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Author Topic: King Standard Gandalf Choke & Morc/Sauron Grind  (Read 2360 times)

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October 26, 2018, 05:05:13 AM
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Phallen Cassidy

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King Standard Gandalf Choke & Morc/Sauron Grind
« on: October 26, 2018, 05:05:13 AM »
It's not wholly effective, but it's not toothless either. Main weaknesses are Easterlings, Southrons, Uruk-hai Archery, and Elven allies, which you'll likely see every other game.

White Wizard, Black Rider, Red Rover
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
Ring: The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Adventure deck:
Isengard Ruined
West Road
Hall of the Kings
Anduin Banks
City Gates
Minas Tirith Fifth Circle
Ruined Capitol
Morgulduin
Dagorlad

Free Peoples Draw Deck (38):
1x Gandalf, The White Wizard
1x Smeagol, Poor Creature
1x Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence
1x Sam, Proper Poet
1x Thrarin, Dwarven Smith
3x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Bounder
1x Glamdring, Elven Blade
1x Brace of Coneys
2x Sting, Baggins Heirloom
1x Gandalf's Staff, Focus of Power
1x Narya
1x Mithril-coat
2x Deep in Thought
3x Depart Silently
1x His First Serious Check
1x Keep Your Forked Tongue
1x Mysterious Wizard
3x Roll of Thunder
4x Servant of the Secret Fire
1x Strength of Spirit
1x Terrible and Evil
1x Power According to His Stature
1x Behold the White Rider
1x Echoes of Valinor
1x Gandalf's Wisdom
1x Moment of Respite

Shadow Draw Deck (38):
2x Grishnakh, Orc Captain
2x Orc Assassin
2x Orc Cutthroat
1x Orc Patrol
2x Orc Pursuer(2)
1x Orc Scout
3x Orc Scouting Band
3x Morgul Spawn
4x Morgul Spearman
1x The Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgul
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Attea, The Easterling
1x Úlairë Cantea, Faster Than Winds
1x Úlairë Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur
2x Úlairë Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Lemenya, Assailing Minion
1x Úlairë Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight
1x Úlairë Toldea, Winged Sentry
1x Memory of Many Things
2x Too Great and Terrible
1x War Long Planned
4x Under the Watching Eye

Free Peoples: It's best to either go first or plan to stop their free peoples at site 2 and pass them. The first iteration was just Gandalf and Frodo, but I've had to put in 3 redshirts to survive sites 7-9. Generally it does pretty well before then, perhaps because there's not a lot of choke played in King Standard and nobody builds for it. Play nothing in the Fellowship Phase that will put you at risk (sometimes that means you don't get to play Moment of Respite or Glamdring), use Gandalf's events in Maneuver to blow up the twilight pool.There's a ton of utility cards because I cycle like crazy - I don't save anything unless it will undoubtedly win me the game.

There's a lot of fine-tuning that could be done (swap The Ring, for instance, up Moment of Respite count to draw it early). Smeagol helps with cycling early game, so I keep him alive as long as possible. As a rule, everything is expendable and whatever I draw next will be better than what I have now. The choke helps this Free Peoples play much better than it looks, as both Gandalf and Frodo can beat/survive whatever the Shadow player can afford (until site 7). 10 twilight at site 6 doesn't go as far as most shadow sides need, but once Gandalf is dead Frodo's pretty much a goner. Barliman goes a long way. The shadow is fully mismatched, but I think the title is clever so I've kept it :P

Shadow: Multicultural shadow sides are practically my trademark, and they rarely ever work. This one is especially fragile because it depends on 4 culturally-enforced conditions (Under the Watching Eye) which are gone whenever any sort of condition discard hits the table, especially Secret Sentinels. Hence Memory of Many Things, with Too Great and Terrible to knock out Gandalf before he can remove any conditions either. Provided I manage to get UtWE and a [Sauron] orc in hand, the goal is for the exertions of Morgul Spearman and Morgul Spawn to exhaust the Free Peoples, allowing free assignments to the Ring-bearer.

I had Ulaire Otsea, Lieutenant of Morgul to allows them to cause two exertions, but by set 7 everybody's got some sort of damage bonus so the minions rarely survive the skirmish anyway. War Long Planned is one of my favorite skirmish pumps; it's cheap and usually you get the +4 out of it. The twilight has to be very carefully balanced because you'll never have enough (or won't be effective trying to exert so many companions). The Nazgul need to be chosen better.


The biggest problem is that both Free Peoples and Shadow sides need a card advantage, so I pick which side has the best chance at winning early on and run with it. The Shadow side has no cycling, making it sub-optimal. The Free Peoples is pretty bad at double moving because of all the twilight (hopefully) generated after the Fellowship phase, so if I'm not in the lead I probably won't win with them. With a nice Free Peoples hand it's possible to play nothing, merely survive this site, double move, then unload at the second site to make it through. Usually this is only worth doing on the moves to site 6 or site 9, but it's won me games.

What I like about the deck is that I can shift the way it plays as needed, but it requires some discipline in what cards are played. Yes, the Shadow side could be just Mordor Orc grind or Sauron grind, but if you want a truly competitive strategy you've missed the point ;)
« Last Edit: October 26, 2018, 05:06:56 AM by Phallen Cassidy »

October 26, 2018, 09:07:02 AM
Reply #1

ket_the_jet

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Re: King Standard Gandalf Choke & Morc/Sauron Grind
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2018, 09:07:02 AM »
Moment of Respite looks like your only real cycling card. At 38/38 and event-heavy, I would think you would want to consider additional cycling, like Don't Look at Them or Fell Beast which both fit the deck well.

This seems nit-picky, but why Orc Scout? I would rather see another Orc Assassin or another Orc Pursuer. In fact, I feel like Orc Scouting Band and Morgul Spawn can be replaced with cheaper minions (Orc Chaser and Morgul Whelp, or even a Bill Ferny, maybe?) The exertions from the [Sauron] Orcs are best utilized with Under the Watching Eye and Memory of Many Things, and can likely otherwise absorb archery. The balance of Nazgul feels off too.

You could consider adding a copy of Dead Marshes if your Under the Watching Eye get discarded. I also might consider a copy of You Bring Great Evil to land on your opponent's Frodo, which could be devastating with Witch-King, Lord of the Nazgul and Morgul Whelp.

I would aim to get this to at least 36/36 and rely on Fell Beast for a little extra cycling. Maybe, in theory, 12 [Sauron] trackers with four Under the Watching Eye, Memory of Many Things, and a copy of You Bring Great Evil. Four each for Morgul Spearman and Morgul Whelp has you up to 26 cards. The last ten could be a combination of Nazgul and Fell Beast as you see fit.
-wtk