I love the Emerald of Doriath. It’s the only way to increase your GI as a hero player (aside from the near-worthless Saw Further and Deeper). In this Hero vs Minion deck, I’ve finally come up with a way to use it.
Starting Company
Glorfindel,
Elladan with Cram,
Elrohir with Cram,
Haldir,
Halbarad.
Deck Characters
3 Radagast,
1 Fram Framson
1 Ioreth
Resources
2 Cup of Farewell
3 Crept Along Cleverly
2 Marvels Told
2 Longbottom Leaf
2 Old Thrush
3 Dragon’s Hunger
3 Risky Blow
3 Friend or Three
1 Enruned Shield
1 Emerald of the Mariner
1 Wormsbane
1 Orcrist
1 Glamdring
1 Narsil
1 Wizard’s Staff
1 Necklace of Girion
1 Wood-Elves
1 Gwaihir
Key Sideboard Cards
1 Alliance of Free Peoples
1 Iron Hill Dwarves
1 Men of Dorwinion
1 Noble Steed
1 Emerald of Doriath
1 Black Arrow
1 Healing Herbs
1 Thror’s Map
1 Marvels Told
1 Sacrifice of Form
1 Staff Asunder
1 Wizard Uncloaked
1 Withdrawn to Mordor
1 Wizard’s River-Horses
1 Power Against the Shadow
1 A Chance Meeting
Playing Tips
You only have 3 free GI at the start of the game, so be sure to put somebody under Radagast’s DI as soon as possible. If you don’t draw him in your opening hand, you’ll probably want to sideboard over either Sac of Form or River-Horses so that he can join the main company in safety.
Use the Cup of Farewell to bring over nice minor items from the sideboard. With a reduced hazard limit from Crept Along, you should be able to get 2 untapped characters into a dragon’s lair without too much trouble, especially once you have some battle gear. Put the Emerald on Radagast, and your GI boosts up to 12 as well as giving him a nice little +1 vs any of the elves in his company. The Men of Dorwinion and Iron Hill Dwarves complete the Alliance of Free Peoples if you’re in the mood for it (Necklace of Girion helps here), or you can just grab lots of shiny, pointy things and stab your minion opponent.
Narsil, the Necklace, and the little Emerald all give DI boosts, so influence shouldn’t be a problem. You can either go to Framsburg to pick up Fram or drop him in with A Chance Meeting. Cup of Farewell will allow two greater items to be played at one hoard by pulling over Thror’s Map, as well as equipping Fram with a Black Arrow and removing the need to go to a Haven with a Healing Herbs. And if your opponent plays an ahunt on you, well just kill it for 3 to 6 MPs and forget about playing an item that turn. Houses of Healing in the sideboard are optional.
MP breakdown
Ally: 2 (+1 for Steed),
Character: 8 (+ a couple more, perhaps, what with all the influence boosters… haven’t figured that out yet….),
Item: as many as 26 are in the deck, but I’d wager on actually playing about 4 or 5 items for about 15 MPs,
Faction: 3 for the Wood-Elves (+ 10 more if you complete the Alliance).
That works out to 28 (+25 more or so possible). Be sure not to get just items, as they will be much more than half of your MP total if you’re not careful.
Enjoy,