The Gate Guard - Record Setting The Black Gate Opens Deck 1.0

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bold to start with 41 thread. but, for black gate understandable and not so risky.

interesting deck, battle will handled well by denethor and grimbeorn and you will have a fast way through your deck with cirdan and beravor.

in this special szenario perhaps Grim Resolve is better than Doom Hangs Still because using the valor-option does not get you a resource (because it is at the start of the questphase and skipping it gives no start) and for the normal effect, Grim Resolve (and sending all) has mostly the same effect.

even if it is expensive, i would put in at least 1 Tome of Atanatar it is another use of Doom Hangs Still (or Grim Resolve) if you manage to get through your deck, another use.

o.k. i think Nori should do the job, but he only works with additional shuffeling or at the end of the deck.

i would make minor changes:

• replace 1 White Tower Watchman with Treebeard (perhaps the other with Gandalf )
• replace 1 steward with Errand-rider
• replace 1 lore event with Quickbeam

then use the ring and Strength and Courage (ring for1 The White Council strength for a weapon, Grimbeorn the Old is so much better with the ring.

then depending of testing, if needed, Galion with Inner Strength

another idea is, to replace 1 Resourceful with Sword-thain but if yo want to place both on denethor it is not recommanded, or you include that mentioned Errand-rider

This is extremely well thought out to face the specific difficulties of that quest (and to take advantage of its quirks), the degree of polishing is amazing and you pulled it off admirably, congratulations.

@doomguard Unfortunately I don't think there is not enough willpower in this deck to switch Doom Hangs Still with Grim Resolve. It is based solely on just skating by in the first three quest phases and then stop questing entirely. You're right that Grimbeorn is way better with Strength and Courage but alas you can't use the One Ring or master cards in the saga quests, even when the ringbearer is not present. The White Tower Watchmen / Bofur are just Nori protection fodder for The Hour of Doom, which discards the highest cost ally. I fear there would be a decent chance Treebeard would get discarded without seeing a combat phase ready. You're probably right that replacing a Steward of Gondor with errand-rider with something else is a good idea, and just resetting if you don't see Steward in your first turn, since you're going for a record. Consistency isn't as important as the ceiling you could reach with utility from the second card.

@Alonewolf87 Thank you it was a blast! I think The Black Gate Opens is my new favorite quest.

i understand, and what is about Tome of Atanatar?

and why galion and not e.g. Galadriel's Handmaiden or Hasty Stroke? is the 1 Sterner than Steel enough?

@doomguard have you watched the video? Every card has a very specific reason for being in the deck, even Galion. @Glamcrist plays Doom Hangs Still for something like 9 turns in a row, even without the Tome. It's extremely impressive.

Galion is indeed Lord of the Spare Cloak.

no have not seen the vod. want to read the reason not view an hour vod to get it. but if its to much np. the maiden also can have the cloak and reducing thread by 1 what is the maximum per round seems not bod for me.

and if the gameplay is so genius, that it do not need additional "safety"-measures, o.k. gratz. but perhaps it make sense to think about more than 9 rounds.

@doomguard It's no problem I can explain. Resources are so tight in this quest you probably won't have 2 spirit resources for the handmaiden. Galion can take the forced exhaust effects turn 1 and later get the cloak, both for free. Same problem with the Tome. It is very unlikely that you will have 8 leadership resources in the middle of the game for that combo. Also as always leadership spots are very tight in a BoF deck. I do find that Sterner than Steel is enough. Again, it's free. And it's for that emergency when the Mouth of Sauron gets a "Defender cannot ready until the end of the round" game ending shadow on Grimbeorn in the quest phase. If you make it through the first three or so turns with the Armored Destrier and Forewarned, the Silver Lamp can usually allow you to manage all the combat phase shadow effects.

Doom Hangs Still is a ridiculously good card for this in epic mode, though. I once played a deck based on it in an epic playthrough, and it was so good. :D

@doomguard

I watched the vid, and I must confess that I can't see the Handmaiden making any practical difference to Glam's run. She's likely way too slow/expensive at 2 Resources, and I'd have a hard time seeing how the threat reduction alone from two Handmaidens would make up enough difference to yield an entire extra round of play.*

*in Glamcrist's video, he explains that 9 Resource tokens is his target because that's the highest reported 1-Handed score he could find. For what it's worth, his deck here collects 12 Resource tokens onto the Gate, which is an exponential bar-raising, in my opinion.

@Glamcrist thx ,that spares me some time ;)

with an Errand-rider there is perhaps 3 res within 9 (12?) turns? or do you think its overall to tight?

I have no new insights to offer. I only wanted to comment that this seems like a wonderfully crafted deck for the Black Gate Opens :) I'm also not going to test it as I'm still experiencing trauma responses from the last time I played TBGO lol

@Uruk-guy I feel you. I also experienced that trauma at one point and was convinced solo campaign mode was broken lol.

@Thanee Wow I never even thought about that. What a surefire way to buy your buds an extra turn lol.

@frobp Thanks for watching! There is always a sketchy part in the middle after the first Will of the West but if you manage to draw into a Doom Hangs Still then usually it's pretty easy to play it the nine times.

@Glamcrist I watched the vid... so much fun thanks for posting.

I was starting to think about a companion deck to play with it, maybe something with Glóin for resource generation and a Narvi's Belt then the other deck could help with Doom Hangs Still but more importantly add in Light the Beacons and Parting Gifts to allow Grimbeorn to defend and kill everything on the board!

Possibly play some blue that allows for threat lowering every turn of both players. You played for 13 rounds and if at the end of the at you had been only at 76 threat you could have gone many more rounds!

@BeowolfMN Thanks for watching! Funny that you say that, during testing Gloin was one of the other two leadership heroes (with Amarthiul) that I was trying in place of Denethor. He is a surefire way to get 3 resources a turn mid game on if you can heal him. I like your ideas for the other deck. Maybe a Gloin / Galadriel / Sp. Beregond? That will handle the threat of both players and allow searching with the Mirror, as well as Tests of Will and maybe some location control, stuff there was no room for in the first deck.

In the video you only use Doom Hangs Still Valour action once or twice. Wouldn't Ever Onward be a cheaper option?

@GreenWizard Yes I suspect you are right! The valour action rpobably isn't worth an extra 2 resources per round.