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Shadows

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:20 pm

Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 136 Location: the underworld

--- description ---
An attempt to make Rohan a viable option in standard format.
--- end description ---

Let us ride now...an introduction:

Rohan has always been one of my favourite cultures in Lord of the Rings. Not only do they have some of the coolest companions, they have (in the past) been one of the strongest cultures out there.

In the days just before Shadows, Rohan was one of, if not the best free peoples sides out there. It could cycle well, had possesion and condition removal, multiple defender+, and could run easily.

However since Shadows came along, they haven’t got anything really special, the odd good card here and there ( Coif springs to mind) but they really lost their competitive edge, especially with the rotation of key cards like Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark, Simbelmyne and Fortress Never Fallen.

So we must now find replacements for these lacking areas.

And what culture can provide condition removal, a strong ring-bearer (always one of Rohan’s weaknesses) and decent resistance? the answer is dwarves, with Gimli, Bearer of Grudges.

By adding in this little package of:
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
The one Ring, The Ring of Rings
Gimli’s Battle Axe, Trusted Weapon
Ring of Fury
2x Blood Runs Chill

we can find a decent solution to almost all of rohan’s weaknesses instantly.

So now we have our "defensive" cards, let’s look at the part which has always been Rohan’s strength, and our key to victory, the offense. Here are the cards I chose to include, with a short explanation of why I chose them.

Companions:

First things first: As previously said, Gimli is our ring-bearer. we can get the threats for his axe’s gametext to trigger via Herugrim, Sword of the Mark and when bearing a ring of fury as well, he is a 10 str, 10 resistance ring-bearer, who can also discard four shadow cards everytime he uses a blood runs chill, which is more than enough to cripple any condition/ support area possesion based shadow side.

For our starting fellowship we will use the strongest rohan companion in standard, Eomer, Horsemaster. His base strength of 9 will allow for an easier 1-3 double move. We will also start Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg as he will allow for us to quickly get all of our possesions out, in fact with stables as site one you can get a horse and spear on Eomer for certain.

We will also include the king of rohan Theoden. We will use Theoden, The Renowned as this guy will be damage+1, defender+1 companion, who also allows us to triple move consistantly which is the key to winning with this deck.

To get this killer effect, we need to play Theodred, and Eowyn. The best Eowyn to use is Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien, who with a horse and the javleins should be easily able to finish off any minions that are too big for Eomer in the skirmish. As for Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark there is only one version of him, but his ability to exert minions is pretty damn good.

Finally we will include merry, swordthain. not only can he absorb archery wounds, he can also bring back any discarded possesions (be that by say corsairs, or if you use your javelins.)

Possessions and Artifacts:

Eowyn’s Sword, Dernhelm’s Blade wounds a minion when you play it, and also makes Eowyn a decent fighter as well.

Eomer’s Spear, Trusty Weapon is a good hand weapon, with a very useful special ability for getting Eomer out of sticky situations against big minions.

Herugrim, Sword of the Mark allows for making Theoden powerful, and also has emergency wound prevention, in case of any surprise wounding cards.

Rohirrim Mount lets you make your companions defender+1 which will keep Gimli’s skirmishing at a minimum and also allows for Eowyn to wound even more minions.

Ring of Fury - Increases Gimli’s damage quickly and cheaply, and allows for emergency healing if necessary.

Events:

Rohan are big, but sometimes not big enough so for this reason, we include hamstrung. Almost any rohan event could be used, but i personally prefer this one, as it’s +5 boost is pure money when trying to get that triple off.

Last Days of My House is a key card for getting your key companions out early. once you have your companions it can be used to boost eomer, or heal with leowyn.

Blood Runs Chill provides the condition discarding rohan so badly needs.

For the mark provides possesion discarding, and can completely ruin a bill ferny deck’s day.

This deck doesn’t actually run any conditions.

Optional Cards:

As always, there are optional cards that may work well in this deck.

Home and Hearth is an awesome card if you play alot of corruption, as by replaying your merry you can also remove burdens.

Kings Board is a great card for emergency strength boosting.

merry’s sword can be a great card for stopping minions with nasty abilities like bill ferny, but if you use it, i suggest you include an extra copy of merry.

Decklist :

This deck is ideally paired with a Shadow that can stop your opponent doubling. My personal favourite is Uruk Hunters as they can pull off a shadow kill if necessary (and it’s kinda themed) but really any one will do, with the exception Forestguls (due to the need for plains sites.)

