Optimized Pipe Combo (Turn 1 Win) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

---- INTRODUCTION ----

Hello fellow deckbuilders !

First of all I would like to stress out the core idea of this deck is not mine, if I am not mistaken the original author was Rouxxor who spent a lot of time working on this. I noticed his deck was actually not published here (at least I could not find it), since I made a few adjustments I figured it was a good opportunity to do so.

DISCLAIMER - This deck is super fun to play for something around 10 games, after which you will get bored once you know how to play it reliably ! Also, this deck absolutely wreaks the game ! The board state you obtain will prevent 95% of scenarios from doing anything and you can instant win most of them in planning phase on turn 1 if you choose to play Ravens of the Mountain : to make the gameplay a little less boring I removed it, forcing you to at least go through questing in a normal way.

However, this is NOT a One-Deck. The remaining 5% of scenarios that alter the game state at setup are not playable with this deck (ie. Escape from Dol Guldur and the like ...).

---- CARDS BREAKDOWN ----

This deck is made up of several packages which allow the combos to work. Card choices are extremely precise here, so I will include a breakdown of all the constraints.

Hero constraints :

• Total threat must be 28 at most : playing all doomed cards is 21 putting you at exactly 49.
• Two heroes must have threat exactly 8 and 9 to allow swaps to function properly using Helm of Secrecy.
• Required Spheres are Lore, Spirit and Leadership.
• Required traits are Hobbit, Sylvan and Dwarf to enable both Drinking Song and Unlikely Friendship.

Resource constraints :

• A Good Harvest for Lore is required to unlock Celeborn resources.
• Total generated resources is 15-18 : 3 from setup + 9 from Legacy of Númenor + 2-5 from Unlikely Friendship + 1 from We Are Not Idle
• Total required resources is 25 : 3 for Spare Pipe + 4 for Galadhrim Minstrel + 3 for Galadhrim Weaver + 9 for Lórien's Wealth + 6 for Old Toby
• Total cost reduction available is 12 : 6 from Good Meal + 6 from Smoke and Think

Card-draw constraints :

• Total card draw required is 42 after setup and initial draw.
• Minimal/Maximal available card-draw is 29/47 : 2 from Galadhrim Minstrel + 3 from Spare Pipe + 6 from Daeron's Runes + 6 from Deep Knowledge + 3 from Drinking Song + 9 from Lórien's Wealth + 0-12 from Old Toby + 0-3 from The Seeing-stone + 2-5 from Unlikely Friendship + 1 from We Are Not Idle - 3 from Galadhrim Weaver

--> Hero Lineup :

• Óin : Takes the 8 threat slot, provides Spirit and Dwarf.

• Bilbo Baggins : Takes the 9 threat slot, provides Lore and Hobbit. Additional draw on first turn is crucial.

• Celeborn : Satisfies total threat = 28, provides Leadership and Sylvan. Provides useful ally boost.

--> Resource Engine :

• Sphere matching : A Good Harvest x1

• Resource generation : Legacy of Númenor x3 We Are Not Idle x1 Unlikely Friendship x2

• Cost reduction : Good Meal x3 Smoke and Think x2

Note the third copies of Unlikely Friendship and Smoke and Think do NOT belong to this package but rather in the Core Combo below.

--> Draw Engine :

• Tutors : Galadhrim Minstrel x2 Spare Pipe x3

• Doom Cards : The Seeing-stone x3 Deep Knowledge x3

• 0-Cost : Daeron's Runes x3 Drinking Song x3 We Are Not Idle x1 Unlikely Friendship x2

• High Cost : Lórien's Wealth x3 Old Toby x3

--> Core Combo :

• In play : Spare Pipe x3 Hobbit Pipe x1 Galadhrim Minstrel x2 Galadhrim Weaver x3

• Loop : Host of Galadhrim x2 Unlikely Friendship x1 Smoke and Think x1

--> Final Setup :

• Resource / Discard Fixers : A Good Harvest x1 The White Council x1

• Hero Swapping : Helm of Secrecy x1

• Threat Reduction : Galadriel

• Encounter Deck Sorting : Denethor

• Questing : Nori + Lay of Nimrodel x1

• Location Control : The Evening Star x1

• Staged Enemies : Argalad

• Combat : Na'asiyah + Hour of Wrath x1 + Shadows Give Way x1

• Ally Buff / Protection : Celeborn + Galadriel + Vigilant Guard x1

---- GAMEPLAY ----

This deck is entirely played in the planning phase of turn 1. After that, you will be left with a perfect board that trivializes everything. The gameplay is divided into 4 passes, the first one being the most difficult and will decide if you successfully execute the combo or not. When played correctly, the success rate should be very close to 99%.

--> Pass 1 : Drawing your deck.

