Gandalf and his outlanders friends 1.0

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• 1.0

Hi everybody!

A quick word before beginning writing: English isn't my native language, so I could ( and surely will ;) ) do english mistakes, so I apologize in advance for those of you who will suffer from eyebleeding after reading my text ^^'

BUT LET'S GO TO THE DECK!! The first time I saw an outlander, it was in the heirs of numenor, with the Hunter of Lamedon , and I was like "pfff, doesn't seem very powerfull...", but THEN I bought The Steward Fear, from wich I got Knights of the Swan , Ethir Swordsman , Anfalas Herdsman , Warrior of Lossarnach , and of course Hirluin the Fair , and THEN i thought "OH MA GOD SO POWERFULL !!!", but I knew it would be hard to play them, because of their 4 spheres ... so I waited to got 2 other heroes which can play them, and they came!! Gandalf and Elrond !!! This three heroes are able to play the outlanders from the 3 spheres, and it's how my deckbuilding began!

First of all, I will present the heroes:

• Hirluin the Fair has really bad stats, and his ranged ability doesn't really help, but ... he has two major power: he can play outlanders from any spheres, and he IS an outlander! It could seem pointless, but when you see what allies he can play, it's a totally different story!

• Elrond has really good stats, and can play allies from any sphere ( wink-wink 4-spheres outlanders), which is great. And his ability to help the healings is really helpfull too, and even if there isn't so much effects which benefits from it in the deck, if you play in multiplayer it also triggers on the others' players' card, and this can be really helpfull!

• The last, but not the least, is Gandalf!!! a very unique hero, which doesn't belong to any sphere, but OMAGAD HE IS STRONG!! First of all you play with the top card of your deck revealed, but you can ALSO play this car whatever sphere it belongs! It's like drawing one more card each turn, and with the ability to play this card whithout asking yourself if you belong to the right sphere! In addition, his stats are excellent ... So an excellent heroes, which bring unique mechanics and synegies with him.

For those of you who don't knew the outlanders, they are allies which give bonuses to ALL the outlanders you own ( including Hirluin), and there is one of them in each spheres ( Ethir Swordsman is spirit and give +1willpower to all you outlanders, Knights of the Swan is tactic and give +1 atk to all you outlanders, Anfalas Herdsman is lore and give +1life to all you outlanders, and Warrior of Lossarnach is leadership and give +1def to all you outlanders). In addition of these ones, you can find two others outlanders ( which also benefits the stat bonuses ) : the first is Hunter of Lamedon, a lore ally which allow you to draw the first card of your deck when he enters play if it's an outlander ( quite easy to know when to play this card, thanks to gandalf), and the second is Forlong, a leadership ally who can untap each phase if you control at least one outlander from each sphere, which should happen.

The idea of the deck is too play as many outlanders you can, to benefit from their mutual stats bonuses. But the deck also contain 5 other allies: Quickbeam is a really strong ally for only 2 resources, he can help in any domain ( quest, defense, attack ), play it untaped or not depending the situation; the second ally is Faramir, he is much more expensive ( but can be payed by both Hirluin and Elrond, and even Gandalf if he wear Narya) but can do miracles during questing, so he is totally worth his cost. The three last allies are the Warden of Healing, who allow you to heal 2 characters for 2 hitpoints each at each turn, thanks to Elrond.

So that's all for the allies, let's go to the attachments! To begin with, we will talk about Gandalf stuff:

