Cobra Cards Player Community ~ View topic - Three Hunters Concept, or, the Problem with Threats

LotR TCG Wiki

→ Card Sets:

All

→ Forums:

TLHH

Cobra Cards Player Community Forum Index

Forum index » Lord of the Rings TCG » LOTR TCG Deck Clinics » Standard

Author

Message

LunaticFringe

Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:35 pm

Joined: 03 Sep 2005 Posts: 60 Location:

Allow me to ramble just a bit before I post a prelim deck list:

For the record, I wasn’t impressed with Hunters when it was spoiled. I still think that the "hunter" mechanic is nothing more than yet another power creep; something that was supposed to have been stopped with the system reniassance that was Shadows. However, this is the envirionment we need deal with, so this is my attempt at working through it.

Now, Decipher development (read, Mike Girard) could have cut the "Hunter" keyword off of the Thorongil version of Aragorn, and he’d still be dangerous. Threat to exert is very strong, as everyone has realized. The return of threats in Hunters is the resurrection of the sort of mechanic we were all hoping for. And his bow? Stock up now, quantities are limited, and operators are standing by.

Enough restating the obvious. The "Three Hunters" builds running around revolve around having the ability to pump for damage with threats. The problem, however, is much the same that was seen back the first time threats came around- there are only a handful of cards capable of removing threats in LOTR, and even fewer that one can make a workable system with.

But I think I’ve found one.

Into the West.

"(0) Into the West
Condition

Regroup: Exert an Elf to reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is an Elven card, remove 3 threats. Place the revealed card beneath your draw deck."

Now, let’s make it fit the deck:

The conditions for the Three Hunters require wins. Focus is especially vital for the longevity of the fellowship in the mid to late game, so dedicating pumps for Legolas is justified. Still Needed could work, but I don’t necessarially want to be stuck with what I put back on top coming back to hand. Attunement works with a patterned top deck, but how to set it up?

Gandalf, Manager of Wizards. Perfect fifth companion, can soak up wounds, gives us condition and burden removal options, and can set up Attunement netting Legolas an effective seven stregnth swing (-3 from the cards to the draw deck, and +4 from drawing for Attunement, one Free Peoples card, then one Minion card, in that order).

Stack the cards from Manager of Wizards in the order of Freeps, Minion, Freeps, and Into the West goes off without a hitch in the Regroup, giving you three more Threats to turn into wounds the next turn. Now you’re no longer having to weigh every single situation- "can I wound him now, or will I be forced to do so later?".

Crunch all you want. We’ll make more.

Preliminary proof-of-concept decklist:

Gimli, Eager Hunter (S)
Legolas, of the Woodland Realm (S)
Aragorn, Thorongil (use a Frodo for bearer, bid reasonable and pull with The Prancing Pony)
Gandalf, Manager of Wizards x3

Ithilien Blade
Aragorn’s Bow, Ranger’s Longbow
Long Knives of Legolas x2
Gimli’s Battle Axe, Trusted Weapon x2
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer
Gandalf’s Staff, Ash Staff
Ranger’s Cloak

Forth the Three Hunters x3
Focus x2
No Quicker Path x3
Whatever End x2
Terrible and Evil
Into the West x2
Attunement x3
Seclusion x2
Watch and Wait

Comments greatly appreciated.

elf lvr

Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:50 pm

Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 3065 Location: Rivendell

not bad. my article was mostly pre-hunters, yours is much better simply for being post hunters, although this isn’t an article, just a better deck. just at a quick glance, though. i’ll need to look at more soon...

Happy Hunting! Elf Lvr
Winner of Best Personality in the FPCA. Thanks!
Archduke Elf Lvr - Archidoux of the Chosen Ones
AMV Maker In-Training! Check out my newest production, Katsu!- A Diedara Tribute!
And behold, EL declared it good. And there was morning, and there was evening, the first (new) day. ~ DainIronfoot

elf lvr

Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:54 pm

Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 3065 Location: Rivendell

you only have a couple of pumps for gimli. his axe, forth the three hunters, and no quicker path. looks like you rely a lot on your companions winning without giving them many ways to win. but maybe you rely more on archery to beat down minions? hmm. i find that some decks like this can be pummelled by orcs with many lurkers and a couple of toil minions. not hard to bust out six minions at site four. that is usually something i like to think about when building a deck, how would i fare against.... hope you can answer some of my questions.

LunaticFringe

Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:19 pm

Joined: 03 Sep 2005 Posts: 60 Location:

Whatever End works as a pump as well, and basically Gimli should almost always be a base of 9 with the axe. Setting him up against a non-Hunter is 12, and you can pretty well run away against most minions with the conditions. He especially doesn’t need to "win", so much as survive to take hits and get the extra archery in there, so Focus is very much for him (and Aragorn). But I do take your comments on him to heart.

Now, you mention toil- fine by me. Go ahead. Exert your minions into my targeted exertions and directed archery. Against a deck using Hunter minions, it can do 9 wounds in the archery phase without breaking a sweat, more than enough to work down a swarm.

I don’t say that jokingly or to simply disprove the argument. I’ve done swarms of my own, toil, pull, bounce from discard and bottom of deck; 9 times out of 10 they’re tied in some way to vitality, and having the capacity to deal wounds in the Manuver or Archery phase break them with high reliability.

I understand where your question comes from, but I kind of put it up to fate; I’ve broken my share of swarms, and gotten run over a couple times too. It’s gonna happen, even with a deck specifically designed to beat them. I havent trimmed this one down yet or made changes (Lady of Ithilien along with Dernhelm’s Blade may also make an appearance for minions not dumb enough to die in the Archery phase... Wink

), but I take it as something to consider. I just tend to try and build something that leaves my options open, and at the same time, attempts to dictate to my opponent the "hows" and "if’s" concerning beating me. Considering this looks to be a five race deck, it’s hard to dedicate a lot to a particular companion, and for what I want to do, Legolas appeared to be the one to give the extra room to.

But this is why I like responses. Where I mentioned Still Needed, perhaps, I should take the Gandalf package out and move the deck in a different direction. I’ll probably build two sets, as to try it a couple ways in playtesting tomorrow.

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:25 am

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.

i never thought about what you have to do with the threats. if you started to fight soem hunters you could have trouble wtih gimli but then of course you could usee legolas’s archery ability. Is watch and wait really neccessary if you have glamdring(or maybe vice versa). another option for threat removal would be citadel to gate with gandalf, and eharts raised with aragorn.

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

(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. Razz

LunaticFringe

Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:02 pm

Joined: 03 Sep 2005 Posts: 60 Location:

Hearts Raised is expensive in the card category. I think the only shadow it would work with would be an orc/retribution style bounce. It’s also one for one, one card for one threat. Given that I have single cards that can activate multiple threats, I feel the need for a higher ratio on my return.

Citadel to Gate would give that ratio, but with three large caveats- a, two exertions to Gandalf, who is supposed to be there to soak up wounds; b, given that the deck looks to be five culture, I’d only heal one companion at a time; and c, it’s very expensive twilight wise, and removes all pretense of attempting to choke a bit with a smaller number of companions. While I don’t necessarially think the concept is that susceptible to swarm, five twilight can easliy become two minions.

The thing about Into the West is that the only cost associated with it is the exertion of Legolas.

Forum index » Lord of the Rings TCG » LOTR TCG Deck Clinics » Standard

All times are UTC - 4

Page 1 of 1 [6 Posts]