However the free peoples cycles very well with eomer, last days of my house,gamling and leowyn, so you could pair it with a shadow that requires more of a set-up. Evil men archery is good, as both sides play off lots of plains sites.

Here’s the Free Peoples decklist:

Total:34

Starting:
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Eomer, Horsemaster
Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
Companions:
Theoden, The Renowned
Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark
Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien
Merry, Swordthain
Allies:
Leowyn
Followers:
Rohirrim Doorwarden
Possesions/Artifacts:
Riddermark Javelin x4
Rohirrim Mount x2
Eowyn’s Sword, Dernhelm’s Blade
Herugrim, Sword of the Mark
Eomer’s Spear, Trusty Weapon
Rider’s Spear
Firefoot, Mearas of the Mark
Snowmane, Noble Mearas
Gimli’s Battle Axe, Trusted Weapon
Ring of Fury
Events:
Last Days of my House x4
Hamstrung x4
For the Mark x2
Blood Runs Chill x2

Extra Strategy:

I usually bid either 1 or 2. It’s not essential to go first, but if you do, then play Stables as the first site. If you go second, try to play stables as site 3. Yous should use this site combined with Gamling to get Eomer fully equipped as soon as possible.

Make sure you arm Eomer with the key possessions before you arm your secondary companions, once you have 5 equipped companions then kill Gamling off to avoid the pain of six companions.

Doubling, and even tripling shouldn’t be to difficult to pull off with your equipped companions, and you should be more or less set up by site three (if you go first), just be careful about flooding the pool early on, the last thing you need is Eomer to die at site 4.

Match-ups:

Here are match-ups against a variety of decks. If you would like to see a match-up against a specific deck, let me know!

Archery
You’ll win your skirmishes easy enough, and with a combination of leowyn and merry, you should be able to heal enough to keep doubling and avoid them getting set up. If you don’t draw Merry till later, you could be in a bit of trouble, or if they have a surprise, whistling death, say as you have no wound prevention. also with all the use of leowyn, their free peoples will probably have an easy ride due to the amount of shadow being cycled through, but hopefully your tripling capabilities will see you through.

Swarm
Not a problem. This deck packs upto 7 companions, of which three can become defender+1, and your ring-bearer is more often than not a ten. The only problem I can see is if they can manage to pull of enough mini-swarms for Gimli’s gametext to start really hurting you.

Corruption
Gimli can reach 10 resistance, and you should be able to exhaust and kill minions like ulaire enquea, thrall of the one before they can do their nasty abilities. if you play it alot, consider adding in a home and hearth of two. Watch out for Between Nazgul and Prey killing off your merry, as then you have no real way of removing the burdens they add on. as for non-nazgul corruption, like retribution orc’s you should be alright, as you have 10 events, and should be able to win your skirmishes.

Beatdown
This deck thrives against Beatdown decks, as your companions are all base strength 10 or more, and with hamstrung and the horses should be able to kill off anything. hunter uruks could be a problem if they can kill Gamling at site 2, as you might not then get set-up in time to stop an early killing of Eomer as well, but generally you should be able to keep him alive long enough to get your companions upto strength, and leowyn should be able to heal the exertions they put on you.

Corsairs
This deck can bring it’s possesions back with merry, and has support area killing with blood runs chill. you should be able to wound the castamir to death with the javelins and eowyn more often than not as well, just watch out for fierce in despair as there is only one copy of each companion included. also watch out for red wrath if they play it, as an unexpected death of eowyn, lady of ithilien could make your life very difficult. generally they are quite beatable, just be cautious of doubling into a swarm, as ten is big, but not big enough to deal with a couple wind that sped ships against Gimli.

Bill Ferny
Ferny can be a tricky one. For the Mark can destroy his pavise and so you can the javelin him and stoo his ability, but this isn’t that reliable, and can only be done twice. Blood Runs Chill can kill his stragglers, countless companies etc. but it is probably the toughest match-up for this deck, as although your ring-bearer is a ten, you can’t get him any bigger. If you see alot of ferny decks then I suggest playing a couple copies of shadowplay , with an additional merry (drop a couple of the hamstrung as if you can stop ferny it shouldn’t be hard to win your other skimirshes.) That’s one of the great things about this deck, a couple of cards dropped/added here and there and you can tech against any shadow.

Expanded:

Now having taken on board the below comments, here is a decklist adapting the deck to make it powerful in expanded as well.

