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Gandalf Guy 11
Book Club: A Shadow of the Past
This is the first deck in a series of decks designed to follow the books as closely as possible. I've set up a few rules and guidelines for deckbuilding and they are as follows:
BOOK CLUB RULES AND GUIDELINES
- Only use allies that make thematic sense. In this deck Mithlond Sea-watchers represent the elves that are with Gildor Inglorion when the hobbits run into him and Robin Smallburrow and Keen-eyed Took represent various hobbits that live in the shire - especially bounders.
- Try to avoid non-thematic attachments. That means no Steward of Gondor on hobbits!
- Include as many thematic events as possible. Non-thematic events are allowed but keep them within reason. (This deck needed Daeron's Runes)
- Boons and Burdens must go on the most appropriate character. Frodo Baggins must get Sting, etc.
- Gandalf and Boromir must die when they do in the books. No other Fellowship can die or you must restart the mission.
These Book Club decks will not be the most competitive decks around, and I wouldn't be surprised if they require some players to use Easy Mode. I was able to beat A Shadow of the Past with this deck but you have to make sure you pass as many Hide tests as possible!
A SHADOW OF THE PAST
This is the first in the series. It's a pretty standard hobbit deck. Gandalf is there to represent his presence in the Shire - but he won't be included after this mission until the Council of Elrond!
Fast Hitch, Frodo's Intuition, and Halfling Determination are great for all the Hide Tests. A Good Harvest is probably going to help you with Lore, but can also be used for for any time you need to move resources around.
For those wondering about Gildor Inglorion and the fact that he is in the encounter as an Objective Ally, here's what Gabe had to say about when the Objective ally pops up:
"The unique rules for the game prevent the objective ally from entering play at that point because you already have Gildor in play. That means the Gildor objective ally will be discarded with no effect. Hope you're enjoying The Black Riders! Cheers, Caleb"
When Sands of Harad and Beneath the Sands come out, Halfing Bounder, The Road Goes Ever On, and the Keep Watch side quest will go great in this deck (probably dropping Robin Smallburrow as he doesn't show up until the end of the book!
Boons and Burdens:
When finished, I suggest Gandalf's Delay and Mr.Underhill.
A note on 1.1 The Old Forest and 1.2 Fog on the Barrow Downs
After a ton of play-testing, I've found the next two scenarios are pretty much impossible to beat without using allies - which can't be easily explained away while being true to the text. I tried several builds with just Bill the Pony as an ally and Old Man Willow destroys the deck every time. For this reason I suggest using this deck for all three quests. I'd love to find a way to beat them with no allies, but due to Old Man Willow being immune to player card effects I just can seem to make it happen with the current card pool. If you are willing to make a few assumptions or stretches, Dunedain Rangers or Noldor allies could be added.
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Oct 20, 2016 |
Dec 08, 2016It's cool to see someone attempting this. I intend to do do something similar, but I'm waiting for more options in the card pool, because (depending on what thematic concessions you tolerate) it's difficult to beat these quests with significant deckbuilding limitations. Lindon Navigator might be worth including, since she can quest and commit to a hide test on the same turn. Stage 2 penalizes you for having many allies, so you might want to replace Keen-eyed Took with a higher willpower option, perhaps Longbeard Elder. (A Shadow of the Past tells us: "Frodo often met strange dwarves of far countries, seeking refuge in the West," so it wouldn't be a huge thematic stretch.) For The Old Forest, non-unique Ents are somewhat thematic: Sam's cousin Hal reported having seen an example of "Tree-men" in the North Moors of the Shire, and Tom Bombadil describes "the ways of trees, and the strange creatures of the Forest ... things friendly and things unfriendly," adding that Old Man Willow "had under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest." There could be a few sleepy Ents in the Old Forest who resist Old Man Willow and try to prevent the Forest from attacking the hobbits. Noldor are also thematic, since "news had reached [Tom] from Gildor concerning the flight of Frodo." For Fog on the Barrow-Downs, the Dúnedain seem more thematic: many Dúnedain were buried there, including the last prince of Cardolan, and Appendix A says "[t]hose hills were therefore revered by the Dúnedain." I can imagine the Dúnedain visiting there occasionally (especially since apparently the Barrow-wights were normally less active, but were roused by the Witch-king's return to the area). For my playthrough of A Shadow of the Past, I want to avoid combat with Nazgûl as much as possible, so I'm interested in a deck which is more like @TalesftCards's "Float Like A Butterfly." I also don't want to include Merry, since he only shows up at the end of the quest. I'm hoping for a Spirit (or Lore) version of Hero Sam, which I would use together with Spirit Pippin, some high willpower allies (Arwen and perhaps even some Silvan Refugees who are Children of the Sea might have been in Gildor's group), secrecy cards (including Strider, using the designer-approved house rule that it works with two non-Saga heroes), and attack avoidance (Out of Sight, Hobbit-sense, and A Elbereth! Gilthoniel!) to allow for a final questing push while enemies are engaged with me. |
I'd love to hear the Grey Company's input, especially @TalesftCards and @Beorn