Movie Block Ring-Bound Rangers

[ket_the_jet]

Starting:
Boromir, Bearer of Council
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles
Faramir, Captain of Gondor
Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith

Fellowship:
1 Aragorn, King in Exile
1 Mablung, Soldier of Gondor
1 Madril, Faramir's Aide
1 Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien  Arwen, Daughter  of Elrond?
1 Sam, Son of Hamfast
1 Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver

3 Ranger's Bow
1 Faramir's Bow
1 Anduril, Flame of the West
1 Narsil, Blade of the Faithful
3 Sword of Gondor
1 Coat of Mail
1 Ring of Barahir
1 Scroll of Isildur
2 Sapling of the White Tree

4 Ancient Roads
1 Noble Leaders
1 The Saga of Elendil Hardy  Garrison?
1 Boromir, My Brother

3 Swordsman of the Northern Kingdom

Shadow: (courtesy, Elessar's Socks)
1 Gollum, Old Villain
3 Gorgoroth Agitator
3 Gorgoroth Berserker
4 Gorgoroth Keeper
4 Gorgoroth Soldier
2 Gorgoroth Swarm
3 Gorgoroth Troop

1 Ithil Stone

1 Encirclement
1 Fat One Wants It
2 Their Marching Companies
3 Troop Tower

4 Captured by the Ring

Sitepath:
Steps of Edoras
Rohirrim Camp
Beacon of Minas Tirith
Osgiliath Fallen
Steward's Tomb
Minas Tirith Sixth Circle
Osgiliath Crossing
Northern Ithilien
Dagorlad

Quick set-up. Grab Narsil, Blade of the Faithful and give it to Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith. Grab Aragorn, King in Exile (or Anduril, Flame of the West) and Noble Leaders or whatever else you may want for the set-up. Transfer Narsil to Boromir, Bearer of Council and surprise!, Denethor is dead.

It gives a lot of twilight but six extra cards clogs the opponents' hands pretty badly. From there, it is pretty standard roaming-minion rangers with Ancient Roads setting everything up nicely.

Coat of Mail keeps Boromir alive when facing swarm and he'll be resistance 9 when all is said and done.

Mablung, Soldier of Gondor with Ranger's Bow will kill any minion with two exertions. I was planning on coupling this deck with the Besieger deck that is in another topic.

My original idea was to start Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver with Faramir, Captain of Gondor, but I like the quick setup idea of Denethor.

Thoughts appreciated, as usual.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

It is the Elessar's Socks shadow I'd be pairing it with. Between Madril and Gollum and Gorgoroth Soldier, it should cycle quite nicely.
-wtk

[Kralik]

Quick set-up. Grab Narsil, Blade of the Faithful and give it to Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith. Grab Aragorn, King in Exile (or Anduril, Flame of the West) and Noble Leaders or whatever else you may want for the set-up. Transfer Narsil to Boromir, Bearer of Council and surprise!, Denethor is dead.
...

Mablung, Soldier of Gondor with Ranger's Bow will kill any minion with two exertions. I was planning on coupling this deck with the Besieger deck that is in another topic.

I like the Denethor trick. Never thought of killing him in Fellowship with the sword -- very nice! The only problem is that throwing out so much twilight WITH your opponent drawing cards is a gamble. I've been brutally crushed at 4 because of this, while other times I simply walked. For this reason I try not to play companions with Denethor, though in your deck it is unavoidable since you have so few copies of them.

As for Mablung... one word: TOTO.

[ket_the_jet]

Thank God I don't see TOTO in my meta, but I do acknowledge the risk. No deck is perfect, and there definitely is going to be a lot of twilight going towards site 4. But a full-charged Noble Leaders should keep Boromir alive and I prefer the idea of clogging a hand early in the game. If the opponent has to discard some key cards early, that's nice.

But thanks for the ideas. I will see what I can do to combat TOTO!
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

Ways to beat Enduring Nazgul:

1. Exhaust with Mablung. They heal. Kill with Pippin, WoBaS.

I'll add more as I think of them. Obviously that is just going to kill one.
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

Don't worry about TOTO, the chances of seeing him are really low. I would worry more about discarding conditions, possessions and liberating sites which your fellowship isn't doing a lot... but this is always the problem with Gondor hehe.

