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| [ 3 ] 75% |
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| [ 1 ] 25% |
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Total Votes : 4 |
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| gil-estel |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:26 am |
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Joined: 25 Apr 2007
Posts: 545
Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
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--- description ---
A burden deck, and the keyword is synergy....
--- end description ---
The Renaissanse was a period of time close after the Dark Ages. There was a historian called Burckhardt who wrote a book about this subject. It is probably the best book ever written on this subject, but the greatest part of it was the subtitle: ein Versuch (an Attempt in German). Not that I think I’ve written the best article, not at all, but I did an attempt of writing an article concerning this subject.
Well, here we go! My first article, maybe even my last, here at cobracards. The last two weeks, eversince I’ve discovered this site, I spend loads of time here. I read decklists, articles, took a look at the store, made it my favourite site concerning LotR tcg.
And reading all these articles, well not reading, but scrolling through reading here and there, I noticed I was missing something. And that thing was mentioned in an article about burdening written by Anonimous P. Moria burdening. Hard to pull, but when pulled, biggest fun ever!
What was I to do? Here I was, a young man, loving this game, doubting -and still am- what to do. Should I write an article? About how to play, and what to do? Wasn’t it stuff to put in a decklist? Well, in order to challenge myself, I decided to try to write this article. The challenge was in:
-proving myself capable of writing a piece in a foreign language (minor challenge maybe, because that would be possible concerning any subject)
-beeing brave enough to think I could write an article for you all to read in which I could make a difference (writing about something that no-one has done, at least I hope so, for I haven’t seen it here)
-a slight bonus waiting for those who wrote a high-rewarded ariticle (I’m Dutch, so always looking for a bargin  ), so he, why don’t give it a try. Johan Cruijff, one of the worlds best soccerplayers ever -and yes dutch too- said: if you want to win, you have to score. Here I am, trying to score.
I then started to think about the content of this text. It should be readable, obviously making a point, strategywise, and contain infomation worth reading. And last but not least, it should be at least a bit fun to read.
A word I came around here and there was the word synergy. I guess we all agree that it is the most important word in this game. Without a balanced deck, no mather how great your cards are, you’re likely to lose the game.
The deck I’m sharing with you today, is one of my all-time favorites. It has got it all, synergy (almost written in capital), endurance and my favourite engine to win a game...corruption.
I’m allways in favor to use cards other people just seem to think of as useless, or hard to play. Finding a way to fit them in, is also a great sport in this game. The keycard in this deck? Lost to the Goblins.
Lost to the Goblins is a card that is hard to trigger. Why? Because you need the ringbearer to take a wound or to be exerted, you need moria minions to add the maximum number of burdens and you need to be sure of the number of shadowcards in your drawdeck, again to add a maximum number of burdens.
Lets take a look at the most desireable situation. 3 moria minions, 4 Lost to the Goblins, 12 topcards, all shadow. Seems like a dirty job...sure...impossible?...surely not
The anwser is to filter your deck. You should get out as much fellowship as you possibly can and make sure shadow cards return to your deck. A few keycards to manage that.
Goblin Sneak: when you play this minion, you may place a moria orc beneath your drawdeck.
The Palantír of Orthanc, Seventh Seeing-stone: Great card of managing your deck...or others. If the first card you reveal is a fellowshipcard, just let it rest. Mess around with other player’s decks. Reveal and put a valuable card beneath their deck...nice.
Gimli, Dwarf of Erebor: unfortunatly Decipher decided to give this ladd an errata. When you cannot spot 2 twiligth add 2 to place a card from hand beneath your drawdeck. Before it was the greatest card, now you must be more patient and rely on other combo’s as well.
Saved from the Fire: The best filtercard out there, burn someone and draw three cards of that culture..great!
The Counsil of Elrond: play a tale from your drawdeck
The One Ring, The Binding Ring: play a ring from your drawdeck.
These are all great cards to manage the filtering. Remember, to filter is something different then drawingcards. (for those who do not know  ) Because with drawing you have to discard your hand and you do not influence your drawdeck. At least not in the way you want.
Then you need a way to trigger the card Lost to the Goblins. Gollum, Dark as Darkness is you anwser here. You can exert him twice to exert the ringbearer. So the ideal situation would be: three moria minions on the table, gollum and 4 copies of LttG in your hand. Oh and a completely filtered deck comes in handy. That way you could release a bomb by adding tons of burdens in a sigh!
The deck:
I have to be honoust with you guys, it is not entirely my own. I was looking to fit this card in to a deck, and I found inspiration on decktech.net. Ben Small is the name of the player whose deck I used, and slightly adjusted into a legal version..at least in expanded format. I played it alot and I’m very much impressed with it.
