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Shadows
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:59 pm
Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 136 Location: the underworld
--- description ---
It would appear the tricksy one doesn’t just make friends with giant spiders...
--- end description ---

"there are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the earth..."

The Balrog. Durin’s Bane, Dark Fire, creature of shadow. All great names, but despite being in the game since the Mines of Moria expansion, the Balrog has never really been able to shine. Whilst he has always been powerful, his high twilight cost, and the fact you can only have him strike four times have meant he has never been that usable.

Among the many issues with him, one of the greatest was the fact that after going to all that effort, most of your twilight would be gone, and so it was very easy for wounding decktypes to shoot him down, leaving just some puny goblins. Another problem was that the early Balrog’s got discarded if they weren’t at an underground site, and with the old forms of sitepath this was a huge problem!

However the time (and cards) are now right to bring this beast right into the front of today’s meta.

Lets start with the archery problem. The most recent version of the Balrog, The Balrog, The Terror of Khazad-dum copes with this in a brilliant way.
With his text, if he is at an underground site he’s fierce and also can’t be wounded OR exerted. That’s sure to put a look of trouble on any wounding decks face.

This also ties in quite nicely with the site issue. Whilst this Balrog won’t be useless at a non-underground site, he’s considerably better and thankfully those lovely people at decipher have reprinted the Bridge of khazad-dum for us. Not only is this underground, but it lets us play the Balrog for -3, which helps considerably to killing the twilight issue.

"ai,ai a Balrog is come!"

Now whilst this is all lovely, this new idea produces a whole new hand of issues (what a surprise I hear you cry, is there no hope for our burning, roaring friend...)

These issues are namely the inability of the Balrog (or the moria culture) to change the sitepath to ensure we get that bridge of khazad-dum (or any underground site for that matter) when we need it, and also we still have the problem of being able to replay the Balrog.

Things have changed since those far away days of Fellowship block however, and the Gollum culture is just full of lovely ways to recurse minions, add twilight and change sites (sometimes together Very Happy).

With the combination of the Balrog and Gollum looking quite prominent, we can now take a look into exactly what cards these two will be using to go wild at the fellowship.

...let her deal with them...

...or it deal with them, whichever works. Thus the key cards of this deck:

The Balrog, The Terror of Khazad-dum - The main version of the Balrog we are going to use in this deck. He nukes any form of wounding deck provided he’s at an underground site, and 17 strength fierce damage+1 before we use any pumps at all isn’t exactly anything to be shunned.

Gollum, Dark as Darkness - to be honest, which Gollum you use is entirely down to what fits your meta best. If you play lots of people who abuse cards like Aragorn’s Bow, Ranger’s Longbow then Gollum, Vile Creature is a good one to go for, and if you see alot of really pumped ring-bearers then go with Gollum, Hopeless. People where I play generally bid quite high, so DaD ability to remove burdens to add twilight can be really useful for dropping an early Balrog.

Led Astray - Possibly the key card. Adds three twilight and lets you change the site to one of your choice, so combined with the bridge of khazad-dum you have a Balrog at effectively -6 twilight....yeah he looks way more tempting when he only costs 6 doesn’t he.

The bridge of khazad-dum - Whilst it doesn’t go in the deck, it’s still the other half of the main combo, so it deserves a mention. Fairly self-explanatory really.

Evil-Smelling Fens - Could bringing the Balrog back be any easier?

Final Strike This card ensures that even if you don’t have an underground site in, archery shouldn’t hurt too bad. Also narks Ithilien Blade and Take up the bow.

All these wouldn’t be complete, without some niice support cards:

Relics of Moria - Can get back the weapons when you need them, which is great combined with...

Goblin Armory - Adds twlight when you play the weapons, or at the very least means you don’t have to pay (as much) for them.

The Balrog’s Sword - Only costs one, and for that you get a 20 strength damage+2 Balrog. ouch.

Whip of Many Thongs, Weapon of flame and shadow - Puts a good control on any skirmish pumps your opponent may be saving.

The Balrog, Terror of Flame and Shadow - I’ve included one copy, as he can be quite useful. He costs 2 less with a runner in than the other Balrog, and with his whip is fierce damage+2. His main use is for stopping your opponent pulling annoying no visitors skimirsh cancelling with the likes of Bilbo, Aged Ring-bearer, if that kind of tactic is common for you, then either increase the number of copies of this guy, or just always bring him back with evil-smelling fens.

