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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 8:31 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
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Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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--- description ---
The Uruk-Hai form the second Starter Deck for Hunters. Are they better than the Three Hunters? Part 2 of 2 in a Hunters Starter Deck series.
--- end description ---
(Note: Again, this decklist is primarily speculative, and based on the Mauhúr Starter decklist of the LOTR Online TCG)
Ring-bearer (2 cards)
Frodo, Weary From the Journey
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Adventure Deck (9 cards)
Breeding Pit of Isengard
Anduin Banks
Doors of Durin
Rohan Uplands
City Gates
Fords of Isen
Harrowdale
East Wall of Rohan
City of Kings
Free Peoples (30 cards)
Gamling, The Old x 2
Eowyn, Willing Fighter x 2
Haleth, Son of Hama x 3
Rohirrim Warrior x 2
Rohirrim Soldier x 4
Rider’s Mount x 4
Grim Trophy x 4
Rohirrim Axe x 4
Hobbit Sword x 2
Brilliant Light x 3
Shadow (30 cards)
Mauhur, Relentless Hunter x 4
Searching Uruk x 2
Following Uruk x 3
Violent Hurl x 4
Charging Uruk x 4
Pursuing Uruk x 4
Tracking Uruk x 4
Seeking Uruk x 3
Covetous Uruk x 2
" ’Mauhur and his lads are in the forest, and they should turn up any time now.’ "
My first thought regarding this starter deck: "Wow, Decipher is getting really desperate for Starter Deck characters. They had to resort to a guy that made it into two sentences of the book!" Oh well. Regardless of how minor a character Mauhúr actually was, he is the forerunner of the new wave of Uruk-Hai that arrive with the Hunters block. And they are some tail-kickin’ brutes! In fact, they’re the one culture that makes the best use of the new hunter mechanic. Of course, let’s not forget the Free Peoples! Rohan makes a worthy deck-in fact, it’s one of the best Free Peoples Starter Decks I’ve seen recently.
So what exactly makes the Rohan deck so great? Firstly, let’s look at how it implements the hunter keyword. Gamling, the Old is the only hunter companion to be found in the deck, but he’s one of the strongest characters in the deck. He’s strength 7 versus a non-hunter minion, which puts him on a par with Eomer and Theoden. Furthermore, he benefits from the event Brilliant Light, which boosts him to strength 10 and damage +1! And that’s without the possessions. Rohirrim Axe gives him a nice strength boost to 9, or to 8 versus a hunter (in that case, however, he becomes damage +1!). In addition, there’s Rohirrim Mount, which heralds the return of those exerting steeds. One of the best weapons against cards like Red Wrath and the newer Black Gate Sentry, it can exhaust minions, stopping them from exerting to play events like Red Wrath. Besides this, he has a handy bit of game text that benefits from facing a hunter opposition: if you can spot three hunters (companions or minions), he’s strength +3! But he’s not the only good thing to come out of the Rohan deck.
The Hunters block also sees the return of the valiant keyword to the Rohan culture, and this deck makes very good use of it. Gamling, the Old is a valiant companion, as are Eowyn, Willing Fighter, Rohirrim Soldier, and Rohirrim Warrior. But what good are keywords if you can’t do anything with them? Rest assured, this deck does plenty with this keyword. First of all, Eowyn’s ability. Eowyn, Lady of Rohan was an excellent companion for protecting Rohirrim from lethal wounds-but she’s rotating out. Along comes Eowyn, Willing Fighter. Her ability allows her to do the same thing to a valiant man, but without the twilight cost! You won’t really feel the difference, except for the twilight, because practically all of the Rohan companions are valiant. Yet another use of this keyword can be found with Grim Trophy. It gives a Rohan man a strength +1 bonus for every hunter or valiant man. With a full fellowship out, this can be as big as +5 or +6! Well, theoretically +8, but that would be straining the "Rule of 5". So, now we know just how awesome the Free Peoples side is. How about those Uruks?
