Knights and Morgul overwounding

[Manuel]

Hi all,

Here is a deck that needs some improving. I have only played one game with it so far, and saw its potential. However, it's the first time I use a knight build, and I feel it could get even better. Here's what I came with so far:

1 ·Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms
1 ·The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Free Peoples (35)

3 Banner of Westernesse
2 Catapult
2 Fifth Level
1 Footman's Armor
4 Fourth Level
4 Gondor Bow
2 Might of Numenor
3 Sixth Level
1 ·Alcarin, Warrior of Lamedon (starting)
1 ·Aragorn, Captain of Gondor (RoTK)
2 ·Citadel of the Stars
2 ·Garrison of Gondor
2 ·Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth
1 ·Stone Tower
3 ·Strong and Old
1 ·Turgon, Man of Belfalas (starting)
1 ·Sam, Son of Hamfast

Shadow (35)

4 Morgul Ambusher
4 Morgul Destroyer
4 Morgul Spearman
4 Morgul Whelp
1 Ten Times Outnumbered
2 ·Flung Into the Fray
1 ·The Witch-king, Morgul King
2 ·Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds
1 ·Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant Of Morgul
1 ·Ulaire Lemenya, Assailing Minion
1 ·Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight (MoM)
1 ·Ulaire Nertea, Thrall of the One
1 ·Ulaire Otsea, Thrall of the One
1 ·Ulaire Toldea, Winged Sentry
4 Captured by the Ring
2 ·Fat One Wants It
1 ·Gollum, Dark as Darkness

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Sites
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1 - Steps of Edoras
2 - West Road
3 - Base of Mindolluin
4 - Pelennor Plain
5 - City Gates (RoTK)
6 - Minas Tirith Sixth Circle
7 - Osgiliath Crossing
8 - Morgulduin
9 - Dagorlad


Strategy:

Fellowship is mostly condition-based. Use knight bows and forts to kill minions off in skirmish, heal with might of numenor, aragorn, and winning skirmishes with guys bearing banner of westernesse. Recycle forts with sixth level, and cycle/discard stuff with catapult. Pretty basic knights, I guess; this is my first build though, still not sure about the number of copies of each card.

Shadow is overwounding morcs. This particular build is more focused on threats and wounding, hence the spearmen, ambushers, and no brutes. Swarming is easy too with whelps, and Flung into the Fray helps a lot to both swarming and wounding. The first game I played i tried it with the initiative combo, Gothmog and morgul lurker, but in the end I realized that was a bit harder to pull off than this, so I switched it to spearmans, more guls and less condition reliant shadow.

Any suggestions? Thoughts? questions? thanks in advance =)

Manuel

[Pepin The Breve]

  Hello Manuel. I used to play a lot with knights (althought in a little different strategy) and maybe i can help you with some tips.

   Since you are running a lot of fortifications i would suggest Ingold instead of Turgon to boost even more your healing power. My build runs some artifacts twist. I use Scroll of Isildur, Narsil, BotF, Sapling of the White Tree and Anduril, FotW (since i run Gorn as my main character). I throw in some Knight´s Mount (very useful to kill minions and clear the table to double without burning all your fortifications) and my personal favorite combo "Immortal" Alcarin + Armor + Fifth Level. I run swords and such by i see your startegy is more focused on killing with the bows so i guess you really don´t need them.

   I change my built to not rely too much on the fortification tricks. If you run across Saruman´s Power or even some Dunland with Hides you can have some real trouble. And i guess you are not planning run more than 5 comps at one time, cause without Sapling they can die horrible to Enquea or Greed. Even one Southron Veterans + Seasoned Leader could cause pain to your guys... i guess you can decide after looking at your opponent shadow...

   To be brief my suggestion are:
- Switch Turgon for Ingold
- Add Knight's Mount X2 or X3
- Remove one copy Strong and Old
- Remove one copy of Catapult
- Remove Stone Tower

  I would strongly suggest Sapling of the White Tree, but you probably would need several other changes in the deck to suit it, so i guess your deck goes fine with it. After properly set up your knights should be really solid against any shadow that don´t run heavy condition discard. Maybe heavy corruption can cause you a trouble too, but i guess almost all movie block Gondor decks have this problem...

[Manuel]

These are very interesting suggestions, Pepin. Had forgotten completely about Ingold! I'll work on it, yeah. Thanks a lot!

[Imrahil]

I agree with Pepin.  If you only have two forts that transfer in manuever, Turgon is not the man for the job.