Gandalf BoO

[flash19732]

I recently traded for Gandalf BoO and would really like to use him in a deck. However, any deck I use, I seem to be fighting two minion sides: Gadnalf corrupting himself and the other minion side I'm facing. I've recently tried using him in a 5 companion hobbit deck with alot of Gandalf events/anti corruptin (depart silently,Shadowfax US, Narya, Glamdring Foe Hammer, etc.). My next try was to be using some type of multi culture deck with alot of gandalf events (Servant of the secret fire, strength of spirit). Any suggestions?

[Shelobplayer]

The problems I usually find are the absolute inability to run, giving too much tp, or self corruption if the opponent doesn't play minions. I think that having a way to remove burdens in the fellowship phase is essential, in case if the opponent stops playing minions, and by far the best choice for that is Shadowfax, GOTM (US is nice, but GOTM is absolutely your best choice of burden removal). The main reason I try to make BoO work from time to time, is that it allows you to use SftF in a much easier way (you don't need to spend half of your starting fellowship for Leader of Men).

For example you can have a starting fellowship like Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg and Theoden, TaP, Gamling pulls a horn, you pass it to Theoden, pull 2 followers, pass the horn back, then burn Theoden with SftF, and you found 7 FP cards of your deck already (and SftF can pull 3 Symbelmine too for further deck thinning/ even better shadow draws).

Another interesting setup is using Citadel to Gate + GOTM to take care of the burdens, and recurring CtG with a Dasron engine (probably with Last Stand). Of course this gives out a huge amount of twilight, but also has great healing potential (Faramir, CoI would be a nice way to keep Gandalf healthy for the CtG uses).

You can also go for the classic Elrond, LoR + Ottar, MoL combination, if you pair it with elves (you can use SftF to get Elrond and AWiNL to get Ottar). I never actually made an elvish version, but elves have some great way to remove threats like Into the West or Glorfindel, EL to support GOTM. The best shadow to pair Ottar with is tentacles, so you don't have to worry about having cards to discard. Elrond also gives a great way to power Last Stand for Dasron with a couple of other site 3 gandy man allies.

The only reliable version I played on GCCG was standard format, and used only Gandalf culture with a lot of card recurring to allow doubles. Grimbeorn + his axe, Dasron + Last Stand, Erland, DC + The Terror of His Coming (pulling back extra copies of Last Stand/ Watch and Wait to discard for doubles), Look to my Coming and so on. Of course I used SftF in that one too. It used to give a lot of twilight, but managed to win a fair share of its games.

I tried to make it work a lot, but was never really able to break any BoO deck, all in all I think it can't make a top tier deck, but it is very fun to play .