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Turin06

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:27 am

Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 197 Location: Good Question

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An article about an interesting and effective Gollum and Wraith strategy.
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Hello and welcome to my brand new article about a brand new (as far as I know) shadow strategy.

As you have probably guessed from the title it focuses on Gollum and Wraiths (and if you know your music you will also have guessed I know my Elton John). The deck is an expanded strategy that uses cards from a wide range of sets from Fellowship through to Bloodlines. The deck can win by several means. Its main aim is corruption but with it I have won by killing the Ring-bearer and by just slowing their fellowship down to a snails pace.

The idea for the deck started when I bought an expanded draft pack and pulled the cards The Trap is Sprung and Dark Fell About Him. As you will notice these cards have a lot of potential and both follow a similar theme. However I did not know quite how to exploit the similarity until I noticed the Realms of the Elf Lords Wraith card Gates of the Dead City.
Here are our minions for the Deck:

Gollum, Dark as Darkness
We need Gollum for he Trap is Sprung and as the card works with wounds on the Ring-bearer Gollum, Dark as Darkness is the obvious choice. I have included two of these as for The Trap is Sprung to work Gollum needs to survive to the Regroup phase. Something which Dark as darkness isn’t not well equipped to do. So I have included two other types of Gollum in my deck.

Gollum, Stinker
Towards the end of the game Gollum, Stinker can be really nasty in this deck. Because of the reasonably large amount of burdens you should hopefully have by the last few sites this minion can get pretty beefy and if he wins a skirmish he adds another burden so he is a definite must for this deck.

Gollum, Mad Thing
I chose Gollum, Mad Thing as his ability means that he either has a good chance of surviving to the regroup phase or they add a burden. In my experience most people will usually choose to make him strength +3 rather than add a burden. They really shouldn’t though because Gollum surviving to the regroup could mean a lot more than just one burden for them. Mad Thing will be useful in the middle of the game when you have perhaps two or three burdens on the Ring-bearer and want to keep Stinker for later.

The Witch-King, Lord of the Nazgul
This is probably the most useful minion in the deck. Firstly his ability is awesome. With all the wounds flying around because of Gates of the dead city and Gollum this minion has a real chance of killing off the Ring-bearer. He also useful because the majority of the events the deck uses require need twilight nazgul.

Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight
Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight is in the deck mainly because it is a twilight nazgul and so allows the use of the events. Also because you can usually spot either two burdens or two wounds on the Ring-bearer he should have his bonus most of the time.

Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
Included for obvious reasons. With all the wounds and burdens flying around this minion can take out several companions in one turn if you play later in the game.

Ulaire Attea, Second of the Nine Riders
Will usually get you a burden. Also useful for playing conditions off and for using Dark Fell About Him.

So we have our minions and some of our events and conditions but what other cards does the deck use. Well pretty much the whole rest of the deck is events. I was worried about hand clogging when I put it together but it isn’t actually that bad as not every event has to be played to succeed so feel free to cycle some out of your hand.
Here are the events the deck uses.

Little Snuffler
Pretty much speaks for itself. In regions 1 and 2 its gets you those all important exertions on the Ring-bearer and in region 3 it plays Gollum from your discard pile. Not too shabby.

It Wants to be Found
This is a great way to add burdens. At first glance a reasonably good card but coupled with Gates of the Dead City it becomes an amazing card.

Resistance Becomes Unbearable
With all the wounds coming from gates and Gollum you can afford to keep just one of these our hand for the opportune moment. Wait for them to be one exertion away from exhaustion then spring this to force them to put on the one ring this is so you can play….

Wraith World
Another classic from fellowship block this works great in combo with Resistance Becomes Unbearable. With gates of the Dead city this can cripple your opponent. Not only does it get you three precious burdens but depending on how many Gates you have out it could also do up to 12 exertions!!!!!

We Must Have It
I went with this instead of Captured by the Ring because this can also help Gollum survive the skirmish as well (which could prove crucial).

Here is the decklist that I like best for this deck.

2x Gollum, Dark as Darkness
1x Gollum, Mad Thing
1x Gollum, Stinker
3x The Witch-King, Lord of the Nazgul
2x Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight
1x Ulaire Attea, Second of the Nine Riders
2x Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
3x We Must Have It
2x The Trap Is Sprung
4x Gates of the Dead City
4x It Wants to be Found
4x Resistance Becomes Unbearable
3x Little Snuffler
2x Wraith-world
2x Dark Fell About Him

How to play it
I have found that this deck tends to add its burdens bomb style. I have found myself quietly adding one or two burdens over the first 5 sites and then suddenly adding six or seven on one site. I don’t find it helpful to know a certain order in which to play cards because the cards never end up in that order in the deck so instead I’ll tell which cards you want to play in which region.