Cavern Entrance - This site is lovely, if you have enough pool late game to play the Balrog without needing the -3 from the bridge of khazad-dum, then this makes a great alternate underground, as combining this with the whip of many thongs, weapon of flame and shadow means you’re opponent will have more or less no way of pumping his companions.

Goblin Runner - Can drop the cost of Balrog, Terror of Flame and Shadow, and if nothing else adds on extra pool and cycles your hand.

So, with all these in hand, lets look at the shadow decklist...

"he burst into new flame..."

Total:34

Minions:
4x Goblin Runner
3x The Balrog, The Terror of Khazad-dum
2x Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
2x Gollum, Dark as Darkness
1x The Balrog, Terror of Flame and Shadow
Possesions:
2x The Balrog’s Sword
2x Whip of Many Thongs, Weapon of flame and shadow
Events:
4x Captured by the Ring
4x Led Astray
Conditions:
4x Evil-Smelling Fens
3x Goblin Armory
2x Final Strike
1x Relics of Moria

Strategy

The basic idea of the strategy, is to play Gollum, then use led astray and evil-smelling fens to recycle your Balrogs and the bridge of khazad-dum, and to proceed to whip the fellowship.

In more detail, you should start at the early sites by getting your conditions onto the field, and then it’s basically a case of playing a Balrog as soon as, and as often as you can. If you are low on twilight, then you can use led astray and the bridge to drop the Balrog’s cost right down.

If you can, use the sword and whip for extra strength. The Balrog shouldn’t have too many problems, except possibly the likes of Durin III and Treebeard, but with four dark places, and his sword the Balrog is a 24, which even those two should have difficulties with on more or less every site. If you still need more strength, consider using Gollum, Skulker.

Match-ups

Dwarves
Probably one of the toughest match-ups. One way to have abit more succes if you really struggle is to use a couple copies of final cry, and increase the number of whips in use, as even Durin III will have a hard time dealing with that. Once he’s down, the other dwarves will struggle to match your strength every turn. Blood Runs Chill can be abit annoying, but if you’re finding it a problem, just hold onto your evil-smelling fens ’till you need to use them.

Rohan
Eomer is big, but not big enough. The Balrog laughs at Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien, and the rest of the companions are sub-par to those two. Shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

Archery/Wounding
This is one ugly game. Once your underground site cycling is going, then they’ll be in alot of trouble trying to withstand the onslaught of your Balrog when they can’t wound or exert him.

Ents
Definatley the hardest match-up. You have to clog your hand with Evil-Smelling fens to avoid them being discarded, Treebeard can probably match your Balrog’s strength, and with the amount of strength and vitality they all have, your going to have to win at least a couple of skirmishes against each one to kill them. Not a good game for this deck in general. On the upside, you probably won’t be short of twilight to play the Balrog, and Enquea can do quite abit of damage, so if necessary use the evil-smelling fens to bring back Enquea several times.

Elvents
Even easier than Rohan. Your whip of many thongs will destroy their events, and Cirdan will struggle to fight off the Balrog twice a site by himself (plus Cirdan gets nuked by cavern entrance). Their other companions shouldn’t be too troublesome after Cirdan goes down.

Solo "anything" deck

Not actually that bad a match-up surprisingly. Again hold onto your evil-smelling fens if fighting solo smeagol so he can’t use them for clever hobbits. You should be able to get enough pool in region three for a Balrog and Gollum, if you see alot of solo ring-bearer then use Gollum, Hopeless and with those two in region three it should be sayanora baby.

Ithilien Blade

Final Strike is your defence here, as even if they do discard your Balrog, Gollum can prevent up to 3 IB attempts, so they might have to exert up to 8 times in one turn to get you, and whilst IB can heal alot, that level of exertions can get quite painful quickly. When the balrog gets through to skirmish, then they should find it difficult to not lose at least one companion, most likely two. I personally don’t see many IB decks, but if you see alot in your meta, then I’d suggest maybe dropping a copy of goblin armory for another final strike. Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul helps against them as well.

...men of the west...

Of course all of this needs a fellowship to back it up. I personally chose to with an old fashioned Noble leaders deck, as they are tough and cycle pretty well. They can also run in an emergency, such as if the opponent is playing ents.

