Strange Meeting BoO // Uglúk's boys

[Shelobplayer]

This is a fairly raw incarnation of the deck idea I posted a few weeks ago. Only had a little time working on it for now so the deck is not very well optimized yet, but it has a very respectable 8 win 2 loss 11 win - 2 loss record so far on GEMP.

Here is the list:
BoO/Ugluk

Ring-bearer: Gandalf, Bearer of Obligation
Ring: The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

Adventure deck:
Breeding Pit of Isengard
Steward's Tomb
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Caras Galadhon
Osgiliath Reclaimed
Imladris
Mount Doom
Dammed Gate-stream

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Brand, King of Dale
1x Erland, Dale Counselor
1x Ghân-buri-Ghân, Chieftain of the Woses
3x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Jarnsmid, Barding Emissary
1x Treebeard, Keeper of the Watchwood
1x Smeagol, Simple Stoor
1x Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
1x Elrond, Lord of Rivendell
4x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Ottar, Man of Laketown
4x Beorning Axe
2x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Armor
1x Erkenbrand's Horn
1x Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Deep in Thought
4x Look to My Coming
2x Roll of Thunder
1x Saved From the Fire
2x Speak "Friend" and Enter
1x The Terror of his Comming
2x Traveled Leader
4x Something Slimy
1x Long-stemmed Pipe
4x Strange Meeting
1x Perspective
1x Unknown Perils
2x Watch and Wait
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Alatar, Final Envoy
1x Gwaihir, The Windlord
1x Meneldor, Misty Mountain Eagle
1x Pallando, Far-travelling One
1x Radagast, Tender of Beasts
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder

Shadow Draw Deck:
3x Uruk Captain
4x Grishnakh, Treacherous Captain
4x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
4x Merciless Berserker
1x Shagrat, Tower Captain
4x Ugluk, Ugly Fellow
1x Uruk Blitz
4x Uruk-hai Healer
4x White Hand Guard
4x White Hand Mystic
3x White Hand Taskmaster
3x Ugluk's Sword
2x Lurtz's Bow, Black-Fletch Bow
4x Spear of the White Hand
1x Vile Pit
1x Savagery to Match Their Numbers
4x Strange Device
4x You Do Not Know Fear
4x Greed
4x Fury of the Evil Army
3x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

The fellowship is a fairly typical BoO one that was supposed to be played with a different shadow (it runs way better if I have Not Easily Avoided and can run Naked Waste), but it's mainly just there so I can experiment with uruks without getting on any opponent's nerves with something more broken, like New Chapter, Madril, HKOTN or Powerful Guide.

The shadow is a fairly straing forward uruk beatdown shadow, that doesn't even have my usuall Gollum support this time, but it has proven to be surprisingly effective. Uruks are the best when most fellowships are the worst, in the first region. They come out early and hit hard. The worst matchup by far is Madril, so I'm packing a full set of Greed to even stand a chance, but it's not always good enough. I also pack a full set of Merciless Berserker to deal with the various broken decks of the format, there is way too many to list, and I can always just ditch him to Strange Device, Grimbeorn, Ottar or reconciliation if I find no use for him. Ugluk's Sword can launch some nice surprise swarms, but I'm not valueing it as high as I used to. Here is an example to the sword going off for a surprise kill:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$anorpns1rky6mjrq

Fury of the Evil Army is an incredibly powerful card in my opinion, many decks rely heavily on their followers, and often don't pack extra compies, because they are usually not delt with. FOTEA can preassure many decks built around followers very hard with Relentless Hunter (on that note, Mauhur eats ring bound hobbits alive). Here is an example for that too:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$dbyc20oo9oox4ii5

Here is a replay of how it deals with Powerful Guide:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$wg9fbaxv419f4cac

Here is how it works against rainbow wounding (a generic weakness of most uruk decks):

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=B0r0m1r$uik4oc3rnmc68apo

There are also a lot of games where the uruks just kill/cripple at early sites, but I'm sure everyone can imagine how it goes. Actually I'm not sure if I want to pack 1 or 4 Uruk Blitz, that card is just brutal if played in the first region with some fierce uruks.

