here’s the quirkiest deck I have yet built: it’s a hero vs minion deck that starts with NO CHARACTERS. That’s right. None. I’ll give a basic description first, then give a list of the cards in it. The basic idea is that your opponent is stuck playing no hazards for several turns, and his hand gets choked by them. He cant move through his deck; he stalls; he falters. Meanwhile, you FLY through your deck. Why? Because you have a ton of half-creatures (At Homes, Spawn, Nazgul, agents) that play out quickly and your resources are designed simply to go straight from your hand to the table: 3 armories, 9 minor items = 12 cards gone. Now, you’re thinking, “That’s cool and all, but I still need points to win.” Ah, but that’s the best part. This deck plays the entire king under the mountain combo, legendary hoard and all, in one turn. Here’s the deck list:
Characters:
2 Gandalf
1 Thrain II
1 Balin
Resources:
1 Alliance of Free Peeps
2 An Unexpected Party
3 Crown of Flowers
1 Gates of Morning
3 Legendary Hoard
1 More Alert than Most
3 Armory
1 Black Arrow
1 Cram
1 Elven Rope
1 Emerald of Doriath
1 Healing Herbs
1 Horn of Anor
1 Necklace of Silver and Pearls
1 Thror’s Map
1 Favor of the Valar
3 Smoke Rings
3 Longbottom Leaf
Hazards:
9 Nazgul
6 Spawn (all but Shelob)
Agburanar at Home
Daelomin at Home
Leucaruth at Home
Scatha at Home
Smaug at Home
Lady of the Golden Wood
Mouth of Sauron
My Precious
Baduila
Golodhros
3 Power Built by Waiting
Redoubled Force
Revealed to All Watchers
Sideboard:
Hazards:
2 Darkness Made by Malice (all those spawn out… might as well use em)
1 The Way is Shut
1 Troll Purse (Redoubled force already out)
1 Veils Flung Away (GREAT card)
Characters:
1 Cirdan
1 Gimli
1 Gloin
1 Kili
1 Oin
Resources:
2 Chance Meeting
1 Friend or Three
1 Elves of Lindon
1 Fifteen Birds in 5 Firtrees
1 King under the mountain
1 Men of Dorwinion
2 Noble Hound
1 Not at Home
1 Orcrist
1 Returned Exiles
1 Sac of Form
1 The Arkenstone
1 The Old Thrush
1 The White Wizard
1 Withdrawn to Mordor (KRIS!)
1 Wizard Uncloaked
1 Wizard’s Riverhorsies
1 Wormsbane
Use the Smoke Rings/Longbottoms to bring the whole combo over from your sideboard. You want to start at Lorien by first playing Thrain or Gandalf one turn, then the other the next, along with An Unexpected Party and a whole mess of other dwarves. That second turn, after playing your whole company out, trek up to one of your At Home dragons under the protection of 15 Birds in 5 Firtrees and crush it with sac of form/old thrush (these come from sideboard too). Play 2 greater items (preferable Arkenstone and wormsbane), King Under the Mountain, Returned Exiles, and a Noble Hound or two. Now here’s the tricky part. You have to play Thror’s Map Your NEXT turn, you want to continue to squat and and play ANOTHER greater item, your remaining hounds, and some more dwarves for mps using a chance meeting and all that extra DI from the arkenstone and king under the mountain; also, play Gandalf the Sac-boy at Grey Havens and pull in the elves of lindon and throw the white wizard on him. If that’s still not enough mps for you, drop cirdan in next turn under gandalf for +1 hand size and 3 mps, and have your dwarves run over to shrel kain for the men of dorwinion, thereby completing the alliance of free peeps. It’s not easy to pull off, but when it works, oh lordy is it sweet.