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macheteman

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:12 pm

Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 1200 Location: The Jungle

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Why and how to build a hybrid deck, and a look at one interesting specimen.
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In this article we will explore the hybrid deck, and why it is beneficial to us as LOTR TCG players. And we will also look at a hybrid deck design to help us understand how it should function. This article will be split up into 4 parts:
I. Defining “hybrid decks”, and the reasons they are useful
II. On Building hybrid decks
III. Shadows hybrid
IV. Free-peoples hybrid

I. Defining “hybrid decks”, and why they are useful

The definition of a hybrid deck is simple: combining 2 or more strategies into 1 deck, either shadows or free-peoples. A hybrid deck is different from a splash. Hybrids use multiple separate strategies and combine them, while a splash puts in cards of a different culture that enhances a particular strategy. Hybrid decks do not have to use different cultures, as might be expected, just different strategies. The easiest hybrids are of one culture, but multicultural hybrids can be just as effective.
But why use a hybrid deck? We can find this answer in an analogy between decks and breeds. To make it easy, we will just use dogs. A purebred dog breed is a great thing. They are designed for specific purposes, and excellently perform that specific purpose. This is much like a LOTR deck that has one specific purpose. But purebred dogs are more susceptible to specific diseases and disorders. A single strategy shadows deck can often be Destroyed by certain fellowship sides, and vise versa. A hybrid deck is much like taking different dog breeds with desired characteristics to get a new “breed” that is more resistant to diseases and disorders, and will help you reach an intended goal.

II. On building hybrid decks

Now we come to the actual “breeding” of LOTR decks. A hybrid deck should combine two strategies that help each other. Beware when building a hybrid deck that you don’t go off on to many side strategies (from the main ones you have chosen). Try to stream-line the deck list to just the cards you need to be effective. Hybrid decks do not have to be split evenly between the strategies. In fact it is often beneficial, though not always, to have one dominant strategy, and the others for support. There must be just enough cards in each strategy to get the job done.
While making single culture decks is easier, multicultural hybrids allow you to take advantage of good, simple, effective cards in each of the cultures you use. Usually a good hybrid deck will have one strategy that either protects the others from any opponent’s decks which would Destroy it, or provide enhancing things like archery to cultures that don’t have that. Good hybrids should not (especially shadows hybrids) have 2 strategies that use tons of twilight. If you are using a high-cost strategy, try complimenting that with low-cost support strategies.
One of the funnest things about hybrids is discovering the links, and building them. So I will not give a list of good hybrid combos, but we will un-pack one deck list that uses a hybrid shadows, and a triple-hybrid fellowship.

III. Shadows hybrid

This shadows combines Nazgul with directed Southron archery.

Minions:
3x Desert Lord
2x Desert Warrior
4x Southron Bowman
2x Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
2x Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One
2x Ulaire Otsea, Ringwraith in Twilight
2x Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight
2x The Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgul
1x Ulaire Attea, The Easterling

Events:
1x Corrupt
2x The Twilight World
4x Whirling Strike

Conditions:
3x Lingering Shadow
2x Gates of the Dead City

Possessions:
2x Fell Beast

Basic strategy: the Southrons are the support for the Nazgul. The point is to exhaust the fellowship, or at least the fellowship’s key companions, and hopefully kill them with whirling strike. With all the wounded companions, lingering shadow becomes effective in adding more burdens. Three Desert Lords can each add two wounds to a companion. When added to a companion who bears lingering shadow, it makes the conditions much more dangerous. One of the fellowships best defenses against archery is the one ring, ring of rings. But it would be a big mistake to add burdens instead of wounds, because of the Nazgul. As soon as the one ring is put on, the twilight world adds burdens. And when Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul is released with 5 burdens or 6 companions, the fellowship had better watch out. Each time the Wraith

cards add a burden, more exertions are dished out by the two Gates of the Dead City. And Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One can be wounded and then healed for extra burdens. The twilight Nazgul allow It wants to be found to add burdens, and the witch king keeps the ring bearer from taking all the archery wounds that are given when the Southrons don’t exert. The fell beast makes key Nazgul (like the witch king) fierce, while cycling your hand. Corrupt is a great surprise for the fellowship when they think you won’t pull any strength pumps. These two strategies compliment each other, and are an example of the support adding some useful wounding to the Nazgul corruption. There are a lot of other cards that would work well here. But watch out, your deck will clog. But the great thing about hybrids, is that they are often easily tweaked to fit each person’s style.

