Faramir Gets High With a Little Help From His Friends

[putridbreath]

You heard it right! Faramir and his troop of rangers are smuggling weed into Gondor with help from his Shire pals.

(35)
Frodo, Tired Traveller - The One Ring, SAWTC
1x Faramir, SoD
1x Merry, Friend to Sam
1x Smeagol, Old Noser

1x Mablung, Soldier of Gondor
4x Gondorian Ranger
1x Bilbo, Retired Adventurer

4x Ranger's Bow
1x Faramir's Bow
1x Frodo's Pipe
2x Aragorn's Pipe
2x Bilbo's Pipe
2x Hobbit Sword
2x Longbottom Leaf
3x Old Toby

2x Might of Numenor
2x Arrows Thick in the Air

4x Gondor Bowmen
1x Ancient Roads

Shadow (35) courtesy of Cw0rk
4x Constantly Threatening (4R6) 
4x Depths Of Moria (3R77) 
1x The Number Must Be Few (1U260) 
2x They Are Coming (1C196) 
2x *Host of Moria, Legion of the Underdeeps (9R+41) 
4x Dunlending Brigand (4C10) 
2x Dunlending Madman (4C12) 
4x Dunlending Ravager (4C15) 
3x Goblin Flankers (2C61) 
4x Goblin Runner (1U178) 
1x Goblin Scrabbler (2C64) 
1x Goblin Warrior (1C185) 
1x Moria Scout (1C191) 
2x Hides (4R19) 

The goal of this deck is to wound anybody who dares interrupt your smuggling ring. The chief mechanic of this deck is using Gondor Bowmen with your Rangers to produce massive wounding. Aragorn's Pipe, Frodo's Pipe and Might of Numenor all provide healing. However, it is Bilbo and his pipe that steal the show. He throws your weed back into your draw deck and his pipe tosses your Gondor Bowmen and Might of Numenor into your draw deck as well. So much freeps stuff flooding your draw deck can be a damper on the minions side, so I opted to pair this fellowship with cw0rk's Constantly Threatening in the Depths of Moria shadow which allows me to unload minions from my discard pile should I have all freeps in hand and my opponent double moves.
Suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[MuadDib85]

Do you need Might of Numenor with all that weed healing?

I'd replace them with two more pipeweed.

[Cw0rk]

You should use Pippin, WoBaS instead of Merry.

The shadow is nice if you want to play for fun, if you want to be competitive, I'd suggest using something else.

[MuadDib85]

The shadow is nice if you want to play for fun, if you want to be competitive, I'd suggest using something else.

Agreed, I've played against similar shadow and have managed to survive double moving every turn even with 4x Depths of Moria in play..

[putridbreath]

I was trying to think of a way to protect against Ulaire Enquea, LoM --but you're right --it's redundant with the pipes.
Perhaps adding an Answering the Cries could make it double as a skirmish event I can toss back into my deck.

Ok

The shadow is nice if you want to play for fun, if you want to be competitive, I'd suggest using something else.

Agreed, I've played against similar shadow and have managed to survive double moving every turn even with 4x Depths of Moria in play..

What kind of shadow would you suggest?

You should use Pippin, WoBaS instead of Merry.

I chose Merry because he has the Frodo signet and can be a skirmish event if needed (like against an Easterling with his Easterling polearm). I thought about Pippin, WoBaS but if I lay a pipe on him, I lose it when I return him to hand.
Maybe I can go with less companions and more hobbit allies to fix that issue.

[MuadDib85]

Tower of Orthanc comes to mind as something maybe that will make double moving a little more scary, maybe with some Berserkers and Saruman's Snows?

[Cw0rk]

Tower of Orthanc comes to mind as something maybe that will make double moving a little more scary, maybe with some Berserkers and Saruman's Snows?

Wizard's Storm is one of my favorite.

You can keep that shadow anyway, your fellowship isn't competitive either. I think that pipes with ring-bound ranger is below Elvents, Ents, Knights, Dwarves, Slaked Thrists... anything really. Ring-Bound Rangers without pipes or Pipes alone would probably be better ideas.

[putridbreath]

Does anybody have an Isengard weather deck?
Cards that can be played from your discard pile would be great for this fellowship. Cw0rk mentioned a shadow similar to this one that used discarding dunlenders with gollum, plotting deceiver etc.

[MuadDib85]

I think it was Sweet_Stuff that used to run an awesome initiative swarm deck with corsair war galley, ships of great draught, mumakil, mumak chieftain, high vantage, gollum plotting deceiver, let her deal with them and some other nice things.

Basically make your mumak chieftain damage plus two and fierce to kill everything was the idea.

I know it's not what you asked for but does use Gollum, Plotting Deceiver..

[Not a Zombie]

haha, I wish I could take credit for that but I don't remember making any such deck personally, I'd put it with a shelob/gollum shadow. you only need one of each stacked on web, and it can prevent a double.

[putridbreath]

You can keep that shadow anyway, your fellowship isn't competitive either. I think that pipes with ring-bound ranger is below Elvents, Ents, Knights, Dwarves, Slaked Thrists... anything really. Ring-Bound Rangers without pipes or Pipes alone would probably be better ideas.

Well the point of this wasn't so the deck could fall in line and become just another deck we all know and have all seen many times over. Yeah it isn't going stand up against the best of the best (which most of you are by now after these many years) but my playing circle isn't quite there yet so it's ok. This deck appeals to me because it's relatively inexpensive for both the shadow and freeps (only Gondor Bowmen being hard to grab) and that it's a fun concept.