Grima joins the Fellowship 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is the deck used in a ‘What If’ scenario based around the premise of ‘What If Gandalf was detained are Isengard and Grima was sent to join the Fellowship instead?’ The Playthrough report can be found here: https://theroadlotr.wordpress.com/

This deck revolves around the Fellowship contract, and so you need to get as many of your unique allies in play as possible. You start with 4 characters already in play, namely Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Aragorn and Gríma. Your unique allies are Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Merry and Pippin. You want them all out as fast as possible so play them as soon as you are able, but in an ideal world Merry will be the last one so as many characters as possible benefit from the additional he provides on the turn he enters. Similarly Legolas would be your first on the board so you can garner the most benefit from his card draw ability.

This is a tri-sphere deck with expensive allies, but you have a few ways to get around this hinderance. A Good Harvest will let you side-step sphere requirements, while Gríma shaves their cost down to keep them affordable. Elf-stone can let you cheat in an ally if you can explore it’s attached location.

That is one of the weaknesses of this deck however, that is the lack of location-control. The best thing you can do is muster your willpower boosts and quest as hard and as fast as you can. Celebrían's Stone will be hugely beneficial to Aragorn, if you feel safe enough getting him to quest, while Sword that was Broken and Fellowship of the Ring will spread the love around.

Combat should be theoretically less of an issue, with Aragorn, Legolas and Boromir geared especially towards combat. Sam Gamgee, Gimli and Pippin are designed to contribute to both questing and combat and even Frodo Baggins has his ability geared toward defence. There are nasty enemies in this quest however, so bump up your defenders with the Hauberk of Mail, which can go on Warrior characters, and Dúnedain Warnings, which will do well on any hero though I think Frodo or Sam benefit from it the most. Give Warrior Sword to Aragorn, Legolas and Boromir in that order, and you should never want for attacking prowess.

Threat reduction should largely be kept in check by Woodmen's Clearing, though with Gríma’s ability you may find it creeping up a bit fast. Your ultimate answer will by putting Thorongil on Aragorn to be able to use Aragorn’s ability to reset your threat for you.