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| Win - The Seventh Level - 2 Players - 2022-03-15 | |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
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| Cirdan's Solo Support Group | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Your friendly neighborhood Fellowship | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1.0 |
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The Purple Wizard 1195
Círdan the Shipwright has gradually become my favorite hero; everything he does is useful! When I'm trying to solve a deck-building dilemma he has all-too-often been the key that unlocks it. Case in point, the mono-leadership decks that intend to recycle Reinforcements endlessly. I love those decks...so much fun...but my success with them has been entirely dependent upon if I can find King Under the Mountain early on or not. If I don't, then leadership just doesn't have enough card draw to make the deck reliable. Enter, Cirdan. His extra card each round is CRUCIAL to getting all the cogs in place to this machine, not to mention everything else he and Narya do so well. You're my hero, Cirdan!
Thanks to Cirdan, this deck has turned into one of the most powerful support decks I've seen. Ideally you're partnered with a deck that can handle early game combat so you can just quest and focus on putting all the pieces together. It usually takes me three rounds, sometimes four, to feel like I'm fully operational, but once I'm there HOLY MOLY DOES THIS DECK DO SOME RIDICULOUS THINGS!!! Between Gandalf, Elrond, Beorn, and Faramir you should have a solution for almost everything the encounter deck can throw at you. Add to that the ability on Reinforcements to bring them into play under ANY player's control and you can drop Beorn where the battle is thickest, or have Gandalf reduce somebody ELSE'S threat or draw them cards. Narya gets extra actions out of these powerful allies along with a nice buff! Did I mention our goal is to be able to do this EVERY turn? Yeah. Not too shabby.
So how does this deck work? Normally I would start with what kind of start you're hoping for, but here it may be most helpful to begin with your end goal. When you reach the bottom of your deck you should be able to play Reinforcements once every round, so long as you have either it or Second Breakfast in your hand and Tome of Atanatar in your hand or in play. This will cost you either 5 or 6 resources each round (depending on if you have Sword-thain on Faramir or not). Gandalf, Elrond, and Beorn are your primary targets for Reinforcements.
How do we get there? Well, lots of card draw helps. King Under the Mountain is a great card to see in your first hand, so is either or both of Sneak Attack and Gandalf. If I don't see any of those I'll likely mulligan. Beyond that first decision, you'll be making tough calls the rest of the game on what to keep and what to discard. Let's do a run down of the rest of the cards to give the full picture of their use here:
~Silver Harp lets you keep the extra card you draw each round. A second one on Cirdan can save you from the encounter deck messing with your hand or it can ready Glorfindel. (Sadly, it won't save the discarded card from King Under the Mountain since that card never makes it into your hand.)
~Steward of Gondor goes on Cirdan.
~You won't be able to play Reinforcements until you get Narya in play (or Sword-thain on Faramir). Once it's in, getting an extra action and buff out of these overpowered allies is...rather nice. :D
~ Heir of Mardil, Magic Ring, and Unexpected Courage are all there for readying. The first one you find goes on Cirdan to enable both questing and Narya's use. Given Heir of Mardil's limitations, that probably goes on Cirdan too whenever you find it. After that, the rest likely go on someone else's heroes. Once Faramir is a hero, one of these on him can bring someone's questing up to bonkers levels.
~I've mentioned Sword-thain a few times already, but it's here because it pays for itself many times over by the time you finish. Without it, you have to spend all six of the resources you gain (through Steward and Théodred) each round to pay for the Reinforcements loop you're aiming for. This doesn't leave any left for Balin's always helpful ability, nor for you to pass to others through Theodred or Errand-rider. Once Faramir gets Sword-Thained, the math changes---you now can gain seven resources a round and Tome of Atanatar costs one less, reducing the cost of your recurrence loop to 5 resources each round.
~We Are Not Idle and A Test of Will are obvious inclusions. The former shrinks your deck, if nothing else, but can also get you an extra resource if that is needed.
~Errand-rider doubles as a chump blocker/safety valve and a way to share the wealth of Gondor. It's a great first round buy.
~Glorfindel will give you at least two actions each round, if not more. By the time he's in play you'll have plenty of extra cards in hand, plus that second harp mentioned earlier.
~Imladris Stargazer was the final piece of the puzzle for me. She helps you prevent tough calls on what to discard as well as help you find your essential pieces quickly. I also find that there are many times where Narya's readying isn't really necessary anywhere, so those rounds you can ready her and let her help someone else out with their deck.
