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Total Votes : 5
TheJord
Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:12 pm
Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK
--- description ---
Sauron poured his hate into the One Ring, and that same hate threatens your fellowship even now.
--- end description ---


Hate – verb: - to dislike something or someone very much.
Noun: - An extremely strong dislike.

“What can men do against such reckless hate?” Theoden

A large concern for many players when building their Free People’s decks is the prospect of hate-specific strategies. A hate strategy focuses on one aspect of a Free People’s deck and can cause devastation if you find yourself on the wrong end of it.

Hate takes many shape and forms, several of which we discuss now. I will detail one or two cards from each Shadow culture which fulfil the particular form of hate we are talking about. In particular we will look for combo’s that make the hate tactics work to their fullest. I will discuss the first 4 hate tactics in this list in this article.

The forms of hate are as follows

1) Culture
2) Ally
3) Rule of 5
4) Draw Deck
5) Hand
6) Possession
7) Culture token
8 ) Follower

However, hate is a very meta-specific tactic or a “magic bullet” as Cobra calls it, so in all cases it is assumed that the tactic is in its best situation.



1) Culture

“What business does a man, an elf and a dwarf have in the Riddermark?” Eomer

As we see from Eomer’s statement, the sight of 3 completely different cultures riding together seems rather odd, and the forces of evil have many ways to benefit from the Free Peoples using multiple cultures. Whilst it is great that the Free Peoples of Middle Earth are uniting, the forces of evil will use there differences to destroy them!

IsengardGrima, Chief Counselor. Grima has splashed his way into many culture-hating decks. His ability to return a companion and all the cards borne by them to hand can cause a terrible hand clog for the Free Peoples player.

Agents of Orthanc. With this minion, it seems the more friends you bring to take them on, the stronger and meaner it gets! Strength 13 and damage +2 is a scary prospect for only 5.

RaiderDesert Stalker. His ability is a quite powerful and is only threatened by targeted exertions or wounds as he has only 2 vitality.

Southron Leader. He provides targeted wounds for exertions or threats, easily added by the Raider culture.

Uruk-hai - Merciless Berserker. He has a nice threat and exertion adding text which is nicely complimented when he is given extra vitality via Isengard Siege Bow and Spear of the White Hand.

WraithUlaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening. A nice way to add threats which are always a problem for the Free People’s, especially comboed with the exertion abilities culture hate has.

Ulaire Nertea, Winged Hunter. When played, this minion is quite likely to exhaust the ring-bearer. An exhausted ring-bearer means countless combos with Morgul Orcs! To save space I will simply list the cards that work well with this strategy.

Morgul Axe, Morgul Brawler (strength 13, damage +1, fierce for 4!), Morgul Brute and Morgul Destroyer (for a possible kill), Morgul Mongrel, Morgul Whelp, Ten Times Outnumbered, War Long Planned


Combo: - Desert Stalker/Seasoned Leader and Southron Leader. With Desert Stalker having extra vitality he can now exert every companion twice! Southron Leader can now finish even those 4 vitality companions off and leaves the Fellowship with exhausted companions and a strength 15 Desert Stalker. The Desert Stalker combo also works well in an archery deck.

Culture Hate Deck: - Raider/Uruk-hai/Wraith

Desert Stalker x4
Southron Leader x4
Merciless Berserker x4
Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening x4
Ulaire Nertea, Winged Hunter x3

Raider Bow x3
Winged Mount x3

Seasoned Leader x3
Lingering Shadow x2

This deck throws out exertions and threats like none other. All the minions either add or use the threats and exertions. Slowly wait until the threats are maxed out, and the exertions have exhausted everyone, and then use Southron Leader with Seasoned Leader to wound someone to death. The Winged Mount is to prevent archery wounds by uing the threats which are easily replaced. The Lingering Shadow’s are to add some extra problems for the ring-bearer.

