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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:03 am |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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Location: Maryland
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--- description ---
This article explains how to use an Expanded format Dunland deck, centered around site control.
--- end description ---
The Men of Dunland had very limited time in the movies and the book, but that didn’t discourage the designers at Decipher from making an entire culture out of them. The release of Dunlendings coincided with the beginning of a new game concept: site control. It’s no surprise, then, that Dunland’s main strategy has always been site control.
Unfortunately, Rotation has eliminated all but 1  card from the Standard format, so this culture is virtually unusable in most of today’s tournaments. It is not, however, eliminated from Expanded format and Open format, and it is for the Expanded format that this decklist will be built for.
This decklist will be led by Dunlending Elder; as a common in a small expansion, he is very easy to obtain. But it’s really his stats and his ability that make him stand out: while you control 2 sites, he costs 2 twilight, has 12 strength, is damage +1, and fierce. So, for only 2 twilight, you can very easily inflict 4 wounds on the Free Peoples player. Multiply this by 4 copies of him, and you end up with 16 wounds for 8 twilight!
How to Take Control of the Sites
Of course, the only way that Dunlending Elder can achieve his bonus is to take control of 2 sites. The culture has a variety of ways to take control of sites. In this decklist, 3 different types of minions will be included - I have found that this is generally enough to take control of the amount of sites needed.
Hillman Tribe is definitely the center minion here. Since his ability needs to spot another minion, he combos perfectly with Saruman, Rabble-rouser. Saruman cannot be assigned to a skirmish, and thus is free from most harm. His ability pumps up the Tribe’s strength, allowing him to grab a precious site.
Dunlending Ransacker is like a smaller version of Hillman Tribe, but he must spot another Man to take control of the site. This small difference makes him less valuable, but he is still a nice cheap minion with the ability to take control of a site.
Freca, Hungry Savage is the minion to use at the early sites. He can take a site when you play him, but if Freca dies then that site is liberated. Therefore, you’ve got to keep him alive. One way to do this is to use Over the Isen to assign Freca to a weak companion, effectively ignoring the liberation drawback.
Now That You Control Those Sites...
...what are you going to do with them? The answer: beat the Fellowship into the dust.
As mentioned before, Dunlending Elder is the center of the attack. He’s cheap and strong, so 4 copies are included to maximize his potential. With Ready to Fall (which will be discussed later), he can also be recycled from your discard pile.
Hillman Horde is the heftiest minion included. His ability gets better with every site you control; with 2 sites, he skips the archery phase, 3 sites makes every Dunlending fierce, and with 4 sites every Dunlending is damage +1. Think about that for a minute: with 4 sites controlled, your minions cannot be harmed by archery, and every single Man is damage +1 and fierce! With the help of this card, you can unleash a monster attack at the later sites.
I’ve always had a soft spot for cheap, effective skirmish events. Burn Every Village is a perfect example: no twilight cost, and a +2 strength bonus which increases to +4 if you control a site. This can often change the tide of a skirmish; it’s not every day that you are able to surprise the Free Peoples player with a strength +4 event for 0 twilight. This card is even better in multiples!
Over the Isen allows your Dunlendings to skip past strong companions and go straight for the weaker ones. The best way to utilize it is to assign Hillman Tribe or Dunlending Ransacker to someone who they can beat, taking another site into your control. Alternatively, you can use a beefed-up Dunlending to wipe out their strongest companion; not too hard to do if that companion already has a wound or two.
Ready to Fall is really one of the most important cards in this deck. Once you have 2 sites controlled, you can remove  to play any from your discard pile. The most common minion recycled is Dunlending Elder, because even with him using up 4 twilight tokens instead of his normal 2, he’s a beast and is difficult for many fellowships to deal with. As an added bonus, Ready to Fall also makes your Shadow still playable if you run out of your draw deck, and it strongly discourages your opponent from double-moving.
Support Cards
3 cards are used in this deck that do not reference site control; nonetheless, they are a great asset to the deck and should not be omitted.
Saruman, Rabble-rouser lends up to 6 strength to the Men, and can also absorb a good chunk of archery wounds. As a side-bonus, he makes the Free Peoples player exert companions if he chooses to move during the regroup phase.
Hides is the heart and soul of this deck. Dunlendings have a naturally low vitality, making them vulnerable to directed and even undirected wounding. Hides, however, is the solution to Dunland’s vitality issues. It’s cheap, effective, and it also helps out with cycling by drawing a card when you play it. Since it is a possession (and it also plays to your support area), it is not the easiest thing for the Freeps to get rid of.
Even with Hides, it can be hard to survive if the Fellowship is fitted out with a host of Elven Bows. That’s why I include War Club in this deck. This hand weapon joins Hides and Burn Every Village in the cheap & effective group, which is another plus. All you have to do is have the bearer win a skirmish (not too hard if you use Over the Isen), and you get to choose 2 possessions to discard. Add in the fierce skirmish, and we’re talking 4 possessions! Multiply that by 4 copies... ouch!
