Folco, Folco Boffin: King of the Wild Frontier 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

You've seen Gandalf decks. You've seen Thurindir decks. You've seen Folco Boffin decks. But have you ever seen all three? Prepare your retinas; this one is a beauty (eye of the beholder may vary).

I really loved Caldara decks and the ability to put Prince Imrahil in as a hero. I was wondering what it might take to play Imrahil in a non-caldara deck, and the answer is, basically, a Folco deck. I've also really loved my Side Quest deck featuring a Vigilant Dunadan (inspired by Mr. Underhill's version; you should most certainly check out his YouTube channel). One of the important things in a side quest deck is aggressive heroes to help power through the early ones while you get set up, and in this, Folco is actually quite helpful. His 6 threat/2 Willpower is pretty great, not to mention that 2 ATT comes in handy more often than you might think! Gandalf hero here provides the usual flexibility, card draw, and resource acceleration you've come to expect from our Istari friend.

Let's take a bit of a look at the ally base. I believe the card pool is at a depth where there is very little to choose from in terms of card quality among several options, and rather than just pack the deck with 3x of each Power Card, I tried doing a ton of 1-ofs and 2-ofs to provide myself a different experience each time I play through. I'm always very happy to see the East Road Rangers early, as their 3 WP towards a side quest is fantastic and the 2ATT late game nothing to sneeze at. There's the regular litany of 2/2 questers, along with a few high-cost bombs: Firyal, Yazan, Vigilant Dunadan, and Prince Imrahil. Any of these is great with Elf-Stone, and each is worth including the Storm Comes side quest. That reduces the pressure on the Wizard Pipe and allows Gandalf's resource to contribute a bit more often.

Starting at 28 threat, you're usually able to get a fair few good rounds out of Folco before you have to discard him for the threat reduction. It's rare you will want to do this merely to make Imrahil your hero, as really only legacy blade and Self Preservation are the upside there. He's more of an on-demand Galadrim's Greeting here, which is very useful to either allow you more time to turtle or to duck underneath certain engagement costs. For example, in the Dungeons of Cirith Gurat, I discarded Folco once I was at 40 threat to get under those Warg Riding things. Very helpful!

The attachments and events shouldn't surprise you a ton; the deck honestly could use some more consistent readying in the form of Unexpected Courage or even a third Shadowfax. I've preferred Flames of Anor here, just for the fun factor. The events are just card advantage, except for the Free Peoples: Another great reason to include a wide smattering of allies. Sometimes it's not helpful; sometimes it's a bomb. It's readying AND a willpower boost....whoa! It is expensive, but sometimes you need it.

Side quests are all very important here. 9 times out of 10 I'll start Gather Information, which you can crack to either get another side quest, the Wizard Pipe, or whatever. I don't know that I've ever gotten anything other than a quest or Pipe, though. Keep Watch is the hidden gem here. In a defender-light deck that uses healing as de-facto defense, that -1 to all enemies is a MAJOR help. Keep Watch with a Vigilant Dunadan is great; even greater if you have Arwen to boost him. Believe it or not, I might even like to swap one of the Mithrandir's Advice for another Road Goes Ever On, just to be able to grab those side quests at the opportune moment.

Today, I was able to beat Dungeons of Cirith Gurat and the Mumakil (3 times). Both of those quests do admittedly lend themselves to side questing, but a 7-willpower Thurindir charging through a staging area kept clean with Firyal's response was a ton of fun! Feel free to try this out if you're in the mood for something tricky and a bit of a fresh approach to a Gandalf deck!