Gaffer Ever After 1.0

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• 1.0

Awesome deck, as usual. I was also worried that Gaffer is to good. Especially if you consider that you can play him with Halbarad in basically every deck. One other weakness I see (which prevents that deck from breaking to many quests) are quests with very low engagement bosses, like those ones: hallofbeorn.com

@RokaThanks! Low engagement bosses are like immune enemies in that the can't be blocked by Gaffer. But they are generally only around for a few turns and can be handled during those rounds with Feint/Gandalf/chump blocking.

So many unique characters, this deck could use The Arkenstone, which is great with Rosie Cotton !

Nice deck! No Firyal with all these Lore resources?

@wehehe``@MarcelfBoth great suggestions! Guarded attachments are quite playable here due to how well the deck handles enemies, and the presence of Henamarth.

The Gaffer uses up a ton of the lore resources so it still might take you a while to play Firyal. But you could probably adjust your strategy a bit and avoid engagement for a few rounds in order to play her.

nice, but depends on steward. would be nice to have a nearly equal effective version without steward. perhaps Errand-Rider can help. then it could work without steward (and unlucky starthand without recourcfull), in the 1. round. later in the game the rider can chumpblock or take 2 archery or support a partner. henemarth is only for solo, right? else i would not see him as much important.

@doomguardI consider Steward on Pippin to be thematic since he pledges service to Denethor. But is you mean that it prevents others form using it in a multiplayer setting, it's true. But Steward isn't as hotly contested as it used to be, as we have plenty of alternative forms of resource acceleration in the card pool now.

Henamarth is primarily for solo, yes. In multiplayer I swap it out for Errand-rider (I'll add this to the description).

in solo perhaps its worth to think about a swordthain. if used on a hobbit merry gets +1 and pippins effect is improved.

This deck is the real deal. (Shocking for a @Seastan creation, I know…) Did a huge amount of work as half of my team through a long slog against Withered Heath, locking down some of the big non-unique boys of the quest (despite never seeing a Feint), as well as chipping in its share of attack against the Cold-drake. The synergy between Gaffer, Shirefolk, and Raise the Shire is sweet indeed, and Drinking Song as extra mulligans is of course excellent.

@sappidusThanks! Feel free to tag this deck in a quest log ;)

I didn't realize that Mount Gundabad was out yet until reading this post and seeing how you created a totally awesome Hobbit deck. I am not seeing anyone use this deck against at least the first Saga expansion, which is what I want to try once I get this deck made.

Speaking of Saga, would you replace Daeron's Runes with Frodo's Intuition in Solo play? +1 willpower per hero and 4 cards for 2 resources vs 1 card for 0 resources.

@bdavis96Never drop Daeron's Runes! If you want to add Frodo's Intuition it's better to go to a 53 card deck than to replace the Runes.

errata for the Gaff will be on its way.

I don't think they thought ahead much when they created Gaffer's combat action. In order to avoid spamming gaff every round, it would have been better if it said to discard him instead of putting it back in your hand. The Great Gaffe by FFG!

I doubt it will be errata’d. You could already do this with a Gamling/Grimbold combo and no-one complained about that. This one is one resource cheaper (not that much of an issue with Steward) but the Rohan version works on any character rather than being dependent on threat.

The only real difference is that Seastan made a deck from this one so the combo gets more attention.

I honestly don’t get the angst about powerful combos. It’s a cooperative game, if a combo seems overpowered, don’t use it. Like most super combos, I’ll probably use this once or twice, say “Huh. Cool” and then forget about it unless I feel the urge to absolutely smash a quest.

@Schrodingers HatYou are talking about a 3 card combo: Steward+Gamling+Grimbold. This is just a 2 card combo. The difference is significant. There are a great many 3-card combos that trivialize the game, but they are balanced by the fact that they are hard to pull off. If you can reliably get Steward+Gamling+Grimbold into play turn 1 or 2, with a hero lineup that is good at questing and attacking, then you have something comparable to this. But I have seen no such list.

i think its o.k. its more expensive then a feint and the enemy had to have higher engagement cost than your thread. with hama and some books you can easily have a feint every round and no one complains about that. 2 res evry round is expensive. and for 1 res more you can get the forrest snare and the enemy cannot attack until the end of the game.

@Seastan well, with TEowyn, STheoden and Theodred you only need the two cards (Gamling and Grimbold) to be able to do it every turn from turn 2 onwards, you actually don’t need Steward (though it will work better with it). With the crazy draw setups I’ve seen you create, I’m pretty sure you could build a deck that could do that effectively to “break” the encounter deck.

But that wasn’t really my point. I just personally don’t think that this is a huge problem.

I get that this makes Hobbits super strong if you choose to use it, but as you say there are other combos which trivialise parts of the game if you set them up.

