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| AgentDrake |
![]() Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 11:47 pm |
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 667
Location: Halfway between eccentric and insane...
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--- description ---
Once upon a time, there was a big, bad Sauron. And the big, bad Sauron was beat up by a horse named Brego...
Or perhaps the time that you overwhelmed Frodo using... Threshold of Shadow?
Or the time Gimli became Prince of Dol Amroth?
Nutty decks are always the most fun to play. Here we look at the basic approach to building a good, solid, and entirely insane deck....
--- end description ---
Contents:
Insane Deck Ideas 101
-So how do you do it?
--Step 1
--Step 2
--Another Example
-More Ideas
--Dol Amroth
- --Matchups
- --Gimli, Prince of Dol Amroth
--A Warning: What Not to Do
- --Matchups with the Netherworld
--Fighting in the Shade
- --Matchups
--Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
- --Matchups
-...And the Rest
Insane Deck Ideas 101
You can imagine the reactions I get:
“You did WHAT with WHO?”
Yes, I won a skirmish against Sauron, The Lord of the Rings with Ghan-buri-Ghan, then beat him AGAIN in the fierce.
“You’re running a SOLO BOROMIR deck?!?”
Okay, so that one didn’t work out quite as well as the others, but for a Solo Boromir, Bearer of Council deck it didn’t go so bad. As a matter of fact, it inspired a friend of mine to go and build one that was almost (And I stress ALMOST) competitive.
Or, one of my favorites:
“NOBODY USES NAZGUL PUMPS!”
Oh, sure. Now you tell me. After I killed Frodo with my Ularie Enquea. Hey, I was a newbie. I didn’t know that my deck (which just wiped out my highly experienced opponent) was ineffective.
One thing’s for certain: Gandalf (or was it Elrond? I can’t remember, and don’t care enough to go look it up,) knew what he was talking about when he said that the best thing to do would be that which Sauron least expected.
Or, in this case, that which the Shadow player least suspects.
Sure, you can have dozens of your different super-decks; Corsairs, Durin III, whatever. But there’s an old Klingon proverb: “Do not exploit your enemy’s weakness. Falsify your own.” In other words, let the Shadow player launch their Balrogs or Saurons against your 3-companion, strength 8 fellowship. Losing a Kingsfoil or two with Denethor, Last Ruling Steward and exerting Boromir, Bearer of Council once with Brego, Loyal Steed and Steward’s Legacy is a small price to pay, particularly when the only other companion in the deck is Faramir, Prince of Ithilien, leaving lots of room for generic possessions like Athelas and Kingsfoil, along with four Guarded City. (A deck which requires extreme amounts of cycling; I would recommend a Moving This Way shadow side.)
But above all, the best reasons to use oddball decks are these:
1. Your opponent will have no idea what you have up your sleeve
2. The cards are usually easy to get, because no-one wants them
3. Its really, really, stinkin’ fun!
So how do you determine how to make a successful “oddball” deck?
First, you look around at cards. The best ones are the ones that are powerful, but still seem to have no real purpose in life. For instance, New Errand is a card with an extremely powerful effect. Site +2 AND a wound. What’s its primary use? Site +2. But with so many other wonderful cards like Ancient Roads, who needs New Errand?
The answer: Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth. With an Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms for strength +1 and to spot for New Errand, this guy kills multiple minions with one blow. Even those assigned to sensitive companions like Isildur.
Next is to see if your card is even viable for an oddball deck. Usually, it won’t be (unless you have an even more convoluted mind than me….) Look for combos to increase the effect, like New Errand and Imrahil. The most important step here is to ask yourself: Is this effect even worth it? Condition Removal probably isn’t. Sure, it’s a wonderful effect that you will probably want to have in your deck, but its not game-winning material (unless everyone in your area plays the Istari Decieved) Also, see if anyone else has tried the deck. (Online deck bibles are wonderful for this sort of thing.)
A successful example:
Let’s look at one card which is particularly weak. Or, at least, that’s what everyone tells me. (And to think… I had to pay $1, including shipping, to get each copy of him) Ghan-buri-Ghan, Chieftain of the Woses. The truth is, this guy rocks! Just… not on his own. But throw him in with Brand, King of Dale (same goes for him: awesome in the right crowd) and Erland, Dale Counselor, (dittos) and you’ve got a pretty good trio for a bunch of cost 2 losers. Ghan-buri’s a strength 7, Defender +1 at forests, and has to be tripled to be overwhelmed. Erland (strength 6) can summon pumps for everyone from the discard pile, and Brand’s just handy to have around, adding that extra +1 to everyone else’s strength. Heck, with Librarian coming out, these guys are getting ready to kick some serious behind. I am proud to say that I was among the first to take the  men seriously.
