It is always easy to drop a handful of devastating rares into your deck, and re-use the same tactic against your unwitting opponent, thrashing at their poor Dwarves with your Ringwraith’s might, but what if thats not so easy to do? What happens when the rare pool dries up and you’re left without the cards to prefect your devastation? Well thats the question many players posed, so I’m here to offer a low cost strategy option using only Common and Uncommon cards!
The Fellowship of the Ring
For our low cost Fellowship we’re going to go with a Hobbit Culture Strategy, beginning with Frodo: Reluctant Adventurer, and the Common One Ring: The Ruling Ring, with the starting fellowship consisting of Sam: Son of Hamfast, Merry: From O’er the Brandywine, and Pippin: Friend to Frodo. The goal in this deck is to avoid confrontation, while still getting your Hobbit’s on their way to Site 9. I’ve included Stealth events like Hobbit Intuition, and Hobbit Stealth that either add Strength to your Hobbit Companions or cancel a skirmish all together. I’ve also added Nice Imitation, which is handy when you just can’t avoid a skirmish and end up taking a wound, simply discard this condition to prevent that wound. With use of the Hobbit Swords, the Tale: There and Back Again, and multiple Bounders; you should be able to rush your fellowship to Site 9 with little to no loss. Boromir: Son of Denethor has been tossed in as his ability to add 3 Strength to a hobbit comes in handy, and hes often a useful card to take damage away from your Hobbits!
Frodo: Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring: The Ruling RingFrodo: Reluctant Adventurer [this is a second copy for healing purposes]
Sam: Son of Hamfast x2
Merry: From O’er the Brandywine x2
Pippin: Friend to Frodo x2
Boromir: Son of Denethor x2
Bounder x4
Hobbit Sword x4
There and Back Again x2
Hobbit Intuition x4
Hobbit Stealth x4
Nice Imitation
Not Feared in Sunlight
Extraordinary Resilience
The Shadow
With the Shadow Portion of our Deck I’ve gone with the swarm tactic using only common and uncommon cards to pit against your opponents Fellowship. Using multiple copies of Moria Scout, Goblin Spearman, Goblin Marksman, Goblin Scavengers, and Goblin Flankers you’re never left without something to play. Including weapons like Goblin Spear and Goblin Scimitar allow me to boost these otherwise low strength minions to even the score against your opponents supported companions. The only condition in this deck is Plundered Armories as it allows you to keep your discarded weapons from going to waste. This swarm of minions coupled in with a copy of the common Balrog is sure to drop the jaw of your opponent when they struggle to decide where to assign all of Moria’s Fury!
Balrog: Durin’s Bane
Moria Scout x4
Goblin Flankers x4
Goblin Spearman x3
Goblin Marksman x4
Goblin Scavengers x4
Goblin Scimitar x4
Goblin Spear x4
Plundered Armories x2
Adventure Deck
With the Adventure Deck it is rather simple to stay within a budget as all of the cards you may wish to add are Common or Uncommon anyway, I went with the Locations that I did as I felt they gave a bonus of some kind to my strategy or as small of a bonus as humanly possible to my opponent.
1. Westfarthing
2. Buckleberry Ferry
3. Council Courtyard
4. Moria Stairway
5. The Bridge of Khazad-Dum
6. Dumrill Dale
7. Anduin Wilderland
8. Brown Lands
9. Summit of Amon Hen
This deck is far from unbeatable, but as you play against your friends and expand your collection, you will come to find new strategies and new twists that every collection can adapt to. Keep playing, and keep comparing cards, you never know when you might come up with the end all strategy!
What do you use to devastate your opponent? How do you get your Fellowship to Site 9 unharmed?
Tell us about it! E-mail Flinch at flinch@theonering.net!
