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| Pipeweed |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:58 pm |
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Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 1010
Location: Earth (I think)
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--- description ---
Ever wanted to build an insanely fun deck where you can kill two or three companions per turn? Then check Ninja Gollum out!!
--- end description ---
Ninja Gollum is one of the most powerful shadow sides out there, provided that it is played right. And building and learning how to play a Ninja Gollum deck is harder than it looks. In this article, I will explain the basics and some finer points of building and playing a Ninja Gollum deck.
Ninja Gollum has a few central things that need to be recognized at all times:
Wounding: Probably the most important thing to any Ninja Gollum deck is wounding. Gollum wounds like crazy. With just a few cards in play, our little friend can easily kill any companion. Any companion. Period.
Corrupting: Another variation on the Ninja Gollum deck is a corrupting deck using Gollum, Stinker and Nasty, Foul Hobbitses. Unfortunately, it is very hard to build a Ninja Gollum deck only around corrupting, but paired with Nazgul or Easterlings, you can utilize a Ninja Gollum engine in a corruption deck.
Slowing the Opponent: And last, but certainly not least, slowing down the opponent’s fellowship. This is something that a well built and played Ninja Gollum deck will do naturally. With exhausted companions, and dead ones too, your opponent will most likely not want to run. Especially with a fierce Gollum and a fierce, damage +1, enduring Shelob on the table. Double moving with a setup like that means instant death.
These three elements are central to any Ninja Gollum deck. Now we will analyze your minion, events and condition options for a Ninja Gollum deck. Please note, we will not analyze every single card, but only the ones that have the most potential for this deck.
Minions:
Gollum, Dark as Darkness is a nice choice for any Ninja Gollum deck. One great way to use him, is to play him, play Horribly Strong to discard him, and play him back instantly with Hidden Even From Her. This is a very, very powerful combo, as it will allow you to exert the Ringbearer, and come back with a fully healed and ready to go Gollum.
Gollum, Mad Thing is one of my favorite Gollums ever. Either the free peoples player assigns him themselves, making him either 8 strength or adding a burden, or you assign him, meaning instant death for whatever companion he ends up being assigned too. Either way, you win.
Gollum, Stinker is a the Gollum for corruption decks, and is a good card no matter what way you look at it. If you have a Mad Thing and a Stinker in your deck, you can use Mad Thing to hopefully get a nice number of burdens out, and then use Stinker to finish things up.
Shelob, Her Ladyship is the number one choice for any Ninja Gollum deck. This card kills what used to be the biggest protection against Ninja Gollum: Faramir, Son of Denethor. Now, just play Shelob, and select Faramir. No problem.
Shelob, Eater of Light is another nice choice, especially when playing with multiple Gollums and Shelobs. Stack them on a Web and you’ve got a pretty powerful Shelob.
Desert Lord is a pretty basic one for any Ninja Gollum deck. Wound like crazy.
Events
Horribly Strong is one of my favorite cards. I use it in an afore mentioned combo involving Hidden Even From Her and any Gollum. Very nice card.
Captured By The Ring is the most essential event in any Ninja Gollum deck. What do you use it for? To get Gollum.
A Dark Shape Sprang is a nice card as well, letting you get an extra skirmish in, and hopefully kill another companion in the process.
You’re A Liar and A Thief is another great one, but don’t pack too many of these, as many of your wounds will come from They Stole It, Promise Keeping and threats
Nasty, Foul Hobbits is an essential if you would like to burden your opponent.
Master Broke His Promise is the one card that can tip the scales completely by just wounding every companion.
Conditions
This is where Ninja Gollum thrives. Plenty of conditions to use for this kind of deck 
They Stole It is a very critical card and you should have four in your deck. Not only does it let you cycle your hand, but it lets you wound a companion, or wound a shire companion twice.
Promise Keeping is the other critical condition in a Ninja Gollum. It works very well with They Stole It obviously, and lets you place wounds for Shelob as well. I would recommend three in your deck, because it is unique.
