| |
| Author |
Message |
Rate this article!
| 5 (Best) |
| [ 2 ] 28% |
| |
| 4 |
| [ 3 ] 42% |
| |
| 3 |
| [ 1 ] 14% |
| |
| 2 |
| [ 1 ] 14% |
| |
| 1 (Worst) |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
Total Votes : 7 |
|
| Ken Ellingsen |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:28 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 13 Dec 2005
Posts: 3
Location: Norway
|
--- description ---
In his latest feature, pro player Ken Ellingsen discusses how cards from the upcoming Hunters set will affect the meta. Ken also posts his PSQ-winning deck -- you may be surprised!
--- end description ---
Note: Feature articles are posted here to help keep our strategy section organized. This article is NOT eligible for the contest, but feel free to rate and review!
Questions and comments should be directed to Ellington.
Introduction
My first impression of the Hunters set was very good, as it makes a lot of decktypes playable. I’m going to review this new set, what it brings to the different decks out there, and how it will change the new meta.
I will also take a look at some of the wicked combos in this set, and trust me, there are plenty of them! Hunters is a very combo-oriented LOTR TCG set. In the old days, you just threw together a pile of the best cards available, like Aragorn, Ranger of the North and Legolas, Greenleaf, and you got yourself a good deck. With the Hunters set you get dozens of cards that are pretty useless by themselves, but combined, they’re pretty deadly.
The set also features some of the funniest card titles printed in LOTR TCG, like Gloin, Son of Groin. And I was surprised that Mauhur got his own starter. Not bad for a little Uruk henchman to get his own starter. I can’t wait for a Rosie Cotton or Bill Ferny starter in the future!
Hunters also introduces a new mechanic, "hunter". This keyword gives a hunter companion or minion a strength bonus against non-hunters. It’s a cool concept, but right now it doesn’t change the game much. It just brings some new, fun decktypes. But let’s take a look at the cards and what changes Hunters will bring to the standard metagame.
Forth the Three Hunters!
First let’s look at the three original hunters in the set, Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn. These hunters get a lot of cards that help each other. For instance, the new Aragorn can be exerted to pump a hunter. If you combine him with Focus, a condition which enables you to heal a hunter each time Legolas wins a skirmish, you got yourself a nice combo. Most of the cards designed for the three stooges ... uh, hunters, need to spot the other companions as well to be useful. The concept is good, but the deck has big problems against most of the top Shadows, so it’s not a tournament-viable deck yet. Maybe with the next LOTR TCG sets, these guys will pack a decent punch.
The Free Peoples, Culture by Culture
Now let’s look at the Dwarves. They got fewer cards than the other cultures, only eight total. Most of the cards are based on conditions and tokens. In my opinion, any condition-based deck is far too vulnerable to the tier one Shadows that can easily discard conditions, like Forest Nazgul and Corsairs. However, the Dwarves got one good card in the set, the already-mentioned Gloin, Son of Groin. His ability to cycle cards when he wins a skirmish is huge, as it enables a great Shadow side setup.
What about the Elves? LOTR TCG: The Hunters gives them the good old Mirror of Galadriel back. It’s not as broken as it used to be, but it’s still a pretty cool card. However, this one doesn’t stop the shadow player, this one helps the Free Peoples player instead. There are a lot of elven cards which grant you extra card draws, and with the Mirror, you can draw the cards you need for the next skirmish or perhaps the double move. Elven Bow is back, so for those of you who were worried that Elven archery was dead when Tower block rotated out, don’t worry. The set also features a new archery card, Mighty Shot, which is just that, but only against swarm-based decks. The +1 archery for each minion with strength 6 or less usually takes care of all those pesky Scurrying Goblins, etc. Direct damage decks, usually with Eowyn, are quite popular, and this new addition makes that kind of deck even better. Elves also get a couple of followers, although nothing close to the power of Pallando.