Here is another shadows hybrid. It tries to corrupt the ring bearer and kill companions with wounding, using [orc] minions and [souron] minions. Grishnakh, orc captain serves several purposes. First, he is a basic, medium priced souron orc; second, he reduces the other orc’s site numbers. Lastly, he can get more cards into your hand. Most likely, the free-peoples player is not going to add two burdens, since it would help your shadows side. Wisp of pale sheen is there to add a burden. Orc inquisitor is an orc, and discards a free-peoples card from hand. This is helpful to gain initiative. Gorgoroth Stormer is a good way to add a burden, but only if you have initiative. Porter Troll is a big minion, which can keep the fellowship from double-moving, and can add a burden. Orc Miscreant is another minion which can add burdens in the regroup phase. Black Gate Sentry, when if it is un-wounded, can add two hefty wounds to the companion it is skirmishing, maybe even killing it. Desperate Defense of the Ring can help add burdens, or get cards (like pesky events) out of the free-peoples player’s hand. Tower of Barad-dur helps give you initiative, and frustrates your opponent by forcing him to discard 1 to 2 cards each time they move. Thin and Stretched is one of the best ways for the deck to add burdens, and when a burden is added, you can follow them with more by playing The Ring Is Mine! Hate, can help kill the main companions in the fellowship, and at a low twilight cost. Undisciplined lets you assign a minion, and can be deadly when used with Porter Troll. Abiding evil and enduring evil are free events that can destroy a companions strength by making it -1 for each burden you spot. Gothmog’s warg adds vitality to any souron orc, which can, in turn, add more burdens if played on Gorgoroth Stormer.

Minions:
3x Grishnakh, Orc Captain
3x Wisp of Pale Sheen
2x Orc Inquisitor
2x Gorgoroth Stormer
2x Porter Troll
3x Orc Miscreant
2x Black Gate Sentry

Conditions:
3x Desperate Defense of the Ring
2x Tower of Barad-dur
2x Thin and Stretched

Possessions:
2x Gothmog’s Warg

Events:
4x The Ring Is Mine!
2x Hate
2x Undisciplined
2x Abiding Evil
2x Enduring Evil

IV. Free-peoples hybrid

This hybrid uses three ideas, but you will see that they are very closely related. I started to build this around Legolas Greenleaf, and Aragorn with Aragorn’s Bow. Then I opted for Boromir, bearer of counsel as my ring bearer because he had a steady resistance (unlike Galadriel whose resistance is dependant on the other elves) and he had a solid strength. These things made him (in this deck) better against swarm and corruption. So with that decision I added a bit of The Last Alliance strategy to the archery idea. The third part of the hybrid comes with Cirdan, the shipwright. Putting in 10 Elven

events gives Cirdan incredible power. So the deck ends up being an archery/last alliance/elven event deck that is very versatile. It can destroy minions, run to site 9, heal, and is an overall effective deck.

Starting Fellowship:
1x Boromir, Bearer of Council
1x The One Ring, The Ring of Rings
1x Legolas, Greenleaf
1x Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath

Companions:
2x Aragorn, Ranger of the North
3x Cirdan, The Shipwright
2x Celeborn, The Wise
1x Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men

Events:
3x Valor
2x Defiance
2x Seclusion
2x The Council of Elrond
1x Elf-song

Possessions:
1x Phial of Galadriel
2x Elven Sword
2x Asfaloth, Elven Steed
2x Aragorn’s Bow
1x Ranger’s Sword

Conditions:
2x The Last Alliance of Elves and Men
1x The Tale of Gil-galad
1x The Saga of Elendil
2x Shadow Between

