Elrond is requested! Northern Tracker, too. Saruman is wante

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Flrbb 170

Introduction

This deck came about because I discovered Hero Saruman for myself and realised that he is particularly well suited to shine in multiplayer. I wanted to have a support deck (mainly resources and card draw) for 3 to 4 players. With so many players, location lock and treacheries are a bigger problem. Imho, the favoured decks in my playgroup didn't cover these aspects well enough. Because of the enhanced healing effect, they asked me to choose Elrond as one of the heroes for my new deck. This means that two of the heroes are already set. I believe that - with moderate initial threat - a focus on threat reduction is usually not needed, even with Saruman his doomed engine. For an acceptable starting threat and to have a key card available from the start, MotK Bilbo Baggins is a perfect choice as 3rd hero.

Starting Hand

The core mechanics of this deck need some more cards. It would take a lot of luck to have them all in the starting hand. A selection of these cards should be in the first hand, otherwise I recommend a mulligan. Missing cards can be obtained quite easily with Word of Command, Gather Information or Deep Knowledge.

So, which are the core cards?

Wizard Pipe, you'll have that thanks to Bilbo Baggins. Saruman's Staff, Vilya are the other two. Ideally, you still have a Word of Command, any Doomed card and an Unexpected Courage, too.

Early Strategy

Depending on which parts (Sarumans Staff + Doomed cards or Vilya and in best case an UC and/or a powerful ally) you'll have at hands you should put down those cards first. Resources are a bit tight to follow both strategies in the very first round.

Anyhow, add the first UC to Elrond, the second to Saruman and a third to Elron again. Attach (both) Burning Brand to Elrond and Keen Longbow to Saruman. Using Glamdring would be an alternative.

In some rounds it may not be necessary to play a Doomed card (to ready Saruman). However, I recommend playing a Doomed every turn. Well, or use the staff to search for a Doomed card. This behaviour will accelerate the game play of all other players. You all benefit in the end.

Other Cards

Initially said, focus is on Northern Tracker, Rhovanion Outrider and A Test of Will. Other slots in the deck are basically strong allies (or healing), the usual Vilya things.

Gandalfs enter play effect usually can reduce a players threat, but in this case I'd like to recommend to use it to draw cards (early on) or kill an enemy (when set up).

Sideboard

As usual my sideboard is a bit bigger. The listed allies are other strong options (like when any other unique ally is in another players deck). Spare Pipe was ment to buffer the Hobbits life and for some card fetching ability. This is still a thing, but I cut the card because I wanted to have more allies in the deck (a single Pipe does allways come to late, I guess). I listed all the Doomed cards just to have them in my mind, but deck space is short here, again. :D Flame of Anor would be a good way to boost the attack value, but a Keen Longbow (or Glamdring) does a better, more constant job. Drinking Song could bring you a new hand, but in my experience this is not necessary because later the card draw is big anyway.

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