight. Thanks for the recommendation

[Smeagollum]

Why Aragorn? For the threats? Why don't you use Treebeard instead? He's a strong companion and you can cycle him out of your deck very fast and he can discard a shadow condition. I don't see any need for Aragorn. And if you go over 5 comps, maybe you want to add Eowyn. I saw a variant of this deck long ago with a smeagol in it as well to cycle faster. Further it's a solid deck to play with.

[Not a Zombie]

Treebeard's spotting requirements are too high. Aragorn is purely splash really, just another fighter. I may trade gorn for another ent though, maybe skinbark

[Smeagollum]

I would add 2x don't look at them and a Smeagol. I would probably take out Aragorn, entdraught and 1x saved from the fire.

[Not a Zombie]

I've modified it some, here is the most recent version. It works very well, only had shadow kills twice due to my own mistakes...

Ring-bearer   4R301   • Frodo, Courteous Halfling

The One Ring   4R1   • The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Adventure Deck
1   7U333   Sleeping Quarters
2   7U337   West Road
3   7U339   Hall of the Kings
4   7U343   Pelennor Plain
5   7U344   City Gates
6   7U347   Minas Tirith First Circle
7   8U120   Osgiliath Channel
8   7U356   Cross Roads
9   7U360   Dagorlad

Free Peoples Draw Deck

2x   7C34   Echoes of Valinor
4x   8R20   Saved From the Fire
1x   9R27   Sent Back
1x   5U15   • Birchseed, Tall Statesman
1x   5R19   • Lindenroot, Elder Shepherd
1x   3R34   • Narya
1x   9R+26   • Radagast, The Brown
1x   4R100   • Shadowfax
2x   1C299   Hobbit Sword
4x   3R113   The Shire Countryside
2x   10U108   • A Light in his Mind
1x   1R302   • Merry, Friend to Sam
2x   10U15   • Brooding On Tomorrow
1x   2R22   • Gandalf's Staff
1x   8R15   • Gandalf, Leader of Men
1x   7R37   • Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
1x   7R324   • Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
2x   1R87   A Wizard Is Never Late
1x   9R24   Ent Draught
1x   4R300   Escape
1x   0P57   • Radagast's Staff
2x   4U99   Roll of Thunder
1x   10R18   • Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood

Free Peoples Total   35


I found that treebeard does actually work fine, even with the high spotting reqs. I also switched over to the blue ring because the extra vitality was needed. I can still add as many burdens as I need as well, and I can add them closer to when they are needed (skirmish phase). One other thing that has been nice is that using saved from the fire twice filters your draw deck nicely, but I still haven't found a good shadow pairing for it. Radagasts staff has been a HUGE help too.

[Cw0rk]

Trust Me As You Once Did could be a nice addition to this deck if you can fit a few more Gandalf Signets.

[Not a Zombie]

That could indeed save merry in times of swarm  I could change the frodo out... and add  ranger of the north... here's what that would look like:


Ring-bearer   7R318   • Frodo, Wicked Master

The One Ring   4R1   • The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Adventure Deck
1   7U333   Sleeping Quarters
2   7U337   West Road
3   7U339   Hall of the Kings
4   7U343   Pelennor Plain
5   7U344   City Gates
6   7U347   Minas Tirith First Circle
7   8U120   Osgiliath Channel
8   7U356   Cross Roads
9   7U360   Dagorlad

Free Peoples Draw Deck

2x   7C34   Echoes of Valinor
4x   8R20   Saved From the Fire
1x   9R27   Sent Back
1x   5U15   • Birchseed, Tall Statesman
1x   3R34   • Narya
1x   9R+26   • Radagast, The Brown
2x   1C299   Hobbit Sword
4x   3R113   The Shire Countryside
2x   10U108   • A Light in his Mind
1x   1R302   • Merry, Friend to Sam
2x   10U15   • Brooding On Tomorrow
1x   2R22   • Gandalf's Staff
1x   8R15   • Gandalf, Leader of Men
1x   7R37   • Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
1x   7R324   • Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
2x   1R87   A Wizard Is Never Late
1x   4R300   Escape
1x   0P57   • Radagast's Staff
2x   4U99   Roll of Thunder
1x   10R18   • Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood
1x   1R89   • Aragorn, Ranger Of The North
2x   3U35   Trust Me as You Once Did

Free Peoples Total   35



Could be fun, I'll have to try that.

[Cw0rk]

Frodo, WM is a cool Frodo to use. It can save your #$&*@! if you aren't facing corruption. He isn't only about surviving a swarm but also about killing a huge exhausted minion.