[ket_the_jet]

I would run Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms is I could get my hands on a copy of the Boromir that is a knight and ranger.

Another Knight (Aragorn, Captain of Gondor perhaps) and catapult would do the trick nicely.

Plus, Aragorn, Captain of Gondor could heal Denethor so I could get a fourth card out of the draw--Narsil, Aragorn, Boromir, then Noble Leaders.

It'd be a ton of twilight, but c'est la vie! I just have to make sure I play a good site four.
-wtk

[TheJord]

I would run Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms is I could get my hands on a copy of the Boromir that is a knight and ranger.

Another Knight (Aragorn, Captain of Gondor perhaps) and catapult would do the trick nicely.

Plus, Aragorn, Captain of Gondor could heal Denethor so I could get a fourth card out of the draw--Narsil, Aragorn, Boromir, then Noble Leaders.

It'd be a ton of twilight, but c'est la vie! I just have to make sure I play a good site four.
-wtk

That Boromir, 0P65, isnt legal in Movie Block, and Aragorn, CoG couldnt heal Denethor, LoMT as his ability is 'at the start of the fellowship phase'. Enduring Nazzies are the bane of Gondor decks.

[Kralik]

I wasn't necessarily saying that TOTO is a major risk, but he is just one example of a minion you cannot "easily" kill with Mablung. And with BNAP, he can still get two exerts even without the assignment. Or... assign to Pippin WoBaS...

[ket_the_jet]

Good call on Gorn-bot. I am doing all of this from my phone on the road so I didn't remember his exact gametext.

And I'm not really concerned about that Boromir's legality anyways because I've never seen one in real life.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

I can still really only think of catapult as a good way to discard enemy support area stuff with Gondor...
-wtk

[Pepin The Breve]

You need 3 rangers to active ancient roads text o i guess it wouldn't be a good idea put knights on this decks. i also recommend extra copies of mablung that way you can get this key companion faster and helps to keep him healed and that way you can use denethor to get other useful cards.

  Like Kralik, i would be a little cautious about flooding the pool and making your opponent draw a lot of cards, i remember one time when my opponent made me draw 6 cards to make a "power set up" and got dunland swarmed at site 4  . So depending on your matchup i would not recommend abuse this ability.

  Another card i always throw in every   deck is Sapling of the White Tree, this is just a life saver for your guys. i would put 2 in the place of ring of Barahir and Noble Leaders.

  I personaly would drop out Denethor, Narsil and stick with the Faramir + Pippin starting idea. And one more thing, i know that Captain of Gondor is nice, but i like Faramir, SoD more cause of his awesome ability! that would imply in losing the gorn ability but maybe you could also switch gorn for the Ranger that exerts to make defender +1. Well that is just me...

  Maybe you can keep Narsil (play on mablung) and drop the vit conditions, cause someone can exhaust your companion cough * Desert Lord + Seasoned Leader * cough and then discard you condition and bam, your companion is dead. the artifact is harder to get rid so i would keep it on Mablung instead.

[ket_the_jet]

Well, I like the Noble Leaders/Ring of Barahir healing idea...that strength +4 at some point in the game will be handy because Swordsman of the Northern Kingdom doesn't work on Boromir. That's also an extra heal.

I had no real intention of using Knights anyway. I was just commenting that Catapult is a necessity in any Gondor deck that can support it.

Faramir, Aragorn, and Mablung make three rangers. Just playing the odds, you will grab one before the first sanctuary and then when you slay Denethor you can play the other two.

I'll play test it as I acquire remaining needed cards for it.

Keep thoughts coming.
-wtk

Edit:
Seeing Stone of Orthanc might make sense in here though.

Another thought, Hardy Garrison couples quite well with Boromir, My Brother and Madril, Faramir's Aide. That could also solve TOTO problems.
-wtk

[Pepin The Breve]

Sapling apply to any gondor man you just need one unbound to play...

And man, i really dont recommend you run only 3 rangers, even if you are confident in getting them early cause one of them may die.

[ket_the_jet]

Sapling apply to any gondor man you just need one unbound to play...

Yeah, I was incorrect on that...running of memory. Two were added to even the deck anyways!

i really dont recommend you run only 3 rangers

There are five rangers in there.

I even thought about adding Arwen, Daughter of Elrond instead of Damrod because of no spotting requirement...thoughts on that?
-wtk