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| Cleston |
![]() Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:24 pm |
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Joined: 10 Aug 2005
Posts: 110
Location: Brasil
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--- description ---
A new Dwarf / Corsair decklist, with analysis of card choices and matchups.
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Hi all!
This article goes around a nasty feeling. Keep track and you´ll notice that even you (you, the good boy, who watch smallville) can have this strange feeling of hate sometimes.
Have you ever felt like trowing all your opponent´s cards off the window? Have you ever been smashed by such a nasty combo that you felt that anger inside, that "there´s nothing i can do" feeling of impotence and anger? If so, this article is for you. If you don´t, join me evenway, and you´ll be able to tell when that happens to you.
Let´s start by the basics:
Nobody Tosses a Dwarf 
Event - Response: if a Dwarf wins a skirmish, discard the top 3 cards of an opponents draw deck.
ouch...
Now, is there a better way of knocking that nasty opponent then not letting him play his cards? Then discarding all his pieces? I don´t think so, really.
That´s the part some of you will rate this article as bad stuff. Discarding has been recognised worlwide as a negative player experience (NPE), the kind of deck that makes people give up the game. If you agree with that, i must tell you something: refresh your concepts. What is negative player experience anyway? How is seeing your cards go to discard pile a worse feeling than facing castamir with halberd from 2 to 9? How is that worse than facing faramir son of denethor with your gollum ninja deck? How is that... you got my opinion, don´t you?
I´ve been teached that no nice player should ever bring a discarding machine to a tourney, but i believe we must review or concepts of negative, as i already told ya, and this deck goes around all that is felt like negative these days: discarding dwarves and corsairs, with a bit of discarding too.
Alright, for those of you still with me, this deck is no fun deck, it´s serious stuff, you know, a secret weapon you take for a tourney you desperately need to do well. On with the standard card list, then i´ll discuss the card options:
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges + Answer to all Riddles
0 - Crags of Emyn Muil (MOUNTAIN)
0 - Emyn Muil (MOUNTAIN)
1 - Slopes of Orodruin (MOUNTAIN)
1 - Watch-tower of Cirith Ungol (MOUNTAIN)
2 - Redhorn Pass (MOUNTAIN)
2 - Barazinbar (MOUNTAIN)
3 - Damned Gate Stream
3 - Starkhorn (MOUNTAIN)
3 - Pinnacle of Zirakzigil (MOUNTAIN)
Fellowship: 35
Linnar
Durin
Sméagol, Slinker
Dwarven Warrior x4
Radagast
Axe of Erebor
Axe of Khazad-Dum x3
Dwarven Bracers x2
Belt of Erebor
Ring of Fury
Ring of Accretion
Ring of Guile x3
Nobody Tosses a Dwarf x4
Honed x4
Blood Runs Chill
No Pauses No Spills
Mountain Homestead x2
Proud and Able x2
Follow Sméagol
Shadow: 35
Castamir of Umbar x4
Black Numenórean x3
Corsair Marauder x3
Corsair Ruffian x4
Corsair Plunderer x3
Corsair Boatswain x2
Black Sails of Umbar x4
Ships of Great Draught x3
Corsair War Galley
Raider Halberd x3
Winds That Sped Ships x2
Red Wrath
Quelled x2
OK, you´ve had my initial reasons for making this deck, and you´ve had my decklist. If you´re still with me, let´s talk a bit about strategy and then we can go take a closer look at the card choices.
The idea here is to deck your oponent, in other words, make all his draw deck´s cards go to discard pile, therefore beeing in most cases unuseful. Your fellowship can do it with Nobody Tosses a Dwarf and with Dwarven Warrior. Yes, the vanilla one. Sindri? Uri? Thrarin? No thanks, for this deck I´ll stay with those, adn 4 copies please.
Once you set your fellowship up, winning skirmishes shouldn´t be a real problem. your main fighters (durin and somehow gimli) should eb able to win and then mill your opponent. The other dudes are chump blockers. Radagast wins you the game, play it as soon as you can, because your opponent will be in though position when facing your regroup moves (do i mill my deck even more or do i get stuck with fellowship while his tanks go along the path????).
Your shadow is almost self-splanatory. Some of you will regret the use of Corsair Ruffian, but please don´t do that. This is a discarding theme deck, remember? This recurring "discard the top card" makes a strong impact. Moreover, you really don´t NEED to play castamir with halberd every site, afterall, this is not a SMASHYOUINTHEFACE kind of deck, it´s much more of a tech one. Use your corsairs to keep them from running, and that´s all. play corsair ruffian as much as you can (sometimes you´ll prefer to bring him back instead of a marauder or a castamir, believe me). In resume, if you want to play straight-killing corsairs, that´s not your shadow, sorry.
