Nazgul Counters

[Haszor]

I've been playing a bunch of games in this format recently, and I've run into a fair number of Nazgul shadows that have torn me a new one.  From what I've seen they tend to abuse the nazguls early power (practically never roaming) and ease of play, with cards like Streets of Bree, Fords of Bruinen, and Morgul Gates to get super strong minions like the witch king out for next to no cost.  Stack this on top of their incredible beat down combo with blade tip and black breath, and you can basically win the game at site 3.  Anyone have any ways to survive these guys, because I certainly don't.

[thetimewarptrio]

I'm assuming you're not playing elves, and flaming brand is banned?

[Ringbearer]

Dont pee in the pool. Most important rule.

[bibfortuna25]

Athelas. Sleep, Caradhras. Arwen + pumps. Sacrificial meat shields (Pippin, Sam, Thrarin).

They can be difficult early, sure. But you just got to persevere.

[Ringbearer]

You might lose one companion early to the guls, but in later games they cant even make a ent ina  well geared fellowship.

[thetimewarptrio]

To me, there are a few easy ways to successfully counter Nazgul in Fellowship.

1). Elves, Elves, Elves. Tank Arwen, Daughter of Elrond/Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood. Defiance. Release the Angry Flood. The Seen and the Unseen for Blade Tip/Black Breath. Elf Allies also make great meat shields. I also always supplement elves in FOTR with Gondor men so I can throw Athelas in there and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. This is the preferred strategy.

2). Hobbits and stealth. Simply choke the pool or cancel skirmishes. Also, Not Feared in Sunlight is very useful in case you actually do have to fight. Abuse Bounder, and Thror's Map to see if you can get your sites out there.

3). Boromir/Aragorn. Aragorn's Bow, Flaming Brand (if allowed), Athelas, Pathfinder to get your sites on the board. If you hit Nazgul at site 2, What Are They? will pull them off the table. Gondor Bowmen paired with Aragorn's Bow can deal some deadly damage.

4). Meatshields. Throw kids into the fire, like hobbits, or Lorien Elf, or Dwarf Guard. Least recommended strategy in my book, but yeah. You could still do it if you wanted.

5). Bid to go second, and get your sites on the table first. That prevents the BS that comes from Weathertop, Weatherhills, Bree Streets, and Ford of Brunien. When I play Fellowship, I gun for getting my sites on the table, because FOTR sites are the most useful out of any Movie Set.

[Legion]

Nazgul can be annoying to almost any fellowship, but they absolutely need to be doing some immense damage early on.  They have the sites to do that, but if you have a fully loaded Gorn at site 3 and someone else like Gandalf, FotS or Arwen, Daughter of Elrond you'll be able to shake off almost anything those nazzies try to throw at you.  Their issue is their huge expense: without Morgul Gates you need 11 twilight to get out 2 decent minions which is very pricey.  Last Alliance decks do very well here, since Greanleaf can ruin Cantea and Aragorn and Arwen mop up.  Horn decks do well, too as Aragorn and Boromir can easily take care of any Nazgul not named Cantea, whilst Elrond beats him without losing any precious Flaming Brands.  Watch out for Fear, though.  I once met a deck who played Horn and 2 Allies site 2.  I had 2 fear in hand, so suddenly Merry and an Exhausted Boromir had to take the hit against my 1 minion

As for Hobbits, an OEG and Filibert at site 9 will REALLY annoy.  Every Nazgul deck needs Fear or Tower Lieutenant.  That's just a given.  Hobbit Stealth helps survive site 3, too.

One really fun way to counter them is to fight fire with fire.  Only The Pale Blade can discard your conditions, so Trust Me decks can be particularly fun to use against Nazgul.  Aragorn can easily reach strength 13, Gandalf 12 and if you play Prince of Mirkwood, he's strength 11 when loaded with Bow and Long Knives or 13 if you play Asfaloth).  This is the only deck I recommend using that Legolas, and that's only if you love HttWC.  Then any of them can get a strength +3 boost from Trust Me. Even the Nazgul cannot stand that, but a surprise Too Great and Terrible is lethal.

Dwarves really struggle, but if you play Realm of Dwarrowdelf, you'll really have a fighting chance of out-muscling them, especially if you get Gloin to strength 13 with tales and Weapons, anyway.  Make light of Burdens is then a must to get rid of those tips/breaths.

Hope it helps!  If you wanted to know how to beat Nazgul Corruption, the answer is Sam, SoH.  Easy

[dmaz]

Something that will really give you a leg up is preventing them from playing either Bree Streets or the dreaded -5 site three.

My decks always pack either one or two copies of pathfinder (it's useful against any shadow), or Thror's Map if I'm trying a weird fellowship haha.

If you are going full-on elves, you could really use a couple copies of the set 3 Galadriel. That will leave any shadow crying, especially nazgul. Couple that galadriel and a bunch of elves with fat boromir and his silly horn, nazgul will be a laughing stock

[jcb213]

Every single Fellowship Block deck should play O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! and Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal.

[dmaz]

Every single Fellowship Block deck should play O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! and Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal.

Those are the best counters to Nazgul, but I disagree that every deck should have them. Whenever I played either of those, I found that 50% of the time they are dead cards. Dead cards are awful.

If the meta is super heavy Nazgul, then maybe it is a good idea...otherwise, there are very sound counters to Nazgul that are also usable against other decks. Example: flaming brands, elf allies to help you double to six easier. Nazgul decks hate when you get an easy walk to 6 and leave orophin/rumil/galadriel to the slaughter to protect your companions

[thetimewarptrio]

I don't know, in Fellowship I'd almost always run O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! because of the extra strength boost. Usually in that case I can either avoid running Hobbit Sword, or run both on Reluctant Adventurer, and tank up my Frodo.

Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal is a bit less important, IMO. There are better options, such as using a Greenleaf/PATHS to kill Nazgul, which come in handy during the game much more often for other situations.

[jcb213]

Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal isn't just a nazgul counter.  He also counters fierce uruks, the cave troll, and even the balrog.