Dirty Half Dozen / Beasterling Cycle

[NappyKorn]

For those that have follwed 2 other threads I have posted this I believe is the finally product of all the labor . Much thanks to all the advice that was given. I would remove the other 2 threads, but don't want to lower other's post counts or gold by doing so. Anyway here it is with the strategy for each side.


Bearer and Ring:
*The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)
*Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir (1R289)

Fellowship (35):

1x *Boromir, Son of Denethor (1U97) (start)
1x *Merry, Friend to Sam (1R302) (start)
1x *Smeagol, Slinker (5R29) (start)
1x *Aragorn, Ranger Of The North (1R89)
3x *Sam, Resolute Halfling (7R327)
2x *Bilbo, Retired Adventurer (1R284)
1x *Old Noakes, Purveyor Of Wisdoms (3C111)
1x *Anduril, Flame of the West (7R79)
1x *Narsil, Blade of the Faithful (9R+34)
3x *A Light in his Mind (10U108)
1x *The Saga of Elendil (1R114)
4x A Promise (2R112)
3x Birthday Present (10R104)
1x Escape (4R300)
4x The Shire Countryside (3R113)
4x Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom (10C112)
1x *Sting, Baggins Heirloom (5R116)
2x Hobbit Sword (4C306)

Strategy:

Idea is to pump and heal. Get your The Shire Countryside in play along with Sam, Resolute Halfling, Birthday Present and A Light in His Mind. You can completely heal your Fellowship each turn using Sam to dump cards and Birthday Present to add a burden and take Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom back into hand. Drop another card with  Sam and repeat til you are satisfied. Normally by the time you hit the rule of four you are completely healed. For Skirmishes pump with either Boromir or Merry (or pump Merry with Boromir then use Merry to pump others). If your hand is set up with just 4 NFFatRoD (which it can be once they are all in play) you play the first one to lose initiative and peel 2 burdens and heal x according to the number of SCS in play. I have tested this in a one person game, just setting it up to see how high I can get my companions. Every Comapnion can hit strength 50+ if they are the one focused on fighting. Aragorn is just here for fun so can be discarded when drawn for Sam's text if you are facing Greed decks (or if you are worried about Enquea, LOM). Enquea shouldn't cause to much trouble cause when set up all your companions have 4-5 vitality. If you feel safe running the 6th companion drop Aragorn with Anduril. He can be exerted to become defender +4 and when facing 5 minions can be pumped up to as high as strength 231. That should overwhelm most if not all match ups and more than likely clear the board for a double . I put some match-up cards in the deck just because if I didn't run the deck with 35/35 cards I deck really early. It's not a bad thing to deck early if the match-up isnt a bad one because with no hand you can still get 4x NFFatRod each turn so you can lose initiative once and still mass heal in the skirmish phase . I added Bilbo, Retired Adventurer to somewhat counter a Saruman's Power and with Frodo's text he can do it at least once a turn. Old Noakes is here just for annoying discard shadows. Keep one copy of DDotR on a companion and if you get in a pinch assign that companion discard 3 from hand and thin out either the opponent's support area or their minions . Sting is just here for smeagol if he needs to fight and for whatever reason your burdens aren't being removed fast enough. Paired with the shadow I set up really fast and like mentioned even with 35/35 I deck out alot by site 5 or 6.

Shadow (35)
2x Small Hope (7R159)
2x Discovered (4R223)
4x Vision From Afar (4R259)
3x *Easterling Captain (4R225)
2x Corsair Boatswain (10C37)
2x Easterling Army (6R78)
3x Easterling Guard (4C226)
3x Easterling Infantry (4C227)
3x Easterling Lieutenant (4C228)
2x Easterling Skirmisher (4R229)
3x Easterling Polearm (6U79)
2x Raider Bow (7C155)
4x Ships of Great Draught (8R65)

Startegy:

Idea here is to get a Ships of Great Draught out as soon as you can. Boatswain can do it if you don't draw 1 of the 4 earlier. Basically toss cards to add tokens and cycle for the Free Peoples to set up. When you get a Small hope in hand go ahead and play it instead of tossing for a token. Each time you get a Vision From Afar drop an easterling (exerting for small hope of course if you can't spot 2 burdens) and play it hope for the burden if not assigning to a weak frodo or an ARB with drawbacks is a plus too. Toss everything else with Ships for tokens and use every threat they give you to get those tokens as well. Once the burdens pile up some Use SoGD to place an easterling, polearm and 4x Visions From Afar on top of your draw deck. Eventually they will be forced to assign the ring-bearer or corrupt themselves. Discovered is here to remove some annoying Conditions that could turn the tables for their RB's fight.

