NB's Spotlight On...Fireworks! (Back with a bang...literally!)

[SomeRandomDude]

"The finest rockets ever seen. They burst in stars of blue and green."

Well its back!

After a long time of inactivity, I'm proud to announce the return of NB's Spotlight On...and what a return! Today, we re-enter with a bang, taking you to an antiquated card that has never seen its true potential, as its own, built-in infinite loop.

Today's Spotlight on...

Fireworks!



First, as always, a look at the mechanics of the card.

(1). Twilight Cost. 1 twilight. Not too shabby. But in the way we'll be using it, either the low twilight will come in handy, or twilight cost won't matter much at all.
(2). Card Type. It is an event. Meaning that it works with other copies of itself in its gametext as we see later on. This is an EXTREMELY huge benefit.
(3). Text.
 (A). Spell. Well...Gandalf likes doing a bunch of stuff with spells, let's see if we can work with that.
 . Fellowship: Being a fellowship event, it allows you to work its magic with other fellowship events/actions that make it quite the useful card.
 (C). "Spot Gandalf to shuffle up to 2 or up to two events from your discard pile into your draw deck." Bingo. Here's where we see the combo. You use 1 copy to get the event you want, then use another copy to nab 2 Fireworks back. Now picture this. YOU ARE DECKED OUT WITH ONE OF THESE DUDES. You now have an infinite recursion engine.
(4). Rarity. 'Tis a common, easy to acquire, don't you agree?

Eh? Pretty nifty, don't ya say?

Here I deviate from the standard form of my articles and take a peek at something I call synergy. The point of Fireworks is to operate whilst decked out. So...the point of the deck is to deck out. So, you build a shadow that cycles the deck like mad. And keep your deck at 30/30- 60 cards even.

A couple options come to mind.

1). Have a good shadow that cycles well.
Answer:


Goblin Armory x 4
Goblin Scimitar x 4
Goblin Swarms x 2
Relics of Moria

Goblin Runner x 4
Goblin Scrabbler x 4
Goblin Backstabber x 4
Goblin Scavengers x 4
Goblin Flankers x 3

Um...okay. THis is the most basic, fundamental deck of all time. Moria swarm, 30 card. You can go swarm out big with card drawing like crazy, anything that wins comes back again with Goblin Swarms, and the Armory/Relics of Moria combo = almost guaranteed 8 extra twilight, 4 extra cards per turn. Yeah? Yeah?

Or...

2). Have a shadow that cycles like insanity.

4x Hides
4x Chasm's Edge
4x Slippery as Fishes
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Hidden Even From Her
1x Unabated in Malice
4x A Shadow Rises
2x Web
4x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Goblin Runner

The point of this deck is get out all of Gollum's conditions and hopefully you'll have a massive fierce damage +1 Gollum knocking people around for dirt cheap. Captured By The Ring nabs the Gollums in the deck, Hides cycles, and you've got a sweet deck that can hit hard if they play the deck wrong. But mostly, this deck cycles and dumps cards like absolute MADNESS. That's the real point.

So...now that we've got some shadows out of the way, let's take a look at the capacitys of the deck.

Well, 1 copy shuffle 2 copies into your deck. So, you can stick 4 cards into your deck, then the 2 fireworks, and have another fireworks left over. This allows you to set up 8 cards in your hand for the next site. What if we speed this up? Let's take a look at some possibilities of accelerating this and making it worth your while this turn. Unfortunately, Fellowship Phase drawing is limited to 4, thanks to the aptly names "Rule of 4", but we can still do some stuff outside of it.

Echoes of Valinor- Here come your skirmish events. But Gandalf has to win.
Mellon!- Possibilities. BUt its a one-shot thing. You play 2 Fireworks in the fellowship phase to get 2 Fireworks in your deck for the repeat of the loop and two other cards, then you've got Mellon! to get 'em to ya.
Gloin, Son of Groin- Draws 3 cards.
Aggression/Memories of Darkness/Rohirrim Guard- Okay...so its a possibility. Don't shoot me. Open format, fair game.
City of the Trees- Has to be paired with elves, but from the next card we take a glance at, get, it's looking like a quite possible option.
Woodhall Elf, Exile- Bingo. Nabs in the Manuever phase. What more can you want? Other than Aggression...
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell- The elf idea is looking better and better, now isn't it? But there may be better alternatives.

Okay, so there's more options, but this kinda gives us a cool idea for what we want to do with the deck. Now let's take another look at something else. What exactly would we to recur over and over?

Well...the strength of this strategy is not playing the same event over and over, but being able to grab ANY event necessary to your strategy. So, let's take a shot at this.

First format to nail, expanded.