However the men of the west do also have one key card, that is necessary for the shadow to be complete. Pathfinder. With this event, you can swap the bridge of khazad-dum or cavern entrance out of the way for your fellowship, ready for Gollum to switch it in again next turn.

So with this to hand, lets look at the key cards for our free peoples...

Pathfinder - The key card for completing the site switching chain.

Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith - Allows you to grab any gondor cards you need at a sanctuary, including pathfinder in order to set up the shadow.

Noble Leaders - The decks namesake, and a key card for giving your fellowship some solid survivabilty, and making them able to run

footman’s armor - Protects Boromir for being overwhelmed, and also means you can cycle your hand like crazy if your shadow clogs for some reason.

other important cards:

Anduril, Sword that was broken - Gives a lovely boost to Aragorn, and also helps against site control decks like beseigers or dunland.

Throne of minas tirith - Goodbye corsairs. Also allows for stupid amounts of token reinforcement.

Ring of barahir - healing is never a bad thing.

so with those together, lets look at the free peoples decklist:

"...stand forth, and fear no darkness..."

Total:34

Starting:
1x Boromir, Bearer of Council
1x The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
1x Faramir, Captain of Gondor
1x Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith
1x Aragorn, Strider
Companions:
2x Elendil, The Tall
Possesions:
4x Sapling of the White Tree
2x Ithilien Blade
1x Throne of Minas Tirith
1x Anduril, Sword that was Broken
1x Narsil, Blade of the Faithful
1x Ring of Barahir
1x Scroll of Isildur
1x Faramir’s Sword
1x Brego, Loyal Steed
1x Footman’s Armor
1x Ranger’s Cloak
Events:
4x Banners Blowing
4x Pathfinder
Conditions:
4x Noble leaders
1x The Saga of Elendil
1x Boromir, My Brother

Strategy
The main idea of the deck is to use pathfinder to support the shadow.
Bid one or two to try and go second, and then play the deck like you would any normal noble leaders deck. When you get to site 3, then grab elendil if you don’t have him already, or whatever equipment you most need, and then a pathfinder, ready for a couple sites of shadow punishment.

If you’re going first then you can use the pathfinder to get your underground sites anyway, so winning the bid isn’t essential. If you’re up against corruption grab scroll of isildur at three, and and if playing corsairs then go for throne of minas tirith.

From there on it’s a case of keeping behind their fellowship unless the shadow is really struggling, in which case you can play Narsil on Elendil and then use a pathfinder to grab a Caras Galadhon and triple in front.

Match-ups

Threats
Not really anything you can do about them, other than avoid your companions dying, which with your healing and strength isn’t too hard. If you see alot of threat decks then consider adding in a couple copies of hearts raised.

Beatdown
Bring it on! Elendil is a beast, and Aragorn’s not exactly shabby either, and with your token reinforcing you should have enough to keep winning those skirmirshes and moving on.

Archery
All your people can get a decent amount of health, and Aragorn and Elendil can both hit six vitality each. Combined with ring of barahir and your 4 sapling of the white tree, and wounding decks should have quite a hard time of it.

Swarm
Again, fairly easy, as all your pumps can boost Boromir, and with Footman’s armor he is very difficult to overwhelm. Also, with 12 resistance,he can afford to skirmish a few times.

Corruption
Can be quite difficult. You have an ample 12 resistance, but you don’t really have a way of stopping the burdens going on (or getting them off for that matter). If you play alot of corruption, then definatley add in a couple copies of Steward’s Legacy, as combined with Faramir, you can shut down most corruption techniques, or at the least the likes of Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One.

Corsairs
Grab your throne of minas tirith a.s.a.p and then beat up the smaller corsairs to get enough tokens to sink their ships. Elendil is probably big enough to handle the Castamir, and you can sink the corsair war galley in skirmish, before they can use fierce in despair.

...and finally, the all important site-path:

(3) Trollshaw Forest
(2) Moria Stairway
(2) Caras Galadhon
(2) Window on the West
(1) Cavern Entrance
(1) Expanding Marshland
(0) Anduin Banks
(0) The Bridge of Khazad-dum
(0) The Great Gates

"... the battle for middle earth is about to begin..."

Conclusion:

In conclusion, this is a fun deck to play, that can cause alot of damage in expanded format. I’m currently working on a standard version of the Balrog deck, but it’s proving tricky.