When I first dreamed up the deck, no-one (and I mean no-one) in their right mind was running this stuff.
More ideas:
There’s a whole slew of whacko decks just waiting to be made. One favorite of mine is the Dol Amroth deck. The theory: Wipe out as many minions as possible in a single skirmish. Without using defender +1.
The base card: New errand. Who doesn’t like throwing extra wounds around? The catalyst: Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth. Win a skirmish, and you get the following: wound the minion Imrahil was fighting. Exert 2 other minions. Drop another wound, preferably on one of those two minions, killing them off if they’re only 2 vitality. Or use a Great Gate to increase the effect further; exert the minion Imrahil is fighting, and kill it off, too.
Then we get more stuff which fits in quite well: Defend it and hope. Good card, sees some use as it is. Now it can set up a bigger kill for Imrahil. Or just kill the minion outright. Citadel of the Stars also takes out vitality at little cost.
Knight of Dol Amroth is better than Knight of Gondor or Gondorian Knight, and fits the name theme anyway. Plus, I happen to like the picture. (Hey, that stuff is important!)
A simple version of the Dol Amroth deck might look like this:
Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms (RB) with Res. Ring
Knight of Dol Amroth x4 (2 starting)
Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth x3 (+1)
Citadel of the Stars x4
City Wall x4
Garrison of Osgiliath x2
Athelas x2
Knight’s Spear x4
Knight’s Mount x2
Bow of Minas Tirith x1
Great Gate x3
Men of Numenor x2
New Errand x4
Now the question begs, what happens when you run out of New Errand? That’s what Great Gate and Citadel of the Stars are for; a new way of killing off minions. And, if needed, City Wall. Another way to build the deck includes War Must Be to give a strength +4 event to win skirmishes even easier.
Let’s take a look at a few matchups with this deck.
Starting with Swarm:
This deck works surprisingly well against most swarms, for the simple reason that you can assign Isildur without fear. Assign a relatively weak minion to Imrahil, and you can pile on the effects to kill off the minions on Isildur. If necessary, you can drop a Citadel on the minions fighting him. But since most swarms have lower vitality, it shouldn’t be too difficult to take out the stronger minions without even bothering to skirmish them. The problem comes when your opponents catch on to your strategy, and begin piling their swarm onto Imrahil, rather than Isildur. This, too, can be dealt with in multiple ways. First, you may use Great Gate and Citadel to take out a few of the larger minions fighting Imrahil. Or, you could just use one of your other knights with a New Errand (or two), win the skirmish, and take out a minion skirmishing Imrahil that way.
Against Big-Minion Beatdown:
This one is a bit trickier, as it involves choosing your battles. There’s nothing worng with losing a skirmish or two, as long as you win the important ones. Kill anything fighting Isildur before the skirmish; win with Imrahil. The other knights are semi-expendable, as long as you have at least three knights total so that you don’t have to exert to transfer conditions.
Against Corruption: The exact method of corruption makes a difference, here. Orc corruption using things like Orc Miscreant is susceptible to having its key minions killed off. Isengard Underling is still a problem though. Gondor isn’t great at burden removal, so you may want to consider how to specifically counter burdens in your meta.
Against Archery: This particular decklist has no archery defense, but a few Great Shield takes care of that.
Against Wounding: That depends again on the method of wounding. The  and  Exert-To-Wound, however, is particularly susceptible to this deck. The first minion skirmishing could wound a companion (or take a Citadel, or Great Gate, et cetera), however the rest fall victim to the exertions resulting from the skirmish, and lose their wounding abilities. In the culture, the hand weapons can still exert your companions, and Great Cost still applies, however they lack the ability to finish the job.
Evil Men Possessions:
Pavise seems to be a problem, except for one thing: There’s usually a reason they want the extra vitality. To use it up. It takes a bit of thinking to figure how to work the skirmishes out, but you can still kill them off with a bit more work.
Nazgul:
This is a fun one, and it’s where Knight’s Mount comes in. Use that to kill off surviving minions before their fierce skirmish. Athelas can remove one or two of those pesky conditions, as well.
