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| orian |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:25 am |
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Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 127
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--- description ---
For one month, I have been testing the potential swarming strategies with hunters release. Here are my decks, analysis and conclusions.
--- end description ---
In this article, I examine many shadows and try to associate them to different fellowships. My goal is not to determine whether those decks stand a chance in big tournaments. You will have to discover this by yourself, by playing the deck you like. What I can tell you is that I recently won one tournament with one of the decks I will be presenting and that it does perfectly well in the current meta.
If you have already play swarming decks that are not stupid, you know that swarming requires great playing skills, calculation and probability estimation. It’s very fun to play and very interesting to play against.
Anyway... let’s see the strategies you can use to swarm your opponent with hunters cards:
I have focused on some type of decks, as you will see, but you can imagine many different sort of decks.
I Orc shadows
That is quite easy to create a shadow that is able to swarm through one of the most powerful cards of the War of The Ring block. Goblin hordes is a swarming strategy key, because it enables to take potentially 4 more orcs in your hand before the beginning of your shadow phases. Before Demoralized was X-listed, Kenneth Ellingsen showed up with a strongly innovative deck focusing on adding twilight again and again, thanks to Mountain Troll - orcs + corsairs let him play about all his deck every turn. Now that demoralized is forbidden, there is still many ways to use goblin hordes.
1 Pure goblins
Deck created by orian - played 27times (3 tournament rounds) for 23 Wins - 21 Shadowkills
Fellowship I used was site changing rangers/gandalf fellowship to be able to move on underground withouth having to play unforgiving depths and remove burdens with gandalf and some hobbit cards. I usually was bidding 3 to go second. I often saw an alternative version with dwarvs/smeagol in fellowship + isildur, from bloodlines , to cycle cards faster. I never thought that was so useful. W 32/ L 7
Shadow [30]
4x Goblin hordes
3x Orkish smith
3x Frenzied orc
3x Orkish worker
4x Persistent orc
4x Scurrying goblin
1x Isengard underling
1x Dread and despair
1x Massing strength
1x Mountain troll
1x horror of harad
4x champion orc
let’s examine the deck:
its strengths
-> with 24 minions, you can swarm without having a decent set up starting from site 4, fast swarm is a key to win against a lot of decks, especially ents and gondor
-> cavern entrance is an underground site and you don’t have any skirmish special abilities
-> 2 minions add twilight, 1 is able to come back to top of deck by itself
-> massing strength is a killer card
its weaknesses
-> very sensible to strong ringbearers
-> without goblin hordes or sites, you will never be able to play more than 8 minions
-> you have to keep cards in hands if you can’t kill the opponent’s ring bearer - that fragilizes your fellowship a lot.
-> doesn’t discard possessions
[best matches]
-> any deck that doesn’t remove conditions
[worst matches]
-> any deck that has a very good set up and manage to get 8 companions before site4
-> Blood runs chill
-> targeted archery
-> other agressive decks (uruks, corsairs, swarms...)
2 The hordes of the black sails
The fact that pure orcs have huge problems against ithilien blade and aragorn’s bow, which represent 60% of top decks at the moment, you most obvious solution is to throw some corsairs in, to use corsair marauder to discard possessions and ships of great draught to remove threats. I was playing this deck with a very fast cycling fellowship and no site changing at all, which, I must admit was a very big weakness of the deck. W 22/ L 5
Shadow [40]
4x goblin hordes
4x black sails of umbar
2x ships of great draught
1x under foot
4x persistent orc
3x orkish smith
4x scurrying goblin
2x orkish worker
2x frenzied orc
2x champion orc
1x horror of harad
4x corsair plunderer
4x corsair marauder
1x castamir of umbar
1x corsair boatswain
1x fierce in despair
The strategy of this deck is quite clear; you set up your black sails of umbar and discard your opponent’s possession in the same time. Then, when he is weakened enough, you swarm all in once with a good 8minions hand, and at least 6 more that can arrive during the shadow phase.
[strengths]
-> get rid of possessions
-> potential 16-18 minions during the swarm
[weaknesses]
-> need goblin hordes or underground sites to work
-> very long to set up, you will have to stop your opponent as much as possible
[best matchups]
-> same as the pure orc decks + rangers and rohan
[worst matchups]
-> blood runs chill dwarves
-> running ents
3 Merboy style
Well, this deck won a PSQ so I had to speak about it. At the moment, I think it won’t work again. I myself beat it very easily during last WCQ. Nevertheless, the strategy is to get 9minions hand using isildur, bloodlines. Given that you don’t use any conditions, your opponent has to keep some of his cards.
