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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:41 pm |
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--- description ---
An overview of the diverse and powerful  culture, with strategies, decklists, and more!
--- end description ---
"The Age of Men is Over... The Time of the Orc Has Come!"
Gothmog says these words, and how right he is! Orcs are one of the top cultures in both Expanded and Standard format, and the release of Rise of Saruman only boosted their status.
Introduction
Why Use Orcs
The Most Sought After Card
Talk About Recursion!
Next on the X-list?
Decklists
Conclusion
Introduction
Rewind back to September 27th, 2004. That day marked the announcement of the 3 new Shadow cultures that released with Shadows: Orc, Men, and Uruk-hai. Players were aghast at the thought of losing their beloved classic Shadow cultures being morphed into one culture, and this was arguably the time when the most players left the game.
Fast-forward to today. In Standard format, the old cultures are rarely missed, and in the Expanded & Open formats the old cultures still jostle for position among the newer cultures. Out of all 3 of the new cultures however, none is quite as powerful and fun to play as the culture.
Why Use Orcs?
There are many reasons why players should consider making an deck. Here are some of those reasons:
1: The culture has a wide variety of strategies; in fact, it’s got nearly everything besides archery and site control.
2: The culture has ways to retrieve most of it’s cards (I’ll explain more on that later).
3: The culture is just plain good! I mean, it consistently places high in tournaments both online and offline, and if you check out the message boards you’ll find players worrying about all the powerful strategies.
The Most Sought After Card
While many cards are sought after, only one is needed as much as Goblin Hordes. This single card is the cornerstone for most decks, since having 4 copies of it in play can allow you to retrieve your 4 most-needed minions each site. This ability is invaluable when your deck is focused around one minion, such as Orkish Lackey. Goblin Hordes also comes in handy when you are swarming, since you’ll need all the minions you can get.
Talk About Recursion!
The culture can retrieve any of its cards from the discard pile. Here’s how:
Minions: Goblin Hordes retrieves them easily.
Conditions: Not a problem with Orkish Smith.
Events: Can anyone say Isengard Underling?
Possessions: Armed for Battle does it for free!
And if you just want to bring back weapons, Retribution and Scavenging Goblins can do it as well.
Next on the X-list?
There are 3 cards that are powerful enough to make people wish that they are X-ed: Orkish Smith, Orkish Lackey, and Forced March.
Orkish Smith is included in nearly every deck. He keeps your Goblin Hordes in play, but he also combos with Unforgiving Depths to keep the current site underground. Without him, decks with condition removal can have a chance against the more powerful decks that rely on conditions.
Orkish Lackey is a newly-released common from Rise of Saruman. For just one twilight token, you can wound any companion (except the Ring-bearer) in maneuver, and then with Goblin Hordes x4 you can play him 4 times each turn. Add in all the exerting that Orcs have, and you can pretty much kill most fellowships. In addition, with his 2 vitality he can’t be stopped by cards such as Quick as May Be and Brego, Loyal Steed.
Forced March is a game-changing card that forces the Fellowship to move again, even if they don’t want to. This means that you can force them past a sanctuary, and you can also double-move them through Crags of Emyn Muil! It is not a fun card to play against, especially when you combine with the 2 previous X-listable cards that were discussed.
Don’t worry though; if Decipher X-lists anything, it will probably be only one card, not all three. Just taking away one of those three cards makes the culture much more balanced.
But until they X-list something, us players can have fun with the overpowered cards!
Decklists
Next up, you’ll be treated to 7 decklists. All of the decklists start off with 33 cards, but they can be tailored to fit the size of your Free Peoples.
6 of the 7 decks are Standard legal, with the only exception being the Lurker Swarm deck which is legal in Expanded and Open.