There’s another version. It’s harder to make work, but it’s pretty fun. Especially while your opponent is trying to figure out what the hey you’re doing with a starting fellowship like that. Hint: Who else works with the Imrahil strategy?
Who else but… Gimli, Skilled Defender?
Throw in a few possessions for him, and he makes an absolutely beautiful splash companion. I call it: Gimli, Prince of Dol Amroth. What could he use that would further his abilities and make him an even greater part of the deck? Of course, he needs a weapon. Gimli’s Battle Axe works well, potentially adding another wound to throw around after winning.
4 Toss Me and some More to My Liking also provide both additional strength and hand extension for a deck which could use a place to store Free Peoples events and Citadels until needed.
I ran that deck once. It worked really well. (Until I faced a 26 minion swarm at site 9. I hate Under Foot…)
A warning... What not to do:
One rather extreme example of a great “oddball” deck is “The Portal to the Netherworld.” This deck is pure farce, and doesn’t actually work, because the main component of the deck is really just a printing error which has been errata’d.
Nice Fish was misprinted to state: Each time Smeagol wins a skirmish, place a companion for each  token here.
Okay, so if we run Solo Smeagol, Bearer of Great Secrets we can win a skirmish, spot a token, and stack Smeagol on the condition, thus transporting him to the Netherworld of stacked cards. He can’t be assigned or anything. Wonderful opportunity for the RB. Just for the fun of it, let’s throw in some  wraiths. Perfect for a Netherworld theme. And a  shadow.
A quick matchup analysis:
This deck works particularly well against special ability decks, which focus less on pure strength or numbers, and more on, say, burdens or shadows that require setup. After winning a skirmish, you no longer have anything to worry about. Until your “Netherworld” condition gets discarded, and your RB (who can’t be discarded, according to the rules) goes back out. So you play four copies of the Netherworld condition.
But it’s all fun and games until you lose because your deck is based on a misprinting. Then it’s all NPE and games. This is a lesson: Make sure that your deck idea is actually legal, not some misconstruction of a vague wording. I’m still gonna build that deck someday, though, and use it in a casual game just for the fun of it.
So let’s go with a more realistic idea.
Fighting in the Shade:
Ever heard the story of Thermopylae (recently made into a movie called 300)?
The Persians announced to the Spartans defending a pass that their “arrows would blot out the sun.” The Spartans replied: “Good. Then we will fight in the shade.”
Well, your ring-bearer won’t have to bring any sunblock on this trip to Mt. Doom: Solo ringbearer (Somebody .) Did I say Solo? I did, didn’t I. Well, that’s because you have a TON o’ little allies sitting in the background taking potshots at the minions. Let’s take a look at the key cards here:
Rohirrim Bow. They don’t have to be a companion to use this thing.
Rohirrim Javelin: Dittos.
Riddermark Javelin: Dittos…
Well Stored: Heals allies after the Bow exerts them.
Sword Rack: gets them back.
Armory: takes longer, but gets them back, too.
Yes, but what if that isn’t enough archery? That’s where the part comes in. Gondor Bowmen. What if the minions can’t take archery wounds? Then add in pincushions to deal with those nasty minions by adding Fellowship-block Elven allies with Support of the Last Homely House and Swan-Ship of the Galadhrim. Oh yeah. And Thrarin with some hand axe, too.
With a really good setup, you can get over twenty archery if you need it.
You end up with something that looks like the following 37 or so card deck:
(Whoever you have as RB)
Gondor Bowmen x4
Rumil, Elven Protector x1
Orophin, Lorien Bowman x1
Golradir, Councilor of Imladris x1
Saelbeth, Elven councilor x1
Swan-Ship of the Galadhrim x2
Support of the Last Homely House x2
Thrarin, Dwarven Smith x2
Hand Axe x4
A bunch of allies; 4 or 5 should be good.
Rohirrim Bow x2
Rohirrim Javelin x2
Riddermark Javelin x4
Sword Rack x3
Armory x2
Well Stored x2
Keep in mind that you have to find a shadow that won’t screw this up. In fact, if you use something that controls the sitepath, you might want to throw down some plains for your javelins.
The matchup problems here are simple:
Swarm, no problem. You can put out massive amounts of archery. Granted, you also put out massive amounts of twilight to get it all back, but the Shadow player only has so many cards in hand and so many ways of getting more.
Beatdown, no problem. They can get their bigger minions out, sure. But even Shelob can’t stand up to this much archery potential 20-8=12 archery still floating around to pile onto Sauron and the Balrog.