The 4 Strange Device and Vile Pit, the muster from Strange Meeting and Ottar helps getting rid of unwanted uruks, if they are not useful in the matchup (like Healer, Mystic and Berzerker can be simple vanilla minions in some matchups). They also help you sculpting a perfect hand for Ugluk's Sword (which is also a good discard outlet for unwanted minions).

All in all I don't think uruks match the power level of the top shadows in the format, but they are incredibly fun for me, especially since I never played them in expanded. Oh, the deck is once again 122 cards tall, but it's necessary if I don't want to run dry when a game goes to site 9, it usually thins down to like 10 cards if the game goes to distance, and with any less than that I would not be comfortable with.

[sgtdraino]

As you know I stock Albert Dreary specifically to counter Greed. That seemed like the one thing that was hemming you up when you played me. Maybe sprinkle a little Ally hate? Like those Dunland guys who can assign themselves to an ally?

[Shelobplayer]

As you know I stock Albert Dreary specifically to counter Greed. That seemed like the one thing that was hemming you up when you played me. Maybe sprinkle a little Ally hate? Like those Dunland guys who can assign themselves to an ally?

I don't think those would ever get to skirmish, let alone survive one.

[Shelobplayer]

Played 3 more games and the uruks took care of business in all 3, also finally got to play against Powerful Guide as well, a matchup I was curious about. Added few more replay links.

Dropped Hugin for Perspective as I found absolutely no use for him in this deck, and removed both Fortitude for STMTN as I realized it's only R-ed in expanded, not X-ed and a Vile Pit.

Shagrat, Tower Captain seems like an extremely potent fighter when his text is active, might even worth building around him in a different setup with 4 x Hides,  more Vile Pit and some more posessions to power him. Maybe With Uruk Regular, Uruks, Ithil Stone and Troll of Cirith Gorgor and some additional cheap random support area possessions.

I'm having tonnes of fun trying to find the best possible uruk build I can as I have neglected this culture/race in expanded for all these long years I'm playing this game. I find it really cool that they made almost fully compatible.

[Dictionary]

I suppose there's always Ships of Great Draught, but I don't think Madril decks are really common enough for that (At least in my experience). I agree that uruks are pretty solid in expanded, they certainly have an easier time than they did in Movie Block. Covetous Uruk might also be useful in a possession deck.

[Shelobplayer]

I suppose there's always Ships of Great Draught, but I don't think Madril decks are really common enough for that (At least in my experience). I agree that uruks are pretty solid in expanded, they certainly have an easier time than they did in Movie Block. Covetous Uruk might also be useful in a possession deck.

Heh, it's funny that you say that, my go to and most successful shadow in movie was a hybrid / uruk swarm one, although it was fairly unconventional, should be posted somewhere in the movie section. Covetous Uruk looks okay, but I'm not sure if I can fit it into my list, here is what I got now:
3x Uruk Captain
4x Uruk Regular
1x Grishnakh, Treacherous Captain
4x Cirith Ungol Patroller
4x Cirith Ungol Sentinel
4x Cirith Ungol Sentry
2x Troll of Cirith Gorgor
3x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
4x Merciless Berserker
4x Shagrat, Tower Captain
3x Ugluk, Ugly Fellow
4x Uruk-hai Healer
4x Hides
2x Ugluk's Sword
2x Grond, Hammer of the Underworld
2x Lurtz's Bow, Black-Fletch Bow
2x Spear of the White Hand
2x Vile Pit
3x Ithil Stone
4x Greed
2x Fury of the Evil Army

It is not as focused as the list I'm using now, and honestly, I'm not sure if it works, the cycling potential without Strange Device is definitely weaker and also has no condition removal for now aside from Grond, HOTU (although I'm not against adding more cards, just have to pair it with a good filtering/cycling fellowship). On the other hand it's raw fighting power is significantly better and has way better swarming potential.

Btw it makes zero sense to me that Keeper of Isengard is on the expanded x-list, its not like he would be nearly as dominant as in FOTR block where dropping him alone on a site is enough to potentially stop a double move... wish that thing got updated with The Hunters block, before decipher went broke.

