Lord of the Rings TCG PC Forums

NOLINK
{PC}

(MEME) Pipes/Tentacles

Format: Fellowship Block (PC)
Author: Modrzew

Intro:
Is your Fellowship tired of always running as fast as they humanly (or elvenly) can? Would they rather go for a nice stroll while smoking a good old pipe-weed? All this while your opponent must endure the whole of Middle-Earth turned into a swamp full of wriggling tentacles that for some reason Frodo finds very disturbing and tempting? Well then, this is the deck for you!

Disclaimer:
This is a meme deck. You probably won't win very often with it, but you will have the opportunity to play the game differently. Your opponent will also have to keep in mind that this is not a standard game, which can lead to some pretty funny plays and mistakes.

Deck Concept:
Pipes and Tentacles is a deck built around the completely sensible strategy of corrupting the Ring-bearer. While your Fellowship takes its time, smokes pipe-weed and slowly walks towards site 9, your Shadow side tries to generate enough burdens through Tentacle skirmishes to corrupt Frodo before the opponent can reach the end of the adventure path. If that fails, there is always Plan B: release an unreasonable number of Tentacles and hope the opponent gets pulled into a swamp.

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Son of Drogo
Ring: The One Ring, Isildur's Bane

Adventure deck:
The Prancing Pony
Midgewater Marshes
Rivendell Terrace
Eregion Hills
The Bridge of Khazad-dûm
Valley of the Silverlode
Anduin Confluence
Gates of Argonath
Summit of Amon Hen

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Legolas, Greenleaf
2x Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk
2x Aragorn, Heir to the White City
2x Boromir, Son of Denethor
1x Sam, Faithful Companion
2x Bow of the Galadhrim
1x Gandalf's Pipe
3x Aragorn's Bow
2x Aragorn's Pipe
1x Armor
1x Flaming Brand
1x Ranger's Sword
1x Frodo's Pipe
1x Frying Pan
4x Old Toby
1x Sting
1x The Gaffer's Pipe
4x We May Yet
4x Gondor Bowmen

Shadow Draw Deck:
4x Foul Tentacle
1x The Balrog, Durin's Bane
4x Thrashing Tentacle
4x Vile Tentacle
3x Writhing Tentacle
3x Sirannon Dam
4x Foul Things
4x Guided by One Purpose
1x Lost to the Goblins
4x Must Do Without Hope
3x Out of Dark Waters

Strategy:

Starting Fellowship:
The journey begins with Legolas, Greenleaf who, as the only non-smoker in the Fellowship, is responsible for protecting the weed dealer Sam, Faithful Companion, without whom this adventure would not be possible.

Win Condition:
This is a deck where you win by losing skirmishes. You need to corrupt the Ring-Bearer and for that you need at least 10 burdens. 1 you will get from Eregion Hills, 4 of them are guaranteed by Guided by One Purpose, or potentially even more if you manage to shuffle them back into your deck and play them again, 4 more you can get from Foul Things, usually around 2 from Must Do Without Hope and probably 1-2 from Thrashing Tentacle. That gives you a pretty reliable way to add burdens quickly and if you feel like that will not be enough… just use Lost to the Goblins.

Secondary Win Condition:
If you were unable to find the Sirannon Dam early, you should focus on trying to swarm your opponent instead. Tentacles can do that reasonably well, but you will need Out of Dark Waters in play — preferably more than one — with minions stacked on it.

Early Game:
Do not bid anything, go second. Do not rush with the Fellowship. They are here to have a nice walk, observing nature and relaxing. Always move only one site (unless you are 100% sure that the opponent has nothing in their hand). Use Sam, Faithful Companion every turn, if possible, to fetch Old Toby or pipes, especially if you think you may need healing soon. Do not be afraid to use the resources you have available in skirmish. It is better to shoot the enemy before he has a chance to come closer, and you are not planning a long journey so there is no need to hoard anything.

