Apologies for the innuendo in the title, but this is actually quite a fun deck that I have been fairly addicted to playing recently. During the first turn of my last particular outing, Gandalf, Elrond, Celeborn and Elrohir with a Fellowship took a trip to Carn Dum and ended up facing 3 Cave Worms, one of which was Summoned from a Long Sleep! Needless to say most companies would have been severely wounded by this unfavourable onslaught. However, with one Vilya, one Narya and a New Friendship, I ended up with 3 MPs – top fun and a most unexpected turn of events for my opponent!
[starting]
Elrond
Elrohir
Celeborn
Cram
Cram
Edited to select ideal starting characters instead of listing complete character pool.
[characters]
Glorfindel II
Elladan
Ioreth
Gandalf
Gandalf
Gandalf
[resources]
Fellowship
Fellowship
Fellowship
Vilya
Vilya
Vilya
Angmarim
Orcrist
Narsil
Reforging
Safe from the Shadow
Marvels Told
Marvels Told
Narya
Narya
Many Foes He Fought
Many Foes He Fought
Many Foes He Fought
A Friend or Three
A Friend or Three
A Friend or Three
Blue Mountain Dwarves
Wormsbane
Great-road
New Friendship
New Friendship
Great-road
Smoke Rings
Longbottom Leaf
Elves of Lindon
[sideboard]
Mount Slain
Withdrawn to Mordor
Marvels Told
Tom Bombadil
Unhappy Blows
Alone and Unadvised
Twilight*
Narya
Vanishment
Many Sorrows Befall
Lord of the Carrock
Power Built by Waiting
Earcaraxe Ahunt
Cave Worm*
Golodhros
Lossoth
Gildor Inglorion
Baduila
Gwaihir
Nameless Thing
Will Shaken
Anduril, the Flame of the West
Promptings of Wisdom
Alliance of Free Peoples
My Precious
Glamdring
River
Covetous Thoughts
Foolish Words
Annalena
The deck may be a little on the rough side as I have only played a few times, so suggestions and tips are most welcome. I haven’t played witness to many decks that risk Gandalf using Narya, but with the right protection against corruption it can actually turn out to be a viable and competitive strategy. To be honest, I don’t actually know why Narya isn’t used more often?!
The Fellowships are key. The party of four as mentioned above is fairly critical to the successful running of the deck and therefore has to get set up as quickly as possible. Once organised though, with New Friendships and A Friend or Three, the deck can stay fairly free from corruption. With Narya, remaining untapped shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Great Road is useful for collecting the various pieces for reforging Anduril – another fun strategy which when completed will cause any minion opponent to take your company very seriously indeed, if they weren’t already with Narya and Vilya about! Raise the factions with the high influenced raised characters and then, if applicable, bring Alliance of the Free People across from the sideoard to complete the misery.
Anyway, it’s a fun deck and should be played as so. Rest assured it will catch many of your opponents unaware, as no-one expects Narya! So use this element of surprise to your advantage and enact revenge on some pesky Assassins.