Corruption: Because you’re using an alternate RB, you’re more susceptible to burdens. However, you will (hopefully) have enough archery to take out the minions adding the burdens.
Archery: Minion archery can begin to hold its own against this deck, especially since you have to deal with having only one companion to drop your archery wounds on. One way to deal with this is add wound prevention, such as Sapling of the White Tree.
Direct wounding/exerting: Assuming the minions live that long, they probably deserve to wound you once or twice. But the primary direct wounding comes after Archery (with the exception of such things as Under the Watching Eye and Rout), leaving the minions filled full of arrows.
Special Abilities: Keep an eye out for things like Pikes Upon Pikes showing up in your meta. Also, Pavise wreaks havoc with this deck. When those appear, you might do well to make sure your Ring-Bearer has a few extra strength to try to hold them off.
But the ultimate destroyer of this deck is the sitepath:
Anduin Confluence and Westemnet Village. Once your opponents know about this deck, you can be sure that you won’t survive for long. But it makes one great surprise. And few people actually play those two sites when they don’t have this deck floating around.
This deck is extremely easy to counter, if your opponent is prepared for it. Proper use of this deck in your meta will keep it mostly unused, so that your opponents won’t switch out their favorite sites just to tech against this, but it is available if you want to use it.
Snow White and her Dwarves
I assume you all know the tale of the princess Snow White who met seven dwarves?
Good. Because now everyone’s favorite of the seven, Grumpy, is gonna carry the Ring to Mount Doom.
The problem with the deck: You have to play it in Open or in Casual with specific permission to use dear little Snow White. (Or she could be the evil queen, depending on whether or not you were among those who cried “Burn the Witch!” when Decipher was considering X-ing Galadriel, Lady Redeemed.)
That’s right; a seven-dwarf deck with Lady Redeemed.
The key here is purely in the starting Fellowhip; Snow White (Galadriel), and her seven Dwarves:
Grumpy: Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
Doc: Dain Ironfoot, King Under The Mountain
Bashful: Durin III, Dwarven-Lord
Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, and Dopey are all Dwarf Guard.
Lady Redeemed is only in the deck so that you can give it that funny name. Oh, yeah. And she’s free in the starting fellowship, so you have another pincushion to kill.
The starting fellowship is every companion, starting with Gimli as Ring-bearer, Dain Ironfoot, who makes all the other dwarves cost -1. Durin takes the last of your 4 starting twilight, but all your other companions are free.
The decklist looks something like this:
Starting Fellowship:
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges with The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain
Durin III, Dwarven Lord
Dwarf Guard x 4
Galadriel, Lady Redeemed
Axe of Khazad-Dum x4
Belt of Erebor x3
Disquiet of Our People x4
Dwarven Armor x4
Dwarven Axe x3
Dwarven Bracers x4
Elven Bow x1
Mountain Homestead x4
Sword of the Fallen x1
Thorin’s Harp x2
The idea is that you have massive numbers of perfectly expendable dwarves. In order to keep them around as much as possible, you use Mountain Homestead and Thorin’s Harp to make them really big (at least, for 0 cost companions.) Bracers keep them alive longer, Dwarven Armor prevents them from being overwhelmed… you get the idea.
Disquiet of Our People makes your little dwarves able to run suicide screens to protect Gimli. If you’re lucky, thy might even survive. Galadriel’s just there because it’s funny.
The sitepath should be mostly mountains, to avoid too much exerting for Thorin’s Harp, but it won’t kill you to have other sites out.
A few matchups with this deck:
Swarm: What, against eight companions with defender bonuses? ‘Nuff said.
Beatdown: Rougher, but that’s what the guards are there for. Keep them alive if you can, but they’re expendable. The armor is useful especially, and the belt takes care of Damage bonus minions.
Corruption: There’s no real defense against corruption here, but a few Elf-Song can quickly fix that.
Archery: Unfortunately, you may be doing a bit of exerting yourself, and archery may become a hassle. But with 17 vitality to use up without killing even a Dwarf Guard, it shouldn’t bee too much of a problem. Also, the Bracers can save a few key wounds here and there.
Direct wounding/exerting: Pile a bunch of wounders on a single Dwarf Guard, and no problem. The bracers, once again, can prevent some of the major wounds.
