Disclaimer: This is a deck that I thought I'd come up with years ago, and recently rebuilt. However, in looking through the old Lord of the Rings Online game forums, I actually found a post where I myself said that I had designed the deck with a guy by the name of Mike French. Suddenly, memories started resurfacing, and I recalled having IM'd with him about this deck. Honestly, I don't remember whose idea it was, nor do I remember who contributed more to the construction. In fact, I'm not even sure how close the current version is to the one we came up with. I say this because I'm all about giving credit where credit's due, and I've recently realized that I can't take all the credit for this deck.
That being said, I play this deck in Austrian format, though it's pretty much legal for Movie Block, so I'm posting it here. This deck has a shadow side that is pretty much powerless if its support area gets nuked; however, if your opponent doesn't take out the key ships/conditions in time, they will face a swarm unlike one they've ever seen before. It's definitely a single-move kill deck, in that it only takes one site to drop 10-15 minions once you're ready to "pull the trigger" (as my good friend Rubbercarp says).
Is it the most reliable swarm out there? No. But it may just be the most fun.
The Free Peoples side is simply designed to draw/filter as many cards as possible, play its entire hand, and hopefully survive the resulting onslaught. It's not meant to race to site 9.
There will be further notes after the decklist.
Ring-bearerFrodo, Courteous HalflingThe One Ring, Answer to All RiddlesCompanionsGimli, Unbidden Guest (Starting)
Eowyn, Lady of Rohan (Starting)
Eomer, Third Marshal of RiddermarkHrethel, Rider of RohanElite Rider x2
Theoden, Tall and ProudSam, Samwise the BraveMerry, SwordthainPossessionsRider's Spear x4
Rider's Mount x4
BregoFirefootHerugrim, Sword of the MarkEowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's BladeEomer's SpearSting, Baggins HeirloomConditionsTale of
the Great RingWe Left None AliveArrow-SlitsThundering Host x4
Fortress Never FallenEventsCalculated Risk x4
Delving x4
Simbelmyne x4
AlliesHlafwine, Village FarmhandDeorLeowynSHADOWMinionsCorsair Marauder x2
Corsair Ruffian x2
Corsair Plunderer x4
Corsair Lookout x2
Goblin Scavengers x4
Goblin Runner x4
Moria Scout x3
Gollum, Plotting DeceiverUlaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur (Not legal in Movie Block, I know; see below)
ConditionsThey Are Coming x2
Goblin SwarmsGoblin Armory x4
Under Foot x4
PossessionsBlack Sails of Umbar x4
Corsair War Galley x4
Goblin Scimitar x4
Ok, first thing's first: I actually play this deck in Austrian format, which is why I can have a copy of Nertea. In Movie Block, my default thought would be to just swap him with Enquea, but I don't know that that's really necessary. I might even just take another
Moria Scout instead.
You may have noticed a few odd things in this deck, such as
Corsair Ruffian x2/Corsair Marauder x2 instead of just 4 Marauders. Well, instances like that can usually be attributed to what I have in my collection.
Once again, the Fellowship isn't anything fancy -- it just draws and filters cards and makes sure to get possessions on companions in order to stay alive. The fellowship is seriously so low-priority that I will discard anything (and I mean ANYTHING) from the Free Peoples side during my Shadow turn if it means getting even the smallest advantage. That's part of why there are so many FP possessions -- this way, I can afford to discard some and still get my guys equipped.
Yes, there are 10 companions. If you're not playing against corruption, just don't play Sam. Also, you can pop Merry into your hand and discard him to make room for another companion if need be.
Ok, now on to the fun stuff: the Shadow.
This is not an easy Shadow to play. I already feel like Moria generally takes more skill than pretty much any other Shadow, and mixing the Corsairs in makes this especially true. You have to really know when to hold and when to play with this deck. While you're setting up, there's virtually no reason to play Moria minions -- all you want to do for the first several sites is get your boats out and play Corsairs so you can get enough tokens to gain permanent initiative. If you hadn't guessed by looking at the deck list, the whole purpose of the deck is to get initiative with the
Corsair War Galley and then repeatedly draw a new hand of 8 cards during the Shadow phase by using numerous copies of
Under Foot in a single turn. With the Moria orcs adding twilight (Runners, Armories + Scimitars) and the Corsairs drawing cards, you can play quite a few minions on any given turn.
When you finally decide that you're set up enough to pull the trigger and drop your swarm on your opponent, you play everything in your hand and then use
Under Foot to draw a new one. When you draw a new hand, use
They Are Coming and/or
Corsair Plunderer to filter out all your Free Peoples cards, so when you use your next
Under Foot, you can draw another new hand. You probably shouldn't pull the trigger unless you have at least two copies of
Under Foot ready: one in play and one in hand.
Your
Black Sails of Umbar can be used to play the Corsair Plunderers that filter FP cards out of your hand, and as they do so, they add tokens to other Black Sails, which allow you to play another Plunderer for free, which allows you to filter more cards and add more tokens, allowing you to play another for free... you get the idea.
Twilight is only really an issue if you didn't get Armories out. And, if you don't have Armories out, you probably shouldn't start your swarm just yet.
Gollum is tossed in there because it's assumed you'll get initiative, thus allowing you to play him from your discard pile (free hand extension, woohoo!).
The deck is huge at 92 cards, but that's why you have to sacrifice your Free Peoples side for the good of the Shadow. Just draw and filter as many cards as you can on your FP turns. Using Rohan means you can have a large fellowship (Eowyn offers some amount of Enquea protection) where most of your companions can at least take bumps from big minions (especially when being pumped by
Thundering Host).
That's about it. Once again, if your support area gets knocked out (namely your ship that has enough tokens to give you initiative), you're kind of in trouble. But by about site 5 or 6 you should be set up and ready to hit, so if they haven't cut your support by then, you should be able to get 10-15 minions out.
The deck takes practice, but it's a ton of fun. =P