Starting:
*The One Ring, The Binding Ring(9R+1)
*Frodo, Resolute Hobbit(10P121)
1x *Gandalf, Leader of Men(8R15)
1x *Smeagol, Slippery Sneak(8R27)
1x *Gimli, Dwarf of Erebor(1U12)
Sites
(0) Abandoned Mine Shaft (13U185)
(0) Courtyard Parapet (13U188)
(1) Slopes of Orodruin (12U192)
(1) Pelennor Flat (11S254)
(1) Slag Mounds (11s258)
(2) Flats of Rohan (11S240)
(3) The Prancing Pony (11S256)
(3) Old Forest Road (11S251)
(3) Trollshaw Forest (11S260)
Fellowship (30)
1x *Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor(1U70)
4x *Elrond, Herald To Gil-Galad(3R13)
1x *Narya(3R34)
1x *Nenya, Ring of Adamant(9R20)
1x *Ring of Retribution(9R9)
1x *Vilya(3R27)
1x *Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men(10R6)
1x *Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath(9R+16)
1x *Legolas, Greenleaf(1R50)
1x *The Tale of Gil-galad(1R66)
1x *the Tale of the Great Ring(10U116)
3x Hosts of the Last Alliance(2U18)
1x Songs of the Blessed Realm(1C61)
4x Saved From The Fire(8R20)
4x The Council of Elrond(1R35)
1x Glamdring, Foe-Hammer (11R35)
Shadow (30)
2x *The Palantír of Orthanc, Seventh Seeing-stone(4R166)
2x They Are Coming(1C196)
3x Captured by the Ring(7C53)
4x Lost to the Goblins(1R189)
1x *Gollum, Dark as Darkness(9R+2
1x *Gríma, Chief Counselor(5R51)
2x *Host of Moria, Legion of the Underdeeps(9R+41)
1x *Saruman, Black Traitor(4R173)
1x *Uruk Captain(2R46)
3x Goblin Runner(1U178)
4x Goblin Sneak(1U181)
1x Goblin Warrior(1C185)
1x Moria Scout(1C191)
4x Uruk Soldier(1C154)
A few marks on cards that I did not explain yet.
Barlimen: He’s here to get back my SftF. Possibly I can burn even more pointy-eared dudes, just to make sure my deck is empty by the time I want to unleash the anger 
The rings: they’re all fetchable with the One Ring
Gandalf’s ring to manage burdens
Elrond’s ring to manage conditions
Galadriel’s ring to manage healing
Ring of Retribution for Gimli, so he has + 1 strength and +1 vitality.
Elf dudes: to fill the fellowship, and up to a challenge.
Host of the last Alliance: first it is a tale, so with council of Elrond you can take it from your draw deck. Second it has the possibilty to prevent wounds. Not bad!
Songs of the blessed Realm: once out, each time I play a tale, I can remove a burden. Nice!
Shadow:
For the Palantír to work I needed some Isengard minions. Uruk Soldier is cheap and discards a card from the opponent’s draw deck. Saruman can get rid of a condition, maybe one I really dislike. Grima can mess up the fellowship, meaning more twilight the next turn, probably.
The rest of the deck is Moria minions. I need them for LttG. They are Coming can be vital to add just another Moria dude. Host of Moria means I do not need the clog my hand with Orcs as he will get the second one. Probably a runner for 1 extra twilight.
So this is it. A hard to play deck, but a fun one! The best thing about this deck is that the whole deck is focusing on one thing: getting as much burdens as possible on the opponent’s ringbearer. This is synergy, this is focus.
It’s very hard to beat, as the fellowship only takes one step in a time. Most people can die, no worries. The shadow is evil and hard to get around. Only thing I can think of is discard and keeping the ringbearer exhausted.
Well, this is my first article. It high-lighted the importance of synergy -fellowship/shadow working together in order to achief a goal- and how to use a hard card like Lost to the Goblins.
Thanx for reading! |
| Last edited by gil-estel on Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:11 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:59 am |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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Nice article for a first timer. First of all, I have to point out that there are several formatting problems, a section you forgot to remove saying "Type the full text of your article here. Good luck!" and some non-linking cards. But those are just cosmetic, and I won’t mark you down for them.
Your opening was interesting, but I like it. Most people try to open with something LotR-ish, and, if you look at my articles, rarely succeed in a good opening. But this one was good, and I like that.
Your card analysis was good, but using a borrowed deck is not. If you are writing articles with tons of decks, its okay to borrow one, seeing that you have permission. But on a one deck article, you want to have something original.
Anyway, mention that this is expanded format. Most people on the site are standard adherents. Fortunately, you have stumbled across a BIG fan of expanded, so I’m not going to mark you down for it. But others will.
Now, this deck looks good, but I think you would have more success with a crazy swarm deck.
Here’s an example.
42 cards
Goblin Sneak x 4
Goblin Backstabber x 4
Goblin Runner x 4
Goblin Scrabbler x 4
Goblin Scavengers x 4
Gollum, Dark as Darkness x 3
Goblin Armory x 4
Goblin Swarms x 2
Relics of Moria
Goblin Scimitar x 4
Lost to the Goblins x 4
Hosts of Thousands x 4
And pair it with a crazy filtering deck such as...