Since all the cool Ents were from Tower block, some of you might have thought that LOTR TCG was rid of those pesky Ents for good. Well, guess what, just like an asthmatic Sith lord, they’re back! Hunters provides you with a whole new set of Ents. Remember how I mentioned the vast amount of combos in this set? Ents also got one of them. The Quickbeam/Shepherd of the Trees combo enables you to add massive amounts of tokens to cards like Not the First Halfling or Traveller’s Homestead. With a Quickbeam in the discard pile, you can use your Quickbeam in play to add 12 tokens to a card, exerting four Shepherd of the Trees. That’s six discarded conditions or a total of -24 strength bonus. A new A Wizard Is Never Late is also brought into standard, called Momentous Gathering. Unlike AWINL, it requires you to spot an Ent or two, but that’s usually not a problem.
The Smeagol culture doesn’t get that many cards, but a couple of them are of very high quality. Most of the good Free Peoples cards require you to spot two Hobbits. For example Herbs and Stewed Rabbit and Connected by Fear, which makes a great addition to a Hobbit deck with Smeagol. The Shadow side got a few decent cards as well. Unseen Foe is a cool card, as it enables you to wound each companion with strength 8 or less in the regroup phase. Combined with another new card, Not This Time, and the old cards Promise Keeping and Little Snuffler, exhausting a big companion before the regroup phase shouldn’t be that card.
There are a lot of hunters in this set in addition to the three already mentioned. You now have Gondor men, who’ve become rangers as well as hunters. The entire Gondor set takes advantage of adding threats. There are some possessions which gives you the ability to add threats, like Aragorn’s Bow (an awesome card by the way) and Ranger’s Cloak. The new Madril uses those threats to make all your opponent’s minions roaming, which makes them targets for Ithilien Blade. You don’t want to play big minions like Sauron against this deck, as two exertions are all it takes to make him vanish. Even the fortifications have been altered. Earlier you had to spot knights to get the maximum benefit out of them, but now you need to spot rangers instead. The problem with this new deck is if your weapons are stripped away, the entire deck crumbles and dies. And let me tell you, corsairs have not seen less play lately...!
Speaking of possessions, what about the possession-based Free Peoples side itself, Rohan? Some of the good Rohan cards disappeared with Tower block rotating out of LOTR TCG’s Standard format, so now you got even less incentive to play Rohan. Sure, Last Days of My House is a Simbelmyne wannabe, but right now, Rohan is just too weak to be competitive. For instance, let’s analyze one of Rohan’s greatest fighters right now, Gamling. He is hunter+1 and if you spot three hunters he’s strength +3. give him a spear, a bow and a horse. That should make him strength 13, damage +1. The problem is that his base level can’t get higher, and you’d need three possessions and two other hunters to make him this big. Treebeard is base level 12 without any extra cards, and can get a base level 20 with conditions. There’s a reason why no one’s made Top 8 in an online PSQ with Rohan this year -- it’s just a terrible fellowship right now.
Now, let’s take a lot at the big Free Peoples winners in the new set, Hobbits. Yes, that’s right, Hobbits are now a tier one, fighting, stealthing, bad-ass LOTR TCG fellowship! They give less twilight than Dwarves, and have a lot more tricks up their little sleeves. Of course you still have to play some Smeagol cards to make them great, but it’s not like it’s hard to start him in your fellowship. Remember when Decipher made up an errata so that you couldn’t play stealths on your Ring-bearer? Well, I guess they changed they minds, because the new Hunters stealth card is far superior to any old stealth cards. It’s called No Visitors, and combined with non-Ring-bearer Frodo and a couple of Followers, you can stealth yourself to a flawless victory at site 9. If that’s not enough, Hobbits also got a new Power According to His Stature. It can only be used with Hobbit Ring-bearers, but it’s still an awesome card in a Hobbit deck.
The Shadow, Culture by Culture
What about the Shadow cultures? As mentioned, Uruk trackers are back. Mauhur, Ugluk, and the rest of the crew from Tower block have been resurrected in The Hunters. They even got a new Lurtz’s Battle Cry, which makes the minion not only damage+1, but also strength +2 instead of -1. Combined with the fact that Mauhur can be assigned to almost any companion, you got yourself a cool combo. Uruks also have some cards that enable you to take control of sites. Right now, there aren’t any good cards which benefit from this, but hopefully in the future, we’ll see a promising site-control Uruk deck.