Orkish Threats
Orkish Directed Wounding w/ Mumak Commander
Scouting Orc Grind
Orkish Corruption
Orkish Swarm w/ Massing Strength
Lurker Swarm
Troll Swarm
Orkish Threats
Shadow (33)
Black Land Overlord x4
Black Land Observer x4
Black Land Chieftain x3
Black Gate Sentry x3
Scouting Orc x4
Orkish Lackey x3
Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening x3
Beasts of Burden x2
Great Cost x2
Unmistakable Omen x2
Mordor Scimitar x3
Use Black Land Chieftain, Black Land Observer, and Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening to load up on threats. Then, during maneuver, use Black Land Overlord to exert key companions with those threats. Orkish Lackey can finish them off during maneuver, or a Scouting Orc / Black Gate Sentry will finish the job in skirmish.
Great Cost keeps big fellowships in check, and Unmistakable Omen allows for a site-3 kill if you manage to get it in hand early. Beasts of Burden helps against choke decks.
All threat-based strategies tend to do poorly against small fellowships, since the number of threats is limited to the number of companions in play. But against larger fellowships, this deck will wreak havoc.
Orkish Directed Wounding w/ Mumak Commander
Shadow (33)
Expendable Servants x4
Goblin Hordes x4
Unforgiving Depths x4
Forced March x2
Orkish Lackey x4
Orkish Smith x4
Isengard Underling x2
Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings x4
Pavise x2
Orc Hammer x3
The two key cards here are Orkish Lackey and Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings. Combine the two and you can kill any 3-vitality non-Ring-bearer companion! Add in Pavise to let Mumak CommanderNOLINK use his ability twice, and recursion for the Lackey via Goblin Hordes and Expendable Servants, and there isn’t much that can stand in your way. Orc Hammer adds in even more pre-skirmish exerting. And to top it all, Forced March will move the fellowship through Crags of Emyn Muil, wounding every single companion.
If you’re worried about losing Goblin Hordes, don’t worry; Orkish Smith is there to retrieve them. He also lets you continually use Unforgiving Depths to insure that the current site is underground.
Isengard Underling retrieves Expendable Servants to bring back the Lackey even more (note that the event works in maneuver!).
This deck is VERY strong, and there aren’t many things that can stand against it. The only decks that it really has problems with are Solo Ring-bearer decks, or the combo of Faramir, Captain of Ithilien + Steward’s Legacy. It can also be semi-stopped by Traveled Leader of There’s Another Way, but Mumak CommanderNOLINK + Orkish Lackey should be able to get rid of the companions needed to trigger either of those cards.
Scouting Orc Grind
Shadow (33)
Orkish Lackey x3
Scouting Orc x4
Veteran War Chief x3
Black Gate Sentry x4
Relentless Warg x4
Threatening Warg x2
Rider’s Gear x4
Mordor Scimitar x2
Great Cost x2
Goblin Hordes x3
Beasts of Burden x2
The idea here is to get a Scouting Orc with a Relentless Warg, Rider’s Gear, and Mordor Scimitar. That gives you a minion with (counting the bonus from Relentless Warg) an 18 strength, 4 vitality, damage +1, fierce, cannot take wounds (except during skirmishes), and can exert to wound whoever he’s fighting. Oh, and he also exerts the companion he skirmishes with the Scimitar. Try beating him! And that’s only for 9 twilight.
Veteran War Chief can do the same thing, except that for one more cost you get 2 more strength. But if you kill them by wounding, strength doesn’t matter; thus the War Chief is really only included because you can only have 4 copies of Scouting Orc included.
Black Gate Sentry can’t bear Wargs, but he’s already got 3 vitality. To provide the finishing touch for minions, Orkish Lackey is included to kill off an exhausted companion.
Great Cost protects against large fellowships, while Beasts of Burden reduces the amount of twilight you’ll need. As always, Goblin Hordes is there to retrieve anyone you need. And since only 4 copies of Relentless Warg can be included, 2 copies of Threatening Warg are in the deck as well.
The main weakness for this deck is Ithilien Blade / Take Up the Bow, since the idea is to give one or two minions lots of possessions. With Rider’s Gear and all the vitality from the Wargs, archery decks won’t really be a problem.