Your fellowship is dwarf +smeagol and then isildur, heir of Elendil to cycle cards using dwarven best cycling cards:
out of darkness
durability
and of course, the ultimate special ability of gloin, son of Groïn
I went 28W/9L with this shadow
the shadow side in 30 cards was looking like:
4x frenzied orc
4x champion orc
4x persistent orc
4x orkish worker
4x scurrying goblin
1x chamber patrol
1x orc raid commander
2x isengard underling
1x horror of harad
1x massing strength
4x skulking goblin
[strengths]
-> the fastest of all swarm deck. if your opponent is not set up at site 4 you’ll certainly win
-> very disarming to play against
[weaknesses]
-> 9 minions at most
-> your fellowship is soooooooooooooooooooo weak
-> nothing against possessions
-> you need to bid high to go second but you can’t remove burdens afterwards
[best matches]
-> elves, dwarven, hobbits
[worst matches]
-> rangers
-> ents
II Swarming with initiative
Another strategy to swarm focus on a card from Return of the king block called under foot. Well played, this card can be an ultimate swarming power, since it gives you the opportunity to reconcile your hand during the shadow phase, the only condition being on being able to spot one raider and to have initiative.
Let’s see which cards can give you the initative during the shadow phase
1 Corsair war galley
The most obvious one, I guess.
I borrowed the idea to Roy Aarts, a dutch player, for a corsair swarming deck: he went second in last WCQ defeated only by myself with this deck, I myself went 14W/2L with a very similar creation
shadow [35]
4x black sails of Umbar
3x ships of great draught
3x corsair war galley
3x under foot
4x castamir of umbar
3x black numenorean
4x corsair plunderer
4x corsair marauder
2x fierce in despair
3x wind that sped ships
2x quelled
[strengths]
-> can kill by swarming and by winning skirmishes as a classic corsair deck
-> don’t care with possessions
-> don’t care with threats
-> have solution to any problems
-> you can play a very strong fellowship with it
[weaknesses]
-> blood runs chill
-> very difficult to play
-> maximum minions out will be about 10
-> less efficient in pure swarming
2 Mordor fighter
I heard about this deck while speaking with Nort American players. Mordor fighters/under foot - little raiders/little sauron deck.
should work fine but I never saw it play. I designed a deck like this and this worked pretty well, I supposed. Though, I suppose there are some cards I was missing. W 14/ L 6... not very probating but again it’s only a little try from myself and I’d like to put my hands on the real list
Shadow [30]
4x mordor fighter
4x orc pursuer
4x orc chaser
2x orc seeker
1x siegecraft
4x under foot
4x desert sneak
4x desert runner
1x desert fighter
1x desert spearman
4x corsair plunderer
1x quelled
[strengths]
-> surprising deck, use opponent’s mistakes
-> few twilight used
-> any fellowship you want can be paired with it
-> city gates is a site adding threats!
[weaknesses]
-> requires a good part of luck ^^
-> few solutions against your opponent’s decks
[best matches]
-> any small company
[worst matches]
-> the other...
3 My deck using initative
I thought that could be funny to mix cultures and finally I came up with this deck. You’ll see that most of the surprising cards I will be explaining in section III - which analyses cards that can be successfully added in any deck.
I will give the complete deck list to show the synergy between the two, to play important sites again and again, survive as long as possible and eventually a potential run at the end.
I bid 3 to go second, and I am at the moment 37W/ 3L with it.
