Galadriel in Border-Lands

Mirdhynn · Post by **Mirdhynn** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:53 am

Hello all

I try to make a deck which use Galadriel "At Home" and companies which travels with a relative security in the area of Anduin vales.
I try to avoid as possible  moving out of border lands to limit nasty attacks.
Galadriel is sitting in Lorien playing with her mirror and giving some gifts.
Anyway, there is not so much Marshalling point in these countries, so I think about playing Dwarven rings (Gladden fields, bandit lait, hermit hill and goblin gate) and rumours of rings.

Can you help me to enhance it

So here is the 1st version of the deck :

[Starting characters]
Galadriel
Gloin (dwarf + diplomat for three golden hairs)
Elrohir
  star glass
Rumours of rings

[Characters]
Elladan
Dain II
3x Gandalf

[Ressources]
Great eagles
Riders of Rohan
Wood elves
Beorning
Quickbeam
Phial of galadriel
Glamdring
Orcrist
3x Precious gold Ring
3x Risky blow
3x A short rest
2x A friend or three
2x Show things unbidden
2x Mirror of Galadriel
2x Marvels tolds
2x Twilight
2x Forewarned is forearmed
1x Test of form
1x Three golden hairs

[Sideboard]
2x Dwarven rings
1x Magic ring of courage

31 cards
MPs:
Factions : 11
Items : 16 - 20
Characters :  9
Ally : 2

Total : 38 - 42

Is it viable ?
Thanks for your help

Morgoth the Black · Post by **Morgoth the Black** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 6:24 am

I think its a pretty good deck that seems alot of fun!  However if I were you I would maybe put in a Magic Ring of Nature as Elladan and Elrohir are Rangers and it never hurts to have a character that can cancel attacks!  As for some of the factions, Im sure that if you get the Dwarven ring on Gloin it would be very easy to play most of the factions however it seems that until you get your wizard and Dain II and/or Elrohir, you will only have one company that is really able to play factions effectively and waiting until you get your ring out on your diplomat to be able to have an easy time playing your factions might slow down your deck abit(I can see a problem especially with the wood elves and to a lesser extent the Riders of Rohan unless you use Galadriel to play those factions).  Maybe it wouldnt be a bad idea if you put in a New Friendship or two as you get the bonus for the influence check and the corruption check which is always a problem with dwarven rings, even with the golden hairs (one CC on a dwarf bearing a dwarven Ring and three golden hairs, which, mind you, you can only have one copy of in your deck, will still put him at 5 corruption).   It seems that you are most likely only going to have a company with a max size of three(unless at a haven) so the A New Friendship might be better than A Friend or Three.  Also here is just an idea and Im not sure how well it would work but if you were to put Gimli and the Iron Hill Dwarves in your deck and put Elrohir/Elladan under Gloin or Galadriel's influence for a turn, play Gimli at the Iron-Hill Dwarf Hold to try and play the Iron Hill dwarves (you can then discard Gimli the following organization phase or keep him in play then after he gets them out) and you can also later play Alliance of Free Peoples(sideboard) for the extra faction points.  An also it would also maybe make it better to instead of playing the Great Eagles at Eagle's Eyrie, play Gwaihir for a guaranteed 2 points (ally points to better balance out your MPs) compared to a somewhat more difficult to get 3 animal faction points.

Personally, when I make decks I like to always have back up for those times when things go horribly wrong so just in case it might be good to stick a couple more characters in your deck or sideboard (Thorin, others) and a Noble Hound or Noble Steed or two for ally back up.  Also, if you are going to be going for the dwarven rings, Im not sure if your really need other items so much in your deck.  I would rather probably put them in the sideboard.  And just in case your ring test rolls end up being a bunch of 2s and 3s, you have the phial which you will probably be able to get out in most cases and you could always sideboard the items in.  If your deck is focusing mostly on staying in border-hold areas, you would probably have to go to Mount Gundabad or the Dead Marshes to play Orcrist anyways so its maybe better to have Orcrist in the sideboard for that reason too.