Sites:
1R)Steps of Edoras (7U334)
(2R)Rohirrim Camp (7U336)
(3R)Hall of the Kings (7U339)
(4R)Anduin Banks (7U341)
(5R)Pelennor Flat (7U345)
(6R)Minas Tirith Sixth Circle (7U351)
(7R)Pelennor Grassland (7U354)
(8R)Cross Roads (7U356)
(9R)Dagorlad (7U360)

I never put much thought into my sites for some reason, but this time I am kinda torn on my site 5. Should I go with Pelennor Flats for the chance of burdens (which if they see what I'm doing they will most certainly discard their hand) or should I go with City Gates to ensure I get 3 threats to remove immediately for more tokens? Anyway that is the choosen path (whether I'm playing them or not).

With Sam and Ships cycling so hard you do deck early if you don't pay attention, but its not horrible to deck if you are set up. You basically use those tokens to bomb with the shadow anyway and the Freep Peoples can still get enough cards in hand to drop initiative once and NFFatRoD finish it off for you. I would consider going with a larger deck but going more than 35/35 has NEVER appealed to me. Also flirted with dropping the 4x A Promise but not sure there is anything else worth the deck space TBH. Anyway let me know what you think as always. Once again thanks to the others who have gone on this adventure with me and offered their great words of wisdom .

Thanks for the view,

NK

[macheteman]

and also, nice deck!

[Anautikus]

If you have Bilbo, might as well throw in Red Book of Westmarch for initiative manipulation in the skirmish phase, and use Merry's ability over and over and over.

Other than that, looks solid. I can see this deck easily decking out with Sam and SoGD haha. Good thing those Ships give you a nice way to set up.

[Gil-Estel]

If you have Bilbo, might as well throw in Red Book of Westmarch for initiative manipulation in the skirmish phase, and use Merry's ability over and over and over.

Other than that, looks solid. I can see this deck easily decking out with Sam and SoGD haha. Good thing those Ships give you a nice way to set up.

Now that is what I like to call a top tip! Great thinking and even greater possibilities.

[AlabArrak]

I really like this deck but I have some questions:

Is legal to use Birthday Present with only an event name?

If not, maybe Power According to his Stature can be in.

The shadow seems very nice, but i'm worried about Galadriel, Lady Redeemed, couse she can discard the ships. And depending of the ring bearer, you will need to kill in hand something more than the easterling and the 4 Vision From Afar, like Raider Bow and Red Wrath.

[Gil-Estel]

Let me answer that for you. It is legal to take just 1 event when there is only 1 event. You always perform actions as far as you can. And if people play LR they have lost nonetheless, no better they are lost, since LR is one of the lamest cards ever made. They should be sued for chopping trees to make cards to print her on. Such a waste of nature.

[NappyKorn]

As for Red Book of the Westmarch I deck out fast enough as is and I don't want to draw extra cards to make it happen faster. And after decked it is just another dead card in play. I do plenty of healing already to make any companion win his skirmishes.


Red Wrath is a great idea once those RB take assignment I can kill that way instead of trying to Overwhelm. That might even force on the last burden if the RB is exhausted and they have to choose die or corrupt. I will drop probably the 2x discovered for at least 2x Red Wrath.

[drj0000]

will you be mad if i just copy all your movie decks to play against you....ahahh jk. we just played, Turdmeist. don't worry i'm not that slutty

[NappyKorn]

will you be mad if i just copy all your movie decks to play against you....ahahh jk. we just played, Turdmeist. don't worry i'm not that slutty

HAHAHAHA, if I cared if ppl played the decks I posted then I wouldn't post em.