Optional Cards
The aforementioned cards are all the cards I include in my deck, but there are some optional cards that can fit in very well.
Siege Troop leads the list of optional cards. Even though it is not a card, it is arguably the easiest way to control a site, and he has a heck of a lot of strength to boot.
Dunlending Looter and Hillman Rabble deserve honorable mention, although including them would make this deck rather different. Both have the ability to stack on a site you control, and then you can play them for -2 cost. This can lead to a mega-swarm of Men, but as I said before it would change the deck a lot. Stablizing the strategy, No Refuge can be used with these stackable minions to add 5 extra twilight to the pool at each site.
Bound by Rage is listed here as a poor-man’s version of Hides. It’s not nearly as good, but it’s better than nothing if you can’t trade for enough copies of Hides.
No Retreat can force the Freeps to double-move, which can be a very nice strategical move when used to make your opponent skip a sanctuary or if you already have a good amount of minions in play. It also has huge potential when combined with Saruman, Rabble-rouser and/or Crags of Emyn Muil. I didn’t include in this decklist because it can be hard to pull off, and it is a hand clogger if you can’t take control of a site early.
Wulf, Dunlending Chieftain is an optional way to control sites. I don’t find him to be particularly useful, though, since he has to exert to perform his ability. There just seem to be too many ways these days for the Fellowship to exert him.
All of these optional cards can be put to good use; much of it just depends on your meta and your playing style. Try mixing things up by including them now and then, and see if it works for you.
Decklist
Now for the decklist itself! At 33 cards, it is a good size, especially since it often cycles through very fast.
Shadow (33)
Dunlending Elder x4
Dunlending Ransacker x3
Freca, Hungry Savage x3
Hillman Horde x2
Hillman Tribe x4
Saruman, Rabble-rouser x2
Hides x4
War Club x3
Over the Isen x2
Ready to Fall x2
Burn Every Village x4
Strategy Notes
There aren’t many sites that help very much with Dunlendings, but some useful ones are:
Anduin River (archery reduction)
Expanding Marshland (play a lot of minions with a small amount of twilight)
Moria Stairway (damage bonuses for your minions)
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The key to victory is to take control of sites early. To do this best, try to go first with your Fellowship. If your opponent goes first, you will have to wait until his 2nd turn until you could take control of any sites (remember, in order to take control of a site, all players must be past it).
Don’t be afraid to play your Dunlending Elders before you have control of 2 sites; you may be able to take control of those sites during this turn (activating each Elder’s bonuses), and it’s usually not a good idea to clog your hand. In addition, keep in mind that Ready to Fall can retrieve them for later.
That’s just about all the strategy that you’ll need, since most of it was explained in the earlier sections of the article.
Match-ups
Archery
You stand a fair chance of winning, as long as you can secure a copy or two of Hides early in the game. Sometimes, it can be a good idea to play just one Dunlending equipped with a War Club, and use all the extra twilight to prevent him from archery wounds. If he wins his skirmish, you can discard 2 ranged weapons.
Dwarves
Dwarves like to choke the twilight pool, but the Men of Dunland are relatively cheap. The main problem lies in winning skirmishes, so you should definitely try to take control of sites early in order to trigger Dunlending Elder’s strength bonus. War Club, Saruman, and Burn Every Village can be used to try and match the strength of the Dwarves.
Eowyn Wounding
Dunland can really rip apart Eowyn Wounding, for the sole reason that all but 1 of the Men have only 1 vitality. This means that Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien will be unable to spot any wounds on those Dunlendings, rendering her useless.
Shadowplay
Much like the previous match-up, low vitality will prevent the Shadowplay / Unheeded combo from killing the Dunlendings. Using Over the Isen, you can also take out the weak Hobbits in skirmishes.
Rohan
This match-up can be difficult, but a lot of it depends on what type of  cards are used. The mounts will be virtually useless, so the main fear lies in the fact that Rohan has a lot of cards that liberate sites. Fortunately, these aren’t used extremely often.
Ithilien Blade
This match-up is definitely not all that easy, but it can be handled. If the Gondorians exert too much to stop you from controlling sites, there’s a chance that you will then be able to slip a minion with War Club past the maneuver phase, discarding the blades during the skirmish phase. But this chance is slim, and your minions will be pressured by Aragorn’s Bow, Ranger’s Longbow.
Solo Smeagol
Smeagol can’t liberate sites, and you aren’t going to care too much if he manipulates the site path, since you don’t have many sites that are useful. Just watch out for the old Caras Galadhon / There’s Another Way trick during the last region; this can really hurt, so it’s best to try and launch an strong attack during the earlier regions. If Smeagol isn’t set up very well during region 1, you can land a bomb of several Dunlendings at site 3, ending the game quickly. Power According to His Stature can be an issue though, so this is not an easy match-up by far.
Ents
A great match-up. With all the twilight generated by the Ents, you can play a ton of minions with Ready to Fall. The main problem lies in a quick set-up by the Ents in region 1, which could be hard to capitalize on early before any sites are controlled.
