FotS-Trust / Corruption Nazgul

[ununtrium]

I never played a deck that centered around Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk. The focus is to make the most use of him and Trust me as you once did, with a pipes as support. Please let me know what you think.

Ringbearer:
1R289 Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
1R1 The One Ring, Isildur's Bane

Free Peoples (34):
4x 1R72 Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk
1x 1R13 Gimli, Son of Gloin (starting)
1x 1R50 Legolas, Greenleaf (starting)
1x 1R89 Aragorn, Ranger of the North
1x 1U70 Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x 2R80 Ottar, Man of Laketown
1x 1R40 Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

1x 1R75 Glamdring
1x 2R22 Gandalf's Staff
1x 1U112 Ranger's Sword
1x 1R90 Aragorn's Bow
1x 1C92 Armor
1x 1R313 Sting
1x 2R105 Mithril-coat

3x 1R83 Servant of the Secret Fire
1x 1R87 A Wizard is never late
1x 1C84 Sleep, Caradhras!
1x 1R308 Power according to his Stature
3x 3U35 Trust me as you once did

1x 3U2 Gimli's Pipe
1x 3U107 Frodo's Pipe
1x 1U74 Gandalf's Pipe
1x 1U91 Aragorn's Pipe
2x 1C300 Longbottom Leaf
2x 1C305 Old Toby

The point of the Shadow is to slow the opponent down by plastering multiple copies of Blade Tip all over the fellowship and, if possible, corrupting the ringbearer. The Nazgul are not really supposed to win skirmishes, though that would also be a nice touch on occasion. The skulkers are there to recycle the corruption cards. Nertea is there to recycle the skulkers.

Shadow (34):
1x 1U234 Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur
2x 1R230 Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur
2x 1U231 Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
3x 2R84 Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight
3x 2R85 The Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgul
2x 3U86 Ulaire Otsea, Ringwraith in Twilight
2x 1U258 Morgul Skulker

4x 1R216 Morgul Blade
3x 1U209 Blade Tip
2x 1U207 Black Breath
3x 2U78 It wants to be found

1x 1R210 Dark Whispers

4x 1R217 Morgul Gates
1x 1R212 Fear
1x 1U223 Relentless Charge

Sitepath:
#1 1U324 The Prancing Pony
#2 1C331 Ettenmoors
#3 1U338 Ford of Bruinen
#4 1U345 Mithril mine
#5 1C349 The Bridge of Khazad-Dum
#6 2U120 Valley of the Silverlode
#7 1U355 Silverlode Banks
#8 3C117 Gates of Argonath
#9 1C362 Summit of Amon Hen

I would like to cut the deck down by 1-2 cards. Any suggestions are welcomed. Am I missing anything obvious?

If I remember correctly, Ringbearer did very well in a FotR online league with a similarly-themed deck. I would greatly appreciate it, if he shared that decklist Thank you.

[bibfortuna25]

Only 2 pipes? You're not gonna get much mileage out of that. And only 1 copy of Gandalf, even with AWINL, will hurt you more often than not. And you'll need a Ranger's Sword/Brand for Aragorn too. I'd cut out Mysterious Wizard and Fireworks to make room.

[macheteman]

I agree, get rid of the fireworks, and the mysterious wizard. and to me it seems like you are trying to do just a little too much. if gandalf dies, none of your servant of the secret fire will work. however, pipes will. so why don't you focus more on the pipes and less on the events? and if aragorn doesn't make it out until site 7...

[ununtrium]

Hi there! I cut the two Fireworks and Mysterious Wizards. I added another copy of Gandalf, cut one copy each of AWINL and SSOTSF, added a Flaming Brand and a Ranger's Sword as well as another Pipe (Gimli's). Should there be multiple copies of the pipes?

I only included one copy of Aragorn, because I would bid high to go first to get him via the Prancing Pony. Would that work or should I ditch that strategy?

Deck is now at 33 cards.

[ununtrium]

Added The Gaffer's Pipe. Up to 34 cards again.

[ununtrium]

Shadow side added.

[Ringbearer]

Replace Gimli's Pipe with Frodo's pipe. Ideal to heal Gandalf.
if you play Trust, play 4 gandalf. No more, certainly no less. You need him, he's the engine. In my trust I play 4 Gandalf and 1 AWINL.

Also, problem I have with pipes and trust is that it makes for large decks to fully work both sides. Maybe its better to enlarge a little and expand to moria.

[bibfortuna25]

You should add Narya too. More vitality for Gandalf is always a good thing.

[macheteman]

pull of the ring? and i would ditch the in the ringwraith's wake. i have never found it particularly useful. i'd  probably add a couple otsea. you only have 13 minions right now, and it would be nice to have another wraith. if you use the copy that lets you put the blade tip on frodo, you have a boost for corruption.

[ununtrium]

I cut Pull of the Ring as well as In the RingWraith's Wake. I added two copies of Twilight Otsea. I cut two AWINL and added three copies of Gandalf, FOTS. I swapped The Gaffer's Pipe for Frodo's Pipe. because I only have Frodo to put Shire pipes on and I do not believe that he can carry more than one pipe, can he? That is why Gimli's pipe stays in as a pipe booster or I could ditch it for a copy of Narya.

To get the deck to 34/34 I considered cutting either the bounder or Gimli's pipe, but then again the Flaming Brand may be good to ditch, since Ranger's Sword is pretty much doing the same thing and Armor gives Aragorn additional support already.

What do you think?

[ununtrium]

Cut the Bounder and Albert Dreary for one copy each of 2R80 Ottar, Man of Laketown and 1R40 Elrond, Lord of Rivendell for deck-cycling purposes.

I am itching to add another Elrond and another Ottar to get them both sooner than later. I would also like to add another pipe and a pipeweed. Would the deck-cycling cards engine compensate for the increased deck size?

[trueheirofelendil]

Replace Gimli's Pipe with Frodo's pipe. Ideal to heal Gandalf.
if you play Trust, play 4 gandalf. No more, certainly no less. You need him, he's the engine. In my trust I play 4 Gandalf and 1 AWINL.

Also, problem I have with pipes and trust is that it makes for large decks to fully work both sides. Maybe its better to enlarge a little and expand to moria.

I like this suggestion, been running two similar decks with pipes and the one paired with Moria seems to do better consistently; my guess is the shadow's ability to play cards and draw comparing this to the nazgul or uruk shadow paired with the same fellowship pipe deck and really struggles to play minions.  Been tweaking the nazgul corruption deck with a few other Sauron culture cards to help with corruption and it has seen a definite increase on the average of burdens placed per game.