Smoke and Drinks at the Prancing Pony

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Roka 1678

Of all the heroes released by A long-exteneded party, Nob was the one I struggled the most to make use good use of. He doesn't have the most synergy with the Bree - undefended Attacks archetype and in a Hobbit deck Pippin seems to be the stronger option. And if you just exhaust him to draw cards and hope to hit Items, Beravor or even Bilbo Baggins are more consistent, unless there would be a way to know if the top card of your deck is an attachment...

This is where Gandalf comes into play, and surprisingly enough there is no other deck with these duo of heroes to be found on RingsDB. The synergy is great: Gandalf playing cards from top of your deck makes it more likely there is an Item attachment on top of your deck at some point in your turn, and Nob drawing attachments helps Gandalf to play other cards, for example events outside of the planning phase. Ad Wizard Pipe and a well timed shuffle from Spare Pipe, Drinking Song and even Bilbo Baggins and you get quite easily access to 2 or more cards per round from those heroes.

Of course we need a critical Mass of Item attachments, I opted for 17 which seems to be enough. You also want to stay in Sphere despite of Gandalfs access to other cards, cause you want to drraw them with Nob and not play them with Gandalf. Gandalf's Staff and Wizard Pipe ( why is Narya not an Item???) are a given in any Gandalf-Deck and the rest can be chosen around your third hero. Here I went for Frodo Baggins + pretty much anything that can go on him to take advantage of Nob's first ability. A lot of these attachments are Pipes, so you can get even more ressource acceleration with Smoke and Think. It can burst out an expensive ally later in the game, while in the early game they are great fodder for Flame of Anor (and Glorfindel can even be first discarded with Falme of Arnor and then played with Smoke and Think). Smoke Rings for up to 7 threat reduction, with the recycle of Will of the West (you will normally draw your entire deck) is plenty of threat reduction to counter Frodo's ability.

This deck is not very multiplayer friendly, with Gandalf being a popular unique card and your Silvan Refugees dying if your friends play Rohan, Silvans or Eagles, but also the sequencing of your planning phase with drawing, playing and switching cards from top of your deck is tricky and takes some time, so your friends might get annoyed by the downtime.

I think the Nob+Gandalf draw engine is fun and brings some interesting decision making. I'm also interested what other heroes could be used with it to get plenty of Item attachments out, someone like Beregond or Aragorn could be a great fit.

3 comments

Feb 15, 2023 doomguard 2156

nice idea, perhaps a bit of wasted power of gandal, but idea is nice. would start with (MotK) Bilbo Baggins, then gandalf can start with his pipe, what fastens the whole thing up and you can replace 2 wizardpipe with other items.

because you allready have alepcards and no cards that give you res, i would include the Seasoned Forager

consider Galadhrim Weaver or recycle of events (Smoke and Think or Smoke Rings i think i would replace the Silvan Refugee with them

would add Rosie Cotton, she is playable with gandalf from the top and add a 2. Fast Hitch

@other builds, i think dale would be interesting.

Feb 15, 2023 Roka 1678

@doomguard Thanks for your Feedbacks. With 10 + games played with this deck (with a positive win rate against some not so easy quests like Batttle at the Beacon, Wrath and Ruin and Escape from Umbar) have to disagree with most of your suggestions. The main reason is that this decks biggest weakness is the early game, once you have a couple Pipes and your allies out your fine. I can't see this deck working with (MotK) Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins taking undefended attacks is essential cause you don't have a stong defender til you get Jubayr out and want to use Gandalf for attack and questing. Being able to quest with Frodo and let him take an undefended hit will give you more tempo then an early Wizard Pipe. The Silvan Refugese i actually added after some testing for this reason for early willpower. Galadhrim Weaver is another card that only helps later on when you already have the pipes out and are set up. Seasoned Forager might be nice, but you you can use Gandalf's Staff for ressources (you have plenty of card draw) you have enough ressource acceleration between the Staff, Smoke and Think and Nob reducing the cost of attachments on Frodo. I like the idea of Rosie + Fast Hitch, but I don't know what to cut, cause I don't want to eat into the Item count, and all the other allies seem stronger. I guess you can cut one Warden of Healing for quests with no archery and maybe one Smoke Rings (cause you take less threat if you boost Frodos defense). I recommend you playing some game with the deck, if you want with your changes, and see how it goes, and then we can discuss further. I also though about a Dale Deck and made a first draft, but I struggled to fit enough both allies and attachments.

Feb 15, 2023 doomguard 2156

i do not play much solo these days, and when u say in our playstile Frodo Bagginss ability is important, then i can see your point.

in multi usually there are more options and allies like Silvan Refugee are not very recomanded. in my pipe-decks startin with (MotK) Bilbo Baggins is very usefull (and you would start with 3 lower thred, that perhaps help to avoid enemys in the early game)

Rosie Cotton is very flexible, she can add +wp after staging. she can let Nob defend or 3 or (what seems necessary there is not so much attackstr in the deck) let attack a hobbit with +2. with an additional Fast Hitch she can do 2 of these things.