Psycho Merry (FP only)

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

32 Cards

Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir w Isildur's Bane

Merry, Friend to Sam x2 (Starting)
Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence* (Starting)
Gimli, Lockbearer (Starting)
Legolas, Dauntless Hunter x2

Bilbo Baggins, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit x2
Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals x2
Hobbit Party Guest x2
Bounder

Mithril Coat
Bill the Pony x2
Hobbit Sword**** x3
Long Knives of Legolas*
Hand Axe
Dwarven Axe
Dwarven Bracers*

Everyone Knows x4
Consorting With Wizards x2
There and Back Again
A Talent for Not Being Seen
Endurance of Dwarves

The strategy of this free peoples side revolves around Merry, Friend to Sam and his skirmish ability. Freeps choke with Talent, Bill & Bilbo w Consorting, then Merry acts as a +9 'booster' every turn (with his sword and 4 copies of Everyone Knows), taking Gimli to strength 21 damage with no boosters if he has his stuff. Legolas and Gimli then soak up any leftover wounds from fierce skirmishes etc, and every fellowship Merry heals with the Old Bilbo's Heir+Maggot/Party Guest healing combo.

However I've got a bit of a format issue here. Bill makes the deck illegal for Movie, while Everyone Knows makes it illegal for Towers Standard. I'm happy enough to ditch Bill, so what cards could I include instead to make the deck more competitive for Movie format?

I know this deck can be better, especially if there's a way to heal Merry in the regroup for the double move...and a vitality boosting card would let Merry do his stunt twice (is there any other than ent draught?).

Also there's a bit of a lack of swarm protection since I took out frying pan and sting (more Movie block illegals). Any suggestions? I'll add site path and shadow side later if I've time, I was pairing this with Dunland/Nazgul but it wasn't a great shadow side, to be honest!

Thanks!

[NappyKorn]

If I'm reading this right you are going to exert Merry to give other companions a +9 strength boost with 4 copies of everyone knows out and a sword on him. If you mean this that will not work. I believe when you exert merry twice to do this his vitality falls below 3 meaning none of the Everyone Knows are giving him a pump anymore. Wounds subtract from the vitality a companion or minion has. So he if has 4 vitality and exerts twice his vitality is now 2 not 4. I could be wrong, but I don't believe so.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

eek. my strategy collapses and my deck with it! Oh well, maybe I'll take out Everyone Knows, keep Bill, add Frying Pan& Sting and make it into a TT standard deck. Darn!

So +5 boost then. How else can I make Merry bigger?

[Kralik]

Nappy is correct, which is a sad flaw in your deck. I have an Everyone Knows deck that makes Merry and Pippin killing machines! It uses Ent Draught and Escape. But with that portion of your deck falling through you may want to rethink your Merry strategy... Perhaps go for other strength boosts.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

hmmm, haven't seen Escape before, so say I have a guest Ent to put Ent Draught on Merry, plus Escape, then Everyone Knows will work then? A bit cumbersome, though. 

[Kralik]

I don't think you'd want to run Ent Draught with your Gimli/Legolas pair. Too much trouble trying to squeeze it in... I use it, but my deck is almost exclusively, with 4x Birchseed TS.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Strength of Spirit springs to mind if I was making a gandalf version of this deck..it's really the Merry engine i'm interested in as a strategy, not so much the rest of the deck. I want to find the best setting for it. But I'll need to acquire Escape.

[DáinIronfoot]

You COULD get Ent Draught in there without changing your deck too drastically. If you use Pippin, In The Bloom Of Health, you can spot an Ent and thus get your Draughts out. That would require taking it to Expanded format, of course, but it's something to at least consider.

With an Ent Draught and Escape, Merry has 6 vitality, so he could still be up at 7 strength (9 with a sword) if you had all four Everyone Knows out, even after exerting him twice for his ability.

Yes, combo-intensive, but once you have it all in place...wow.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

In The Bloom Of Health could work well, although I don't really play Shadows+ (no cards and don't like ) Are there any other vitality enhancing cards from later sets which could go with escape and ent draught? cos then all the copies of Everyone Knows would add +2 or poss more !!!

[SomeRandomDude]

Except...Movie Block. No ItBoH. But...I'm thinking you should explore Birchseed and Strength of Spirit.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

hmmm, yeah I think Kralik has nudged me down the Gandalf route, with ent draught and Strength of Spirit to annul the exertions. I'll see what I can come up with. By the way, how does the strength boost in Depart Silently work? How long does it last, since it's triggered in the Maneuver phase? Is this potential fodder for Merry or just another of my usual half-baked card misreadings? Oh, and more There and Back Again, obviously. Lots of ways to prepare Merry for his gallant interventions! Any other obvious cards I'm missing?