This pass is the most difficult to describe. Here are the goals that you must achieve :

• Draw your entire deck
• Play all 5 allies
• Play all 4 pipes
• Finish with your hand containing : Host of Galadhrim x2 Unlikely Friendship x1 Smoke and Think x1 (or eventually Host of Galadhrim x1 within the top 2 cards of your discard pile)

There is a lot of micromanagement here, so here are some important rules and guidelines to follow in order to successfully execute this pass :

• Think of the card-draw in this pass to be more about taking cards out of the deck rather than filling your hand. All draw cards must be paid and played.
• Play A Good Harvest for Lore as soon as possible to unlock Celeborn resources. After that, put generated resources on Óin to be able to pay spirit costs when needed.
• Play pipes as soon as possible.
• Play 1 Spare Pipe on each hero (allows healing later on).
• Play Galadhrim Minstrel as soon as possible.
• Play The Seeing-stone as soon as you get them to avoid misses. They should all be played before naturally drawing your 4th doom card. Choose between Deep Knowledge and Legacy of Númenor according to your resource situation.
• When playing Daeron's Runes you must ensure to discard cards from the "Final Setup" package ( except A Good Harvest and The White Council ). Discarding anything else is not allowed.
• Keep Drinking Song for emergency when you run out of card draw / resource (should be rare). Never hold cards that you can play for the purpose of a bigger hand (allies, attachments). It is ok to have a couple remaining at the end to be used to draw the last few cards.
• Cost reduction cards Good Meal and the first two Smoke and Think must be used on Lórien's Wealth and Old Toby. Lórien's Wealth is the higher priority target.
• Hold Old Toby as much as possible to get more pipes. You should aim for a total of 9+ card draws from the 3 copies. Playing the first one with 2 pipes is ok but no less.
• Playing Galadhrim Weaver is the trickiest decision. You should aim to only recycle Unlikely Friendship in order to mitigate the additional card-draw while keeping the total cost minimal. Recycling We Are Not Idle once is ok. Recycling Drinking Song once is ok. Recycling doomed card is not allowed since you will not be able to play them. Recycling Lórien's Wealth is not ok. Recycling Old Toby once can be ok. Recycling a cost reduction card once can be ok. Anything else is not allowed.
• You CAN use one Host of Galadhrim as a very last resort if you are stuck, if you can get it back later with The White Council and you have most allies out already (4-5). However, this will make drawing the last few cards VERY tricky. If you need to use your last Smoke and Think to do this, you will not be able to bring back both cards and will fail. Avoid at all cost, should never happen.

--> Pass 2 : Infinite Resources.

Congratulations on succeeding with Pass 1, the hard part is over ! You should be in the following situation :

• Deck : Empty (or 1 card Y)
• Hand : Host of Galadhrim x2, Unlikely Friendship and Smoke and Think
• In Play : All 4 Pipes and 5 Allies

The first initialization loop goes as follows :

• Play Unlikely Friendship (+1 resource, draw card Y).
• Play Smoke and Think.
• Play Host of Galadhrim.
• Trigger all 3 Galadhrim Weaver first : recycle Unlikely Friendship, Smoke and Think and another card X.
• Trigger both Galadhrim Minstrel next : draw Unlikely Friendship and Smoke and Think.
• Host of Galadhrim goes to discard pile.

The situation is now :

• Deck : 1 card X
• Hand : Host of Galadhrim, Unlikely Friendship and Smoke and Think
• Discard Pile Top : Host of Galadhrim

The second initialization loop now goes as follows :

• Play Unlikely Friendship (+1 resource, draw card X).
• Play Smoke and Think.
• Play Host of Galadhrim.
• Trigger all 3 Galadhrim Weaver first : recycle Unlikely Friendship, Smoke and Think and Host of Galadhrim.
• Trigger both Galadhrim Minstrel next : draw Unlikely Friendship and Smoke and Think.
• Host of Galadhrim goes to discard pile.

The situation is now :

• Deck : Host of Galadhrim
• Hand : Unlikely Friendship and Smoke and Think
• Discard Pile Top : Host of Galadhrim

At this point initialization is done and all subsequent loops are the same.

The main loop goes as follows :

• Play Unlikely Friendship (+1 resource, draw Host of Galadhrim).
• Play Smoke and Think.
• Play Host of Galadhrim.
• Trigger all 3 Galadhrim Weaver first : recycle Unlikely Friendship, Smoke and Think and Host of Galadhrim.
• Trigger both Galadhrim Minstrel next : draw Unlikely Friendship and Smoke and Think.
• Host of Galadhrim goes to discard pile.

and you are back to the previous situation.

Repeat this loop to generate infinite resources on all 3 heroes.

--> Pass 3 : Infinite Recycling.

Now that you have infinite resource, we can change the loop by removing Smoke and Think which is no longer needed and pay full price for Host of Galadhrim. This allows us to recycle cards.

The situation is :

• Deck : Host of Galadhrim
• Hand : Unlikely Friendship
• Discard Pile Top : Host of Galadhrim

The main loop goes as follows :

• Play Unlikely Friendship (draw Host of Galadhrim).
• Play Host of Galadhrim.
• Trigger all 3 Galadhrim Weaver first : recycle Unlikely Friendship, Host of Galadhrim and an extra card X.
• Trigger both Galadhrim Minstrel next : draw Unlikely Friendship and Host of Galadhrim.

and you are back to the previous situation except the extra card X is now in the deck and will be drawn by the next Unlikely Friendship. I think you get the idea now ...