42 cards
Frodo, Weary from the Journey
The One Ring, The Binding Ring
Merry, In the Bloom of Health
Pippin, In the Bloom of Health
Farmer Maggot, Hobbit of the Marish
Quickbeam, Bregalad
Skinbark, Fladrif
Host of Fangorn
Gandalf, Returned
Treebeard, Enraged Shepherd
Leaflock, Finglas
Shepherd of the Trees x 2
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer
Warmed up a Bit x 4
Saved from the Fire x 4
Momentous Gathering x 4
Southfarthing Leaf x 4
Old Toby
Not the First Halfling x 2
Strange Meeting x 4
G for Grand x 2
Watch and Wait x 2
Alatar, Final Envoy
Pallando, Far-Travelling One
Radagast, Tender of Beasts
Using Saved from The Fire and Skinbark, Quickbeam, Shepherd of the Wood and Farmer Maggot to pull all the cards, muster like crazy with Strange Meeting to cycle, Use Southfarthing Leaf to pull out ALL the Southfarthing Leaf and then Old Toby to draw a card, Not the First Halfling with Alatar and Gandalf for crazy reinforcement, Pallando to get rid of conditions and Radagast to trigger G for Grand and cancel strength bonuses. Not only does it filter, but it stomps everything. And by the time you’ve used all your saved from the fire, you should have 5 (tough) companions out, meaning that Shotgun Enquea does nothing. 
Then with Moria, swarm, put guys under the deck with your Sneak, throw out TONS of minions with a CRAZY Relics of Moria / Goblin Scimitar twilight adding / card drawing engine. I use a deck a lot like this that has thrown out around 14 minions. Stack like crazy on Goblin Swarms, and unleash with 16 + minions, use Lost to the Goblins and discard a dozen or so shadow cards. |
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| bobtheorc |
![]() Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:03 am |
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Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 1218
Location: Wow, its hot in Iowa
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| gil-estel |
![]() Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:37 am |
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Joined: 25 Apr 2007
Posts: 545
Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
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Please remember English is a foreign language for me...  Thanks for the reviews so far, next time I’ll write something concerning my own deck, wasn’t aware taking someone else his deck isn’t appreciated. I thaught it was all about the article, so there you have it.  ....And oh yeah, thanks for extended critisism, so I can learn!  |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:45 am |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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Considering this is your first article, good job! 
The strategy could have used some more in-depth explanations, like why you use Saruman, Black Traitor, etc. Given the fact that English is not your first language, the spelling and grammar aren’t half-bad.
I will wait to vote, but right now I would give it a 3.  |
| I had to put something here. |
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| gil-estel |
![]() Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:15 pm |
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Joined: 25 Apr 2007
Posts: 545
Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
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If some-one can outline a few spelling and grammar mistakes too, please do not hesitate. The minor challenge was to write an article in a foreign language, but it was a challenge. So critisism on both subjects, contents of the article and the way it is written, is most welcome!  |
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| TheHobbit13 |
![]() Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:34 pm |
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Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Posts: 1303
Location: minnesota
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| truthfully i wasn’t overly impressed with it.. as AP said i would like to see more in depth explaining.. And it seem s the strat is VERY hard to pull off ( possible not even worth attempting).. also is gollum your only way of directly adding burdens? if so you only have one in the deck and you might not even draw him.. let alone gett him passed archery. I liked the article but i didn’t think it was anything extraordinary |
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| gil-estel |
![]() Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 2:56 pm |
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Joined: 25 Apr 2007
Posts: 545
Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
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| hmmmm I guess you do not sence the concept of the deck. I’ll try it in short. Gollum is there to exert the ring-bearer. He does so during the shadow. I do not want a archery phase, no assignment and no skirmish, because that’s not the objective of the deck. My minions aren’t there for the sake of killing people, my deck is entirely focussing on one thing: corrupting the ring-bearer. Therefor the whole Lost to the Goblins theme. It can be a potential bomb, waiting for detonation. In order to do so a lot of thing must go right, true, but that is also where the whole deck is built for: triggering those cards. Yeah it’s hard, but when you can make your fellowship survive, you’ll nine out of ten times win the game, well and what could be more fun? If certain things aren’t clear yet, please come again, so I’ll try it again..... |
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| AdultLink |
![]() Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 3:08 pm |
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Joined: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 253
Location: Hyrule
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I liked the article, even though I only read 80% of it. The knowledge that you are from the Netherlands makes me not count off for some of the gramatical and spelling errors. Now slang is something else, I can’t stand that text message kind of stuff. I mean, I could read and understand it just fine, it is stupid to rate someone’s best effort on the effects of communication. I have a professor who is Czech and once in a while she will say something that sounds a little funny but I have never had a problem understanding her teaching in my class.
Really glad you brought out this strategy, it’s one I’ve always liked and I have considered trying it before (I think i only have 2 Lost to the Goblins currently though). I would probably pair it with some more elf cards, or perhaps make it almost totally dwarf. But that’s just my opinion.
Solid article. I liked it. I will give you 4 for sure. |
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| lem0nhead |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 4:15 am |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 2981
Location: Blood Island
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| I too will give a 4, as you should be rated higher on the fact you are writing in your non native language not penalised. But besides that, the article is good, interesting and accurate. Nice one. |
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My Trade List and CC References
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