No one wants to boost Nazgul in this set, as they only get six cards. Most of those cards are based on threats, so I guess they want to bring back the good old threat Nazgul. However, it’s not the typical Nazgul build that will enjoy the new cards, it’s the "Morc" decktype" that will find these additions most useful. The new Ulaire Lemenya adds a threat for each free peoples culture it spots, making it a great ally for the Morgul Destroyer and Ulaire Cantea, Faster than Winds.
The Evil Men culture got two cards to help their archery deck, Mumak Commander (a new version of Desert Lord) and Rapid Reload. The last card can be used together with Demoralized for a wicked combo. With four Demoralized or six companions in play, you can even add twilight by exerting companions with Rapid Reload -- how good is that? Another nifty combo Evil Men get is Last Days and several minions which can be discarded during a skirmish to fetch a minion from the discard. This ability triggers Last Days, so not only can you find a cool minion from your discard, you can also play a minion from your hand which will get a strength bonus and become fierce. Add some Stragglers and Mouth of Saurons to that, and you got yourself a huge combo-based LOTR TCG deck.
Orcs have seen more and more play lately. Even though they have the ability to corrupt, the most played versions are based on swarms. Usually the deck includes Demoralized or Massing Strength to pull off that shadow kill. Hunters introduced some new orcs which are based upon the old exert-to-wound concept, but right now they’re totally worthless. They need a card that cancels the manuever and archery phase or something to be remotely playable. But let’s get back to the swarmed-based decks. Hunters introduces a new troll which is very, very broken. It’s called Mountain Troll, and with the right cards, you’re able to play all the minions from your discard pile and even force your opponent to double if he survives. This troll needs a lot of twilight to work properly, but with cards like Orkish Worker or Demoralized, getting the pool you need is usually not a problem. It’s simply a sick card in the right deck.
Finally, I would also mention a new site, the first rare site ever printed. It’s the one and only Mount Doom. Some people have complained about site manipulation, and especially Travelled Leader. Mount Doom stops this abuse, and makes swarm decks like Morcs viable again. It can also help the Free Peoples player, as Ulaire Nelya and Watchful Orc can’t replace sites you play with Well-Travelled or Still Far Ahead.
Parting Thoughts...
So what kind of decks will be popular with the Hunters release? From the online PSQ this month, it looked like Ents, direct-damage Elves with Eowyn, and Dwarves are still the most popular fellowships. As for Shadow sides, the tier one Shadows like Corsairs, Orcs and Nazgul are still very much played, but Evil Men, Morcs, and various corruption decks seem to be more popular than in the past months. In general, it looks like most of the top LOTR TCG decks are built to abuse some of the new Hunters cards, with one or two powerful combos in them. There are even more combos in this set than I’ve mentioned, so just look out for them and see if you can make them work.
...and a post-Hunters decklist
Here’s the deck I used to win this month’s online PSQ (6-0). It’s based on a Shadow kill with Corsairs and Hobbits for survival. Have fun with the Hunters set and see if you find any hidden combos. 