Knights
A decent match-up. Citadel of the Stars is a pain, since Hides can’t prevent it, but it is unique and thus can only be used once per site. Fourth Level’s ability will be next to useless, and Hides can prevent wounds from Gondor Bow, so you won’t have too much to be afraid of. War Club is handy against the Bows.
Conclusion
The Men are an under-used and often unexpected force, but they are very fun to play with and can beat up many decks. They aren’t extremely rare intensive, which is a big plus for players with limited buying power.
This same decklist can be used in Two Towers block, as long as you remove Freca and add some of the optional cards. It’s an even more potent force in TTT block, and is just as fun to use.
Hope you enjoyed my article! Thanks in advance for all votes and feedback, and Merry Christmas!
- AC |
| Last edited by AnxiousChieftain on Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:24 pm; edited 3 times in totalMODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:10 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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IT just didn’t catch me and hold me as much as your other articles did. its still a solid 4 but I just didn’t like it as much.
I will wait to vote though. |
 Sop's haves/ top wants
(mm)"SoP: you will always be the Official CC Spammer in my heart"
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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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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:14 am |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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I liked the article, but it was really nothing new to read about. strategy is older than the hills, literally. But it still was a good article. A couple of things...
-You said that No Retreat was useful in making the Freeps skip a sanctuary, but that that was hard to pull off. But you missed the biggest reason to use No Retreat-use it like a Forced March! If the fellowship moves with four Dunlendings on the table, you can play even more
Dunlendings and swarm the heck out of them!
-You also described Solo Smeagol as a potent matchup...but you forgot Smeagol’s biggest Dunlending-killer...PATHS. With 1 Vitality, all of those Dunlendings are sitting ducks, even with Hides. You could have a Smeagol using PATHS, you have to discard Hides 3x or even 4x (because Smeagol doesn’t add twilight very much), and then he pulls a Clever Hobbits on you. Next time around, a PATHS will do those Dunlendings in. Combo with Not Listening, and Smeagol’s freeeeee! |
| "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: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:39 am |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 3947
Location: Maryland
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Quote: -You said that No Retreat was useful in making the Freeps skip a sanctuary, but that that was hard to pull off. But you missed the biggest reason to use No Retreat-use it like a Forced March! If the fellowship moves with four Dunlendings on the table, you can play even more
Dunlendings and swarm the heck out of them!
Well, that’s what Forced March is used for most of the time: skipping sanctuaries and/or moving the Fellowship through Crags of Emyn Muil. I see what you mean though.
Quote: -You also described Solo Smeagol as a potent matchup...but you forgot Smeagol’s biggest Dunlending-killer...PATHS. With 1 Vitality, all of those Dunlendings are sitting ducks, even with Hides. You could have a Smeagol using PATHS, you have to discard Hides 3x or even 4x (because Smeagol doesn’t add twilight very much), and then he pulls a Clever Hobbits on you. Next time around, a PATHS will do those Dunlendings in. Combo with Not Listening, and Smeagol’s freeeeee!
Stupid PATHS.... 
Yeah, I forgot about that card. Guess I’d better add it in. 
- AC |
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| elf lvr |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:29 pm |
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 3065
Location: Rivendell
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Great article! You covered just about everything the site control has to offer, except the "discard cards from hand" method, which really doesn’t work that well anyway.
It was easy to read, and informative. However, it wasn’t anything new, so I’m unsure whether to give this a 4 or 5. The month’s almost over, so I’d better hurry up and decide, though!
Might you consider using Hill Chief? I find him useful for late-game swarms (he is the only method of hand extention, although you can use Ready to Fall), and he can be played back with Ready to Fall, at a rather hefty cost, though... but perhaps three cards are worth it, especially against high-companion, pee-in-the-twilight-pool decks like ents. |
Happy Hunting! Elf Lvr
Winner of Best Personality in the FPCA. Thanks!
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| ingold55 |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:02 pm |
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Joined: 10 Oct 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: Out on the front line
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wow! that was a good article, and i hate Dunland! i agree with SoP, it didn’t hold my interest all the way through, but it is still good.
ok, the one thing i wish you would show is the gondor match-up. like you did with ents, rohan, etc.
i liked it alot AC!  |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 3:10 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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| he had IB... but IMO knights could mash this deck up. with COTS an almost automatic kill and you could transfer 4th lvl. then exert KAPOW! it would crumble. |
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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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:26 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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| It seems to me that you’re also glossing over the Ithilien Blade match-up a lot. Aragorn’s Bow, Ranger’s Longbow will finish off most of your Dunlendings early on (unless you want to dump your Hides early), and then Ithilien Blade still works. |
| "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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| TheHobbit13 |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:26 pm |
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Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Posts: 1303
Location: minnesota
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| Nice article 5 |
| If you like LOTR then maybe you would like redemption ccg PM me for more info |
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| ingold55 |
![]() Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 9:47 pm |
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Joined: 10 Oct 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: Out on the front line
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I am with CG. a well built  deck might tear the deck apart. what would you do against a fortification deck? |
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