POST UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Have you ever gotten your butt handed to you by an extreme site manipulation deck? I sure have, and I bet you have too. You know the type: Whether you are in front or behind, your opponent is the one playing the sites. He will replace your site, move sites around, and repeatedly play the same site, all to his own advantage and to your disadvantage. An extreme site manipulation deck is (IMO) very annoying!
I'd like this thread to be a repository for strategies that players can use to counter site manipulation tactics. Your help is appreciated!
So, what are some of the things we have?
Mount Doom-Not bad, but only protects a single region. However, if he's repeatedly playing the same site over and over to wound or exert all your guys, while he heals all of his, then you might be able to use
Mount Doom to trap that key site and put a stop to that. Keep in mind that
Mount Doom doesn't activate until one of the players first moves to it though! If neither of you move there, then your opponent can still change it.
Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders-Often times the best defense against site manipulation is a little site manipulation of your own. This minion gives you that, without having to invest more of your overall deck strategy. He can help you out in a pinch... but only temporarily.
Follow Smeagol-Like the above, this gives you a little site manipulation of your own. Against an ordinary deck, this card might enable you to play all of your sites except for site 2. But against an extreme site manipulation deck, you'll quickly find your own efforts ineffective.
Anduril, Flame of the West-This is a pretty dependable way to at least make sure you get your sanctuaries. It's hard to get rid of, it doesn't cost anything to use. Of course, if you're already at the sanctuary and they change it in regroup, or during their FP turn, Anduril won't help you.
Orc Ambusher-This handy little guy can cancel regroup events, and the vast majority of extreme site manipulation rely upon those: Most of their events play in "Fellowship or Regroup," or "Maneuver or Regroup," and even if they play their event outside of the regroup phase, it still counts as a regroup event, because it has "regroup" printed up there next to "event." The tricky bit is keeping this little guy unwounded long enough to cancel their crap. Otherwise, this guy is good for swarm, Grond, and reducing roaming penalties. And, of course, if he plays his event in the Fellowship phase, you won't have any minions out to stop him.
Orc Scout-This is the slightly larger cousin of the
Orc Ambusher, and he exerts or discards himself to cancel an event that spots or exerts a ranger. This can stop
Well-Traveled and
Pathfinder, but again only if he doesn't play them during the Fellowship phase.
There's Another Way-A one-shot that replaces your current site during the regroup phase. Might save you from getting screwed by
Steward's Tomb at a sanctuary, but often your extreme site manipulation opponent will simply switch it back again.
Gandalf, Wise Guide-One of the few cards which can consistently and repeatedly cancel events, if you can keep healing him. Most site manipulation relies on events, and this Gandalf can take care of them. The downside: Most site manipulation relies on free peoples events, and your Gandalf won't stop those.
Caravan from the South-This one isn't too bad, but you gotta spot a "skull" man to play it. It also doesn't actually stop site manipulation, it just adds a punishment for playing the fellowship's next site. This punishment wouldn't apply to replacing sites, either. Just playing the next site.
Fearless Approach-This one is similar to
Caravan from the South, but it's for the Uruk-hai culture. Similar to the other card, you gotta spot an Uruk-hai culture minion to play it. Again, it doesn't actually stop site manipulation it just adds a punishment for playing the fellowship's next site. This punishment wouldn't apply to replacing sites, either. Just playing the next site, and in my opinion the punishment (discarding a condition) isn't really that severe.
Defensive Rush-This one is okay, but it requires an overall deck investment in the Uruk-hai culture. It prevents replacing sites, BUT it only works while you can spot a minion. Often times site manipulation decks will swap sites around when there are no minions on the table, in which case this condition won't help you.
Rapid Reload-This is a staple card for super-archery decks (skull men), so skull men super-archery may be your best minion-side counter to site manipulation. Similar to
Defensive Rush, this card stops your opponent from replacing sites in the region he's currently in.
Orkish Camp-This is basically the Orc culture version of
Defensive Rush and
Rapid Reload. It only stops him from replacing his current site, and only if you can spot an Orc culture Orc. Not that great.
GENERAL STRATEGIES: What can you do, generally speaking, to inhibit extreme site manipulation? Where can you strike to cripple it?
Condition Discarding
-Some site manipulation is dependent on certain conditions, so getting rid of those wrecks the strategy. However, the most extreme site manipulation tends to use more events than conditions, so this is only somewhat helpful.
Event Canceling
-Most extreme site manipulation relies upon events, so canceling them will stop the strategy. Of course, very few things can consistently and repeatedly cancel events, and your site manipulation opponent is going to be playing a lot of them.
Effective use of
Mount Doom-I find the most effective use of
Mount Doom, is to get out ahead of your opponent, and activate
Mount Doom in Region 2, ideally trapping one of the sites that your opponent is abusing. He won't be able to hit you with that site again, and it will be several turns before any of his site manipulation stuff can be used again. He will have to choose whether to hold on to his site manipulation cards (clogging his hand), or ditch them, and possibly not draw anymore. It also gives you time to get rid of any conditions he is using to do his thing.
Kill Smeagol, Gandalf, and/or Rangers
-Most extreme site manipulation is going to rely on spotting Smeagol, Gandalf, and/or a Ranger. If you can kill off the character they are spotting, this will eliminate 90% of their dickery. Of course, that means you need targeted wounding/killing. Cards that let you choose where to assign minions can be a big advantage here.
Use Extreme Site Manipulation
-I don't really like this option, as it just furthers the spread of this extremely annoying behavior, making the game less fun, destroying variety. But certainly if your deck is built to move around and replace sites at will, you'll be pretty well-prepared when it comes to confronting another deck that does the same thing.
KNOW YOUR ENEMIES: These are the cards your opponent is most likely to use, in an extreme site manipulation deck. Of course, with the best defense against site manipulation being YOUR site manipulation, you may find these cards can really help you out:
One Good Turn Deserves AnotherLed AstrayTraveled LeaderWell-TraveledPathfinderStill Far AheadUlaire Nelya, Third of the Nine RidersFollow SmeagolThere's Another WayVery Nice FriendsSmeagol, Scout and Guide
Topic: Site Manipulation Counter-Strategies (Read 6778 times)