Re: Saved from the Fire/Gondor

[Celebrimbor]

Well if we burn Madril, then it is evident that we need Aragorn, ROTN to spot for the second levels, So he's necessary.  Burning Gandalf works too...killing him, pulling out stronger Gandalf, Sent Back, and either Roll of Thunder or Deep in Thought.

Sméagol, Always helps can work out on his own...3 copies of Don't Look at Them will come out anyway.  Depending on what kind of shadow, we can choose to beef up Isildur with Narsil and all his artifacts, or choose to pull out even stronger Elendil and play Narsil on him.

For the time being, Denethor is useful for a number of things. He can filter the deck, so using Saved from the Fire to pull him, Aragorn, and Andúril out, Denethor can pull out fortifications or other weapons we would need.

This is very general and probably is only scratching the surface of the variations that can be tried.

[Celebrimbor]

OK I just tested it!  I'll have to admit...it's a continuously haunting feeling that my fellowship is weak and I'm not doing something right.

The matchup was vs Elven telepathy/Isengard Men + Saruman.  This beatdown-style shadow came at a surprise.  The minions kept getting stronger and more manipulative with more of his shadow conditions on my companions.  At site 6, I burned Denethor to take Elendil and narsil, making the move limit +1, trying to run for it as he was at 8 already.  He even had 2 conditions on Elendil, The Tall and was about to use Grima, Wormtongue to return him to hand, but I had first action and played Deep in Thought. I ran to 9, and even after he had discarded all my fortifications with saruman, I won.

Unique matchup, not representative of 'normal' shadow strategies, but was enjoyable.