The biggest user of the hunter keyword in the new cards is the Uruk culture. They have the most hunters period, and there is a great deal of hunter support to be found beneath the surface. Out of the twenty-six minions in this deck, fifteen are hunters, and the event also found in the deck gives hunters a hefty bonus. Let’s start with the minions...how about Tracking Uruk? This bad boy is a strength 14 hunter-and for only 5 twilight! Against most companions, this might be enough. But not all of them. To handle those, the event Violent Hurl comes in. Not only does it make this minion strength 17 against a non-hunter, but also damage +1! It’s not the only good card to use this keyword, however. Searching Uruk and Seeking Uruk both benefit from spotting hunters-for each hunter they can spot, they are strength +1, automatically! With a typical slew of hunters out, that can be as much as +4 strength, enough to overcome many companions. The hunter keyword, however, isn’t the only keyword to be found in the Shadow deck. There are a good deal of fierce minions in this deck, and they form a stellar co-host to the hunter minions.
The single most impressive of these in the Mauhúr deck is Mauhúr himself. Not only is he a hunter, but Mauhur, Relentless Hunter is a fierce minion with a big, bad ability to boot. It allows you to prey on non-hunter companions, especially if you want to get rid of an exhausted non-hunter like Gandalf. Or, if Mauhúr is unwounded coming into the fierce phase, use it to guarantee a wound against the weak links (strength-wise) of the Fellowship. But he’s not the only guy that uses this keyword to devastating effect. Enter Charging Uruk and Pursuing Uruk. Both of these fierce fellows get strength or hunter bonuses after their first skirmish. Imagine your opponent’s reaction: "Phew...I barely got through that skirmish phase. Wait-three of them are fierce and boosted in strength?!? #?@*!!!" Following Uruk is another fierce minion, and includes a great ability: every time he wins a skirmish, you get to exert a companion that’s not going to skirmish! It’s the perfect ringbearer attack-and you can pull it off twice because of the fierce keyword, too!
So, the companions are good, the minions are awesome...what about the sites? The most notable misplaced site that I notice is East Wall of Rohan. It allows you to exert two hunter companions in order to play a third hunter companion from your draw deck. Unfortunately, there’s only one hunter in the Rohan deck-Gamling. This card would be much better suited in the Aragorn deck, and as such, it presents an unplayable card-at least, until your opponent gets all three of the Hunters out anyway. However, it has a great card for the Uruk-Hai: Breeding Pit of Isengard. While this site is  , this can be remedied by playing it later in the game, in Region 3. Its upside, though, greatly helps: you play your first hunter (i.e., one of those nice Uruk-Hai) for -2 twilight! Another great site is Rohan Uplands. It spares the Uruk-Hai from the archery phase, allowing them to exert for those bonuses like Mauhúr’s. For the Free Peoples side, there’s Fords of Isen. This great card is targeted directly towards possession-based cultures. Rohan, anyone? However, there are some disappointing sites that make no sense in this deck. First off, Harrowdale. While Green Dragon Inn in the Aragorn deck might have been sadly pointless, this site is lethal to your poor minions. It neutralizes fierce minions-and those guys form one of the basic pillars of your Shadow deck! Another badly chosen site is Doors of Durin, which targets non-Rainbow fellowships-and that’s exactly what our fellowship is.
Despite these weaknesses, the Mauhúr deck remains an incredibly strong starter deck. Its Free Peoples are organized, and so are its minions-even if the Shadow deck is ridiculously minion-heavy. No deck is perfect, and this one can be helped achieve new heights if you’re drafting for a sealed tournament. The number one card you want to look for if you’re helping the Free Peoples is Last Days of My House (U). It’s not exactly Simbelmyne, but it’s close. With this card, you can get your fellowship on the board quickly. To go with that, you might consider drafting followers: Rohirrim Doorwarden (U) gives incredible strength boosts to a possession-heavy culture. Speaking of possessions, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Spear of the Mark (U)-or even Sturdy Shield (R). How about the Isengard boys, though? The first card I’ll recommend you watch for is Sentry Uruk (R). I actually ran into this in-game, and it is a particularly helpful card. Basically, it clones most of the keywords you can spot on an Uruk. Instead of one fierce Uruk, you can have two! And, if you want to get in on that site control game, although there aren’t quite enough site control cards yet, try Poised for Assault (U) to control sites, and Defense Rush (U) for healing bonuses from controlled sites.