I think the greatest strength of the deck, aside from both fellowship and shadows skirmishing capabilites, is the fact that it’s site changing is completley unaffected by any changes your opponenet might make before their next move (in fact swapping out your underground sites kinda helps you...) which can be a weakness of some site based decks.

Thus, if you’ve always wanted an effective way of using the Balrog, then I hopw to have given you an insight.

Thanks for Reading,

Shadows.
Last edited by Shadows on Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:14 am; edited 2 times in total
Anautikus
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 7:07 pm
Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 687 Location:
nice article

fill with fear is a great card.
it owns archery decks...as i have experienced...
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TheJord
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 7:39 pm
Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK
Fill With Fear does pillage archery decks but its second ability is cancelled by your own Balrog’s game text at underground sites.

Relics of Moria is a great way to bring back his sword and whip. It is R-listed unless this is an open deck. And if you wanted to add that, maybe Goblin Armory to cause twilight adding when you play the weapons. Definately replace Dark Places with 1x Relics of Moria and 3x Goblin Armory

A 4 from me!
NBarden
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 7:02 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
Decent article, interesting, but I don’t see it as that playable. relics of Moria would be a must for the deck. And Goblin Armory might help as well.

Well-written, but relying on one minion is WAY to weak.

Oh, BTW add IB to the matchups. Sorry, against IB, you’re toast.

I give it a 3.
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AragornDoFP
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:40 pm
Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 104 Location:
With the token adding ability of the FP cards I think 4 Noble Leaders would cause some hand clogs, I’d really suggest cutting at least 1. I’d also suggest replacing Elendil the Tall with Elendil High King of Gondor. Even if you have to exert to play him the extra +1 resistance helps against corruption decks.
Shadows
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:21 am
Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 136 Location: the underworld
The noble leaders one is a good point, by it’s never been a problem for me. four ensures you get one a.s.a.p, and if they’re clogging your hand then either footman’s armor can get rid of them, or boromir, my brother, but it would certainly be possible to only play three, it’s just a matter of personal preference as to how you play your noble leaders deck really.

IB added to match-ups, and also the relics/armory combo. I forgot relics of moria was any moria weapon, I remembered it as being moria weapon played on your orc.hum.

As for ithilien blade, final strike is a great defense against it (see the article.)

I also dropped the webs for Ulaire Enquea, lieutenant of morgul for six companion protection, as I’ve found myself rarely using the webs when I’ve tested this.

The deck is certainly playable, it is by no means top tier, but it can still hold it’s own against the "big" decktypes, and where’s the fun if every deck you build has to be top tier?
masswelter13
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:02 pm
Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 27 Location:
Shadows wrote:
The noble leaders one is a good point, by it’s never been a problem for me. four ensures you get one a.s.a.p, and if they’re clogging your hand then either footman’s armor can get rid of them, or boromir, my brother, but it would certainly be possible to only play three, it’s just a matter of personal preference as to how you play your noble leaders deck really.

IB added to match-ups, and also the relics/armory combo. I forgot relics of moria was any moria weapon, I remembered it as being moria weapon played on your orc.hum.

As for ithilien blade, final strike is a great defense against it (see the article.)

I also dropped the webs for Ulaire Enquea, lieutenant of morgul for six companion protection, as I’ve found myself rarely using the webs when I’ve tested this.

The deck is certainly playable, it is by no means top tier, but it can still hold it’s own against the "big" decktypes, and where’s the fun if every deck you build has to be top tier?

Yeah! Sometimes you just want to build something that will go against a certain person you like to play...
I give it a 3, but I still like it.
bobtheorc
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:32 pm
Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 1218 Location: Wow, its hot in Iowa
Pretty good article.
Not much to say, solid article so a 3 plus GP.
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kawjor
Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 2:23 pm
Joined: 04 Dec 2006 Posts: 7 Location:
Wait a minute Smile

Relics of Moria play only possesions, and whip of many thongs and balrog sword are artifacts !! Smile

So the idea (play weapons on Balrog from discardpile) runs down.
lem0nhead
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:12 am
Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 2981 Location: Blood Island
kawjor wrote:
Wait a minute Smile

Relics of Moria play only possesions, and whip of many thongs and balrog sword are artifacts !! Smile

So the idea (play weapons on Balrog from discardpile) runs down.


Nice catch GP

Im giving this a 3 at the moment as there is nothing wrong with your article except the above point, nice formatting, pleasantly presented and factual, but is still a glorified deck list. Fun deck if it works though.
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