I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but I don’t have a problem with there being super powerful combos in a cooperative/solo game. If you like these kind of combos you’ll use it, if you don’t you won’t. I don’t really see why it needs an errata, especially given that it is only this effective in solo.

@Schrodingers HatThe lineup you described doesn't have lore, so it's actually pretty tricky to get some "crazy draw setup" to put that combo together quickly. And you're still stuck without much attacking power to kill the enemy that Grimbold is blocking. Being able to kill the enemy right away is very important, because you can only block 1 attack per round. With this hobbit lineup all you need is a single 1-cost dagger to be swinging for 7.

As for whether or not super strong cards deserve errata: I think it's a complex subject. I'm not actually calling for a Gaffer errata (yet). More time is needed. But it's not as simple as "don't like it, don't play it". In some cases, even if you aren't using a strong card, future scenarios may be designed under the assumption that you are. Northern Tracker and Asfaloth are good examples. If the developers feel the need to put "immune to player card effects" onto every big enemy going forward in order to shut down people exploiting Gaffer, it will have a negative effect on everybody. Not saying it will happen, but you get the idea.

@Seastan yeah I guess that’s a good point. The game being changed by the designers building for certain cards (like the cost curve of cards being warped by Steward of Gondor) is a factor I didn’t really think about. And I guess the fact that Gaffer Gamgee can go into any deck with Lore makes it more likely that it will affect quest design in the future.

Not arguing against the awesomeness of the gaffer, but an eternal Grimbold-combo shouldn't be that hard to pull off quickly and consistently.

No does make it more difficult, but Gúthwinë can be an alternate to Gamling (and can again be fetched by Open the Armory). There is also Mustering the Rohirrim. Together they should make for some consistency.

With Eowyns ability covering the early-game, and Grimbold having the added perk of working against all enemies (including bosses with threat set to ensure automatic engage) it could make for an interesting alternative.

@GoggenI had forgotten about Gúthwinë. That would definitely make the Grimbold strategy more viable, since it's searchable with Open the Armory and also boosts your attack.

Then you could also consider using Gríma+Keys of Orthanc in addition to Steward for more reliable setup. Then it's still a three card combo, but a much easier one to put together: Grimbold + (Steward or Keys) + (Guthwine or Armory).

@Seastani can not get passed dul guldur... Any tips with this deck?

because u can only play one ally per round, it is not very improving to play that ally to cancel an attack. u need to improve your questing- and fightingpower. because of that it is better to improve sam to defend. than u can play 1 hobbit each round and improve your questingpower slowly.

i would change the deck, either sam+2 tactiks (merry and toby) or sam +pippin+folko. if sam is the prisioner, start new. than add hobbit cloak and dunedans warning to give sam the defensepower to replace a repeated gaffer.

@Haydenfisher3422 Dol Guldur's 1 ally/round is a hard counter to this deck, not to mention the effect that the captive hero has on any trisphere deck.

My suggestion would be to either try an entirely different solo deck, like a modern mono-spirit deck, or two entirely different decks in two-handed play.

@Seastan it should have been obvious beforehand, but I discovered last night there is some real hilarious synergy between Rosie Cotton here, and Nenya (which my coop ally was running). Thanks for the great deck, this one was a blast to play with.

@TASagent why do u think that? u can use rosies ability only once per phase, i cannot see, what narya can do, what a fast hitch would not do? or where the "hilarious" synergy is? +1 att and def on rosie does not help really, and her ability only goes to hobbitheroes meanwhile narya can only be used on allies. plz explain :)

@doomguard, It looks like you're thinking of the wrong card. Nenya is the unique ring you can only put on Galadriel, a 4-willpower hero. Nenya allows Galadriel to add her willpower to another character for the phase. This can be used to buff Rosie Cotton's willpower (and thus her buff) to 6.

Notably, however, you are limited to using Nenya's ability as a Quest action, but if you need to quest HARD, and you have a fast hitch on Rosie, that means she can be responsible for contributing 12 to the quest on her own (with Galadriel's help)

yess, wrong ring, but my question stands. galadriels ring is only usable in the questphase. what is the great synergy? you rarely need attack or defense in the questphase (except in battle or siege, but did u mean that? )

ah u mean she goes questing for her own, can be made ready and support another hobbithero. o.k. nice but imo not thiiis much of a deal.

@doomguard

If Galadriel targets someone else (not Rosie), then Galadriel (4) + Rosie (2) + Fast Hitch (2) can contribute 8 to the quest.

If Galadriel decides to target Rosie, then Rosie (6) + Fast Hitch (6) can contribute 12 to the quest.