So taking into consideration the things Ive thought about, this is how I might do things:

Starting characters]
Galadriel
Gloin (dwarf + diplomat for three golden hairs)
Elrohir
 star glass
Rumours of rings

[Characters]
Elladan
Gimli (dwarf diplomat)
Dain II
3x Gandalf

[Resources]
Riders of Rohan
Wood elves
Beorning
Iron Hill Dwarves(sideboard?)
Quickbeam
Gwaihir
Phial of Galadriel
Glamdring (sideboard?)
3x Precious gold Ring
3x Risky blow
2x A short rest
2x New Friendship
2x Show things unbidden
2x Mirror of Galadriel
2x Marvels tolds
2x Twilight
2x Forewarned is forearmed
1x A chance meeting
1x Test of form
1x Three golden hairs

[Sideboard]
2x Dwarven rings
1x Magic ring of Nature
1x Magic ring of Courage
1x Alliance of Free Peoples
2x Wizard's test
Orcrist
Thorin (dwarf diplomat)
Gildor
1x Noble Steed
1x Noble Hound

30-31 cards

MPs:
Factions : 8-16
Items : 16 - 20
Characters :  9
Ally : 4

Total : 37 - 49

This is just my two cents though....

Leon · Post by **Leon** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:43 am

Leave out the Iron Hill Dwarves, since it does not fit the theme or perhaps as a very risky last turn try. Once your wizard is out you cannot play any guy at his home site if the wizard is not there unless under DI.

Morgoth the Black · Post by **Morgoth the Black** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:04 pm

Ya I know, thats why I thought the Iron hill dwarves might not be so good but I thought it might be interesting.  I know after the wizard comes into play it might not work so well but that is why I put one "A Chance Meeting" into the deck.

Mirdhynn · Post by **Mirdhynn** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:30 pm

Hello!

Thanks for your advices,I will follow it. I will make a game this WE. I will come back to show you my list and to comment its results

Ringbearer · Post by **Ringbearer** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:29 pm

Just keep in mind Rolled Down, which is obvious the bane of every ring deck.

Mirdhynn · Post by **Mirdhynn** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:06 am

Here is the deck I have played this WE

[Starting characters]

Galadriel
Gimli
Gloin

[POOL]

Thranduil
Legolas
Elrohir

Saruman
Saruman

[SideBoard]
2 dwarven rings
2 magic ring of words
1 wizard's test

31 cards

1x Mithrill coat
1x Orcrist
1x Gwaihir
1x Gollum
1x Treebeard
1x Riders of rohan
1x Beornings
1x Wood elves
3x gold ring

3x show things unbidden
3x marvels tolds
3x risky blow
3x New friendship
3x A short rest
2x twilight
1x Phial of galadriel
1x three golden hairs
1x ring lore

[Hazards]
Undeads

How I played it :

Galadriel stay at lorien. the dwarves go to search gold ring items. Galadriel gives her anti corruption cards. Saruman go to Lorien and get the wizard's test in hand. Every body join  at Lorien and test the rings.
Due to the relative quiet travels, I finished the game with small companies containing a dwarf with dwarven ring and another character.

Anyway some card was not so useful :
3x A short rest : I travel around 4 regions every time, I play with several companies, so I never used it.
ring lore : Saruman with wizard's test staying at lorien was enough

Cards to test deeper :
3x New friendship : Ok, I had not many corruption, so I will wait before removing. Anyway dwarves are pretty well protected against corruption (no card like lure of nature which provoke multi tests)
3x show things unbidden : Only used one time. yes, you empty the hand of your opponent but he draws cards just after so...

Something I note was that when I go to search the 2 greater items, It was hard with company size of 2. I balance beetwen going into a ful ring strategy and keep these 2 items.

I have just a question for the dwarven rings : do it give +7 DI or just tranform the DI of the character to 7 ? Because this deck can get  many characters with the extra DI.

Sauron_the_Great · Post by **Sauron_the_Great** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:26 am

Keep the "New Friendship"s, since travelling with two characters four regions wide, loaded with at least one dwarven ring, makes your opponent search for his "Alone and Stupid"s, which any experienced player has (at least in the sideboard)

"Show Things Unbidden" is a VERY nasty card (especially with Galadriel sitting in Lorien and doing little else). Ok, your opponent will draw new cards, but only AFTER the first of your M/H-phases, so the chances are that at least one of your companies will get through pretty unharmed. And also chances are that he will not have the hazards he wants to have (imagine he was holding "Rolled down to the Sea" to send one of your hard earned rings into the abyss, and all he gets is his beloved card being shuffled back into deck)....nothing is more annoying to get dearly wanted cards and never get to use them...

also you'll constantly keep him from cycling his deck

Also you can consider packing "Halls of Fire", since untapping one or more chars (since it can be doubled on the same haven) before the site phase can allow (for example) Galadriel play "Show Things Unbidden" AND "Marvels Told" in one turn. Also you could make good use of "Old Road", since many of your factions are within two-region-travel from lorien...this in fact taps Lorien, but you don't have too many factions, so playing one in Lorien is enough...