• The Gandalf's Staff is a very strong card, allowing you to cancel one shadow per turn, or to draw or gain a resource when you don't need the shadow cancellation so it's never a waste to equip it.
• Gandalf's ring, Narya, allow him to pay for leadership cards, which can help you when you need to play a card from your hand absolutely this turn, but it also allow you to untap two allies and boost them, and this can save a hero or help killing an ennemy.
• Gandalf's horse, Shadowfax, allow you to untap Gandalf once per turn. It also gives him Ranged and Sentinel, helpfull in multiplayer.
• Smoking isn't a good thing, except for Gandalf and his Wizard Pipe, which allow you to switch one card from your hand and the top deck of your deck. This effect could seem pointless, but it's in fact reaaaaally strong combined with other cards. The first use his with Gandalf himself: he can play the top card of your deck once per round, so this pipe can put a card with a casting cost of 0 on top of your deck for you to play with gandalf, so it's like if you hawe drawed an extra card, or a more expensive card to use gandalf resources. But there are "combos" with this pipe: it allows the Hunter of Lamedon to be sure to reveal an outlander card, by switching and outland from your hand with the top card of your deck ( but don't use the pipe to do it if it's already an outlander on top your deck ). The second combo is with Flame of Anor: thanks to the pipe you can chose which card on your hand will be discarded, and so gain even more extra damages if you need it.The last combo is quite stronger: it includes the Wizard Pipe, Expert Treasure-hunter, and Hidden Cache. You attach the expert treasure hunter to someone ( let's say Elrond) who is commited to the quest, and he gets a success. You use the pipe to puthidden cache on top of the deck, with the expert treasure expert you say "Event", the hidden cache is discarded and give you 2 resources, then you draw it, and you can do it again next turn ( so it gives you +2resources and one extra draw per turn!)

To continue with the attachments, the Expert Treasure-hunter whe just talked about allow you to draw one card per turn when you successfully quest, because you always know what the top card of your deck is thanks to Gandalf. I usually attach it to Elrond, because I keep Gandalf and Hirluin for the fights, and Elrond has 3 base willpower. The last attachment is Steward of Gondor who give you 2 resources per turn, nothing to say here expect it's a really strong card, which I usually attach to Hirluin or Gandalf, depending of the situation.

Then come the events. and to begin with: Hidden Cache! It's only use is on the combo with Expert Treasure-hunter and Wizard Pipe, but it's a good combo so it's okay. Most of your allies cost 2, so I included Sneak Attack to play one ally when you realy need it even if you only have one ressource ( giving all his outlanders friends the bonus they needed to succeed in whatever they were doing). I also included A Very Good Tale to play more allies at the end of a turn if you have two unused allies. Then the Daeron's Runes are here to help the draw, discarding an useless card ( like a second copy of the steward, the pipe, or the staff). But it's not over with the draw, because I also included Word of Command to get any card you want in your deck ( usually a specific outlander if you need to quest/defend/attack) at the end of a turn with a ready Gandalf. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice your allies to protect a hero, and that's why I use Men of the West, if i have enough ressources but too few alives allies, I play this card to bring all their dead corpses back to life in my hand. The last event is the Flame of Anor, allowing you to ready Gandalf and do extra damages equal to the cost of your topdeck card ( remember that you ALWAYS know what this card is, thanks to Gandalf, and you can even have more choices on it with the Wizard Pipe, and you really want to discard Faramir or Shadowfax to get really huge damages ), but you can also use it in combination with a Hidden Cache if you really need one resource ( the cache give you 2, but the flame cost 1).

To finish, let's talk quickly about the two sidequest: Gather Information allows you to pick any card in your deck and add it to your hand, so as with the word of command I usually pick an outlander to buff what need to be buffed, but sometimes a steward or an expert tresure hunter can be more efficient, depending of what you need. The last side quest, and last card of the deck ( FINALLY !!!) is Send for Aid who allows you to play WITHOUT PAYING HIS COST an ally from the 10 fist cards of your deck, and you don't have to shuffle it before, so you know what the top card his, and with the wizrad pipe you can "help the chance" to have Faramir on top of your deck when resolving the sidequest.

That's all for the presentation of the cards in the deck, I have to admit it takes more times than I thought, but that was fun so it's okay! This deck is certainly one of the most powerfull I have ever played ( yes, I know, everybody say that about their decks, but I play this deck when I can't get through a scenario with other decks, and I usually win in first or second try with it ). His two greater weakness are his slow start and his threat, so it combine very well in duo with a faster-starting deck who can ( even slightly) reduce the threat.

I hope you like this deck and his description, once again sorry for the english mistakes I made ( I don't know where, but I certainly did ^^' ), and I will see you in a next deck publication ( if I have the willpower to do it again :p )