Culture Hate Deck: - Wraith

Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening x4
Ulaire Nertea, Winged Hunter x3
Ulaire Toldea, Wraith on Wings x2
Morgul Brawler x2
Morgul Destroyer x3
Morgul Brute x3
Morgul Mongrel x2
Morgul Whelp x2

Morgul Axe x2
Nazgul Scimitar x2

War Long Planned x3

Streaming to the Field x2

This has a cultural hate mixed with a potential swarm. The supporting Nazgul are all fairly cheap and with Streaming to the Field you have a chance to play Ulaire Toldea, Wraith on Wings for free. The Morgul Orcs have lots of bonuses from Ulaire Nertea, Winged Hunter exerting the ring-bearer lots, causing burdens and threats from the Destroyer and Brute, and they should win most skirmishes.



2) Ally

“Our list of allies grows thin…” Elrond

Allies have been in the game since it was first created. Hobbit Hospital allies and Elven Booster Allies were among the most popular. Surely there is little harm in having a few friends watching your back from afar? Well, the enemies of the Free Peoples would lay all things to waste, even those who dont travel with the ring-bearer.

Dunland - Dunlending Ravager & Dunlending Warrior. These are what I call ally snipers. Most allies have poor strength and if forced to skirmish will more than likely be overwhelmed. Unless its Treebeard of course.

SauronMemory of Many Things. An exertion is all you need to rid you of an ally of your choice. If the Free Peoples brought 2 or more Elven allies, you can discard 2 of them!

Tower Assassin. His exert to wound ability shuts down most allies effective uses.

IsengardBerserk Rager. If pulled off, this is an auto kill for almost every ally. Ally heavy decks will be destroyed by this, and it leaves a fairly large minion left to fight.

Wraith - Their Power is in Terror. This card was so popular it got reprinted. You get to wound each ally for exerting your Nazgul, and with enduring Nazgul they just love exertions anyway. Those allies will flee at the horror of the Nazgul.

[Site] – Anduin Confluence. No explanation needed. All their allies just drowned.

Westemnet Village. Allies cause companion wounding.

Combo: - Berserk Rager/Broad-bladed Sword/Scaling Ladder x2 at Westemnet Village. An ally heavy deck causes mass wounding to its companions and then Berserk Rager appears, unable to be wounded and ready to slaughter those allies who did all that damage to their own fellowship. With the Scaling Ladder x2 you can heal the Rager and make sure you finish off allies like Elrond.

Ally Hate Deck: - Isengard/Sauron/Men/Wraith

Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x4
Tower Assassin x4
Uruk Outrider x3
Berserk Rager x3
Berserk Slayer x4
Corrupted Spy x3

Broad-bladed Sword x3

Scaling Ladder x4
Our List of Allies Grows Thin x2

[Site] - Westemnet Village

This deck abuses Westemnet Village to repeatedly wound companions, whilst using Tower Assassin to keep the allies useless. Corrupted Spy is a nice strong minion for cheap. Berserk Slayer and Berserk Rager are there to cause the real hurt and make the big finish by slaying all their companions and allies in one swift blow. Uruk Outrider can be a huge damage + bonus with the extra dead allies in the pile. Just abuse that site and watch the companions fall.



3) Rule of 5

“Nine companions to match Nine Ringwraiths…so be it” Elrond

That was a mistake Elrond, and it’s not just the Nazgul who enjoy large fellowships, although they do have the most famous card in respect to rule of 5 hate. Rule of 5 hate refers to the unwritten rule that having more than 5 companions will result in some damaging effects! Let’s find out…

WraithUlaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul. Large fellowships will suffer at Enquea regulating! He can pop those companions with only 3 vitality easily. His game text allows him to function with burdens also, but burdens will be needed for his combo.

Ulaire Cantea, Black Assassin. A horrendous card to face with a large fellowship. With a resistance beatdown you can effectively kiss a companion with resistance 0 goodbye. And he is fierce! With 7 companions that could mean 2 deaths!

RaiderSouthron Commander (and Southron Troop). These 2 have very upsetting abilities, as no one wants Frodo fighting a strength 10 or 14 minion, and ARB’s usually have consequences of skirmishing that you wouldn’t want to pay.

