Free Peoples Only: Frodo/Sam/Smeagol

[ket_the_jet]

Hey guys, in my boredom I have been playing a new deck on GCCG and wanted to see how to improve it/make it much more viable.

As of now, it is:

Starting:
Frodo, Master of the Precious with The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles
Sam, Resolute Halfling
Legolas, Greenleaf
Smeagol, Poor Creature

Free Peoples (42):
Smeagol, Always Helps x3
Boromir, Son of Denethor
Aragorn, Ranger of the North

Bounder x2

A Promise x4
The Shire Countryside x4
A Light In His Mind x2
Cliffs of Emyn Muil
The Tale of the Great Ring
Don't Look At Them x3
Never x2

Sting, Baggins Heirloom x2
Hobbit Sword x2

Impatient and Angry x3
Mind Your Own Affairs x4
No Help For It x4

A few things I would like to do:
-Get this deck under 35 cards. Preferably 31-33. I understand that conceptually I will be discarding a lot with Don't Look At Them and Smeagol, Poor Creature, but I don't want this deck to have so many cards I never find Don't Look At Them or Sting, Baggins Heirloom, etc.

-While cutting down the deck, find room for Very Nice Friends. One or two copies. I don't like too many events in a deck, but playing Smeagol during the regroup phase is necessary for me to double move most times, and that is the only card (as far as I know) that does that.

-I am often able to keep Legolas alive thanks to Mind Your Own Affairs. That said, I definitely need some serious burden-removal as often No Help For It and A Light In His Mind is just not enough. I like The Shire Countryside to heal up before a double move if I use No Help For It in the regroup phase and then conceptually Very Nice Friends to get Smeagol back.

-Maintain a certain level of choke. Scouting is a really nice card, but I am afraid of adding too much twilight in the first place! That said, discarding minions during the maneuver phase, then polishing them off with Legolas, Greenleaf is a pretty nice idea. Regroup remove burdens to heal up and a double move!

-I have been playing this deck with Uruk-Hai swarm. But because Uruk-Hai does not cycle very well at all, I need a suggestion on a small Shadow deck that cycles phenomenally well. Please don't recommend swarm though. Already have that deck and want to do something new and exciting.

-Any other thoughts or suggestions, like always, are appreciated. Thanks so much.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

On record, I am 3-2 with this deck. It got torched by a Ninja Gollum deck, of course.
-wtk

[Pepin The Breve]

How about NFFatRoD? Can remove burdens when needed (heal if you got countrisides out) or remoive threats to keep smeagol killing people withou relying just on Never.

Aiglos never hurts on Greenleaf.

The weak points i see in this kind of deck are heavy condition/possession based shadows (since your deck don't discard any) and swarms (specially isen swarm since they usually discard all your stuff).

I had a simlar deck, but i used gandy instead of greanleaf (which makes it sucks even more against moria but gives you a better chance of survive against others).

Corsairs can be one nice option for cycling shadow. Add lots of plunderers, ships of great draught and that guy that plays boats from you draw deck and you are ready to go.

[Cw0rk]

I suggest you remove all those events, add Birthday Present x3 or x4 then add 4x NFFatRoD. So now you could remove burdens during the fellowship phase with a light in his mind and use NFFatRoD when you move. You don't need that much copies of Smeagol and you don't need never. You could also put 1 copy of Bilbo, Retired adventurer to reshuffle The shire countryside when it gets discarded.

By the way, the Birthday present thing is just a suggestion. I feel like this combo is a bit broken but I don't want to elaborate on this subject as it was done before.

[ket_the_jet]

Thanks for the ideas, Pep.

The problem with NFFatRoD is that I already have so many events it is going to be tough...Corsairs would be a great idea, but I don't want to be a #$&*@! and Corsairs are kind of a #$&*@! Shadow.

Aiglos is nice but Legolas isn't there to survive as much as be a speedbump. He just gets healed out of circumstance thanks to The Shire Countryside.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

You don't need that much copies of Smeagol and you don't need never.

The reason I use different copies of Smeagol is that Poor Creature is the best one at the beginning of the game and I want to be able to guarantee I have Always Helps in my discard pile early enough in the game to grab him if I need to.
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

You don't need that much copies of Smeagol and you don't need never.

The reason I use different copies of Smeagol is that Poor Creature is the best one at the beginning of the game and I want to be able to guarantee I have Always Helps in my discard pile early enough in the game to grab him if I need to.
-wtk

I'm sure it can be useful, but if you want to cut your deck down to less then 35 cards you will have to remove some stuff.

[ket_the_jet]

Understood.

Personally, I don't like Birthday Present. Even if Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom is the only event in my draw deck, I don't like the idea that my opponent controls my hand or draw deck. Plus, there are not enough ways to discard cards during the Fellowship phase to use A Light In His Mind outside of playing cards and with very few companions and possessions, well, that is certainly difficult.
-wtk

[Kralik]

Understood.

Personally, I don't like Birthday Present. Even if Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom is the only event in my draw deck, I don't like the idea that my opponent controls my hand or draw deck. Plus, there are not enough ways to discard cards during the Fellowship phase to use A Light In His Mind outside of playing cards and with very few companions and possessions, well, that is certainly difficult.
-wtk

Your very own Sam lets you discard as you wish!
Re: Birthday Present - the ruling is clear. If you only have one event, there is no opponent choice... you just take it to hand. You could use Sam to discard down to 3, regain initiative, and then relose it with NFFatRoD for a double whammy!

[ket_the_jet]

Yeah, I understand the ruling on Birthday Present. The problem to me, I guess, is that I really lose out on some of the other great events for this deck.

I don't know. To me there are some great opportunities that aren't being explored when you use Birthday Present.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

A copy of Tom Bombadil, the Master may help.
-wtk

[Ringbearer]

The opponent maybe.... 5 pool is a lot with 3 companions... And you can cancel only Sams skirmish.

[ket_the_jet]

As an early draw it is helpful. Burden removal is a plus!
-wtk

[Ringbearer]

And later on it doesnt help. And early on they can suddenly play 1 extra minion for that 5 pool.

[ket_the_jet]

Not to get people back on topic, but what suggestions do people have? Or what do they play when it comes to FSS?
-wtk