These are just some suggestions based on my experiences while trying to built a decent Galadriel "Hu, I don't want to go outside" -deck...

btw: AFAIK, the Dwarven Rings give +7 unrestricted DI, so Gimli will have the Wood-Elves join him almost for free...

Mirdhynn · Post by **Mirdhynn** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:58 am

Sauron_the_Great wrote:"Show Things Unbidden" is a VERY nasty card (especially with Galadriel sitting in Lorien and doing little else). Ok, your opponent will draw new cards, but only AFTER the first of your M/H-phases, so the chances are that at least one of your companies will get through pretty unharmed.

I am not sure of that, let's see an example :
Organisation phase :
2 companies : galadriel sitting at lorien and another one containg the two dwarves going to gladden fields.
Galadrien plays show things unbidden (organisation phase mandatory) and the opponent discard 3 hazards (5 cards left in hand)

Movement/hazards phase :
I turn face up gladden fields and begin my movement hazard phase with the two dwarves the opponent draw 1 card for gladden fields.

Am I right ? If yes, the opponent always draws  cards after I have played Show things unbidden

Sauron_the_Great · Post by **Sauron_the_Great** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:58 am

right.

but remember: he'll always draw one card which you can't prevent anyway, but now he has 6 instead of 9 cards to choose from, including having lost 3 hazards he was most likely relying on...

Oh, and maybe he'll not draw hazards but vital resources, which he can't afford to discard, so he has to choose between discarding hazards which won't harm you or resources which won't help him...regardless what he does, YOU'll end on the better end...

Ok, the deck will be fattend with hazards, but by the time he'll get the hazards and you run out of "Show Things Unbidden", you'll most likely be prepared either for creatures (remember the prowess boost of the dwarven rings!), influence problems (DI bonus) or corruption (consider storing the items)...

And another nice trick is to let him load all of these permanent hazard-events on your companies and then get all characters to your wizard and let him Uncloak himself (e.g. play "Wizard Uncloaked") in the site phase...same problem: he'll get all these cards back into his hand, but it's HIS turn afterwards, so probably he can't afford holding them, since he needs to play his resources next turn and he's got to reduce his hand-size down to eight cards...

Mirdhynn · Post by **Mirdhynn** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:11 pm

I have found another card wich can be interesting to enhance the turns of Galadriel :

Master of Wood, Water, or Hill
CLASS: Short-event
Ritual. Tap a sage to change one Wilderness [w] to a Border-land or
Shadow-land [s] or one Shadow-land [s] to a Wilderness [w] or one
Border-land to a Wilderness [w]. Sage makes a corruption check.

It will transform all my travels into borderlands only, which will avoid many drakes

Beornd · Post by **Beornd** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:04 am

Be careful  -  Elves+Dwarves = Unhappy blows  :?

Mirdhynn · Post by **Mirdhynn** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 9:27 am

Concerning Elfs and dwarves :
Galadriel is not in the same company as the dwarves. but I think you are right concerning the other characters. I should replace it by men. but they are less interesting to use in the game (except beorn  

)

Sauron_the_Great · Post by **Sauron_the_Great** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:45 am

Maybe you could make good use of the often used dunadan rangers Faramir & Beretar (Faramir preferred, because he can't be pilfered by Misteress Lobelia)

Wacho · Post by **Wacho** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:25 pm

Beornd wrote:Be careful  -  Elves+Dwarves = Unhappy blows  :?

I haven't seen Unhappy Blows actually show up much.  Maybe that's because most people don't play with elves and dwarves in the same company, so you might be able to get away with it since no one expects it.

I agree with Markus about Show Things Unbidden.  It's a great card.  You give a company less hazards to deal with.  That's always good.

I would put in Halls of Fire, and perhaps some Smoke Rings for recycling.  You could move Ringlore and maybe a Marvel's Told to the sideboard and drop the Short Rests if you're not using them.  Also, I'm not sure why you are so diplomat heavy.  You aren't really utilizing them.  If it's just for DI you really don't need to worry about that.  As soon as you get a Dwarven ring you'll have all the DI you need.  You aren't starting with any rangers.  That's going to get you in trouble.