Region 1
Gates of the Dead City
Gollum, Dark as Darkness
It Wants to be Found

Region 2
Gollum, Dark as Darkness
Gollum, Mad Thing
The Witch King
Ulaire Nelya
Ulaire Attea
It Wants to be Found
Little Snuffler

Region 3
Gollum, Stinker
Little Snuffler
Resistance Becomes Unbearable
Wraith World
Ulaire Enquea
Witch King
Ulaire Nelya
Ulaire Attea
Dark Fell about Him
Trap is Sprung

Which side to pare it with though?
I would go with a Fellowship that cycles well because the deck can sometimes get clogged. Therefore I would go with a traditional expanded Rohan like this-

1x Frodo, RH
1x The One Ring, SaWtC

Free Peoples - 35 cards

1x Éomer, TMoTR
1x Gamling, DoH
1x Éowyn, LoI
2x Merry, Swordthain
1x Erkenbrand
1x Théoden, KotE
1x Hrethel
1x Rohhrim Army
1x Léowyn
4x Symbelmine
2x Merry’s Sword
1x Éowyn’s Sword, DB
2x Sword Rack
1x Firefoot
1x Rohirrim Helm
3x Riddermark Javelin
1x Hobbit Sword
1x Salt from the Shire
2x Swift Steed
2x Rider’s Spear
1x Herugrim
1x Éomer’s Spear
1x Brego
2x Thundering Host

How does it face up against different Fellowships?

For the deck to work it’s best it needs its minions to survive to the regroup phase so the worst decks for it to face are Ithilian Blade decks or anything with excessive archery. The only way I can think of beating an Ithilian Blade deck with this is to try and get as many wounds on them before they get all their blades out as soon as possible as the Ithilian blades rely on exertions. As for archery I would make space for a copy of His Terrible Servants which would at least help your nazgul stay alive. Decks with good condition discarding such as Ents or basically anything with Gandalf in it can annoy this deck as they will rid you of your Gates of the Dead City. However this isn’t crippling and the deck can do well without them.

What this deck does do well against is decks with alternate Ring-bearers. My brother plays an Ent deck using the Gandalf Ring-bearer and I absolutely slaughtered him even with his condition discarding. He has actually grown to hate this deck because his other Free-Peoples is an Elladan and Elrohir events deck using the Galadriel Ring-bearer, as you can imagine the result was similar.

You might find people will use the Shadows Ring when playing against this deck in an attempt to avoid corruption. However this is a stupid mistake because it means that I can exhaust them quicker than if they were using the Towers block Ring. The easy exhaustion makes a big difference as it means that Wraith World, Dark Fell About Him and Trap is Sprung are much easier to use. It isn’t just against alternate Ring-bearers that this deck does well either. The very first time I used this deck it was against a Hobbits and Gandalf deck with Frodo as the Ring-bearer. Despite my opponent removing at least one burden a turn (most turns more than one) I still corrupted him at site 8.

This is a very experimental deck but I would recommend it to you. I have been very successful with it and although there are one or two decks it struggles against. Most decks will be devastated by it.

Thanks for reading.

Last edited by Turin06 on Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:30 pm; edited 4 times in total

LeeRoy Jenkins

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 2:30 pm

Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location:

Looks fine to me, but you should make all card titles work, e.g. The Witch King, Lord of the Nazgul-link doesn’t work.

You should use paragraphs in your last section instead of writing in a bulk. Language and grammar is ok.

One last thing: You can use Resistance becomes unbearable even on a exhausted Ring-bearer as far as I know.

I vote later ...

Gate Troll

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:37 pm

Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 384 Location: Udun Vale, Home of the one and only... Gate Troll!

Very good for a first deck. You get a 5 and a GP.

"Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains that victory."-George S. Patton.

Turin06

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:59 pm

Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 197 Location: Good Question

Wow my first 5 thanks

WitchKingBlkCapt

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:38 pm

Joined: 25 May 2006 Posts: 409 Location: Minas Morgul

It looks like a very nice deck. I might go experimenting with it. The only problems I had with the article was I found a few spelling mistakes and the grammar made it hard to read. I give it a 3.

"Do not stand between a nazgul and his prey."
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taipan

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 7:32 am

Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 177 Location: DF - BRAZIL

Very good for a first deck! Good deck too. Why don’t you put Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One? A great minion that will increase your deadly deck.
One just thought, you could use more paragraphs to make more easy to read. Very good anyway. I in doubt about give a 5 or 4 Think

So I’ll back later as soon as I decide Wink

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 8:35 am

Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 7750 Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.

A very good Article and deck.

you get a 5

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