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| DáinIronfoot |
![]() Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:29 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 4594
Location: Beltsville, MD, USA
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I was home sick (seems to be happening a lot lately) with an oppresive migraine headache (fortunately NOT happening a lot lately) yesterday. By far, the highlight of my day was FINALLY getting to test out a new Expanded deck I made weeks ago in SdA. It worked out quite well, even against a Shadow side that, at one site, was able to dish out seven wounds at once. I don’t think I ever lost a skirmish (unless I allowed it to happen), and was able to outpump some HIGHLY-pumped minions (we’re talking a minion that got something ridiculous like +12 strength) with relative ease...and that wasn’t even my most powerful companion!
This deck was originally borne out of an attempt to create an Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli deck centered around Aragorn, Defender of Free Peoples. I DID end up creating that deck, but found it was rather clumsy trying to have enough  AND  tokens for Aragorn to use. So I ended up dropping Gimli and focusing entirely on Elves; after all, the token text is arguably DoFP’s most powerful ability anyway.
Here’s what I came up with. I paired it with some classic  site control, a Shadow side I picked out when I thought it would be all of the Three Hunters on my FP side; figured that would give it a nice Two Towers feel. Ah well. 
FREE PEOPLES (38 cards):
Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Companions (9 cards):
Legolas, Of the Woodland Realm (starting)
Orophin, Silvan Elf (starting)
Aragorn, Defender of Free Peoples x4
Arwen, She-Elf
Elven Guardian x2
Possessions/Artifacts (10 cards):
Anduril, Sword That Was Broken
Ring of Barahir
Aragorn’s Bow
Elven Bow x3
Sword of the Fallen x3
Galadriel’s Silver Ewer
Conditions (9 cards):
No Quicker Path x2
The Last Alliance of Elves and Men
Agility x2
Strength of Arms
Uncertain Future
Namarie x2
Events (10 cards):
Trust x2
Feathered x2
Point Blank Range x2
Inside A Song x2
Hearth and Hall
Farewell to Lorien
The main strategy here is to turn Aragorn into a tank. With Anduril and The Last Alliance of Elves and Men, he’s sitting pretty at 13 strength...not bad, but just the beginning of the fun.
Namarie is always a good toss-in with hunters, but most of the token conditions I’ve chosen (Agility, Strength of Arms, and Uncertain Future) might not make much sense at first glance. But their text will probably end up being irrelevant, as they’re only around to give you tokens to make Aragorn downright beastly. With the ability to remove ANY token from ANY card and make a minion skirmishing him strength -3, Aragorn can be very tough to beat. One Agility and Uncertain Future alone give you 5 tokens to play with, making for a potential strength -15 to any minion, enough to make even Sauron cry. Add in the Namaries (with a potential 4 tokens each to start) and a hopefully-early Strength of Arms, and you can see how hard it should be to take Aragorn out.
But the fun doesn’t stop there. This deck ALSO has ways of reinforcing those tokens. Inside A Song chips in an extra token AND gets one of your skirmish events back, while Hearth and Hall can add as many as four more tokens for you to use...or even more if there are any hunter minions lurking about. For this reason, it’s a good idea to leave at least one token on each of your conditions if at all possible, so that you can reinforce them later.
But Aragorn can’t do it all himself. Sheer numbers alone (up to seven companions) should help you fend off most swarms, even if it means sacrificing your Guardians in the process. But your Elves can admirably handle themselves just fine. With all the bows out, you’ve got 5 archery to dish out before skirmishing ever begins, so you should be able to thin out the minion population (especially that of hunter minions, thanks to Legolas).
Anything that survives archery will face not just Aragorn, but some tough Elves beside him. Arwen is sort of a like a mini-DoFP, with a similiar "remove an token to make a minion strength -2" ability...and with Aragorn in the fellowship, she’s got base 7 strength on top of that. In the game I used this deck in yesterday, I actually ended up using (and winning skirmishes with) Arwen more than Aragorn! Orophin benefits greatly from the more-than-likely wounded minions that will limp out of the archery phase, boasting 9 strength and hunter 1. Your Guardians are only slightly less powerful, with 8 strength and hunter 1 when skirmishing arrow-riddled minions. Add in some Swords of the Fallen for your main skirmishing Elves (probably Arwen and Orophin), and those archery wounds cripple minions even further and help ensure your Elves come out on top.