Artifacts:
1x Aiglos
1x Narya, Ring of Fire

Allies:
2x Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad

Basic strategy: the great thing about this fellowship is you can change things from one time you play to the next, and you don’t need a certain (or ideal) set of companions in play to succeed. If you are not going up against a corruption shadows, try to win the bid and go first. Play The Prancing Pony to get Aragorn. If you can’t that’s fine, you have Boromir to take a last alliance if you get one, Glorfindel, a strong starting companion who can utilize the skirmish events, and Legolas for archery. I usually play Aiglos and the tale of gil-galad on Legolas so you can exert him for more wounds in the archery phase. But you could easily throw those and Narya, ring of fire on Cirdan for 7 vitality. Celeborn is great if you lose a companion, his muster helps cycle and taking an event into hand is sweet on a run. Arwen is a last resort, she can get pretty strong.
The events are fairly self-explanatory. Valor and defiance are Elven

pumps, secluded and elf-song are your condition/burden removal, the counsel of Elrond gets the tales into play earlier, and they all help Cirdan.
The conditions give some vitality for extra exertions, and a bit of strength to the men. Also shadow between heals elves and cycles your hand. Use this like crazy to cycle and heal, don’t be afraid to discard events they help Cirdan.
Use Elrond, your only ally, to heal the men since shadow between only heals elves.
The possessions and artifacts mostly give strength and vitality bonuses, but a few serve other purposes as well. The phial of Galadriel gives Boromir more resistance, and Aragorn’s Bow makes him an archer with the same special ability as Legolas, Greenleaf. Aiglos is specifically interesting, because you can discard it to wound a minion for each elf you spot. So if Cirdan is busy, and Legolas is forced to a hopeless skirmish, (or you just want to get rid of a big nasty minion) assign it to Legolas, discard Aiglos and that usually dishes out 3 wounds.
This hybrid deck ends up being extremely effective, and is a blast to play.

I appreciate you all, your time, your votes, and any constructive criticism. Thank you.

-macheteman

Last edited by macheteman on Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:11 pm; edited 5 times in total

TheHobbit13

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:07 pm

Joined: 27 Jul 2006 Posts: 1303 Location: minnesota

It seems kinda boring to me

If you like LOTR then maybe you would like redemption ccg PM me for more info

macheteman

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:13 pm

Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 1200 Location: The Jungle

that’s alright. hybrids aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. (or coffee as the case may be) Personally i love hybrids.

oh, by the way, the shadows is not playtested. the fellowship is, and is tons of fun.

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:07 pm

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.

humm pretty good a definite 4 article but to make it better I would add maybe some other workable hybrids, or more minion strategy.
otherwise pretty good

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

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elf lvr

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:22 pm

Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 3065 Location: Rivendell

I like it! When I first started reading, I was like, "God, no. Multiple strategy decks? Those NEVER work." But then I kept reading on, where you said have a strategy with a supporting one, and not to throw in too many other strategies, and I began to like it much more.

I’d like to mention that the weaknesses in "purebred" decks can be covered by splashes, like in elves, add Gandalf for burden and condition removal. So ’purebreds’ are definately not inferior decks. And some purebreds (IB) seem to have no weakness I can see so far.

I did like the decks, very interesting use of the cards. But SoP is right. It would have been cool to go into different hybrid strategies. For example, you could have added a section on Complimenting Strategies, like, if you use a So-and-so strategy deck, you can use So-and-so culture to cover its weaknesses/increase its effectiveness. It might have taken a while, but it might have boosted the grade quite a lot. For example: If you use Easterling Corruption, Gollum Corruption cards can speed it up quite a bit. Then go on to explain possible added cards and combos. This is just a thought. It would take a LONG time to add something for EVERY deck strategy, so you could pick a few that would be MOST benefited by a hybrid.

Anyways, as is, I’d give this a 4. Nice Work!

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corvus

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:41 pm

Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 1696 Location: Roaming, but dangerous!!!

It was interesting, and small and well-written and all, but the cardslists seem pretty lousy..... Espacially the shadow side.

As i see it, it’s a 3, but if you can get a good use for desert lord, then it’s a 4.

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macheteman

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:17 pm

Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 1200 Location: The Jungle

i by no means think that "purebred decks" are inferior. they are wonderful, and i use one and love it. and splashes can definitly protect your deck. but a hybrid gives a different twist to throw at your opponant.

i was trying not to go in to many hybrids, because i had the time of my life building this deck, but if you think it would help i will try.

desert lord is mostly a straitorward minion. you can exert him twice in the archery phase to bog the fellowship down and to make the lingering shadows work better. pull out a whirling strike in his skirmish to add more wounds, or maybe kill the companion.

thanks guys and i will do a bit of editing.

ingold55

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:37 pm

Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 1199 Location: Out on the front line

very good article! Smile