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| michael knight |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:51 pm |
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Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 105
Location: Above the Law, Ohio
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--- description ---
Forest Nazgul with a Dwarf/Gandalf fellowship.
--- end description ---
The Nine…err..Thirteen have left Minas Morgul…and are lost in the woods.
A Standard Deck
I read a good article a while back on the synergy between the shadow side and the fellowship side of a deck. Too many people randomly throw decks together without taking that into consideration. This article is on Forest Nazgul, but what makes this version (a very common Forestgul build) so powerful is not the Nazgul, but the fellowship. Don’t get me wrong, the Nazgul are amazing. They just need a bit of help.
Normally, it takes a few turns to get set up with Moving this way, draw your dark approaches, and filter out your Fellowship cards. With the drawing power of the dwarves, the site path manipulation of Gandalf, and the ability of this fellowship to disrupt opponent’s strategies via Pallando and Blood Runs Chill, the fellowship here is the key. It provides you with the drawing power to get your shadow cards earlier, put those forests out, and allows you to force you opponent into a bad position by running ahead with Radagast and destroying their support area. The fellowship is strong, and is designed to set up a shadow kill. Play everything you can each turn and control the site path. You can run often by using blood runs chill to clean the board, and then traveled leader to set up the next site. This fellowship has few troubles, but a well played Morc deck can be a headache. Keep that in mind.
You may think that the shadow has all the cycling it needs with Moving this way, but I disagree. Moving this way is great, but there are only two copies, and if they get destroyed there is only one way to retrieve them, Hatred Stirred, which is also subject to getting blown up. The seemingly obvious answer is to add another Moving this way. Although an easy answer, it is more complicated than that. You want this deck as small as possible so you can filter everything quickly. I could take something out, but the deck is pretty tweaked as it is. You can do whatever you want, but I really find that two is plenty. If they can destroy 2 Moving this way then you better believe that they could get all 4 if you add them. Attea really should be a fourth Black Rider, but i like having the chance to get all nine riders out at once. 
Let’s switch gears and get to the good stuff: dropping Nazgul like rain.
This shadow can be summed up in one word: explosive. Here is an example: I like to hold onto all 4 dark approaches and wait until I have all of my fellowship filtered out. This involves a lot of card counting, so I hope you have a good memory. Once this happens, you will end up with 4 Nazgul in hand, 4 Dark approaches, and an opponent’s fellowship that needs the smack laid down on it. Dark Approach is better than gold here, as it is the most vital part of the puzzle. Assuming that you still have have Moving this way out, you will be all set. If not, better lucky than good. Make sure that you are at the Angle if possible, it will make this way easier. Since all you should have in your deck are nazgul, every card you draw will be a Nazgul. Start off by playing a 5 cost Nazgul from your hand with Dark Approach. Use moving this way get to the Nazgul you want to play. I follow by getting out Lemenya, and Nertea for free with 2 Dark approach. You now have 3 Nazgul out for 1 twilight, and one in hand with one dark approach left. Use moving this way to find Otsea, but play him using the Angle’s game text, to draw a card. Again, moving this way to find the Witch King. Toil him out for free using the 4 Nazgul you already have out, and draw another card for the site. Now you want to moving this way to find a Black Rider. Play as many Black Riders as you can without using your Last Dark Approach, so you can use the site to draw more. Play a Black Rider, moving this way until you get another one, then play it and repeat. So far, you have used 5 twilight for 5 Nazgul prior to playing any Black Riders. Make sure that you leave enough twilight to be able to toil out Enquea, letting you draw a card. Use this last nazgul you draw with your last dark approach to get one last wraith on the board. Now we have somewhere between 7 and 13 nazgul out, depnding upon how much twilight you had to begin with. Ouch. Combine this with a lost in the woods or two and there are not too many decks that will survive. OUt of sight and shot can pull a Witch King or Enquea from the discard pile cheaply with thier Toil.
The site path is 8 forests and Expanding Marshland. This site is great when going for an early kill. It works with Toil, and has been responsible for more than a couple site two or three kills. The sites don’t really matter to the fellowship at all.
There are two things that kill this shadow. One is site path control. A deck that can keep the forests off of the site path can keep your Nazgul expensive and make Lost in the woods worthless, causing you big problems. The other thing is wounding. In the example above, we have at least 7 wraiths out, but most likely 3 or 4 will be exhausted. Meaning that they can easily killed before they do any damage. In my opinion the worst matchup is Elf/Eowyn wounding. Knights also can be troublesome if they get time to set up. With these matchups I suggest going for the gold as quickly as possible. You shouldn’t worry about killing a character here or there, you simply drop the bomb and watch the fireworks. However, if you get a good draw be very aggressive and try to win early. The earlier you win, the more time you have for a smoke and a pancake.
