| Author |
Message |
| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:24 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
|
--- description ---
Shadow only. Despite it was made for contest, it really works!!
--- end description ---
Deck contains at least one card from each set. Designed for Cobra’s contest.
Shadow Draw Deck
1x 1R125 Greed
1x 2R46 • Uruk Captain
3x 3R68 • Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
4x 4C192 Uruk Regular
1x 4C187 Uruk Foot Soldier
1x 5R51 • Grima, Chief Counselor
1x 6R60 • Berserk Butcher
1x 7R58 • Gollum, Plotting Deceiver
1x 8R65 Ships of Great Draught
1x 9R+28 • Gollum, Dark as Darkness
1x 10U35 Suffered Much Loss
4x 11R205 Vigilant Uruk
4x 11C206 Watchman Uruk
2x 12C146 Strange Device
1x 13C160 Cavern Denizen
1x 14R15 Uruk-hai Scout
2x 15S164 • Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x 16R2 Candle Corpses
1x 17S115 Saruman, Curunir
Shadow Total 32
Strategy
As you can see, deck is very consistent. Out of 32 cards, 27 are minions. And almost every each of them contributes to the one ultimate goal - swarm the ring-bearer. How to do this?
Through the first 4 sites you try to collect "the perfect hand" for the 5th site. This mean you play or discard all the things you don’t need and keep "the perfect" cards. How does "the perfect hand" looks like? It depends on your opponent. But roughly this is it:
2-3x Uruk Regular
1x 2-cost Uruk (preferably Vigilant Uruk)
2-3x Watchman Uruk
1x Saruman, KoI or another Uruk
1x Strange Device
At the 5th site, having this hand, you’re able to play 6 damage +1 minions for 9 twilight or 7 damage +1 minions for 11-12 twilight or 6 damage +1 and fierce minions for 13 twilight. If you have more twilight to spend you probably will draw some additional minions from Watchman and Strange Device, what usually end up with 8-9 minions on the table.
What next? If you’re able to overwhelm or kill (damage +X) ring-beaer we’re done. If not, you should try to kill some companions and repeat swarm on the 7th site.
Card by card:
1. Greed - if opponent managed to play 6 companions before 5th site, your chances of swarming decrease rapidly. But you can use Greed to cut his fellowship to reasonable 5 value. Remember to exhaust as many companions, before you kill the 6th one.
2. Captain - can play another Uruk from discad, if you have plenty of twilight to spend.
3. Saruman, KoI - keeps Uruks alive and gives fierce (doubles chances of swarming at every site!)
4. Regular - main swarming engine. Play some Uruks for free!
5. Grima - anti-rainbow card. He can get rid of 2 companions therefore greatly increase swarming ability.
6. Gollum, PD - another minion you can play for some spare twilight from the discard pile. He can absorb some archery fire as well.
7. Ships of Great Draught - anti-ranger card.
8. Gollum, DaD - can injure ring-bearer before skirmish begins and add some twilight, if opponent has gathered few burdens.
9. Suffered Much Loss/ Uruk-hai Scout - gives battleground at 5th site to trigger Watchman ability.
10. Vigilant Uruk/ Cavern Denizen - cheap swarming Uruks.
11. Mauhur, Relentless Hunter - keeps strong companions busy or kills weak (but annoying) companions (like Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver or Jarnsmid, Barding Emissary)
12. Saruman, Curunir - cancels The One Ring, Ring of Doom ablitiy helping to overwhelm the ring-bearer.
Remember that Uruk Swarm works differently than Orc Swarm. Usually strength is not as important as their damage +X and that makes killig companions much easier. This is very strong shadow but its efficiency depends mostly on taking advantage of opponent deck’s weak points. Weak ring-bearer - overwhelm him/her, Low resistance ring-bearer - corrput him/her using damage +X, Big fellowship - Greed, Rangers - SotGD, Rainbow - Grima CC, Low pool - run with your fellowship! 
You can combine this shadow with almost every felloship possible. It is adviced to match it with fellowship of good cycling ability (Dwarfs, Smeagol) or deck filtering ability (Ents, Rohan).
All you need to do to play it in Expanded format is excange Saruman, KoI with Invincible Uruk and/or Saruman, Agent of the Dark Lord.
That’s all. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this article and maybe learn something new. Any feedback is most appreciate. |
| Last edited by sperzdechly on Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 9:10 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:43 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
|
Frankly speaking, I forgot about him. But the reason of forgeting was, that he doesn’t have damage +1 keyword (at least not until fierce), so I didn’t put him to uruk bomb decks. (usually he was the only to had fierce and was easly beaten).
But in this deck every uruk has a possibility to become fierce thanks to Saruman, KoI. So he wouldn’t be such a bad idea. And he can be played from Uruk Captain when you have only 2 twilight left! So... yes, I’ll include him. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:35 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: The Jungle
|
| it might be wise to add 1 more greed. to get it in play earlier, and have a back up in case it gets discarded. |
Check out my best article The Utterly Corrupt Corruption,
If at first you don't succeed...Sky-diving isn't for you.
"Combat is dangerous. It tends to interupt your breathing process."
ROLF!!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:41 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
|
The story with greed is: at the first glance you should be able to say wheater your opponent is going to play 6 companions or not (Ents, Rohan, Rangers - yes; Hobbits, Dwarfs - no). If yes - you keep greed until you can spot 6, play one uruk and use the rest of twilight to kill companions. If no - you can discard greed as soon as you draw it.
And this deck has to be small and consist mostly of minions. So there is no place for second greed.
Personally I play uruks now in Expanded format and don’t use 2 Greed. One is enough - belive me. If opponent plays 6 - you kill the main character (madril in rangers, gandalf in ents, etc.) and most probably win the game. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| drveni |
![]() Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:15 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 01 Jan 2007
Posts: 18
Location: Velika Gorica, Croatia
|
I like this... but I think that you can’t swarm with 6 minions (to many ways to get rid of it, especialy in expanded/open)
Other thing is that in open format you could play against hobbit/ranger choke and you won’t have 9 twilight to spend
Good anyway |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:35 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: The Jungle
|
| hmm, interesting with greed. i use a last alliance deck, and never play more than 5 companions until i’m sure that my opponant can’t kill me for it. i just think you may be able to keep better controll of fellowship sise with a second, allowing you to swarm better. but either way... |
Check out my best article The Utterly Corrupt Corruption,
If at first you don't succeed...Sky-diving isn't for you.
"Combat is dangerous. It tends to interupt your breathing process."
ROLF!!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:01 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
|
drveni wrote: I like this... but I think that you can’t swarm with 6 minions (to many ways to get rid of it, especialy in expanded/open)
You’re right, but with quite reasonable twilight pool (say 14) you’re able to play 9 minions! That’s true. In most of games I was able to play 8 minions at 5th site.Quote: Other thing is that in open format you could play against hobbit/ranger choke and you won’t have 9 twilight to spend
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| kawjor |
![]() Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:36 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Posts: 7
Location:
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| kawjor |
![]() Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:53 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Posts: 7
Location:
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Forum index » Lord of the Rings TCG » LOTR TCG Deck Clinics » Open