Orkish Corruption
Shadow (33)
Goblin Hordes x4
Isengard Underling x4
Bound to its Fate x4
Orkish Smith x3
Unforgiving Depths x2
Porter Troll x3
Tower Troll
Mocking Goblin x4
Retribution x3
Orc Spear x3
Mordor Scimitar x2
The strategy here is simple to explain. Bring back multiple copies of Isengard Underling with Goblin Hordes, and bring back multiple copies of Bound to its Fate with Isengard Underling. This will add plenty of burdens, unless your opponent runs tons (and I mean TONS) of events.
A side strategy is winning skirmishes with Porter Troll and Mocking Goblin, trigger Retribution. Arming them with weapons is fairly simple if you discard Retribution (and then bring back Retribution that same turn with Orkish Smith). And if you are playing against six companions, you get to choose who fights the Tower Troll, which means that you can assign him to the weakest companion in order to make sure that you win the skirmish (triggering Retribution).
Unforgiving Depths insures that you have underground sites to trigger Goblin Hordes, and Orkish Smith brings it back when you need it.
Although it is weak against decks with extensive burden removal or many events, it is very strong against decks low on events as well as decks that add lots of twilight.
Orkish Swarm w/ Massing Strength
Shadow (33)
Scurrying Goblin x4
Orkish Worker x4
Isengard Underling x2
Champion Orc x2
Picket Denizen x4
Underdeeps Denizen x4
Orkish Scout x4
Orkish Runner x4
Watchful Orc x2
Massing Strength x3
For this deck, the object is to kill off the RB at sites 4-6. You play 6-8 minions, and then you use Massing Strength to pump up the minion that fights the Ring-bearer.
A good-cycling Free Peoples is required. The Freeps must use all Free Peoples cards that are in hand during your Fellowship turn, and if you include Isildur, Heir to Elendil or card drawing then the deck will be even more effective.
The minions are all pretty much cheap. 4 different minions add twilight, one makes the site underground (in order to trigger several abilities), one has toil, one prevents wounds, one can’t take wounds, and one retrieves Massing Strength. If you have a copy of Massing Strength and Isengard Underling in your hand when you are reconciling, make sure you drop MS so that your hand can hold more minions; after all, you’ll be getting it right back.
Against smaller fellowships and decks that require some time to set up, this strategy is devastating. But it runs into problems against decks that excel at protecting the Ring-bearer, as well as decks with 7-9 companions.
Lurker Swarm
Shadow (33)
Demoralized x4
Goblin Hordes x4
Unforgiving Depths x3
Orkish Smith x3
Picket Denizen x4
Rallying Orc x3
Mountain-troll x2
Orc Strategist x3
Prowling Orc x3
Emboldened Orc x3
Horror of Harad
This is the one decklist here that isn’t legal in Standard, due to the X-ing of Demoralized. In Expanded and Open format however, Demoralized isn’t X-ed; thus this deck can still abuse it massively.
The idea here is to play Demoralized x4 (use Orkish Smith to insure that they remain in play), and then play lots of lurker minions triggering the gametext of Rallying Orc. Every time a lurker is played, the Free Peoples player must exert a companion, which in turn adds  (or  if you can spot 6 companions).
Wait, what do you do with all this twilight? You can have up to 12 minions in hand via Goblin Hordes, but to fully abuse Demoralized you have to use Mountain-troll. When the deck is properly set up, you can drain your discard of all your minions, which will give you a monster swarm (as well as their fellowship probably being exhausted!).
Unforgiving Depths is in the deck so that you’ll have underground sites for Goblin Hordes, and it also triggers Rallying Orc’s gametext.
What can stop the swarm? When Demoralized was the most popular deck, people used multiple copies of Let Fly to kill every Orc. But other ways to stop it exist: massive condition removal (Sleep Caradhras comes to mind) or a fast-moving fellowship that can move to site 9 before the deck is set-up.
But against most other decks, the Lurker Swarm is hard to stop. It can consistently put out a 13+ minion swarm, and it can do it multiple times during the same game.