Uruk-hai - Broken In Defeat. This event has the ability to return to your hand if you can spot 6 companions. Minions with infinite strength pumps?

Isengard - Greed. For those who like adding twilight after the fellowship phase, such as follower decks, use it snipe those companions least favourable to you winning.

[Site] - Anduin Banks. I think we have all played this against an Ent deck at one time or another. +2 archery for each companion over 4 means +4 for having 6 companions. Things can only get worse for the more trees you have.

Combo: - Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul/Ring of Rancor. With the added vitality from the Ring of Rancor and the burden removal healing all in the same phase as his wounding ability, that pesky companion you want dead is very likely to die!

Combo: - White Hand Slayer/Broken in Defeat and Orc Skulker. Thanks to NB for reminding me of this crippling combo. Broken in Defeat returns to your hand if you can spot 6 companions, the Slayer exerts a non-hunter character each time you play an event and the Skulker makes the event free (thanks to AC for noticing that trick). Instant exhaustion! Then move them right into Anduin banks for the finish.

Rule of 5 hate deck: - Raider/Uruk-hai/Wraith

Southron Commander x3
Southron Troop x3
White Hand Slayer x4
Orc Skulker x3
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul x4

War Towers x4
Broken in Defeat x4
Gathering to the Summons x2
New Fear x2

Raider Bow x2

I think this is the first Shadow deck I have ever built without a single condition. Lets go over its rule of 5 hate strategy. The Southron Commander and Southron Troop put the ring-bearer into skirmishes, usually causing burdens to be taken, and Gathering to the Summons and New Fear help. I will show how burdens will be helpful. War Towers adds threats as well.

So now you max out on threats, exhaust everyone with the White Hand Slayer, Broken in Defeat and Orc Skulker combo and then kill the companion you are facing to finish everyone off with the threats. If that combo doesnt pan out, use Enquea to finish someone off to activate the threats, and if they have chosen to discard a companion those extra burdens will be handy so you can still use his text. This deck provides some very funny moments, for you, not your opponent, as you bide your time to kill off a companion so those threats will cause maximum damage.


4) Draw Deck

“But my memory reaches back even to the Eldar Days…I have seen three Ages in the West of the World, and many defeats, and many fruitless victories” Elrond

Decking out is not usually a problem but its game over when it happens. You have a last ditch chance to run for it or be completely out of cards and face certain death. Interestingly enough, this strategy is affected by Free Peoples cards as well, most notably Dwarven cards.

DwarvenDwarven Axe. The Dwarven culture is all for winning skirmishes so this will cause a lot of discarding.

Nobody Tosses a Dwarf. 3 cards discarded for winning a skirmish is quite damaging to any strategy.

SauronDesperate Measures. Burden removal for 5 cards discarded is quite a cost, but part of a larger strategy

Massing in the East. This card combines cultural hate with draw deck hate, forcing a discard for each race spotted.

The Irresistible Shadow. The game winner for ultimate draw deck haters. Card them out and corrupt the ring-bearer!

Combo: - With a Dwarven/Sauron discard engine with The Irresistible Shadow it is quite easy to discard 10 cards a turn from an opponents draw deck, and have them staring corruption down the barrel. The deck archive has several good decks, but, as a caution, this deck-type is a very negative deck to experience, so only play it with those who enjoy the game enough not to hate you for carding them out at site 5!

Draw Deck Hate Deck: - Dwarven/Sauron

Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

Linnar, Dwarven Lord
Durin III, Dwarven Lord

Ring of Guile x2
Ring of Accretion
Ring of Retribution

Dwarven Axe x4
Hand Axe x4
Dwarven Bracers x2

Nobody Tosses a Dwarf x4
Flurry of Blows x2
Battle to the Last x2
Axe Strike x2
Delving x2

Proud and Able x2


Orc Warrior x3
Band of the Eye x3
Gorgoroth Stormer x4
Orc Butcher x3

Vile Blade x2
Grond, Hammer of the Underworld

The Irresistible Shadow x2
Thin and Stretched
Tower of Barad-dur x4
Desperate Defense of the Ring x3

Desperate Measures x4

To make this as brief as possible, let me show what damage this deck will do in just one rotation from the beginning of your fellowship turn to the end of your shadow turn, considering that all things are set up ideally.