(30 cards)

Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

Rumil, Silvan Elf (Starting)
Legolas, Greenleaf (Starting)

Elrond, Witness to History
Gandalf, Returned x 4

Fireworks x 4

Mirror of Galadriel, Dangerous Guide
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer
Elven Bow x 2
Shadowfax, Roaring Wind

Alatar, Final Envoy
Woodhall Elf, Exile

City of the Trees
Echoes of Valinor
Not the First Halfling

Under the Living Earth
Mighty Steed x 2
Deep in Thought
Strength of Spirit x 3
Citadel to Gate
The Terror of His Coming

The strategy of this deck is to get Mirror of Galadriel and Woodhall Elf to combo for some massive cycling on top of flat-out card drawing to set up a barebones Not The First Halfling engine (Alatar and Returned helping greatly there). Then, once you cycle through/draw through and survive until you deck out, Fireworks shoot off and you get whatever cards you need back. Mighty Steed each turn, twice a turn, anyone? Strength of Spirit/Greenleaf? Strength of Spirit x 2/Citadel to Gate combo? Yup, seems like fun. I used Witness to History over Lord of Rivendell because he can bring Echoes of Valinor back over and over, and with Strength of Spirit...yeah. Shadowfax can also eat tokens to drop minions.

Seem fun? Sweet! Let's take a whack at another decktype in open that may be a little bit funner to use...bwahaha.

(32 cards)

Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
The Great Ring

Gandalf, Leader of Men
Gloin, Son of Groin

Dain Ironfoot, King under the Mountain
Rohirrim Guard
Aragorn, Heir to the Throne of Gondor
Legolas, Greenleaf
Rumil, Silvan Elf
Orophin, Silvan Elf

Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow

Ring of Fury
Gandalf's Hat
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer
Dwarven Axe
Mirror of Galadriel, Dangerous Guide

Aggression x 2
Memories of Darkness
Brooding on Tomorrow
Echoes of Valinor
Proud and Able

Calculated Risk x 3
Fireworks x 4

Citadel to Gate
Strength of Spirit x 2
The Terror of His Coming
Ease the Burden

Well...the strategy here is to spot a dwarf. Then, once you've done that, you have Memories of Darkness, a damage Gloin, Aggression, and now you're drawing card in fellowship. Mirror of Galadriel once again ensures you get the cards you want, by perhaps sticking Fireworks under your deck, and then you can go Citadel to Gate/Gorn's Bow combo for some massive fun. Orophin can clean up any left-overs, assuming Gorn can't, and anything still left over, leave it to Dain and a condition discard (it comes back with Memories of Darkness anyways...).

Well thanks again guys for taking time to read this and learn a few tricks you may not have known about the old card, Fireworks. And just a hint, the Strength of Spirit/Citadel to Gate/Aragorn's Bow combo may see its way in some of the expanded games I play ya.

Until Next Time,

~NB

[SomeRandomDude]

Discuss in this topic, I also added a whole thread of Spotlight On and stickyed it for your reading pleasure (if reading me is pleasurable, which is dubious).

[DáinIronfoot]

Hold the presses! NBarden is using one of the brothers WITHOUT the other?!

And here you always told me that was sacrilege.

I use Fireworks in many decks. Even without using it to loop and pull back copies of itself, it's a fantastic card. I LOVE it with old-school pipeweed.

[SomeRandomDude]

Nah, I always told ya that Rumil > Orophin. Orophin can't shoot without an elven bow, Rumil can, thus, Rumil is a great toss in to any archery deck, free arrow and a strength 8 comp for 2? Doesn't get better than that! (Okay, with Sword of the Fallen it does).

But I just realized that the Mirror of Galadriel requires three elves, so in goes Orophin!

Well...here I thought you'd be happy for finally finding a use for Dain other than 8-9 comp starting fellowships.

[DáinIronfoot]

I've been trying for a long time to design a deck that splashes in my namesake and uses his impressive regroup ability to its fullest, and I confess that Fireworks wasn't one I had considered until now. So yes, brownie points for that thought.

I still respectfully disagree about Orophin, though. Give me Orophin with an Elven Bow any day over Rumil...the extra 2 strength is worth waiting for the bow, in my opinion. But to each their own.

[SomeRandomDude]

Ah yes, but your deck both fights and shoots. What about a deck that doesn't fight at all and kills thanks to Pippin/Faramir combos, eh? At that point, Orophin will never skirmish.

And what if you have already maxed out your Elven Bows? Legolas + 4 comps with elven bows, now Orophin doesn't get one.

Or perhaps you draw the bow first and it clogs your hand, as is oft with a splash-in companion? Or what if you only have 1 card slot?

Orophin to the elves, Rumil to the rainbows.

[DáinIronfoot]

Fair enough. They each have their uses, that's for sure.

[Elf_Lvr]

I never really thought of a decked-out Fireworks strategy.

I would like to say that Mellon! is better than you give it credit for - it's really not as one-shot as you say, since it can be pulled back with Fireworks.

Plus, it helps deck your opponent, too, which is never ever a bad thing.

EDIT: Radagast. If your fellowship is meant to deck out, it'll be hard for your shadow to stop someone (except for gollum/web and minions on swarms, but that's still limited) so moving more is essential.

Plus his staff is another good card-drawer for your in-deck Fireworks stuff.

[SomeRandomDude]

The main problem is card space. Radagast is nice, but it doesn't showcase the combo quite as much, which is what a spotlight deck is supposed to do. That's also why I packed Mirror of Galadriel over Woodhall Elf in the second deck, even though the Woodhall Elf would be much better, its just not so cool. 8) Competitively, yes, Radagast is a nice choice.

[MR. Lurtzy]

Great article. Are you still going to have that poll where we rate the article 1-5?

[SomeRandomDude]

If you guys want, I can do that with the later articles.