GCCG Meta?

[ramolnar]

As I have a little time to install GCCG and build decks, I've been looking through these postings to see what I might enter into. I've been very surprised at some of the choices, such as using Frodo ringbearer in Dwarf decks, and heavy possession decks. There seems to be a lot of burden protection and not as much swarm protection.

What's going on? I assume Galadriel, Lady Redeemed is banned along with the X-list. But, are Corsairs considered NPE? (This vastly changes the deck-space.) Are there a lot of burden decks and few swarm decks?

I'm not looking for individual decks, just some idea of what's in - and anything that would be considered out. Any comments?

[Crabby Imposter]

Swarm is out, Sauron pain is in, corruption is trending up.  Corsairs are a giant NPE.

[Gil-Estel]

Nah...corsairs are a pain, but NPE? Only thing NPE is discard, which is hardly seen, luckily...oh and I dislike Galadriel LR being played, just because she is not on an official X-list.
I come accross a lot of Gandalf sidekick decks, the strongest being Gandalf/Gondor, and Gandalf/Elfs. And playing vs Crabby Imposter aka True Nemesis, is also PPEYNATST (positive playing experience yet negative at the same time)

[hrcho]

Corsairs are most certainly OP and more often than not, NPE, mostly because they are always the same and thus extremely boring (they are effective, though). I have no problem with discard except that discard decks are all the same too. It's old Dwarves/Sauron combo with rarely something new. Even Elves/Sauron is extremely rare. I'd like to see a good Isengard discard deck and it most certainly wouldn't be a NPE.

[itjunkie]

erm... what exactly is wrong with dwarf decks using frodo as rb? with all of the dwarven conditions, gimli, feared axeman has become a better option...

[ramolnar]

Dwarves with Frodo RB have two additional problems. (All Dwarven decks have issues with Corsair Marauder, but that's true for a lot of other decks.)

* You can't start Durin, the best Dwarf fighter by far.

* You make your biggest weakness, swarm, worse. Dwarf decks generally run 4-5 companions. They also have very limited defender+ and direct damage (Preparations, and, um ...). One can splash, but the other defense is that equipped Gimli is about 9 strength, plus has pumps. Frodo is weaker. In addition, you have to run a Sting, Bounder, and maybe another card that don't work towards the main goal of the deck. That's a lot of cost just to protect against Saruman's Power and Discovered.

[Gil-Estel]

Well, there are other ringbearers, that work great with dwarves. I love Isildur along with dwarves, he gives multiple advantages, such as:
- with scroll of isildur you have more resistance and the possibility to recover rings you need
- strong RB, which set back can be dealt with by dwarves, since they have healing
- option to add cards as Might of Numenor

Actually, I am making a deck like this, maybe I will post it later.

[Kralik]

Elven Discard >>> Dwarven Discard. TWAOL FTW!

* Kralik <3 discard.

Most people that I played on GCCG had decided unofficially not to use Lady Redeemed. I haven't been on much recently so I'm not sure what is common, but splash Gandy and trolls seemed to be where it was at last I was in.