And it doesn’t end there. The pumping event I’ve chosen should provide big boosts in this deck. Provided you get at least 2 bows early enough, Point Blank Range will provide any Elf a strength +4 boost, and Feathered can, like your Swords, turn wounds on minions in strength helpers for your Elves. And as mentioned before, Inside A Song helps get them back when you need them again.
Aragorn gets his own pumps to use too, should you need them. Trust is wonderfully useful in this deck, as it provides Aragorn a FREE strength +2 pump AND heals any companion in the process. And No Quicker Path can give other companions strength pumps once Aragorn wins a skirmish, or in a pinch, can be discarded to give Aragorn himself a little extra strength.
All that’s left is a couple artifacts. I strongly considered Nenya, Ring of Adamant, but figured the healing wouldn’t be terribly needed (hopefully, as Aragorn can heal by discarding duplicate copies of himself and Farewell to Lorien and Trust help everyone else). However, if that’s NOT enough, I found an even better ring for the job: the Ring of Barahir. As long as you have just ONE token out, you can heal an Elf each turn. Not too shabby, eh? 
Finally, Galadriel’s Silver Ewer is ALWAYS a good idea when using Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom. But it’s ESPECIALLY good here, as it provides more token reinforcement any time you play one of your skirmish events!
The one major weakness of this deck is speed. With lots of companions and some rather expensive cards, and a lack of being able to really finish minions off unless they’re ALREADY exhausted when you win a skirmish, you’re probably not going to be double-moving a lot. So you need a Shadow side that can slow your opponent down, and slowly get better and better and hopefully even pick your opponent’s companions off.
Enter the Dunlendings. 
SHADOW (38 cards):
Minions (21 cards):
Saruman, Rabble-Rouser x3
Freca, Hungry Savage x4
Wulf, Dunlending Chieftain
Hillman Horde x2
Hillman Tribe x4
Dunlending Ransacker x3
Dunlending Elder x4
Possessions (8 cards):
War Club x3
Iron Axe
Hides x4
Conditions (4 cards):
Over the Isen x2
Ready to Fall x2
Events (5 cards):
Burn Every Village x4
Wake of Destruction
Pure, unabashed site control here. I was able to control up to Site 7 by the end of the game I played yesterday.
There are two types of minions here: those designed to control sites, and those designed to beat up companions.
Freca, Wulf, the Tribes, and the Ransackers control sites. Freca is the best site control minion in the deck, but you need to keep him alive (more on that later). The others get sites when you win skirmishes. With 9 or 7 strength, they’ll do well in this against weaker companions, but they’ll need some pumping help to beat tougher opponenets. But it CAN be done, and more easily than you might think.
Saruman, Rabble-Rouser is a BIG help in this regard, with a potential strength +6 boost to any of your Dunlendings that needs it. On top of that, he can also absorb archery (saving your other minions, which mostly have only 1 vitality), and provides some major double-moving discouragement by exerting companions that try to move on with Dunlendings still running around. He’s HUGE in this deck.
Your other minions use the sites you control to win some skirmishes and hopefully, over time, start picking companions off. The Hillman Horde is big enough already, but makes ALL your minions nastier the more sites you control. The Dunlending Elders don’t look like much...until you control a couple sites. Then they become super-cheap strength 12, fierce, damage +1 super-minions!
But they’re not the only minions that can get big; a couple weapons a BIG pump can help out. Iron Axe is a nice little +3 weapon for only 1 twilight, but perhaps even better is the free War Club, which only provides +2 strength, but has the added bonus of discarding possessions when you win skirmishes....something that saved my butt when I played, since my opponent had Elven Bows!
If that’s not enough, then the nigh-legendary Burn Every Village should do the trick. With just ONE site under your control (no problem with this deck), it provides a +4 boost to ANY Dunlending for NO twilight! I can’t think of another strength pump that makes its culture tick more than this card.