For the Shadow, your hand can get a bit clogged at the beginning. Ideally, you don't want to play Tentacles unless you can play three at once, because of Guided by One Purpose. Never play Writhing Tentacle unless you have Out of Dark Waters set up. If your opponent has had a good start and their Fellowship is strong, you can also play Thrashing Tentacle to start generating burdens.

Late Game:

For the Shadow your game begins at site 5. Play Balrog and all your copies of Must Do Without Hope to free up your hand and start spamming tentacles on every site - 3 of them to be exact so that you can use Guided by One Purpose. If you can spare more Tentacles, do so and use the optional trigger to shuffle some important, burden-giving cards back to the deck. Keep in mind that you may have to use the Lost to the Goblins so keep track of how many Shadow cards are left in the deck. Use archery wounds to make sure important Tentacles, especially Writhing Tentacle, can be stacked on Out of Dark Waters instead of being overwhelmed. By the time your Fellowship reaches site 6, you have either already almost won or are most likely going to lose. Sorry.

Matchups:
Good Matchups:

• Archery: Oh, arrows are the best thing that can happen to a Tentacle. Nothing beats securing the Writhing Tentacle on the Out of Dark Waters without risking the enemy to overwhelm it. Archery wounds let you decide which tentacles to save from fighting to be able to use them later.
• Small Fellowships: Tentacles are cheap and can be played from condition, deck and discard so you should be able to make them work even with a small Twilight pool. The basic combo of 3 tentacles + Guided by One Purpose costs only 7 Twilight.
• Strong Fellowships: You win by losing so if all of the companions are stronger than your Tentacles, winning will be a lot easier.

Bad Matchups:

• Hobbit Hospital:
• Large Fellowships: They tend to have one or two very strong companions that can overwhelm your Tentacles, as well as plenty of weaker ones that can simply lose their skirmishes so you will not be able to generate burdens fast enough and you can forget about swarming.

Possible Additions:

• Shotgun Enquea: With all the burdens this deck can generate, activating his ability should not be a problem. You do, however, have to think carefully about whom to kill. Ideally, remove someone who would otherwise be able to lose a skirmish against your Tentacles.
• Helpless: The best thing your oponent can do to is to accumulate a lot of burdens on Frodo and then kill him and have a brand new Ring-Bearer for you to try and corrupt. This cards helps with that. With it in the deck you can try to make some play with It Wants to be Found and Ringwraith in Twilight.

Mulligan Guide:
Ideally, you want to see: Out of Dark Waters, Sirannon Dam and maybe one Must Do Without Hope. Unless you have three Tentacles (or at least one Foul Tentacle) you don't want Guided by One Purpose as it will clog your hand. As for the Fellowship... it really doesn't matter.

How to play against this deck:

• Burden removal/prevention: If you have it, you probably already won. However this deck can outpace 1 burden removal if played well.
• Double moves: Until the Sirannon Dam hits the table you should always double move. Even if Vile Tentacle was used on this site, the next one will not be a swamp when the Fellowship enters it causing all other Tentacles to be discarded.
• Defender +1: Remember that once the Sirannon Dam is played ALL of your companions have Defender +1
• Overwhelm: Try to overwhelm the tentacles if possible. that way, they won't be wounded and therefore cannot be attached to Out of Dark Waters
• Discard conditions: Do it before the Tentacles have a chance to be stacked there, as they will then protect the condition from being discarded.
• Let them win skirmishes: This applies not only to Thrashing Tentacle. but in general, if you cannot overwhelm a Tentacle, it may be better to let it win the skirmish so that it cannot be attached to Out of Dark Waters
• Ignore Fellowship: You can simply discard your Shadow cards. The Fellowship is not a threat in any way.

PS:
I am well aware this is not a good deck, but it still allowed me to win a few games in the qualificaton matches for World Championship I am of course open for suggestions, but only the ones that will keep the theme of the deck.