Anyway, both your sides cycle well. One problem i sometiems get to is that i get stuck with nobody tosses and no real way of winning a skirmish. Be patient. Cycle your shadow out, never your fellow, since your shadow is self-retrieval (see Ships of Great Draught, 3 copies). Once you hit them with 2 or 3 nobody tosses, start recurring those with rings of guile.
One thing i noticed with this deck is that it can explode from nothing. Even with an slow start, you can deck them easily once everything is going. A nice way to keep control of the game is to note mentally how many cards you´ve decked from them. If you deck more than 30, the rest is probably going to be drawn anyway from reconciling. Just watch-out for the late game, because some decks can survive corsairs nowadays, and if they run too much and you´re not aware of that game over for ya.
If you´re still around, you probably want to hear more about my card choices. Voilá:
Ring: Some of you will prefer the stone ring, Ring of Rings. I find this one more to my liking, but it´s up to you to change it. Just don´t use the Green Ring and this choice won´t change the course of the game (and the deck´s).
Dwarven Warrior: believe me, those 2 cards these dudes pop up can make a difference (make them 8 now, if you disagree, sicne you run 4 copies here). he´s a vanilla dude out of it, and that´s why i include...
Mountain Homestead: take a closer look at the site path. This card can make your vanilla un-equipped dudes become worth of something. When a dwarven warrior can skirmish the witch-king and take a single wound, we´re in the best of the worlds, aren´t we?
Follow Sméagol: This si the single card to fetch sites in your deck. You´ll probably want to go second anyway, but if you somehow have to go ahead fetch it with the stream and never pass the regroup, heard it? NEVER! You´ve got 8 mountains, make them worth of something!
Ring of Guile: Yes, use 3, one more nobody tosses can never hurt. The playability of the dwarven rings in this deck is a bit different. Durin will always want the fury one, so he can win mroe consistently. Gimli don´t really want to skirmish, but in some match-ups he´s better than linnar (specially with honed), so back up your tbhreats and make him huge, and give him the accretion ring, therefore make linnar, or a vanilla guy, hold the guile until the maneuver phase. if gimli isn´t very fond of fighting, give him the guile, and the accretion to linnar. while facing corruption, give gimli the fury, obviously. Anwyay, you´ll learn more about it playing, not much more to say by now about it.
Sméagol Slinker: i like it, really. Some games you´ll want not to use his text, but in others he´s so crucial. Having him facing a monster and surviving, just for being smashed on fierce skirmish is tech in a deck like this, since there´re not so many tiems when you´ll be faced with a threat like that (unless your opponent has some very good retrieval himself). Moreover, Gimli is a skirmisher here, so you´ll probably be saving your threat slots for something else. Even more, discarding 3 cards to kill something isn´t somethign this deck likes to do, since you need cards in hand for the response of a DWARF winner (which means that sometimes you´re clogged with key cards liek nobody tosses), so the always helps way of killing isn´t welcome here. If you disagree, drop a card and add a don´t look at them, feel free.
No Pauses No Spills: this is probably where you could add more copies. One is too few, i´m considering the idea of removing it. If i had room i´d incluide more of it, since it helps bringing your key stuff to surface.
Blood Runs Chill: just one copy, since not so many stuff will hit the ground mid-game, considering your decking strategy is running rampant. If somehow they manage to play more than you can handle, there´s always the ring of guile.
Corsair Ruffian: as said above, some would rather having a straight-killer shadow than a themed one. Yes, i agree this is not the best killing-machine ever, but i can´t stand playing corsairs anymore, so i decided to make something more in theme than just killing stuff all around. Your 4-costing dudes are more than you can ahndle, so sometimes you´ll want to dump them all from ahnd, and retrieve them too, rather than playing the big ones, like castamir. you won´t really need 10000 tokens once your opponent is decked, so focus on the milling and the delving on your draw deck rather than raw-violence.
Corsair plunderer and Boatswain: no real reason why i use 3 and 2 copies of each, my experience has shown me this is a good amount, but if you wanna change it feel free. Just don´t use few of these cheap guys, because you need a spotter for playing those who cost 4 effectively.
Quelled: sometimes, all your opponent will have in table is what grants him the victory. For example, you´pve discard 2 Sudden Furies, and he´s still got 2. Discarding one of them means very much. The same goes for Sixth level, for instance, or those annoying follow sméagol.
Red Wrath: "Hey? you said it was NOT a straight-killing deck!!! What is that card doing in there?" Well kid, if all else fails, you know, you´re playing corsairs!   One copy can never hurt, and the 3 Raider Halberd follow the samelogic. It won´t hurt to put some pressure on your opponent, or to kill one of his big dudes once in a while, just so they don´t feel too confidant about triple moving all the way to nine. The psycho factor is so key when playing this kind of strategy. You must take the main role of the match, you have the control of his deck!!!! For Tolkien´s sake, how powerful is that???? Don´t let your opponent have a single dose of fresh air, if he thinks a bunch of ruffians won´t do damage, let him see you have a red wrath by killing one of his dudes. Not the main one, if youcan, cause he´ll think you have more than one copy. Dominating this aspect of gameplay is very difficult, there´s always some other tip to be said, but this article isn´t about psycho aspect fo gameplay, so let´s keep it like this for now, ok?