Fellowship (40)
Starting:
Frodo, resolute hobbit
The one ring, the ring of rings
Aragorn, strider
Gandalf, leader of men
Gondorian prowler
Smeagol, hurried guide
Madril, defender of osgiliath
1x Mablung from hunters (skirmish: exert him to wound a minion he is skirmishing)
1x Elendil, the tall
1x Radagast, the brown
4x ithilien blade
2x aragorn’s bow
4x traveled leader
2x well-traveled
2x the palantir of Orthanc, recovered seeing stone
2x Glamdring, foe-hammer
1x Watch and wait
1x last throw
4x there’s another way
4x duality
2x no safe places
1x ranger’s cloak
3x terrible and evil
sites (9)
crags of Emyn Muil - 0
anduin banks - 0
courtyard parapet - 0
neekerbreekers’ bog - 1
city gates - 1
slopes of Orodruin - 1
wold battlefield - 2
the prancing pony - 3
pinnacle of Zirakzigil- 3
Shadow (40)
2x corsair war galley
4x black sails of umbar
2x ships of great draught
2x castamir of umbar
1x black numenorean
1x corsair ruffian
4x corsair marauder
2x corsair boatswain
4x corsair plunderer
1x corsair freebooter
2x fierce in despair
2x wind that sped ships
1x quelled
3x under foot
1x sauron, dark lord of Mordor
2x bill ferny, agent of Saruman
1x gollum, plotting deceiver
1x southron leader
2x Breeding pit conscript
1x pallando deceived
1x a shadow rises
III General principles of swarming
Here ar the general principles I would precognize to make a successful swarming deck at the moment
1 Don’t stay cultural
As you can see in my last deck (and you could have seen before but I willingly removed the minions from the list), several minions can enter in any swarming decks, before they are not culturally enforced
southron leader: I love this guy, 4-cultures decks won’t like him. Ultimate when you can use ships of great draught to bring him back
Sauron, dark lord of Mordor: TOIL!!!!! you will always find a way to play him for free
Bill Ferny: mainly here for wold battlefield. If you control a site, you can play him for free
Breeding pit conscript: mustering during the shadow phase is always good
Gollum, plotting deceiver: an additional minion and you don’t have to have it in hand
a shadow rises and pallando deceived: two potential additional minions
other choices can of course be possible: nazguls, with ulaire toldea, wraith on wings that can be played for free, ulaire nelya, third of the nine riders to change important sites, ulaire lemenya, eternally threatening to get threats...
2 Have a second solution
Keep in mind that swarming doesn’t always work. Be prepared to have a second way of winning:
- winning skirmishes to kill opponent’s companion one by one
- run with your fellowship and stop your opponent’s
Three types of fellowships I have generally seen with swarms:
- huge cycling: gandalf with saved from the fire, dwarven, isildur, heir of Elendil ...
- site manipulation to help your swarm on its favourite site again and again
- strong fellowships that can accelerate very fast at the end
Don’t forget that your fellowship is a tool and that, like many others, it is important to use it as much as you can
3 Alternate strategies of ring bearer agression
To finish, I want to present two decks that are not really swarms but who threatens the Ring-Bearer directly, that’s why they are close to swarms!
Shadow (35)
Bill ferny, agent of saruman x3
Chieftain of dunland x3
Rapt hillman x3
Engrossed hillman x2
Courageous easterling x4
Mumak rider x1
Mumak commander x1
Rapid reload x2
Countless companies x3
Last days x2
Pursuing horde x3
Pavise x4
Gathering strength x2
Poisonous words x2
looks like a very classic Ferny site-control deck but in fact I have set up an alternate kill with ferny + gathering strength on cavern entrance, which looks yet like a good site to choose against my shadow deck. My fellowship doesn’t do anything special (slight site changing to get wold battlefield back)
and another one, funnier but more complicated
Shadow (35)
1x gollum, dark as darkness
4x captured by the ring
2x little snuffler
4x bill ferny, agent of saruman
4x gathering strength
2x pavise
2x rapid reload
2x shelob, her ladyship
4x ulaire nelya, third of the nine riders
2x treacherous little toad
2x countless companies
2x war trident
4x overrun
site manipulating: I try to play courtyard parapet then anduin banks or isenwash or wold battlefield to exhaust ring bearer as soon as possible
then bill ferny on cavern entrance or gollum do the job. very good against the one ring, ring of doom.The fellowship is, of course, site manipulating |
| Last edited by orian on Tue Jun 06, 2006 10:00 am; edited 7 times in totalorian - the French pirate, the Bloody Bastard |
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| orian |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:28 am |
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Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 127
Location:
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At last, the classic example of a deck that swarms and kills at the same time, is what is called "morcs"
A classic morc deck will look like that (this is the version I played at french championships, I think, I paired it with a merry’s sword deck - but we can imagine black marshall enduring version, full threats version... so on):
shadow [40]
4x morgul brute
4x morgul destroyer
4x morgul whelp
4x ulaire nelya, third of the nine riders
1x ulaire lemenya, wraith on wings
1x ulaire cantea, faster than winds
1x ulaire cantea, black assassin
2x ulaire enquea, sixth of the nine riders
2x ulaire toldea, black shadow
1x ulaire nertea, thrall of the one
2x the witch-king, captain of the nine riders
1x out of sight and shot
2x flung into the fray
1x hatred stirred
1x sauron, dark lord of mordor
1x gollum, dark as darkness
4x captured by the ring
1x dark swooping shadows
1x ulaire otsea, seventh of the nine riders
1x minas morgul answers
1x beyond all darkness
Conclusion
What I wanted to show in this article is that many cards offer ways to play swarming in hunters tournaments but that, opposite to the old school Moria, you don’t have to play it mechanically. You have many alternate solutions to create smart decks focusing on ring bearers, to use different cultures to swarm (hunters uruks? rainbow cultures with only 1-cost minions? little nazguls and woody-end? morcs?...)