Web is technically not a condition, but I figured I’d put it here to save space. This is nice for when you have used up your Captured By The Rings and want to have easy access to Gollum and Shelob whenever you need them.
Fat One Wants It is very good period. Not only do you get to add extra threats, but you can use it in a pinch when you really need to hold on to your Gollum.
Hidden Even From Her is another card that you will want to have. Not only does it make your Gollum fierce, but you can pull him back using the afore mentioned combo.
Final Strike is good, but I do not usually play with mountain sites, and it is usually not necessary to use its other ability
Slippery As Fishes is a very nice card, but I cannot go into detail about it, as I do not usually use mountain, marsh, etc. sites
Incited is a very good card. Very. This card lets you remove some events and use the space to put more power cards in.
Example Deck:
Here is an example Ninja Gollum deck. This utilizes both burdening and wounding, but primarily wounding.
Gollum, Dark as Darkness
Gollum, Mad Thing
Gollum, Stinker
Shelob, Her Ladyship x3
Incited x2
Captured By The Ring x4
Web x2
Fat One Wants It x2
They Stole It x4
Promise Keeping x3
Hidden Even From Her x2
Horribly Strong x2
A Dark Shape Sprang
You’re A Liar And A Thief x2
Nasty, Foul Hobbits x2
Master Broke His Promise x2
Desert Lord
With 35 cards, this is a pretty average sized deck. It is also pretty simple to play once you have the idea of things.
Strategy:
With the example deck, you do NOT want to play out your Gollum’s until you have a reasonably good setup. Otherwise, Gollum can be clobbered. Save him until you have at least one They Stole It on the table, one Promise Keeping, and one other condition. Once you are able to play him, play either your Mad Thing or your Dark as Darkness. Wound as much as possible, especially the Ringbearer. If you have the means to pull a combo out, do it quickly, as soon as possible. Do NOT play Stinker until you have at least 3 or 4 burdens, otherwise he will be clobbered. Also, do not discard like crazy with They Stole It, or your deck will run out too fast. Focus on the wounding, and only use Stinker for an extra thorn in your opponent’s side. By site 6, you should usually have at least 2 They Stole It’s out on the table, along with a Promise Keeping, Hidden Even From Her, Fat One Wants It, Web and an Incited. With a setup like this, do not hesitate to discard your cards to wound. It’s all easy from there. The most important part of Ninja Gollum is the setup. If you do not set your cards up right, then your deck will fail. A couple things before I close:
Ideal Sites:
Slag Mounds
Neekerbreeker’s Bog
Westemnet Village
Mere of Dead Faces
Weaknesses:
Condition Discarding: This will absolutely destroy any Ninja Gollum deck. Watch out for cards like Grown Suddenly Tall, or the mother of all condition discarding, Elrond with Vilya. This will kill you turn after turn. Always. You may want to pack a couple Tower Asassins to stop this, but it is not so much of an issue now that Vilya has been rotated out of standard play.
Direct Damage: While you can usually take archery wounds on your Shelob actually benefiting you by pumping her strength, direct damage will kill your Gollum. The only way to prevent this is to use cards like Horribly strong and kill companions before the archery phase.
Skirmish Cancelling: A classic, but not as effective way is to cancel the skirmishes themselves. But with the release of Shadows and the newer cards, this is not as effective, but can still slow Gollum down.
Wound Prevention: Once your opponent has no other options, they should resort to wound prevention. Like skirmish cancelling, this will not wreck your shadow, but can slow it down. Beware of cards like Intimidate, sapling of the white tree, etc.
I hope that this was an interesting and informative article, and I hope to hear of some very nasty Ninja Gollum decks
Cheers,
Pipeweed |
Last edited by Pipeweed on Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:24 pm; edited 4 times in totalPipeweed's Haves/Wants: 100 NEW RARES!!