Total:34

Starting:
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark
Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
Companions/Allies:
Theoden, The Renowned
Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark
Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien
Merry, Swordthain
Leowyn
Possesions/Artifacts:
Riddermark Javelin x4
Eowyn’s Sword, Dernhelm’s Blade
Herugrim, Sword of the Mark
Eomer’s Spear, Trusty Weapon
Rider’s Spear
Snowmane, Noble Mearas
Firefoot
Brego
Rohirrim Mount
Gimli’s Battle Axe, Trusted Weapon
Ring of Fury
Events:
Simbelmyne x4
Blood Runs Chill x2
Conditions:
Thundering Host x4
Arrow Slits x2
Fortress Never Fallen

Expanded Strategy:

Much the same as the standard format with a few card changes.

In this case Last Days of My House is replaced by Simbelmyne as it lets us adapt to whether we need another companion, or possesion.

Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark is used as he can be an absolute beast of a companion. To support this we will use the original firefoot as it gives him an automatic defender+1.

thundering host will be our pump, as it heals as well, which helps deal with the increased amounts of direct wounding (such as desert lord and hate) in expanded. in addition we can use brego for extra healing.

arrow slits is a better possesion killer as it doesn’t require an exertion.

finally fortress never fallen is an amazing condition discarder that we will use as well. it can also be used as token fodder for snowmane, noble mearas.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a strong beatdown deck, that can triple move easily, has possesion and condition discarding, cycles well and uses one of the coolest cultures then this is the deck for you.

Thanks for reading!

Last edited by Shadows on Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:43 pm; edited 4 times in total

LeeRoy Jenkins

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:12 pm

Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location:

It looks like a good article for me. You considered the different match-ups, explained special cards and the primary target of the Free Peoples side.

You should look for typos. At one point you wrote Boromir instead of Gimli.
-->Match-ups ---> Corruption

One thing I miss is a "real" look at the match-ups. The way you wrote, this deck works perfect against any deck and has no weak spots. Only bad draws. Either way you said I can suggest a special match-up, until now nothing special comes to my mind, but... we’ll see.... Twisted Evil

I vote later, but imho you deserve 4.

Beyo

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:48 pm

Joined: 22 Nov 2005 Posts: 60 Location: Poland

This deck is much better with brilliant Symbelmyne.
After all...who plays in Standard?

Time in the universe may be eternal..our patience is not

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:16 pm

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.

looks pretty good change the boromir to Gimli. edit the bad language out of reokace it with softer stuff(would you have profanity in a school essay?)
otherwise seems pretty good. doesn’t this deck have any weaknesses? what about desert lord direct wounding? or is this a standard deck only?cause if it can’t work in expanded I am not interested(or course whether I would use the deck or not doesn’t factor in to the rating.
i will see how you answer these questions before voting.

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

(mm)"SoP: you will always be the Official CC Spammer in my heart"
"DáinIronfoot"
Spammers really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you. Razz

Shadows

Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:46 pm

Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 136 Location: the underworld

Tidied the article up, and changed the stronger language.

Yes, whilst this deck would be better with simbelmyne etc. the point of this article is to construct a rohan deck that is top tier (or close to it) in standard format, as in expanded rohan already have that capability, and so it doesn’t need to be done.

However I have now added an expanded format decklist to it. Hope that helps.

whoever gave the three, could you please suggest what I could add in to make it higher?

and for those that are considering fours, what could i add to make it a five?

thanks.

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:14 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.

you just did you get a 5

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

Shadows

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:25 pm

Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 136 Location: the underworld

thanks

LeeRoy Jenkins

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:40 pm

Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 19 Location:

To make this better... hmmm... consider a Bill Ferny match-up and tell which stopping shadow side you pair it with and
Applause

you improved it a lot, thanks

Gp for you and when you are done with your changes I vote. Then it will be clearly a five Cool

or I’ll tell you, what you should also improve

What the ..., who voted with a three?

Shadows

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:46 pm

Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 136 Location: the underworld

added a ferny section and abit about my personal favourite stopping shadow (uruk hunters!)

thanks all.

Glamdring

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:08 pm

Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 575 Location:

I’m not a huge fan of Rohan

culture, but you deserve a solid 4. Very Happy

Great minds think alike.~CarpeGuitarrem
Rangers will rule the World!! (CC's Official Ranger Lover)
My Haves/Wants Please look!!

...much debate much hard feelings. ~SOP

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