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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 11:57 am |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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Another thing...your  side is pretty twilight-intensive. How many minions do you plan to play on an average turn? |
| "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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| reggierockz |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:34 pm |
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 55
Location: Rochester, NY
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One to two minions a turn is all it takes. Are you familiar with how Easterlings are played? If not (and for those of you who may also not be familiar), this is how it works.
First off, you need to add some burdens. This will most commonly be done by using Small Hope. Easterling Footman provides an alternative source if you lose your Small Hopes, but generally, you’ll add two burdens in one maneuver phase.
Now all you need to do is play down a few minions equiped with their weapons. Ideally, you want to get down an Easterling Captain with an Easterling Polearm and a Raider Bow. Though this may seem a bit comboish, it happens quite often due to the fact that the deck runs 4 copies of each card. Not to mention Ships of Great Draught, which alows you to set up exactly what cards you will need. Ships also takes care of some decks that revolve around threats (i.e. Roaming Rangers with IB).
So to answer your question, yes, the minions are a bit costly. But only one, maybe two needs to be played a turn. Extra twighlight goes towards pumps (the Easterling Captain can easily overwhelm companions, especially with a Raider Bow equiped) and towards cards such as Red Wrath.
I hope that clears up some things, but if not, try playing the deck, or playing against it. One to two minions might not seem that threatening, but when you start facing a Captain and/or an Army equiped with weapons EVERY turn, you’re fellowship starts to wear down (if not disappear).
Also, about Bitter Hatred and Moria Archery. I never said that Moria Archery was something to "sneeze at". It is a very strong deck and yes, it might be a hard matchup. I’m not arguing that. But Bitter Hatred is another story. In a competative meta, where mono elves are more along the lines of an under dog deck, do you really think that anyone playing moria is going to pack 4 copies of Bitter Hatred? Unless they are anticipating tons of elves, I highly doubt it. In response to the example you used, where you saw a lot of it in a fellowship block tournament, yes I can see that happening. Elves are much more popular in FOTR block, as well as moria. And with a limited card pool, one can only expect cards like Bitter Hatred to be played. But in expanded? Not likely. Anyone that maindecks enough copies of such a card would end up having 4 completely dead cards against any non elf deck. Personally, I don’t see the logic in that, unless you are anticipating a heavy elf meta (which the expanded format is not, due to the large cardpool and heavy ammount of diversity among decks). |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:45 pm |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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| You could also use Surging Up. |
| I had to put something here. |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:47 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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What if the fellowship decides not to move again anyway?
It’s a good article. At least 4.
I don’t agree that IB + threat roaming can be beat with Ships of Great Draught. Aragorn’s Bow, Ranger’s longbow will always fill those empty threat boxes back up anyway. True, maneuver before archery, but you’re just giving Aragorn a free reload every turn that way. |
| "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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| reggierockz |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:18 pm |
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 55
Location: Rochester, NY
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Look at it like this:
I play down a Ships of Great Draught, and remove all of their threats to add tokens to it.
Now, I play down an Easterling Captain, with an Easterling Polearm. He is a 13 strength.
The maneuver phase hits, Madril spots 0 threats, hence, making my guys not roaming. Now say Aragorn, Thorongil is out, with his bow. Unless he is above a 13 strength (not likely) he can’t use his manuever ability, and since the Captain cannot take wounds because of the Polearm, Aragorn can’t use his bows ability either.
So yes, Ships of Great Draught can’t beat IB single handedly, but in terms of Easterlings, its going to prevent my minions from getting discarded with IB.
And about Surging Up, I’ve tried it, it’s not worth it unless you have extra space. Most likely you wont have the extra room because the deck needs to be as slim as possible to ensure drawing consistancy, |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 9:01 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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| IB still works. As long as you add a threat, Thorongil’s ability is still used. It doesn’t matter if there’s no minion with strength less than him. The only requirement: add a threat. So it piles on the threats, which is the FP player’s intention anyway. |
| "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: Mon Jun 26, 2006 9:38 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 3947
Location: Maryland
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CarpeGuitarrem wrote: IB still works. As long as you add a threat, Thorongil’s ability is still used. It doesn’t matter if there’s no minion with strength less than him. The only requirement: add a threat. So it piles on the threats, which is the FP player’s intention anyway.
However, you use Thorongil’s ability after Madril’s ability kicks in, so it won’t help. Also, with all the tokens on Ships of Great Draught, you can recycle Easterling Polearm, which means that the Longbow won’t help much either. |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:18 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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Dang...
Okay, one last shot for the Shadow: what if we throw the twilight switch in the entirely other direction, and flood it with a bunch of Ents? Could the Easterlings make a dent? |
| "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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| reggierockz |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:21 pm |
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 55
Location: Rochester, NY
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| More twighlight is even better! It only fuels the Captain even more. Hey look, I have 10 twighlight, thats strength plus 10! Twighlight is definently beneficial to Easterlings. A flooded pool will allow you to pump a ton in both the first and fierce skirmishes, meaning more wounds on companions and more overwhelms. It would also mean you wouldnt need to play Raider Bow as much, meaning you could focus more on getting Red Wrath back with Ships and using the twighlight to pay for RW. |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:36 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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All right, that’s enough for me. This is going to get a pretty good review. I’ll just check through it again to make sure.
Dang, I’m going to have to experiment with those Beasterlings.
EDIT: Yep, a good article. Sorry, one final final question about the Shadow. (The last one, I promise!) What do you do against elves? You didn’t mention that in your article. |
| "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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