Fellowship (30)
Gimli, Bearer of Grudges
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
1 Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain (Starting)
1 Brand, King of Dale (starting)
4 Gandalf, Leader of the Company
1 Radagast, The Brown
4 Traveled Leader
1 Pallando, Far-traveling One
1 Glamdring, Foe-Hammer
2 Watch and Wait
2 No Pauses, No Spills
2 Blood Runs Chill
4 Out of Darkness
2 Dwarven Bracers
1 Proud and Able
1 Ring of Retribution
1 Ring of Fury
1 Axe of Khazad-dum
1 Gimli’s Battle Axe, Trusted Weapon
Shadow (30)
2 The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders
2 Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow
2 Ulaire Enquea, Black Threat
1 Ulaire Attea, Second of the Nine Riders
3 Ulaire Cantea, Fourth of the Nine Riders
3 Black Rider
1 Ulaire Cantea, Black Assassin
2 Ulaire Nertea, Thrall of the One
2 Ulaire Otsea, Thrall of the One
1 Ulaire Lemenya, Thrall of the One
2 Moving this Way
3 Lost in the Woods
1 Out of sight and Shot
1 Hatred Stirred
4 Dark Approach
Sites
Woody End (0) Caras Galadhon (2)
The Angle (0) Crossroads of the Fallen Kings (3)
East Road (0) Old Forest Road (3)
Expanding Marshland (1) Trollshaw Forest (3)
Hill of Sight (1)
Questions?? Comments?? Post them and I will reply for the small fee of $0.99 per minute!! Thanks for reading |
| Last edited by michael knight on Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:25 pm; edited 4 times in totalOne Man Can Make A Difference |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:14 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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| I’d recommend you break the article up into smaller paragraphs, and put spacing between them. It’s a bit hard to read right now. It looks like a solid article, however. Also...why aren’t some of your cards linking?? |
| "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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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:25 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 3947
Location: Maryland
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CarpeGuitarrem wrote: Also...why aren’t some of your cards linking??
It should be working now - I fixed the titles that weren’t working. He forgot to type ’Ulaire’ for all the Nazgul. |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| michael knight |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:14 pm |
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Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 105
Location: Above the Law, Ohio
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not forgot...was too lazy to do it. I tried to format it better, but it apparently didn’t work. I will try to edit it now...
****
Paragraphs edited. enjoy! |
| One Man Can Make A Difference |
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| orian |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:39 am |
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Joined: 05 Jun 2006
Posts: 127
Location:
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| that’s interesting... there are many weaknesses that you avoid but that’s definitely interesting |
| orian - the French pirate, the Bloody Bastard |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:17 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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Good article It seems like against aragorns bow and IB from hunters this deck would crumble.
pretty good though. |
 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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| michael knight |
![]() Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:15 pm |
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Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 105
Location: Above the Law, Ohio
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| Like I said, anything that wounds will bust me up good. The only hope is to get to them early, which often happens... |
| One Man Can Make A Difference |
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| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:42 am |
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
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Your fellowship isn’t cycling well. To filter well your draw deck you should use Saved From the Fire to burn some Dwarf at the begining and get another one, some possesion and No Pauses, No Spills. Draw 4 cards and try to do this at next site (next burn, and next NP,NS). Then you should end very quickly with only Nazguls in deck.
I wouldn’t trust your shadow strategy. Your explosion is almost impossible to make. Getting 4 Dark Approach on hand is hard (one of them can be always the last card in your deck, isn’t?) and you assume you have also 4 nazguls. How many times did you managed to do this trick in real life games? But still forest Nazguls are strong shadow. Consider using Ulaire Toldea, Wraith on Wings in your swarms. |
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| michael knight |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:02 am |
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Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 105
Location: Above the Law, Ohio
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You can only pull 4 cards per turn. You can’t burn for 3 and use no pauses for 4 more in the same turn. The deck cycles fine as it is. With 2x No Pauses and 4x Out of Darkness, I draw pleanty. YOu would think 4 No Pauses might be better, but I find that it is too much exerting then and if I don’t want to pay for it because that is a little bit too much twilight.
The explosion is very easy to make. You draw with the fellowship until you get Moving this way out, and then you use it to put all your Nazgul on the bottom of your deck, except the ones you have to play to be able to use Moving this way. The only shadow cards that you can’t play to the support area or discard to moving this way are the Dark Approaches. You aren’t assuming that you have 4 Nazgul once you get it set up all you will have left in your deck are Nazgul! The lastest I have ever finished filtering is site 6, and I dropped 10 Nazgul at site 7 on 7 companions. Game over.
Toldea is no good because you have to have initiative to use him. I have no way to consistently get initiative to play him. He is no good compared to Toldea, Black Shadow in this deck.
I am 7-1 over my last 8 games, including a 2nd place finish at a TOC. 6 Shadow wins. I appreciate your comments, I just don’t agree with them. |
| One Man Can Make A Difference |
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| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:06 pm |
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 131
Location: Warsaw (Poland)
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You’re right, I was mistaken writing about NP,NS and SFtF. I’m sorry.
After closest look on your deck I admit it has a potential.
But I still think that you need a lot of luck and approriate opponent to use this strategy. Quick discard of MtW practically ruin your idea. The same with discard based decks (may discard DA and/or MtW from your deck). I know you can use Toldea to retrive DA, but still it can slow you down enough to set up fellowship to survive the bomb. |
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