Istari Blackjack 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

I've been toying around with a Sneak Attack recycling deck for about a week and a half and the recent discussions on Discord prompted me to publish it. The deck is hypothetically capable of playing Gandalf twenty-one times if it were to draw every card, thus the name.

3 Sneak Attack, 3 Reinforcements, 6 Tome (play and shuffled in), 6 Second Breakfast on Tome, 3 for Gandalf himself.

This deck has been played primarily in two players games alongside a Mono-Spirit threat reduction/Stand and Fight-Good Meal deck. In a four player game, I swapped the Heralds of Anorien for Good Harvest.

Tome of Atanatar recycles Sneak Attack or Reinforcements. Second Breakfast recycles Tome of Atanatar.

Herald of Anorien gets Master of the Forge out, which then finds voltron pieces for Amarthiul and (more importantly) shuffles the deck to redistribute cards put on the bottom from Tome. In regards to Herald over Good Harvest, the first Harvest is better than the first Herald, but the second and third Herald are way better (as you can simply not use the Doomed 2 effect). The deck appreciates having some chump blockers around, as it has "down time" turns in which you're searching for gas.

Using Reinforcements, Son of Arnor can come out in the second player's blocking step to pull an enemy to the first player. Or you can give someone else the Gandalf response.

Tome of Atanatar can also be used to recycle Campfire Tales if you either have all your pieces or find yourself stuck on cards.

The deck is not exceptionally consistent in getting a ridiculous sum of Gandalfs in a game, but it also offers resource smoothing for the table, Dunedain attachments to help out combat, a few Sentinel allies, and Campfire Tales. It certainly does drop its fair share of Gandalfs, but it doesn't really have an end-game. This deck burns its tools to help other players set up, and thus pairs well with decks that would appreciate some help in the early game, but can carry the team later.

There are a number of flex slots. Bill the Pony is just a free chump blocker. Warden of Helm's Deep could be anything, really. Master of the Forge could be another repeatable shuffle effect, although he goes with the attachment package.

The deck also isn't particularly attached to its heroes. In four player, I swapped into Prince Imrahil over Sam with little change, as another player wanted to run Secrecy with the hobbit. It can be a pretty accommodating build for multiplayer (as long as you swap into Good Harvest if you aren't in a player count and set-up that can handle Herald's doom).