[Anautikus]

You should try a Red Book variant with a shadow that doesn't ditch cards as quickly. I say some Nazgul build. That Red Book would killllll in the skirmish once you have access to 4 NFFATROD - 4 burdens with Birthday Present *poof* gone with NFFATROD+A Light in His Mind+Red Book. Man that sounds like a fun and annoying combo to pull. I think I'm going to tweak that Gimli+Hardy Garrison deck I was working on to incorporate it hahah. Then we can battle intiative vs initiave (so as long as you don't run Corsairs plzzz )

[NappyKorn]

I haven'tbeen active here latelylately but I was curious if anyone other than myself as tried this free peoples on gemp? I remeber playing it a few times back when gccg was popular and it doing really well. I actually got to pull the absurdly power aragorn strength thing of at site 8 or 9 just for fun since it really wasn't needed during the game. If anyone else has tested this free people's out (with or without pumping aragorn to strength 200+) I'd like to hear about how it worked for you. Sorry for revising an old post but was curious if anyone else has played this fellowship or against it and how it went.

Thanks,
NK

[Kralik]

I'd like to see it! Just noticed something -- Old Noakes doesn't trigger on DDotR, as you mention in the OP. The Shadow player doesn't "make" you discard if you are choosing. However, he would trigger on Orc Inquisitor, Band of the Eye, etc.

[NappyKorn]

Yeah I figured out old noakes immediately when I played him for the first time in the deck. My opponent pointed it out and it became quite clear. I would remove him from the deck but since it is just a splash card anyway he can just be discarded or he may come in handy with the bove mentioned other cards. When I pulled of the defender +4 strength 200+  aragorn trick I was facing moria swarm I believe and like I said it wasn't neccassary to do really butwas funny to assign 5 minions to gorn and overwhelm them all before a double to 9.

Not sure how much you play on gemp kralik but build this and give it a try. Not only is it a pretty solid free people its fun. You will however have to find an opponent that doesn't get annoyed while you kill time with all the exerting for strength boosting and swapping lol. I'm not sure that you will ever really need an aragorn that can take on 5 minions and be strength 200 or more but its fun to do when you are at site 9 with the game won anyway. If you do try it let me know what you think and if you see anything to improve it.

Sorry for typos doing this from a tablet and these onscreen keyboards suck.

NK

[Galdor420]

This reminds me of a deck I used to use all the time and to this date has been the most effective deck I've used:

Frodo, Resolute Hobbit (P) (0P27)
The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)

Boromir, Son of Denethor (1U97)
Merry, Friend to Sam (1R302)
Smeagol, Slinker (5R29)

Sam, Great Elf Warrior (10P122) x2
The Shire Countryside (3R113) x4
Escape (4R300)
The Saga of Elendil (1R114)
Narsil, Blade of the Faithful (9R+34)
Sting, Baggins Heirloom (5R116) x2
Hobbit Sword (4C306)
Hobbit Sword (7C319)
Everyone Knows (9R50) x4
A Light in His Mind (10U108)
Not Listening (6C43) x4
Don't Follow the Lights (6C38) x2
Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom (10C112) x2
Bilbo, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit (2U96)

Basically when fully set put merry will be 13 Strength base (+8 for Everyone Knows x4 + Escape and +2 from a Hobbit Sword). Boromir exerts up to 4 times (because of The Saga of Elendil + Narsil) to add +12 Strength to merry making him 25. Merry then exerts twice x2 to add 50 strength to Smeagol. Smeagol uses his ability twice to become another +4 (57 total now) to add 2 burdens. Frodo uses Sting to add any additional strength Smeagol needs to overwhelm whatever hes fighting. Then when Smeagol obviously wins play Not Listening to remove 2 burdens and 8 wounds (from The Shire Countryside x4) totally healing both merry and Boromir and play Don't Follow the Lights if you have it to discard another big minion (that perhaps Frodo or Sam was fighting). Wash. Rinse. Repeat! So satisfying to see Balrogs and Sauron himself getting OVERWHELMED lol!

[Kralik]

Sorry for typos doing this from a tablet and these onscreen keyboards suck.

If you're running Android, grab Swype (swype.com).

...merry making him 25. Merry then exerts twice x2 to add 50 strength to Smeagol...

Once you exert twice you'll lose some of the str bonus from Everyone Knows, so it's not quite that good.