Council of the Unwise 1.0

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• 1.0

Great idea! Wouldn't it be more consistent without the Council of the Wise contract ?

That is true for literally every Council of the Wise deck, given its nature! The only consistency problem is in drawing the staff, which you can compensate for. Other ally cards in the deck are chosen for roles rather than specific card synergies, so you’re not losing consistency of gameplay by going to 1 copy per card. This deck’s inspiration was definitely to milk the synergy between Saruman’s benefit from Doomed events, Grima’s ability to make any event a Doomed event, and the toolboxy nature of the Council of the Wise contract when you play those events. Removing it would just lead to an entirely different deck.

nice councildeck. i would make some little changes:

put hidden cache, sneack attack and close call in. with triggering the council both events are good, specially if close call is used for 0 hp (its allowed, or not?) free readying for saruman. and if times are dire it can be used to save a hero.

would replace warden of helms deep and guardian of rivendell. both are to expensive, and that attack, they survive could be taken by denethor. for chumpblocking they are to expensive. would take a armored destrider and an envoy of pelargir for them.

another event its worth considering: Hope Rekindled 0 cost and trigger council.

would discard free people. its only for engame, and by he time you can play it, its not very likely to loose at all

captains wisdom, another good event. specially used with saruman, and play some doomed after it.

belay that, denethor is the only one who could use captains wisdom... then it is not sooo good, but worth thinking about.

Thanks for all the comments! Nearly all of the cards you mentioned were in the deck but got cut for the final published list. Sneak attack seemed underwhelming unless you luck into an ultra rare Gandalf combo (hard to pull off for a Council deck). Hidden cache I didn’t actually consider, or Hope Rekindled.

Since you start with 6 traits, it ought to be relatively easy to get to 9 by mid game. You’re right that it’s probably a weak part of this deck, but it’s just too fun and I so rarely get a chance to use it, I wanted to bring it to the 3- and 4-player games that this deck is intended for.

Defense is tricky. Denethor will defend some but unlikely more than 1 per turn (drawing defense boost AND destrier is increasingly unlikely), I didn’t include a destrier for that reason. He will defend, but will need healing in play to do that repeatedly, another hard thing to pull off. Actually, that Warden of Healing is probably target #2 for Heed the Dream or Word of Command.

So, you need some chump blockers, and there are a few here. I also like to include some allies that can defend “2 attacks or maybe more” (with healing). Hence the Warden of Helm’s Deep and Guardian of Rivendell. Since the events are low cost and the contract can function as a resource engine, it shouldn’t be too hard to pay for slightly meatier defenders.

1. in my opinion a council-deck can have more than 50 because if you use 3 events per round and have about 10 extra cards to draw or discard, its o.k. to have 53-52 cards.

2. sneack attack is not only good with gandalf. i like also use it with merry (for sudden willpoerboost, ) greenwoodarcher (ready a defender or attacker, could be nice) or loyal hound to rescue a hero. evan use it with the squirrel. he pays for it if he chumpblocks and you have a block and trigger of contract.

but all in all, my adjustments where minor, would not change the principle of the deck.

Good points! Thank you!

Nice, I love it!

How about Gather Information as another way to fetch the staff?

Would serve as a fourth option, but guarantee no earlier than 2nd turn play. But helps everyone at table if you manage to clear it on turn 1!

This was a lot of fun. I had the Staff get destroyed from a encounter card effect and it still managed to work okay. Would be nice to have a way to fetch it out of the discard just in case.

Yeah good point, the deck would be very vulnerable to attachment hate, as it runs very few attachments but expects to get one crucial attachment out from the very start of the game. In a 1-2 player game,The White Council would be the best choice-- thematically golden and works with all pieces of the deck (Grima, Council of the Wise). Reforged would be great, but no sphere match. Second Breakfast and Erebor Hammersmith are also options.

I played this recently alongside another Council of the Wise deck that did more willpower, than this deck, and this deck handled more of the combat duties. It worked well and did have the staff out on turn 1. I also played it solo just against Passage through Mirkwood just to see if I could get the staff out, and there was a game with no staff for the entire game. It's still playable, but you lose the multiplayer-friendly aspect when you lose the staff.

Very unwise to ever use Gríma

Just beat Conflict at the Carrock with this deck solo, with 3 rounds to spare (and many terrible failed attempts). Cool deck!

Thanks! I bring this deck to 4 player events still, sometimes. I’m not sure I ever tried it true solo, I only really play multiplayer. But recently we did have it in a 3 player game versus Hunt for the Dreadnaught, and won, so it definitely functions.