Frodo, Sauron's Bane Will Throw Your Opponents Into Mount Doom

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

Well, we did it! I will not be adding Sol Ring or Arcane Signet to any new decks until July 27th, 2024! Thank you for all the support!

[@Phavahg]

Thanks for the tips! I'm gonna include Kor Haven for protection too. As for your jk Eagle comment, JRRT addressed that himself with several reasons why it would not have worked. Here's my take: After the wipeout of the Nazgul at the Fords of the Bruinen, the Fellowship had to rest up in Rivendell for months with a wounded Frodo. In the meantime the de-horsed (and de-cloaked, yukk) Nazgul made their way back to Mordor and were mounted on the Fell Beasts. By then, Frodo is healed up so you put him on an Eagle, with perhaps Gandalf and Aragorn (there were three Eagle lords that Gandalf could call on: Gwaihar, Meneldor & Landroval). They take off into the wide blue open for all to see, but as they approach Mordor, the Eye spots them and sends 9 Nazgul (count 'em - NINE) to intercept. Only one of them needs to take out Frodo and it's all over. Sauron rules. Not a good plan. Stealth was indeed the way to go.

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

Kor Haven is actually a good call here. I do have one but it's currently in my Kethis Legends deck - might be time to revisit that. Regarding the Eagles stuff - I know. I'm a fairly big fan myself, and work with UBER Tolkien fans, so it's just a tease. =)

[@evilbetty00]

Your video editing skills are amazing! I hope your channel continues to grow!

[@turtleinvader2982]

The ring tempting you should've definitely have a downside. It definitely has a downside in the movies and books.

[@chrisunrath8343]

Have you looked at building a Frodo Sauron's bane only using Tales from Middle Earth cards?

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

I did briefly, but I wasn't super satisfied with how it was coming together. Ended up figuring if I want a full thematic deck I would just maybe upgrade the Sam/Frodo Food precon.

[@chrisunrath8343]

@@AbsoluteCardboard cool thanks for the insight.

[@giancarloparodi5507]

i thought you could only have cards of the same color as your commander?

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

Not same color, same color identity. Because Frodo has black mana in the text box (the activation costs) he is considered to have a black and white color identity.

[@giancarloparodi5507]

@@AbsoluteCardboard i gave up trying to make one the other night but this helps so much, just recently got into magic with the new set. Thanks

[@SeldomFollower]

Once you said no Sol Ring I had to dislike 😞 but great video!!!

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

haha fair enough!

[@SeldomFollower]

@ElementHobbies I honestly loved the video though. Decided to make this deck on arena and just ordered the paper cards. You gave awesome ideas and you have great suggestions! Adding some of these to my real deck im making!! Thank you!!! Can't wait for the next video!!!

[@jacksonself1218]

It’s at a 100 likes lol

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

I didn't think it would happen this soon. 😆

[@Kaador]

Hm. No Zaxara - no good. just kidding, I like it

[@OmerSaraf]

I too am trying to build a deck around him! I really liked your suggestions in the video! I also thought about adding stuff to give him double to strike his temptation ability twice (right?) And stuff like Vorpal Sword and Phage the Untouchable as backup nukes since the deck is around that theme anyway

[@Tirchrome420]

The art is based on the movies/books, there is no better art work then that, nor there would be no art work that would work with frodo.

[@Froggyswipe8383]

I am simply going to add the one ring to this deck for card draw.

[@berenerchamion4998]

You really don’t need the nine Nazgûls!

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

Agreed! Price has come down on them since I made the video, but I haven't really felt the need to seek any Nazgul out over the alts.

[@51gunner]

Speaking of "fly there on eagles" - Escape from Orthanc is a fun little 1-drop to hop Frodo over blockers. I've built a 60-card Modern deck based around this Frodo and it was fun to see the similarities. I'm running all the Nagzul as the big face-beaters, Call of the Ring to keep pumping out the temptations as well as draw cards, some Claim the Precious and Lash of the Balrog to snipe defenders that could stop Frodo, Nasty End to sacrifice some of the low-mana legendaries or ringbearers to draw more cards, and so on. Either it can beat face with Nazgul, or try and slide a full-power Frodo in for a kill. I don't expect to win any tournaments with it but I hope it produces some fun regardless.

[@AbsoluteCardboard]

I actually would be really interested to hear how well that does, or at least the cases where you do win with the Frodo kill. I'm not a constructed tournament type guy anymore, but that sounds fun!

[@51gunner]

@@AbsoluteCardboard well, my cards finally shipped and arrived and I assembled the deck and played it with a friend in some good old kitchen-table Magic. Still some fiddling to be done but I'm starting to get a feel for it. Here's my first impressions: - It's got some real comeback potential because the Ring never powers down. You're one Frodo draw and re-upgrade away from having a lethal threat on the board. Plop him down for a single white mana, let him get over his summoning sickness, and then upgrade and ideally stick the ring back on him to make him harder to block. - Nasty End didn't play out as well as I wanted. Could be because I didn't draw my Gollums, but on further thought I don't want to sac Nazgul for cards and Frodo's my win-con so he's a tough call to sacrifice. Boromir's better to give indestructible I think, I really hesitate to burn him for 3 cards, but that could be a misplay on my part. I might swap it for other things. Will play out more and see how it goes. - Frodo's much more useful on his own than I thought. 1/2 for W, 2/3 after that with Lifelink for two more mana... he's either guarding you, trading for an attacker to buy time and give you life, or sneaking in for a suckerpunch and maybe ring tempt. He's a versatile card that plays well early but also levels up well later. His potential is tied to the ring that never goes down, so if you pull him turn 4 or something he's not a dead draw. The ring on him means he won't be blocked by anything with greater power, so he can steal more life to keep you in the game longer reasonably safely. - You can run this deck ALMOST mono-black if so inclined because you need just one white mana to pop Frodo out. I'm interested in trying a variant of this deck that mostly removes white to make the mana more consistent. This might also be a result of me not owning the best mana base cards, I've got a single Shattered Sanctum but that's about it for Orzhov land. - Multiple Gollum, Patient Plotter can make a loop of Ring-Tempts. Put one on the field with one in the graveyard and for one Black mana you sacrifice the Gollum you have for the Gollum you don't, gaining a ring tempt. Then you can play that Gollum and repeat. What's your opponent going to do, destroy that Gollum too? Tempt goes up and gods help them if you have a Nazgul out. Can even Legend Rule the other Gollum out. - I'm tempted to buy some Mirror Box to really break the Nazgul and let me have more Frodos out. Maybe just a 1-of but it'd be a hilarious drop. - Samwise is hard to time. You're trying to play out and tempt ASAP and Sam's ability to pull something from your graveyard and Tempt needs to be timed well. I'll keep playing it and see what I end up with.

[@thiccpete4525]

Love it! Easy to understand and Wallet friendly