~Finishing up with the sideboard, Erkenbrand can replace Theodred if you are up against a quest that won't let you escape combat right away. Legacy of Númenor can replace We Are Not Idle if the rest of the fellowship doesn't mind the threat. The allies are there to swap in when some of the unique characters here are used as heroes elsewhere. Some quests punish you for running out your deck, so in those you can swap in Will of the West for Second Breakfast. This would lose the recurrence loop but would provide several other new options.
You could try this deck solo, I suppose, but this version is definitely intended for multiplayer. I am working on a solo variation and will post that when I've given it enough testing and feel comfortable with it.
Have fun and good luck!
| 15 comments |
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Apr 10, 2018 |
Apr 10, 2018This looks interesting. I'm always a fan of decks that take on the "support" role. I've never seen Reinforcements used in my meta so I'd be curious to see how it would affect our games. |
Apr 10, 2018
As for Gimli, I gave him some serious thought instead of Faramir. He's not a bad fit, but ultimately I decided if I'm trying to create a new leadership hero I want one whose value isn't in defending, where I could too easily lose him.
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Apr 11, 2018This looks great. Will definitely give it a try. I've been looking for ways to get the most out of Descendant of Thorondor and Longbeard Orc Slayer. I think they would work really well with Reinforcements and Narya in certain scenarios. |
Apr 12, 2018Cirdan is great isn't he?? He's become one of my all-time favorite heroes over the past 6 months! Very nice deck. Fun to see Reinforcements used so well! |
Apr 12, 2018
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Apr 12, 2018Great deck. Another vote for Jubayr here—Balin is great, but Jubayr in a Narya deck is just sickeningly good, particularly in multiplayer. |
Apr 12, 2018
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Apr 14, 2018I just used this deck in a 2-player game of nightmare Thing in the Depths and it did great! So good. Beorn/Gandalf/Narya every turn is insane. I just wanted a Will of the West since I emptied my deck halfway through the game! |
Apr 14, 2018
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Apr 23, 2018I used this deck in a live stream with Mr Underhill vs Nightmare Thing In the Depths and beat it! I tweaked the deck slightly to match up with his and I made some mistakes which prevented the continual Reinforcments loop, but it still played great. Thanks for making a great deck! The recording of our game is on YouTube: youtu.be |
Apr 23, 2018
There's a comment thread in your video about your misplay of Theodred/Faramir/Heir of Mardil, so I know you're aware of it. What I'll say here is that Heir is probably the 50th card in the deck for me. I put it in because I was trying to figure out how to start the deck faster and it's a great first round option, but it's kind of clunky after that. I took it out for Jubayr in my last game with this deck. Speaking of Jubayr, I promptly drew him that game in round two with Cirdan but had had to discard him in favor of Sneak Attack. This is why I have two copies of each important ally here. It's also why Glorfindel is so nice, as I can dump him without remorse and buy him from my discard later. |
Apr 23, 2018FOR THOSE TRYING TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE REINFORCEMENTS RECURRENCE LOOP, HERE YOU GO: (I learned this loop from user "Some Sort" in his deck "Konami Code." His explanation was so thorough and helpful I'll just quote it here. I don't know how to tag him or I would. Thanks, Some Sort!) "Basically, you want to reach the following board state: Reinforcements in hand (along with two allies, preferably), Tome of Atanatar in play, the rest of your deck in the discard. From there, you (A) Play Reinforcements and drop two allies. (B) Blow up Tome of Atanatar to play the Second Breakfast in your discard. That Second Breakfast pulls the Tome of Atanatar you just blew up back into your hand, and then the Second Breakfast becomes the only card in your deck. (C) Play the Tome of Atanatar again. End the round. (A) Draw a card, (Second Breakfast). (B) Blow up Tome of Atanatar to play Reinforcements from your discard. Reinforcements is now the only card in your deck. (C) Play Second Breakfast to pull back the Tome of Atanatar and play it again. End the round. Next round you'll draw Reinforcements you're right back at your starting board state again." |
Sep 28, 2020I always though was the weakest sphere. www.meme-arsenal.com Thanks to you I have discoverd the true power of Reinforcements and beated Land of Sorrow on first try with a fresh mono- deck <3 |
Sep 29, 2020
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I'm a bit surprised at the low number of bomb allies in this deck (you could also include the Harad trio and Legolas and Gimli). Do you usually use Reinforcements on the other players?