Yeah, the excitement was tempered by the realization that Nenya was limited to the Quest phase, but actually it was really versatile in the quest we were playing, in which hide tests were being triggered and occasional enemy attacks were being triggered in the questing phase. Galadriel + Rosie enabled the ability to transmute 6 willpower into any other stat (during the quest phase), and share it across players, which actually ended up making a big difference.

I have been experimenting with a Frodo Baggins, Galadriel, Nenya, and Rosie Cotton deck. Quest with Frodo (2) and a Galadriel targeted Rosie (6). Spend 1 resource from Frodo to ready Rosie. Use Rosie's ability to increase Frodo's willpower to 8. So together, they are questing for 14? Even more if there are other willpower boosting items/allies in play. Then if Fast Hitch is on Rosie, you can use her ability again during the combat phase.

So Frodo and Rosie vs Rosie and Rosie nets +2 willpower and -1 threat (if you quest successfully)

I guess looking at it, there really isn't +2 willpower (because Frodo has to quest), but it does free up Fast Hitch for the combat phase.

Sorry for all the comments...or even better, would it be legal to do Rosie (6), Rosie recommiting to the quest with Fast Hitch (6), and then Frodo readying her and using her ability to boost Frodo to (8)? 6 + 6 + 8 = 20?

Nawh, a character is either committed to the quest, or not, but can't be double-committed. I think the only way to get around the 1/phase restriction of rosie's ability would be bouncing her in/out of play (@Seastan can probably speak better to whether this actually resets the count of the uses of her ability), but that would actually make you worse off because she'd lose her +4 and/or fast hitch. I can't imagine a huge benefit to doing this, but is it possible to Sneak Attack in a new Rosie, bump out the old Rosie, and stack the new one's ability?

That is where I am confused. I thought Seastan’s Rosie (6) + Fast Hitch (6) is recommiting Rosie to the quest as an ally...unless it assumes sword-thain to make Rosie a hero and she buffs herself. Frodo’s ability is effectively a second Fast Hitch.

@TASagent Yes, I think as long as you bounce her out it's allowed.

@bdavis96 No, I'm assuming you have some other questing Hobbit. So that's 6 from questing herself and 6 more from buffing a questing Hobbit hero.

What about Ioreth instead of warden to use the fellowship contract?

@Nillapo82I was toying with the same idea the other night. The collision between the intended use of Gaffer Gamgee and the Fellowship contract somewhat reduces the benefit, but it doesn't eliminate it. Obviously, on any round where you trigger Gaffer's ability, you only have access to the Fellowship buffs for Questing, and (potentially) part of defense (unless you burn a Sneak Attack to temporarily bump yourself back up to 9 allies). Even so, the added willpower could quite possibly still be worth it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It also opens up the amusing thought experiment of some quest forcing an objective ally on you at an inopportune time and locking you out from playing Gaffer.

@TASagentyes the idea is to use Gaffer ability UNTIL you get the contract, after that you are boosted enougth to stop using gaffer bounce (ideally you bounce him the last time and then you put in an ally that has to stay on the floor)

Seastan, do you think this deck would be viable across from someone playing hero Gandalf? Or is it too dependent on his threat reduction? The only thing I can think to do to partly make up for it would be to replace G & Sneak with Woodmen's Clearing & Secret Vigil. Not sure if it would work though.

@Sfrug Won't be as good but maybe Woodmen's Clearing to replace the threat reduction and Valiant Sacrifice to replace the card draw.

Nice deck. Tried it out the other day, and never lost. I think Hobbit decks are some of the most powerful in the game.

I really like this deck. I’m planning a 2-Handed (solo) run through the Sagas and would like to pair it with another deck.

One problem I have is finding a good substitute for “Steward of Gondor” because both decks won’t be able to play it.

Do you have a suggestion for a good pair to go along with this deck?

@Gearhead I'm confused - if you're playing 2-handed solo, how is Steward of Gondor unavailable for both decks?

There aren't many good replacements that can keep up with the cost of Gaffer every round. Resourceful is already in the deck.

meanwhile, we have the Red Book of Westmarch . if the steward is needed elsewhere its an option, but the every-round gaffer starts later then.

i would add at least 1 book independed from steward.

@Seastanoh I meant it’s “unique” so I’m looking for another deck that could pair well with this deck without needing Steward of Gondor as I expect Steward to be in play for the Gaffer Deck

@Gearhead Oh, I understand now. Well, I don't have any specific decks in mind to pair it with, so I recommend doing the following:

1. Go to the decklist search: ringsdb.com
2. Type in all the unique cards in this deck under the "cards not used" section
3. Sort by number of likes
4. Click search

You will then be presented by a slew of highly rated decks that have no conflicts with this one. It's a handy trick to know! :).

@Seastanthank you. I’m getting into this site more now that I’ve got some folks wanting to play.