Troll Swarm
Shadow (33)
Beastly Olog-hai x4
Ordnance Grunt x4
Tower Troll x3
Porter Troll x2
Mountain-troll x2
Cave Troll of Moria, Savage Menace x2
Troll’s Keyward, Keeper of the Beast x4
Orkish Smith x3
Vicious Warg x2
Goblin Hordes x4
Forced March x2
Beasts of Burden
Yep, count them again: 17 trolls in the deck! What do you do with all the trolls? Gather them up in your hand, and then play Troll’s Keyward, Keeper of the Beast (preferably with a Vicious Warg) to unleash a swarm of trolls. If you thought that facing a swarm of little goblins was bad, try facing 10 or more trolls!
In order to set up the swarm, use Goblin Hordes to bring back any Trolls that you play/discard. And then when you’re ready to swarm, Beasts of Burden makes it even easier. Orkish Smith brings back any conditions that might be discarded.
What if the fellowship lives past the swarm? No problem, make them face them all over again and more a Forced March through the Crags of Emyn Muil. Not many fellowships can live against the Troll swarm twice in one turn and come out of it alive.
The deck can have some issues against choke decks, but you should be able to play even 4 Trolls and the Keyward which can really hurt a fellowship.
Conclusion
As you can probably see, the culture has a lot of good possibilities for decks. As always though, you should adjust the decklist to fit your meta, because (for example) if you are running into condition removal often you should use 4 copies of Orkish Smith. On the other hand, if your conditions don’t get discarded often, you can drop it down to 1 or 2 copies of Orkish Smith.
Thanks for reading! Now go and use those pesky little Orcs!
- AC |
| Last edited by AnxiousChieftain on Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:32 pm; edited 3 times in totalMODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| legoles3333 |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:28 am |
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Joined: 28 Nov 2006
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| sweet article! i don’t have any [orc] decks and never wanted one but maybe now i do, but one question, can unmistakable omen kill the opponents Ring-Bearer? |
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:22 am |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 3947
Location: Maryland
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legoles3333 wrote: but one question, can unmistakable omen kill the opponents Ring-Bearer?
Yes it can, but the Free Peoples player is the one who chooses who dies and therefore probably won’t choose the RB (unless they want to give the Ring to Sam).
Glad you enjoyed the article!
- AC |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:30 am |
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:40 am |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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Location: Maryland
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NBarden wrote: Good article, I had one point on the Scouting Orc Grind. You need Goblin Hordes and Orkish Warg-Master.
Goblin Hordes added, but the Warg-master will sit out because he just isn’t really needed.
NBarden wrote: Also, a discarding corruption deck would be a good addition.
I was thinking about that, but I decided against it since it really needs a good Free Peoples side that is devoted to the same thing. I mean, the culture really does not have many cards that discard cards from draw decks.
Thanks for the review!
- AC |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:42 am |
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 10:45 am |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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Location: Maryland
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I dunno.... that deck seems very weak compared to a classic  discard deck. Dread and Despair only works if the Free Peoples player wants to save his condition, and the Tormentors only trigger against unwounded companions. And that’s it for discarding cards, so it just seems like a better idea to go for a straight corruption by burdening.
- AC |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:08 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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| yeah don’t add it. definitely a 4 article, maybe even a 5! |
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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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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:27 pm |
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Very cool article, AC! 
I especially liked some of the phraseology that you used, such as:
AnxiousChieftain wrote: All of the decklists start off with 33 cards, but they can be tailored to fit the size of your Free Peoples.
I would drop a copy of Porter Troll and add a copy or two of Beastly Olog-hai to the corruption deck, though. He is a deadly combo with Mordor Scimitar IMO.
Awesome article, though! I will vote later, but I am leaning toward a high 4 or a low 5.  |
| Last edited by Anonymous Prodigy on Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:29 pm; edited 1 time in totalI had to put something here. |
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:29 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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Location: Maryland
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Anonymous Prodigy wrote: I would drop a copy of Porter Troll and add a copy or two of Beastly Olog-hai to the corruption deck, though. He is a deadly combo with Mordor Scimitar IMO.
That might be an interesting idea, but remember that the Porter Troll has a handy ability for adding burdens. Just make sure you play him after you use Bound to its Fate and there’s a good chance that you can add a burden.
- AC |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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