The fact that you now have a way to choose sites according to what you want increases the interest of trying to play this kind of decks. Playing swarm also gives you tips to understand it and counter it better with your own tournament decks. Today, playing swarm is a real mind trick - I hope you have liked this article and I hope you will try some of the decks soon, and, why not, offer you own creation!!!! |
| orian - the French pirate, the Bloody Bastard |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:00 am |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 7750
Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
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| I will say this. you put a lot fo effort into this articel I cannot read ti in oen sittign so I will finish it later and then rate it. |
 Sop's haves/ top wants
(mm)"SoP: you will always be the Official CC Spammer in my heart"
"DáinIronfoot"
Spammers really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you.  |
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| donimator |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:31 am |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 67
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| An article with depth, options and good examples. You covered weaknesses and strengths of each build well and I have to trust your playtest results for comparative strength of each deck. Some will cry ’too long’ but those are the ones not willing to put the time into a good strategy. Great first submission. High marks from me! |
| A good friend will bail you out of jail. A really good friend will be sitting beside you saying, "Man, we screwed up!" |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:48 pm |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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| Solid article, orian. Even though it was a long article, it still held my attention. The in-depth descriptions of all the decks, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, is what makes this article definitely deserve a 5. |
| I had to put something here. |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:51 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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| I will say it’s a bit too long, and not because I’m not willing to put a lot of thought into strategy. IMO, you’d do better focusing on only one or two swarms, and putting a lot of strategy into that. Don’t go for the all-out seven-deck overview-instead, focus on one of those swarms, and explain all the ins and outs of it. |
| "ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
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| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:06 pm |
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
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Great article. Fully covered material, proper structure and nice language. Only thing I missed are Uruk-Hai. With Strange Device they can also be a serious threat (mostly, because they don’t need a lot of strength - kill ring-bearer with damage +X). Nonetheless I’ll give you 5. And I’m looking forward to your next article!  |
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| bobtheorc |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:57 pm |
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Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 1218
Location: Wow, its hot in Iowa
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 9:21 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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It also needs a little writing style cleanup...it gets a bit dry at parts, when it seems a little like a summary/tournament report. But otherwise...not a bad article. I’ll wait and see if it gets edited before I cast my vote.
However, you give excellent strategy. You might want to spend a little more time on it, focusing only on one or two decks, as already suggested. |
| "ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
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| orian |
![]() Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:28 am |
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Joined: 05 Jun 2006
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CarpeGuitarrem wrote: I will say it’s a bit too long, and not because I’m not willing to put a lot of thought into strategy. IMO, you’d do better focusing on only one or two swarms, and putting a lot of strategy into that. Don’t go for the all-out seven-deck overview-instead, focus on one of those swarms, and explain all the ins and outs of it.
well, the goal was clearly to avoid giving one single strategy and show the multiple swarm possibilities - eventually I might have stayed on one or two deck examples but that would have been depreciating for the other decks.
I could have been far much longer, speaking about uruk swarm, that another article covers in the meantime and which is another great possibility, or eventually a troll swarming deck
about my writing style, well I don’t really realize is it’s easy to read or not, I’m not good enough at English for this  |
| orian - the French pirate, the Bloody Bastard |
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