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Also, when do I stop being a Goblin? It's highly demeaning 

[NappyKorn]

Why not start an ent. Start with Quickbean and your 2 hobbits .

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Could do that, then do without Gandalf or not? I don't know whether to splash an ent in the deck listed above (with some mods) or rebuild as a Gandalf deck. So i'll prob try both Also, since the copies of Everyone Knows are no use without both Ent Draught and Escape, I'll need multiple copies of those cards, but they're limit one per bearer, so is there anything clever I can do with the leftover copies that're going to increase my other companions' vitality?

[NappyKorn]

Also in movie block run Manager of wizards with A light in his mind and shire countryside. Manager of wizards will lose you iniative triggering A light in his mind to peel a burden and with 2 shire countryside out Merry get healed fully from his 2 exertions. Not sure all this would fit in a deck out not but worth a try if you go with more of a gandalf style deck .

[DáinIronfoot]

Your extra Ent Draughts could obviously go on your other companions. I think packing 2 or 3 Escape wouldn't be a big problem, as an extra can go on Pippin and then the other could easily just be discarded.

One other thought I just had (though it would again require taking this into Expanded): followers. Slap a couple like Hobbiton Brewer on Merry and he's much more powerful by the time it comes to skirmishing. I might have to build a deck like that myself....

Anyway, like you said, you could either start with the Hobbits and Bregalad or the Hobbits and Leader of Men, then have a Birchseed or two in your deck.

If you go Gandalf LoM with a bunch of Strength of Spirit, might I also recommend Fireworks? It would let you pull those SoS back and have them to use more often.

Another option when starting with LoM would be Saved From The Fire. You could burn Gandalf and pull another Gandalf, Sent Back to replay him, and Birchseed all at once and help filter. Or you could go Ent heavy and burn Gandalf for Birchseed and other non-Gandalf cards.

Just some Movie Block-legal thoughts for a change.

[SomeRandomDude]

Also, when do I stop being a Goblin? It's highly demeaning 

When you make as many posts as me.

*Almighty maia moderator zaps puny Goblin. Bwahahaha*

Anyways...back to the subject at hand.

I'm thinking Gandalf, Leader of Men would be best to start with your hobbits. Then, you can run Fireworks, as Dain suggested, play 4x Birchseed for the Ent Draughts, and your Strength of Spirit. Some Escape and Everyone Knows and suddenly, you've got some big vitality. Merry, Friend to Sam is good for a pinch, but why not make him a killer himself? Seriously, 6 vitality? With your Everyone Knows out, just 2 of them, he's a strength 11, I think, with a Hobbit Sword. Use the Strength of Spirit combo for a pinch.

And yes, The Shire Countryside is awesome, but methinks its banned?

I like Dain's route. Roast with the Saved From the Fire. Then, of course, run Smeagol, Poor Wretch for his awesome random card dumping ability, and of course your lose initiative stuff like Brooding on Tomorrow and A Light In His Mind, and you're looking like you're set.

The point of Smeagol and SFTF, obviously, is to filter down your deck (BTW, you should have it 30/30) with a massive cycling shadow, at which point you can set up a Fireworks racket in a cycled out deck to ensure you always draw the events you need next turn. Decking out, you can use Fireworks to nab 2 Fireworks, then another to nab 2 Strength of Spirit. Dump your hand with Smeagol, draw all 4, repeat process. Suddenly, you've got Merry tossing his strength around for nothing!

Man, I gotta build this deck. Here's an idea.

Frodo, Wicked Masster (w/ RoTK sites)
The One Ring, AtaR

Merry, Friend to Sam
Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence
Gandalf, Leader of Men
Smeagol, Poor Creature

Saved from the Fire x 4
Fireworks x 4
Strength of Spirit x 4

Gandalf, The White Wizard
Birchseed, Tall Statesman

Sent Back
Trust Me As You Once Did
Brooding on Tomorrow
A Light In His Mind
Ent Draught x 2
Escape x 2
Everyone Knows x 4
Hobbit Sword x 2

Goblin Armory x 4
Goblin Scimitar x 4
Goblin Swarms
Relics of Moria
Hides x 4

Goblin Runner x 4
Goblin Scrabbler x 4
Goblin Backstabber x 4
Goblin Scavengers x 4
Goblin Flankers x 2

32/32. Moria Swarm for cycling, of course, what else? I also noticed that you had 3 Gandy signets starting, so why not Trust Me As You Once Did? Hides is there for strictly cycling purposes.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Fireworks sounds good

If Merry has Escape and Ent Draught and there are four copies of Everyone Knows down, he's vitality 6, and when he exerts twice, he normally goes down to vitality 4, and each Everyone Knows will give +1 strength. So if two copies of Strength of Spirit are played his vitality will stay at 6, and we're looking at a strength +15 Merry assist? (before swords and there and back again?!) who can then do it again (because he's not exerted) for an additional +7 (excl. swords).