Since many cards come pretty cheap, there will be times (especially later in the sitepath) that you have some twilight left over...or perhaps a LOT of twilight left over. The Dunlendings excel at using it. Over the Isen turns  into an assignment of your choice for any of your eligible minions. Ready to Fall helps out on turns you have more twilight than you can use for current minions, and lets you pay to get minions back from your discard pile. And the all-important Hides lets you keep your vitality-handicapped Dunlendings alive by letting you pay to prevent a wound...ANY wound, be it from archery, direct wounding, losing a skirmish...whatever. You can see why I included four of them here, since even if you don’t have any twilight left over, you can discard one of your Hides for the same effect.
The last card is not one you’ll find in many decks, but it can be a HUGE card in the right situation: Wake of Destruction requires you to control 2 sites already, but then--for free!--it makes ALL of your Dunlendings fierce until the regroup phase. If you have a turn where you’re likely to win a couple skirmishes--especially if it’s with minions that will then control some sites for you--you can drop Wake of Destruction with the same force as a megaton bomb, doubling the destruction and/or site controlling. In the right situation, it can practically give you the game in a neat little package, complete with floofy bow.  Also note that with 3 sites controlled, Hillman Horde will do the same thing, but seeing as how it costs  , I figured it usually won’t have the same swarming power as Wake of Destruction.
As for sites, the ones I personally use are:
Anduin River (shuts down archery for your weak Dunlendings. but a bit risky with all YOUR Elven archery)
Doors of Durin (helps your minions win)
Expanding Marshland (not a bad card for Dunlendings)
Helm’s Gate (helps BOTH sides of your deck, as they each have hand weapons)
Moria Stairway (ditto)
Window on the West (not bad for Aragorn in the right situation)
Old Forest Road (for somewhat obvious Elf help)
Sirannon Ruins (when you just need lots of twilight!)
Sites aren’t incredibly critical to this deck, though, so unless your opponent ends up dictating you play sites, there’s really no reason to do so. It’s highly recommended you just bid 0 and let fate decide who controls that aspect of things.
So, what do you all think? Anybody else see this as being viable? It worked pretty well for me so far. |
Best regards, Dáin, Vice Aftokrator of the Chosen Ones
Check out Lasting Alliances, The Road Ahead, and Ages of Middle-earth, three of my five dream card sets that make up Wars of the Ring. Oh, and I have a trade list now!
Also, if you're into DCs or RPGs (or even if you're not!), check out Realms of Middle-earth, the sequel to CG's "DC Adventure", Realms of the North! |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:48 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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To big. Drop Agility completely. Drop Uncertain Future as well. Namarie is better. Add an extra Strength of Arms.
Cut No Quicker Path completely. A couple skirmish pumps are better.
DEFINITELY cut an Iron Axe for a War Club on the Dunland Side. If you’re using Dunland, you need war club. Cut the Ransackers, and add an extra Wulf. cut 2 Freca, because you’ll get him back with Ready to Fall.
Anyway, love it. I run a Dunland Deck along these lines in TT block. Its sweet with Deeping Wall and that site 9 that nabs Saruman cheap. Str +6, anyone? Especially when you got a fierce guy with a War Club vs Rohan. |
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| LeoKula |
![]() Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:23 pm |
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Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 479
Location: SP, Brazil
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Are you crazy?? Cut 2x Freca?? That’s nonsense man... that makes absolutely no sense.
I prefer to play Dunland with at least one more Wulf, 2 No retreat, 1x or 2x No Refuge and Looter to stack and get a lot of twilight. I don’t see the point in controlling 7 sites, you can control two (that’s why the famous name two sites dunland) to set up ready to fall and that’s it. Some more would help your Hillman Horde to get bigger, but he won’t win the game on his own. I think that No Retreat is the best way for the wild men to win the games.
As for the last alliance free peoples I think that’s it, I’m kind of sick to see this kind of deck played over and over and there’s no secret in doing this, it’s very basic. |
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