So, unlike the Aragorn deck, which mostly flops, the Mauhúr deck is a pretty good set of cards. Its Free Peoples and Shadow sides both are organized over coherent themes, and prove to be a fairly intimidating force in the Sealed world. I would like to see some more events and conditions in the Shadow deck, and the Adventure Deck could be improved, but it’s pretty decent as it stands. So, the question is not "Is this an awesome deck or what?" Instead, it’s, "How soon can I get the Mauhúr deck in my hands?" |
| Last edited by CarpeGuitarrem on Fri May 26, 2006 11:37 am; edited 2 times in total |
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| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 3:51 am |
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
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Great article. You managed to sustain the high level from your previous article. Followed by the same structrue, this article also covers whole topic and contain many accurate observation.
You wrote "Out of the twenty-six minions in this card, fifteen are hunters," I suppose there is a mistake, and should be "in this deck". Concerning Gate Sentry - his cool, because you don’t have to spot minion having damage+1 and/or hunter - it can be FP character! I don’t think that site control game using this deck would be successful, I suppose that you couldn’t take advantage of this strategy. Especially in sealed deck tournament.
That would be all. Thank you for two good articles. |
| Last edited by sperzdechly on Fri May 26, 2006 12:45 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 11:35 am |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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sperzdechly wrote:
You wrote "Out of the twenty-six minions in this card, fifteen are hunters," I suppose there is a mistake, and shoul by "in this deck".
Thanks for pointing that out! I think I wrote that at 11 PM...  I’ll fix it right away.
And thanks for taking the time to review my article!  |
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| Beyo |
![]() Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 10:44 am |
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Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 60
Location: Poland
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Article is Good..but i’ll give only 4  |
| Time in the universe may be eternal..our patience is not |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 11:12 am |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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Beyo wrote: Article is Good..but i’ll give only 4
Same here. |
| I had to put something here. |
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| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 2:27 pm |
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
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| Anonymous Prodigy, Beyo -> If you give less than 5, it would be appropriate to write what improvement do you suggest. Whole idea of this contest is to improve our writing skills, doesn’t it? |
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| donimator |
![]() Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 11:49 am |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 67
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A couple of things I dislike about this deck is its poor cycling. Both the Free Peoples and Shadow side are heavily dependent on twilight, enough so it gets in the way of strategy. Rohan can be hurt a bit by possession removal - it is unlikely all Rider’s Mounts will be out before one is discarded or the companion killed, so Haleth, son of Hama’s ability to prevent this never kicks in. An inclusion of eomer, Skilled Tactician would help with some possession retrieval.
The Uruk culture still just depends on playing lots of minions and they are not cheap. There is no hand extension or ability to play minions more cheaply, which will ultimately lead to a clogged hand if your opponent has any capacity to choke.
This deck is rather one-dimensional and inflexible, more so than other starters. If things are going right for it can do well. But, it has little ability to adapt. Your suggestions for improvement certainly help, but overall I like the Aragorn deck better. Good article. |
| 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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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 12:06 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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donimator wrote: A couple of things I dislike about this deck is its poor cycling. Both the Free Peoples and Shadow side are heavily dependent on twilight, enough so it gets in the way of strategy. Rohan can be hurt a bit by possession removal - it is unlikely all Rider’s Mounts will be out before one is discarded or the companion killed, so Haleth, son of Hama’s ability to prevent this never kicks in. An inclusion of eomer, Skilled Tactician would help with some possession retrieval.
The Uruk culture still just depends on playing lots of minions and they are not cheap. There is no hand extension or ability to play minions more cheaply, which will ultimately lead to a clogged hand if your opponent has any capacity to choke.
This deck is rather one-dimensional and inflexible, more so than other starters. If things are going right for it can do well. But, it has little ability to adapt. Your suggestions for improvement certainly help, but overall I like the Aragorn deck better. Good article.
you get haleth in the deck sweet
theI agree that the deck sin’t the best but the article is pretty good a tad long thuogh you will get a 4 |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 3:05 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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sperzdechly wrote: Anonymous Prodigy, Beyo -> If you give less than 5, it would be appropriate to write what improvement do you suggest. Whole idea of this contest is to improve our writing skills, doesn’t it?
Right. Some input from them would be very nice. |
| "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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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 7:16 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
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Location: Austin, TX, USA
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