Can someone check my maths? I'm thinking that Escape + Ent Draught + Everyone Knows x4 + Strength of Spirit x2 = a +22 boost for another companion? In Movie Block? Cool.

[NappyKorn]

well if The Shire Countryside is banned in Movie Block as well Mr. Kralik used it illegally against me in one of his crazy movie block decks LOL.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

I'm pretty sure it's legit for Movie Block.

[SomeRandomDude]

I....because of being slow...posted a deck idea...and edited my post above. Just some rambling thoughts on an infinite Fireworks/Strength of Spirit racket once decked out.

[DáinIronfoot]

well if The Shire Countryside is banned in Movie Block as well Mr. Kralik used it illegally against me in one of his crazy movie block decks LOL.

You've got to watch him. He thinks he can get away with murder because he A.) is the local Movie Block expert and B.) has a God complex. The power has gone straight to his head, I tell ya!

I'm kidding, of course. Don't smite me, boss!

Anyway, your math looks correct, CTC. Even if you have only one Strength of Spirit to use, you're still looking at a serious booster. This looks like a winning combo as long as you have a Shadow side that doesn't clog your hand. You'd need to have as many Shadow cards cleared out as possible whenever you reconciled for your turn, because without Strength of Spirit in hand, Merry will be hard-pressed to provide fantastic bonuses.

But like NB said, if that happens, he and Pippin can both be pretty powerful on their own, and at worst you could exert Pippin to throw Birchseed at the enemy, so you'd probably be fine on turns when Strength of Spirit refused to show up. You could probably even afford to bide your time and wait until you DID have a couple in hand to spring your trap.

[SomeRandomDude]

Anyway, your math looks correct, CTC. Even if you have only one Strength of Spirit to use, you're still looking at a serious booster. This looks like a winning combo as long as you have a Shadow side that doesn't clog your hand. You'd need to have as many Shadow cards cleared out as possible whenever you reconciled for your turn, because without Strength of Spirit in hand, Merry will be hard-pressed to provide fantastic bonuses

Poor Creature and to the rescue! Gotta love the Goblin Scimitars! You can even build the deck without the Armories, though its better with 'em.

[Cave Troll Counsellor]

Only one Birchseed, NB? Because without Ent Draught you'll be relying heavily on Strength of Spirit to get any boost from Merry. But this is looking like a great deck, I'm glad I asked for help with mine!

And beware, Maia! I have become an orc!!! (fanfares and confetti) 

[SomeRandomDude]

One Birchseed because you nab him, youre new Gandy, and Sent Back with Saved from the Fire. Meaning you'll usually have him turn 1 or 2.

*Konks orc on head with a massive scepter twices as big as he is.*

[Kralik]

well if The Shire Countryside is banned in Movie Block as well Mr. Kralik used it illegally against me in one of his crazy movie block decks LOL.

You've got to watch him. He thinks he can get away with murder because he A.) is the local Movie Block expert and B.) has a God complex. The power has gone straight to his head, I tell ya!

Now wait just a minute!

For better or for worse, The Shire Countryside is legal in Movie Block... you can check the official list from LotRO and/or the old erratas Pepin recently uploaded. I know because I use and abuse it, as Nappy pointed out.

Here's my decklist: Keep in mind that it is large, and could use some clipping (Yes, NB, I know, I know). However, it's paired with a cycling Dunland and it seems to work very well for me the few times I've used it. With So Fair, So Desperate, Strength 30 Hobbits is where it's at! Flat out ridiculous.

Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry

4x   Birchseed, Tall Statesman
1x   Merry, From O'er the Brandywine
1x   Pippin, Friend to Frodo
1x   Sam, Great Elf Warrior
3x   Brace of Coneys
4x   Hobbit Sword
1x   Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs
3x   A Promise
4x   Ent Draught
3x   Escape
3x   The Shire Countryside
3x   There and Back Again
4x   Everyone Knows
3x   So Fair, So Desperate
2x   Impatient and Angry

[Kralik]

One Birchseed because you nab him, youre new Gandy, and Sent Back with Saved from the Fire. Meaning you'll usually have him turn 1 or 2.

Nice for Gandy, but what about Ent Draught?

[SomeRandomDude]

You draw it. You've got a 32 card deck with SftF and Moria swarm, Smeagol dumping, I'd say deck out by around 4-5 if you play it right. And I dropped the Scouts for 4x Hides, meaning that it now cycles better (or worse, for your opponent).