[Dictionary]

Took a look at that deck yesterday; I really like it. Do you still use it? One of my main reasons for disliking Movie Block is because uruks struggle so much.
Regarding Keeper of Isengard, he would make all uruks of all cultures fierce and block their wounds, which helps against many decks - wouldn't that be too powerful? I do agree that a lot of cards on the expanded X-List or even R-list are weird though - I don't really think StmtN is much worse than Ghastly Wound, especially not with Followers creating free twilight a lot of the time.
It's a shame you can't fit Covetous Uruk in (though I can understand why) - he's basically a baby Troll of Cirith Gorgor

[Shelobplayer]

Took a look at that deck yesterday; I really like it. Do you still use it? One of my main reasons for disliking Movie Block is because uruks struggle so much.
Regarding Keeper of Isengard, he would make all uruks of all cultures fierce and block their wounds, which helps against many decks - wouldn't that be too powerful? I do agree that a lot of cards on the expanded X-List or even R-list are weird though - I don't really think StmtN is much worse than Ghastly Wound, especially not with Followers creating free twilight a lot of the time.
It's a shame you can't fit Covetous Uruk in (though I can understand why) - he's basically a baby Troll of Cirith Gorgor

I'm not playing movie block for a few years now. Unlike expanded, I think that format is straight out broken by Lady Redeemed (the exact reason why I think my uruk list did so well was that it had answers to the metagame, including LR).

Keeper of Isengard is so strong in FOTR because you can't touch him, in expanded there are plenty of ways to exhaust or even kill him without him ever getting a chance to do his thing (LRS, Powerful Guide etc). It'd probably still be strong, but not the same, and the freeps side it faces are way more powerful as well.

[sgtdraino]

As you know I stock Albert Dreary specifically to counter Greed. That seemed like the one thing that was hemming you up when you played me. Maybe sprinkle a little Ally hate? Like those Dunland guys who can assign themselves to an ally?

I don't think those would ever get to skirmish, let alone survive one.

That's a good point. I'm trying to think if there's other options that would exert Dreary in Shadow. I feel like there's got to be!

I suppose there's always Ships of Great Draught, but I don't think Madril decks are really common enough for that (At least in my experience).

Ships is generally the simplest and most effective answer to Madril, and I think that's generally why you don't see Madril decks all that often: Most of them completely fall apart against Ships of Great Draught. But it would be great if there was a good counter to Albert Dreary, because most Madril decks run large Fellowships, and a well-timed Greed can utterly destroy them. I suppose those Dunland guys could still work in combination with Ships; just hold a Greed in reserve until you get Ships out, throw down Dunland, kill Dreary, then Greed away!

[Eukalyptus]

Keeper of Isengard is so strong in FOTR because you can't touch him, in expanded there are plenty of ways to exhaust or even kill him without him ever getting a chance to do his thing (LRS, Powerful Guide etc). It'd probably still be strong, but not the same, and the freeps side it faces are way more powerful as well.

Not true. Betrayal of Isengard and ARV are pretty good at dealing with KoI, not to forget Foul Creation.

[Shelobplayer]

Keeper of Isengard is so strong in FOTR because you can't touch him, in expanded there are plenty of ways to exhaust or even kill him without him ever getting a chance to do his thing (LRS, Powerful Guide etc). It'd probably still be strong, but not the same, and the freeps side it faces are way more powerful as well.

Not true. Betrayal of Isengard and ARV are pretty good at dealing with KoI, not to forget Foul Creation.

Okay, let me rephrase then. You can deal with KOI in expanded without playing otherwise subpar or useless cards.

[Eukalyptus]

Okay, let me rephrase then. You can deal with KOI in expanded without playing otherwise subpar or useless cards for the Expanded format.

Corrected that for you.

Point taken.

[Shelobplayer]

Well anyway, if someone honestly thinks that Keeper of Isengard would be too strong for expanded, he probably haven't taken a good enough look at the cards printed in The Hunters block.

A good portion of the best uruks already being fierce just makes it even less effective.

[Eukalyptus]

Not with cards like Thorongil and his bow running around, no. Also Terrible and Evil is found so many times as well as Powerful Guide who makes short work of him. KoI is for FotR Block only and that's fine.