In your Free People’s turn you win a skirmish with Dwarven Axe and play Nobody Tosses a Dwarf, they discard 4 cards from their draw deck. Lets say you did that twice in your turn. 8 cards discarded. Now on to your shadow.
Their fellowship moves and you play Orc Warrior, Band of the Eye and Orc Butcher. You exert the Orc Butcher to use Desperate Measures. Another 5 cards gone. Orc Warrior can get rid of those uneeded DDotR or Tower of Barad-dur to discard maybe 4 more. In this rotation you have forced them to discard 19 cards from their draw deck, and then add the number they will be drawing to reconcile. The Tower of Barad-dur and Band of the Eye will see to it that they are always drawing more cards to make up for lost ones. This deck is, as I said, a negative experience, watching your draw deck shrinking by 10 or more cards every turn, but it is incredibly powerful.


These few cards are just a taste of the devastation that effective hate tactics can do. As you explore the various facets of hate-tactics you will find many more cards and combo’s to try for yourself.

I have not even begun to scratch the surface of this topic. I hope you have enjoyed the look at the tactics of hate and have learnt new ways to not only use hate, but also to prevent you becoming a victim.
Last edited by TheJord on Sun May 06, 2007 5:56 pm; edited 15 times in total
NBarden
Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 10:02 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
All right, now that you’re in the same time-zone as the rest of CC, I’d have to say a tricky subject to write on, very debatable, but you did a decent job on it. If you were assigned a topic, I’d give it a 4, but bear in mind that you did choose your topic and thus knew what you were getting yourself into and should have realized how difficult and extensive your article should be. I would personally have picked a different topic, but that’s my opinion.

Get some decklists. Like, a deck breaking as many of the cards that you mentioned as possible. Or maybe a deck packing each form of hate you emphasize. Currently a 3.
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lem0nhead
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 4:50 am
Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 2981 Location: Blood Island
Hey TJ nice article dude, but ive discovered the expectations from articles on this site are immense so id definately add some deck lists as examples of hate being used. Ill wait on voting, needs a bit of padding out. Solid structure though and well formatted as far as im concerned.
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"No fair! And all I got was an oily unconscious steward!" ~ Pippin.
"Okay, stop me if you've heard this one. An elf, a man, and a dwarf walk into the Riddermark..." ~ Eomer
TheJord
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 12:49 pm
Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK
Will do, the decks will be added within the week
"The rule of Gondor is mine!"
sickofpalantirs
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 1:46 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.
lem0nhead wrote:
Hey TJ nice article dude, but ive discovered the expectations from articles on this site are immense


only since NB joined Wink
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Felipe Musco
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 5:19 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
*looks through the Article archive* Rolling Eyes
You didn’t say the slightest bit about allies, like a catchy paragraph or so. Also, if your article is about hate, then hate out shadow strategies as well! Burden hate, threat hate, initiative/discard hate, etc. And yeah, definitely add decklists. Right now, a high 2, only, but I like where you’re going. Fizing the ally thing would bump it to 3 already, decklists would probably secure a 4 if they’re detailed/good enough, and covering ALL of hate would earn a 5 hands down. Loved the formatting, though!
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NBarden
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 5:51 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
It has ally hate. And his article was about anti-FP hate.
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TheJord
Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 5:28 am
Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK
Thanks FM I noticed what you meant about the missing paragraph for the Ally section which I have now added. The decklists are on there way.

EDIT: Rule of 5 hate deck added!

EDIT: Draw deck hate deck added!

EDIT: Culture hate deck added! Almost done!
"The rule of Gondor is mine!"
TheJord
Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 3:01 pm
Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK
OK I think its done. Comments please!!
"The rule of Gondor is mine!"
TheJord
Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 6:11 pm
Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK
I have had 2 votes and no comments to go with them... Sad
"The rule of Gondor is mine!"

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