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Joe Meets God: A Humorous Article on a Budget
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| MR. BOB |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:35 pm |
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Joined: 17 Jun 2006
Posts: 18
Location:
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i have now found out how to beat my friend’s ninja gollum deck muahahahahahahaha
it was writen well and i might even build a ninja gollum deck |
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| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:02 pm |
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
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Pretty good article. But I think you didn’t cover whole idea of Ninja Gollum.
1. Final Strike is very good card - you need at least one in a deck in a current meta. Especially to protect Shelob from Ithilien Blade. It can reaaly suprise FPP canceling archery actions.
2. It’s a pitty that you didn’t include cards from editions 11+, only Horribly Strong and Incited. There are many useful cards there - Frenized Attack (great in corrupting Gollum), Led Astray (path control + solution to choke decks), Not Alone (alternative to Web), Chasm’s Edge (this + Slippery make Gollum’s strenght 20+), Little Snuffler (universal card), Trap Is Sprung (a must-have in a corrupt Gollum), Unseen Foe (everything clear).
3. I don’t like your deck. I think you should choose between corupting and wounding. Wounding is basically what Gollum is the best in. In corruption he needs help from other cultures. I think you won’t be able to corrupt anything with your deck, so I would drop all the corrupting cards. Add fourth Shelob, HL, maybe some more Desert Lords and cards I mentioned in point 2.
4. I also missed Unabated in Malice - really anoying card  It’s always threatening me. |
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| Pipeweed |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:08 pm |
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Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 1010
Location: Earth (I think)
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:17 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Very nice article.
In my experience, Ninja Gollum works best when you foNOLINKcus more on having Gollum win his skirmishes. Gollum winning is always bad news for the Free Peoples player...
For example, Horribly Strong will likely cause one wound. Desert Lord will likely cause 2-3 wounds. If instead of drawing these you drew a card that made Gollum win his skirmish, you get two wounds anyway (one from the skirmish win and one from Promise Keeping). If you have a NFH or YaLaaT in hand, more bad news for the opposing fellowship. If you happen to have You’re A Liar and a Thief + Incited, it’s pretty much game over. 
So I’d suggest getting rid of cards that wound outside of skirmishes (Horribly Strong, Desert Lord, Master Broke His Promise, Gollum, Dark as Darkness), and think more about wounds during skirmishes. This also means I disagree with some of the suggestions above -- more side strategies = more diluted. But Chasm’s Edge is definitely something to try. |
| Last edited by Cobra on Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:21 pm; edited 1 time in totalhttp://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games. |
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| Pipeweed |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:19 pm |
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Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 1010
Location: Earth (I think)
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:45 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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That’s a fair point, but personally I like to see really solid decklists rather than overly general "example" lists. Don’t just look for some nice cards to build a deck out of, look for the BEST cards that fit your strategy, and explain why they’re the best, and why some others didn’t make the cut.
Three new sets have come and gone since I played Ninja Gollum, so maybe after looking at the newer cards you’ll come to an entirely different conclusion about which version of this hated LOTR TCG deck is the best.  But regardless, a higher level of strategic thought and exploration (and playtesting if possible), so that you can really say "here’s the best Ninja Gollum deck I can come up with," always bumps my own rating up a notch.
By the way, if I haven’t said so before, welcome! Always great so see new faces in our article contests, and despite the criticism you have good ideas and style. Hope to read a lot more from you. |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 8:42 pm |
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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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my complaints have been listed. put the best possible deck not just a deck that is pretty good what does a deck like this have against gondor wraiths with swept away?
also cobra has a point why give one wound when you can give two? |
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 8:51 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 3947
Location: Maryland
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sickofpalantirs wrote: what does a deck like this have against gondor wraiths with swept away?
This deck can add a lot of threats with Fat One Wants It and Captured By the Ring, which means that Swept Away will be discarded. |
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| Pipeweed |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 8:56 pm |
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Joined: 14 Jun 2006
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Location: Earth (I think)
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