[veBu]

You draw it. You've got a 32 card deck with SftF and Moria swarm, Smeagol dumping, I'd say deck out by around 4-5 if you play it right. And I dropped the Scouts for 4x Hides, meaning that it now cycles better (or worse, for your opponent).

Hides for Moria Swarm? My advice, don't even consider that just add two They Are Coming and they will do tha trick

EDIT: 32card Swarm for cycling

4x Goblin Armory
4x Goblin Scimitar
1x Moria Axe
1x Goblin Swarms
1x Relics of Moria
2x They Are Coming

4x Goblin Runner
4x Goblin Scrabbler
4x Goblin Backstabber
4x Goblin Sneak
1x Goblin Scavengers
1x Goblin Flankers
1x Host of Moria, Legion of the Underdeeps

[SomeRandomDude]

Hides for cycling, not Moria swarm. The point is to make the freeps killer, not the shadow, and Hides is ALWAYS a great card if you don't care about the shadow.

[TheJord]

THROW IN THE BALROG!!

[SomeRandomDude]

NO! He's a hand clogger! The shadow is NOT designed to kill. Its designed to cycle.

[TheJord]

Sorry that was spam. I have been in a spamming mood recently

NBarden is right. Hides is a sweet cycler.

[Braindamagedcarebearsrock]

And They are coming doesn't cycle ? it's three cards from hand, so you get 2more cards than from hides .(after reconcile)  And you can throw your whole hand too.

[SomeRandomDude]

You can throw your whole hand anyways with Moria Swarm, Hides allows you to draw cards, which is more valuable than dumping cards you've got. But if you want dumping, toss in Gollum, Old Villain and some Captured by the Ring. Much better than They Are Coming.

I've never been a big fan of They Are Coming.

[Gillian2]

I like idea with Gimli. It doesn't really matter if Everyone Knows Merry exert combo doesn't work. Gimli, Lockbearer with 2 axes,  Dwarven Bracers, and one "reflections" ring(instead of Endurance of Dwarves) is 13 strength, and Merry, Friend to Sam with escape and hobbit sword can boost him twice in skrimsh for 5.
Because Everyone Knows is tale Pippin, Friend to Frodo is better choice than Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence, and you can play some other usefull shire tales like: O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!, Three Monstrous Trolls,  Red Book of Westmarch...
Basicly this is very solid choke freepeople with nice cycling and condition discard. This freepeople has good potential.
One modification can be with Aragorn, Wingfoot and Anduril, Flame of the West instead of Legolas, Dauntless Hunter and Long Knives of Legolas. Now you get companion with higher strength and vitality with nice addition for double move, but you lose much on choke.

In ent version, you can forget chok, but instead you get excelent cycle, and many strong companions.
I have in mind 2 similar versions with ents. Difference is cycle card.
One is Saved From The Fire and A Wizard Is Never Late.
With  A Wizard Is Never Late it is freepeople for 9 companions.
Starter are:
Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
Pippin, Friend to Frodo
Quickbeam, Bregalad
and Merry, Horticulturalist
With Escape, Ent Draught and Everyone Knows Pippin and merry have 17 strength potential, and all other companions except Frodo are at least 8 strength, so there is no need for Merry, Friend to Sam, but there is need for Farmer Maggot on first site.
Other companions of my choice are:
Gandalf, Defender of the West (you will spot 3 shire or 3 Gandalf companions)
Skinbark, Fladrif
Ent Horde
Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood or Treebeard, Guardian of the Forest. Second doesn't have to spot any ents for playing, Quickbeam and Skinbark alone could be risky.
Radagast, The Brown (many strong companions why not triple move?)
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul can be threat for 6 or more companions, at least Merry and Pippin can be protected with  Kept Safe.
This freeps is more based on Gandalf, so it doesn't need many Shire cards mentioned like: Three Monstrous Trolls,  Red Book of Westmarch, Mithril Coat, Bill the Pony, Consorting With Wizards,  A Talent for Not Being Seen, Bilbo Baggins, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit, but it need condition removal like Deep in Thought, Glamdring, Ent moot, maybee Enraged...

Saved from the fire version is for not more than 7 companion freepeople, but you can equip your freepeople sooner and better.
You Start with Frodo, Sam and Gandalf Lom. First you burn Sam, and then you burn Gandalf, and sfter 2  SFTF site your fellowship is mostly equiped. This is hobbit-Ent freeps, so Crack Into Rubble is needed for discarding condition.
About shadow cycler. I am not faund with Hides in Moria, or some other non-Dunland shadow. Ithil Stone is excellent for drawing one card, and it work with wraith and sauron culture.  Grishnakh, Orc Captain is also very good for drawing.