Repeat this loop until you recycle your entire discard pile back into your hand.

--> Pass 4 : Final Setup.

After all this work, here comes the fun part ! You should notice that you can go back and forth between the loops from both previous passes by playing Smoke and Think if you want resources or not playing it if you want to recycle. You now have infinite resources and recycling, on-demand. Which means ... you can cast events infinitely. Set aside your enormous hand and pull all the "Final setup" package cards along with your sideboard of heroes.

The first thing we want to do is to swap heroes around : we can cast Helm of Secrecy to do that. A few important point of ruling here :

• Resources are not carried over : not a problem we can regenerate them after each swap using the Pass 2 loop.
• Damage are not carried over ? : Due to weird wording about tokens on Helm of Secrecy, I don't think there is a definitive answer here, so I will assume the worst case and carry damages over. Healing can be done by spamming Old Toby.
• Heroes entering play are untapped.
• Instanced abilities : This is the more tricky part. According to the rules, effects that are limited "once per turn" or "once per phase" are bound to the instance of the card being in play, not the card itself. This means that if we swap a hero out of play, its instance that used such effect is destroyed. When bringing the hero card back in play, we have a new instance as the source of the effect, which can be played again.

Bottom line is : we can repeat hero abilities indefinitely !

Your hero sideboard is arranged into two swap groups : heroes with 8 threat to be swapped in the "8-Slot" currently occupied by Óin and heroes with 9 threat to be swapped in the "9-Slot" currently occupied by Bilbo Baggins.

Let us perform the following preamble :

• Swap Óin out for Na'asiyah
• Swap Bilbo Baggins out for Nori
• Use loop from pass 2 to regenerate infinite resources on them

This is your new hero lineup from now on :

• Na'asiyah is used for combat with infinite attack and defence from her ability.
• Nori is used for questing.
• Celeborn is always active since we use the loop all the time.

Note we no longer have a Hobbit, which is fine, we don't need Drinking Song anymore, but we still have Sylvan and Dwarf such that Unlikely Friendship is still available to provide access to the first loop. Worst case, we can spam A Good Harvest for all 4 spheres such that the infinite resources on Celeborn guarantees we are never stuck.

Next step is to take care of that nasty 49 threat we are sitting at. We simply swap Galadriel in the 9-Slot to spam her ability which brings us back all the way to 0 threat. She can also be used to make our allies not exhaust when questing every turn but it is pretty pointless now. The 9-Slot is also used to spam the ability of Argalad allowing us to kill any enemy in the staging area.

The 8-Slot is used to spam the ability of Denethor in order to filter the encounter deck however we want.

We are left with a few more tools :

• The Evening Star can be used to remove all locations active or not.
• Lay of Nimrodel can be used at quest phase every turn to give infinite willpower to Nori.
• Hour of Wrath can be used at combat phase every turn to give Na'asiyah infinite actions.
• Shadows Give Way can be used at combat phase to discard all shadow cards (remember we have A Good Harvest for all 4 spheres).
• The White Council has two uses : on-demand untapping of heroes and when you need to play several events in a single turn, you can use it to bring your Host of Galadhrim back from the bottom of the discard pile to re-enable your loops next turn.
• Last but not least, your allies have only 1 life which makes them susceptible to a few threats. If they die, your loops are broken ! Once you are done filtering the encounter deck with Denethor, bring back Na'asiyah and equip her with Vigilant Guard to protect allies from ping damage.
• Your heroes can be healed easily with Old Toby.

At this point, your turn 1 planning phase is completed : you have complete control of all the aspects of the game with infinite resources, recursion, stats, permanent 0 threat and so on.

At this point you can probably guess how Ravens of the Mountain can be used to straight up complete the scenario without even leaving the planning phase but that would be too much right ? Good thing they made the errata on Out of the Wild, that would be disgusting !

---- CONCLUSION ----

This is the kind of deck that is more fun to build and optimize than to play I admit, but what a beauty this is ! All those parts coming together perfectly ! Once again, I want to acknowledge Rouxxor for this amazing deck, I can only claim here the few modifications that I made from his original version :

--> Changed the Hero lineup to reach that sweet 28 threat and solve threat values issues to streamline the Hero sideboard :

• Swapped Thorin Oakenshield for Celeborn
• Swapped Legolas for Óin

--> Engine adjustments :

• Removed We Are Not Idle x2, one copy is optimal.

--> Changed the payload in the final setup :

• Removed Ravens of the Mountain, clearly overkill ?
• Removed The Galadhrim's Greeting, no longer needed.
• Added The Evening Star for location control.
• Added Hour of Wrath for combat actions.
• Added Shadows Give Way for shadow cancellation.
• Added Vigilant Guard for ally protection.

--> Changed the Hero sideboard accordingly :

• Removed Erkenbrand, swapping issues and unreliable shadow cancellation.
• Removed Merry, swapping issues and limited combat actions.
• Removed Aragorn, swapping issues, cannot hit active location, ugly face and burning hand.
• Added Nori for questing.

Thanks a lot if you read all this !