Site Manipulation:
Everyone knows about Anduin Banks. That site can get pretty rough here. Dittos for some of the other sites that spot companion numbers. But unlike the archery deck above, it will be just that: rough. Most of the damage will come from sites themselves, though. You needn’t worry too much about manipulating the sites yourself for your Mountain Homestead, since you have Thorin’s Harp.
The rest of them...
The point is to pick some card that has no real purpose, and find something that makes its effect worthwhile. What if Boromir could kill minions by exerting once? Steward’s legacy and Brego, Loyal steed make that possible. You might even manage to get a solo-Boromir deck to work that way. I didn’t try; I’m using Denethor, Last Ruling Steward and Faramir, Prince of Ithilien in a mega-tokens deck to do that. Rarely will a minion survive to the archery phase, let alone the skirmish once they’ve run the gauntlet of Denethor, Brego, Steward’s Legacy, and Defend it and Hope. And if they do… they just turn into Ithilien trap tokens to kill off other minions, either by Brego or by the trap itself.
Or what about Beaten Back with Uruk-Hai? This is a really good deck, too when you figure out how to do it.
What other combos are out there? Well, there’s absolutely no way that I’m gonna bother going through every card to find out. But you might think of one that works like a charm. Or it could bomb like my Fighting Solo-Boromir who tried to use End of the Game, Athelas, and Houses of healing along with Heirs of Gondor and Guarded City.
You never know for sure what will change the face of the meta. men are now a respectable deck, even without the mass followers. A few crazies like me built the deck, and it changed into a strong force. So if there’s a card you have yet to use in your collection... go see if it can be the cornerstone of a whole new unpredictable, effective, fun, and utterly insane deck!
Special thanks to NBarden for suggesting that I add the Snow White deck; also for pointing me to his decklist for it, even though I used a very different build. |
| Last edited by AgentDrake on Thu May 10, 2007 11:38 am; edited 15 times in totalNever kid about politicians. The more bizarre the joke, the more likely it is to come true. |
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| WitchKingBlkCapt |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 12:41 am |
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Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Minas Morgul
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| very nicely written article I love it and now solo-boro actually becomes a fight force with the faithful stone. except against nazzies, but what solo force survives nazzies? |
"Do not stand between a nazgul and his prey."
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| lem0nhead |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 3:51 am |
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Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 2981
Location: Blood Island
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| Wow thats a really difficult choice of article to write about, Kudos fdor the attempt, dont know what to think about it yet, will hold of on voting for a bit to let it sink in. Nice formatting though. |
Ban shampoo, demand real poo.
 My Trade List and CC References
"Smart guy, especially considering his head is filled with lemon juice and seeds. That boy’s juicy brain is FULL of good stuff" ~ DainIronfoot
"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 |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 7:45 am |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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Great article, Drake! 
It was neat to see an article from a new perspective, and a logical way of building a deranged multi-cultural deck. 
I’d like to see a match-up section, though, and a little more meat on the article. I will wait to vote, but right now I would give it a 4.  |
| I had to put something here. |
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| AgentDrake |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 11:20 am |
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 667
Location: Halfway between eccentric and insane...
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Thanks, everyone!
Its actually a highly revamped version of something I was going to write about Men, but I figured they’re already getting tons of attention.
I’ll add the matchup stuff when I get a chance. |
| Never kid about politicians. The more bizarre the joke, the more likely it is to come true. |
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| AgentDrake |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 1:34 pm |
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 667
Location: Halfway between eccentric and insane...
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Something just occurred to me...
When you say "Matchup" do you mean "what Shadow to best pair these with," or "what Shadows they do well and not-so-well against" ? |
| Never kid about politicians. The more bizarre the joke, the more likely it is to come true. |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 1:36 pm |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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| Specifically, what Shadow decks they do well and not-so-well against. Both would be good, though. |
| I had to put something here. |
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| AgentDrake |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 1:46 pm |
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 667
Location: Halfway between eccentric and insane...
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Alright, thanks!  for helping there.
That’s what I was hoping, since I had just about finished writing some of that.
Edit: Just finished revising to add some general matchup comments. I might add a small bit of stuff about pairing the decks with a Shadow side, but I don’t know yet. I might save all that for a different article. |
| Never kid about politicians. The more bizarre the joke, the more likely it is to come true. |
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| bobtheorc |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 2:51 pm |
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Joined: 19 Mar 2006
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 2:55 pm |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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| You need to add a corruption and archery / exertions / wounding section to the matchups. |
| I had to put something here. |
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