Sam, Bearer of Great Need
The Ring of Doom
Anduin Banks
Anduin Confluence
Anduin River
Shores of Nen Hithoel
Ford of Isen
Caras Galadhon
Dammed Gate Stream
Courtyard Parapet
Cavern Entrance
Frodo, Frenzied Fighter
Bilbo, Aged Ring-bearer
Smeagol, Simple Stoor
A Promise x4
Sting, Weapon of Heritage
Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor
The Gaffer, Master Gardener
No Visitors x4
Phial of Galadriel, The Light of Earendil
Salt from the Shire
Deagol, Fateful Finder x4
Safe Passage
There’s Another Way x4
Herbs and Stewed Rabbit x4
Gladden Homestead x2
Fierce in Despair
Black Sails of Umbar x4
Castamir of Umbar x4
Corsair Marauder x3
Corsair War Galley x3
Ships of Great Draught x4
Wind That Sped Ships x4
Quelled x2
Corsair Plunderer x3
Black Numenorian x3 |
| Kenneth Ellingsen is a teacher and semi-professional card player living in Norway. With a Decipher rating of over 2000 and several major tournament victories under his belt, Ellingsen is respected among LOTR TCG players worldwide. His latest accomplishments include 1st place at PSE Utrecht 2004, 2nd at the LOTR TCG World Cup 2004, and 2nd at European Continentals 2005. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| LeoKula |
![]() Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:58 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 479
Location: SP, Brazil
|
Hi Ken!!
Very nice article, I just have some questions for you about your decklist.
My brother plays a similar deck on the fellowship side, except that he does not use the new hunter cards, instead he uses 3 fates entwined and 4 sudden fury... but basicly the deck is very similar to yours...
Now the questions:
1 - Why didn't you use sudden fury? Almost all hobbit builds are willing to include this fella...
2 - You mentioned in your article that fellowships that rely too much on conditions are not really safe because of shadows that are heavy on condition removal... from my point of view, your decklist relies a lot on conditions... how do you deal with a forest nazgul removing "a promise" and "there's another way"?? "No visitors" can compensate this??
Well that's it, excelent article!! Keep up good work Ken!!! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| spider_777 |
![]() Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:59 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 29 Dec 2005
Posts: 2
Location: Poland
|
Hey Ken!
Congratulation on your winning.
I got few serious questions 
First of all Safe Passage:
You are using 1 copy of it with no site control at all. You wrote that your main goal is shadow kill so I assume you bid quite high and go second. That means ur opponent will usually play his first site so drawing Safe Passage at early sites when it is mostly needed isn't very big...
On the other side, if somehow you are starting and you will play Dammed as ur 1st site pulling Safe Passage from draw deck - you don't have anything to control the sitepath so it will be useless...
So using cards like Gladenx2 (2 twilight each) Herbsx4 (1 twilight each) could give nice amount of twilight...
Next question is about followers:
You use 2 followers with no Community Living at all... Drawing Daddy-Twofoot which is really essential will be really hard... and without canceling skirmishes - the main task of this deck surviving could be hard even with huge smeagol...
Another question is about Sting. I see you are using Bot8L. Was it really that useful to replace burden removing one?
Hope you will find a time to answer those
Best Greetz,
spider |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:34 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
|
Just so everyone knows:
This article was sent directly to me from Ken, and I published it here on his behalf. Probably not the best way of doing "feature" articles as it seems to cause some confusion, but for now that's the way things are organized.
So, Ken is probably not aware of your replies yet, but I will certainly point him here when I get a chance. |
| http://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ellington |
![]() Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:28 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 Dec 2005
Posts: 1
Location: Norway
|
First question: The deck is designed to choke, and those hobbit cards adds way too much twilight. With pool denial, your opponent will clog his hand and have a harder time setting up a decent fellowship.
Second question: The deck gives 4-5 twilight from 1-3 and 7-8 twilight from 4-6. First your opponent has to play Nelya to replace a site, then play a second nazgul to discard a condition. How do you plan to accomplish that with that kind of pool and no forest sites?
Third Question: There's another way will replace site two or three, which will enable you to play Safe passage from your deck.
Fourth Question: Nothing is played against the fp from 1-3 with the pool given. Any follower is good enough from site 4-6. I play six followers, so it's very easy to cancel a skirmish. The Sting is obviously a typo. Removing a burden is very helpful |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| spider_777 |
![]() Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:31 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 29 Dec 2005
Posts: 2
Location: Poland
|
Hmm yea, There's Another Way replacing for Dammed, shame on me - didn't consider that...
Thanks for answer |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
All times are UTC - 4
|
|
Forum index » Lord of the Rings TCG » LOTR TCG Strategy Article Contest