Sites: play them carefully, some have nice text. If they ballon twilight pool, be sure to make your minions fierce with emyn muil (pressure, remember?). Start Gate Stream, but try to make 3 a Barazinbar, for fetching a weapon (if durin is naked, go grab an axe; if gimli is the choice, go grab axe of erebor). If Radagast dies, go bring him back with the pinnacle. Each site has its own orientation. Redhorn Pass may seem a bit contradictory to the shadow side, but it´s a tech card against annoying sudden fury decks (you see, i often lose to it, so i kind of hate it). Play this on site 9 and let them cry for their lives. If they get there, anyway. The sites should help you, not kill you, so beware of the Crags and the Watch-tower turning against you.
If you´re still with me, you´re my hero! Serious now, i hope you liked the deck, i hope you don´t see me as a bad boy because i´m pushing meta in favor of discarding machines. But sometimes it´s needed to innovate... bring back the new... contraditory? No, revigorating... ever tried to play a corsair like that? Tired of losing to Lurker Swarm? Burn their deck away. Heck, make your hate flow onto a productive direction... make your hate for a kind of deck become the hate for the opponent deck itself. You´ll have fun, while playing seriously, just be careful of what your friends think of it, follow their ethic code, but be a critichal guy, make them see this as a viable deck, instead of a monster. Make them see that their "always the same" deck is such an NPE as your discarding deck. Who knows what might happen? At worst, they will stop and think.
If I get the time to write you again, I´ll take a look at new Rohan.
Until then, may your shadow never kill a companion to win a game.
Winston "Cleston" Oyadomari. |
- "If I die, your deck will crumble!"
Gandalf (any of them) |
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| LunaticFringe |
![]() Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:00 pm |
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Joined: 03 Sep 2005
Posts: 60
Location:
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"Redhorn Pass may seem a bit contradictory to the shadow side, but it´s a tech card against annoying sudden fury decks (you see, i often lose to it, so i kind of hate it)."
Perhaps you need to redefine your concept of an NPE...   |
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| Cleston |
![]() Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 5:12 pm |
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Joined: 10 Aug 2005
Posts: 110
Location: Brasil
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LunaticFringe wrote: " Redhorn Pass may seem a bit contradictory to the shadow side, but it´s a tech card against annoying sudden fury decks (you see, i often lose to it, so i kind of hate it)."
Perhaps you need to redefine your concept of an NPE...
NPE = the same deck again? oh dude, please, be creative!!!
i hope you got my point, specially regarding the discarding strategy (old skull dudes will find this very irritating). |
- "If I die, your deck will crumble!"
Gandalf (any of them) |
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| LunaticFringe |
![]() Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:24 pm |
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Joined: 03 Sep 2005
Posts: 60
Location:
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"NPE = the same deck again? oh dude, please, be creative!!!"
Considering the fact that by my reading, you're stating that you hate Sudden Fury decks, while telling people that may hate your discard strategy that they need to change their perception.
Almost reads like a case of pot/kettle/black.
"i hope you got my point, specially regarding the discarding strategy (old skull dudes will find this very irritating)."
You're not having to sell me personally on this. I play against discard strategy enough in pickup games so that it's nothing I take offense to. A strong, redundant fellowship along with a quickly developing shadow can take on Dwarf discard and make it a 50/50 proposition, which is good enough for me to be willing to take my chances with. |
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| The First |
![]() Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:57 pm |
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Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 195
Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
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I think that bringing a discard deck to a tourney is more a tech thing or a meta choice that you have to make. If you believe in your deck, go ahead and try it. I would never not take a certain deck to a tourney just because I think it is a NPE. If my deck gets the job done and if I'm happy about playing the deck, then I would take it to a tourney.
Solo Smeagol and Elvent were even more of a NPE than discard. Even Ranger choke was more ennoying. |
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| Cleston |
![]() Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:03 pm |
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Joined: 10 Aug 2005
Posts: 110
Location: Brasil
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The First wrote: I think that bringing a discard deck to a tourney is more a tech thing or a meta choice that you have to make. If you believe in your deck, go ahead and try it. I would never not take a certain deck to a tourney just because I think it is a NPE. If my deck gets the job done and if I'm happy about playing the deck, then I would take it to a tourney.
Solo Smeagol and Elvent were even more of a NPE than discard. Even Ranger choke was more ennoying.
i´m with you. but back in the days when i was teached, when LOTR was giving birth yet, this was a bit of annoying topic in my community, and i have the word that in some others too.
besides, i´m taking my bad reviews as a sign that not everyone agrees with the topic... it seems that for the next time i´ll try to be less provocative and less polemichal.  |
- "If I die, your deck will crumble!"
Gandalf (any of them) |
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