By popular demand, here's a deck I've been playing with lately that seems to be doing pretty well. It's actually one I made a long time ago, but I recently dug it out, tweeked it a bit, and it seems pretty solid. I called it "Boromoria," since it's centric elements are Boromir and Moria:
Starting cards:
Ring-bearer:
Frodo, Old Bilbo's HeirRing:
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring1x
Merry, Friend to Sam1x
Boromir, Son of DenethorAdventure deck:
The Prancing PonyTrollshaw ForestCouncil CourtyardGreat ChasmThe Bridge of Khazad-dumCaras GaladhonAnduin ConfluenceShores of Nen HithoelTol BrandirFree Peoples Draw Deck:
4x
Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim1x
Aragorn, Heir to the White City1x
Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad1x
Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor2x
Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals1x
Gandalf's Pipe1x
Glamdring1x
Aragorn's Bow1x
Aragorn's Pipe1x
Armor2x
Blade of Gondor2x
Flaming Brand1x
Horn of Boromir1x
Ranger's Sword1x
Shield of Boromir1x
Frodo's Pipe1x
Hobbit Sword4x
Old Toby1x
Sting1x
The Gaffer's Pipe1x
Gandalf's Staff1x
Narya2x
A Wizard Is Never Late3x
Sleep Caradhras3x
Might of Numenor4x
Stout and SturdyShadow Draw Deck:
4x
Cave Troll of Moria, Scourge of the Black Pit4x
Goblin Runner3x
Goblin Scavengers1x
Goblin Scrabbler1x
Goblin Warrior1x
The Balrog, Flame of Udun3x
Troll's Keyward3x
Orc Ambusher2x Úlairë Cantëa,
Lieutenant of Dol Guldur1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Nertëa,
Messenger of Dol Guldur4x
Goblin Scimitar1x
Goblin Spear2x
Foul Things4x
Host of Thousands4x
Goblin Armory2x
Goblin Swarms2x
Relics of Moria2x
They Are ComingBid 1, and go first if you can. Most of the time bidding 1 is enough to go first, and about half the time that you DON'T go first, the opponent will still start with Prancing Pony, so no biggie. Even if he doesn't, the deck can still do pretty well without Aragorn, and it's a pretty good drawer, so there's a fair chance you'll still draw him. If you somehow don't have Aragorn out but draw his gear (
Ranger's Sword,
Aragorn's Bow), I suggest you go ahead and discard them. They're nice to have, but not essential.
You should get Gandalf pretty early, 4x Gandalf, 2x
AWINL. He helps with card drawing.
Boromir and Merry are the Batman and Robin of this deck, Boromir can pump Merry, Merry can pump anybody.
Stout and Sturdy becomes a powerup so that you can use Merry multiple times, or just heal him. Farmer Maggot for healing Merry, Elrond for healing anybody and/or using with
Horn of Boromir. Incidentally, can't remember if I knew this before or not, but Boromir can fire that Horn at the same Ally more than once, making that Ally +3 each time!
Might of Numenor is great for doubling, recharging Boromir, and
Shotgun Enquea protection if you somehow have 5 burdens.
This deck uses NO CONDITIONS on the Free Peoples side, so you are immune to condition bombs and may use
Sleep, Caradhras with impunity.
As I mentioned, this deck is a good drawer. Gandalf gets you an extra card each turn, 4x
Old Toby will get you cards, and the Shadow side will be drawing you cards as well. The other advantage is, while you will dump a fair bit of twilight early in the game, once you're set up, there's not much twilight generation, so he'll probably be limited in how much he can throw at you. Especially since you are well prepared to bomb out his conditions. Thanks to Barliman Butterbur, you don't have to hold a Sleep in hand, you can just discard them and get one back when you need it. Just make sure you have one when you move to Site 7, in case it's
Anduin Confluence.
I think this FP side is pretty well prepared to deal with any Shadow strategy. You're immune to condition bombs, you can destroy any conditions they have out, you have 2x
Flaming Brand vs Nazgul, you have
Armor and
Sword of Gondor vs Uruk-hai, as well as the ability to pump anyone you need, call in Allies to help, or just use
Gandalf's Staff to cancel skirmishes. You have burden removal and don't play more than 5 companions, so most of the time you'll be safe from
Shotgun Enquea as well. You've got pipes and 4x
Old Toby, so when you need to, you have the option to take off burdens, heal important guys, heal everybody, or take out twilight... all depending on what Shadow strategy you're facing.
And now for the Shadow side: Generally this looks like a typical
Goblin Armory Shadow, but with a few important differences. Yes, you can swarm with this if he doesn't bomb your conditions. But on top of the swarm potential, you have a very real chance to play Cave Troll of Moria at every site after Site 3, and a fair chance of topping him off with
Goblin Spear... even if he gets rid of your 4x
Goblin Armory. There's not too many opponents who are going to be willing to double with that out there, and even if they do, there's a fair chance they'll get swarmed and/or lose a guy. If he puts in enough twilight, you may even be able to get both Cave Troll of Moria and The Balrog out at the same time, especially if he doubles from Site 4 to Site 5 with
Troll's Keyward still on table. Then you only need 11 twilight!
Feel free to play or discard the 3x
Orc Ambusher as you draw them. The main objective there is to get them into your discard pile, so if the opponent does somehow make it to Site 9, you can play those 3 trackers once you're done playing all the other minions you can.
Additionally, if the opponent is slightly ahead of you, there's a pretty good chance you can stop him from doubling to Site 9 with
Shores of Nen Hithoel. And since by that point you should be generating very little twilight, and he should have no conditions on the table, there's a pretty good chance he won't be able to play 5 Orcs to stop you from doubling to 9 past him.
Goblin Warrior and
Goblin Scrabbler are there for obvious reasons, and the Nazgul are icing on the cake for crowd control and getting rid of weapons.
Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur is especially good for either getting
Greenleaf to shoot at him, getting a couple of hits on guys (because he doesn't want his stronger guys to lose their stuff), and/or preventing a double. A problem you won't have, btw, since you are still able to beat him with guys who don't have weapons!
This deck does run
Anduin Confluence to counter the various Ally-heavy decks out there, especially the archery ones. You are not as dependent on your Allies as they are, especially since you should be well set up by Site 6. If you're playing against an Ally-heavy deck, encourage them to get in front of you, because it's really helpful to dump all their allies.
...and that's about it, I think! Looking forward to feedback.