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| yerkamig |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:59 am |
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Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 240
Location: Corvallis, OR
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--- description ---
The Library of Orthanc serves as a nice Pope-mobile for those working-stiffs, the Issy Orcs, who never saw the light of day in the regroup.
--- end description ---
When considering the different Grimas, Grima Wormtongue is the preferred favorite because he can clog hands so easily. And it’s too tempting to try and acivate his text by adding condition cards that play on companions like Leechcraft and Desertion, or just including him in a Isengard tracker deck. Either way this runs into conflict when trying to include the mother of all condition discarding cards Saruman’s Power, as it discards your own conditions as well as the Free Peoples’stuff. Power also shuts down Grima Son of Galmod, who is so anxious to help out his master Saruman of Many Colours (both have companions -1 texts). Alas, he too requires a companion bearing a shadow condition.
This is why I chose Grima Chief Counselor as my Grima of choice for this deck. He acts as kind of a cap to Saruman of Many Colours. Play only one culture and Saruman MC takes everyone down -1 strength, play four cultures and Grima CC wil send you packing no matter how many cards your companion bears. And that is not his only surprise. While Saruman’s Power is wiping the condition slate clean every time, Where Has Grima Stowed It? is plucking away valuable companion possessions. This strategy would obviously work against Grima Wormtongue.
So between these four cards I can pigeon hole a felloship’s cultures, wipe their conditions, discard their possessions, and take everyone’s strength down a notch. A nice start, but now that I have a naked fellowship how do I put it in the grave? How can I nail it home? Damage Uruks come to mind. Nothing like an old fasioned Uruk beatdown to make an opponent cry. But without any conditions for archery, site control, battleground bonuses, Greed, Worry, or Saruman’s Ambition I don’t know if I want to try. After all, if I want to make full use of Saruman’s Power, it’s nigh impossible with these kinds of decks.
That’s when my old buddies the Issy orcs came to mind. Actually they were already in the front of my mind. When RotEL came out I worked these guys every which way but loose, and never won a damn game. My opponent was always picking and choosing which orcs he wouldn’t allow to the regroup to wound, and absorping the small amount of damage they could inflict if they did make it there. So I’ve always had a soft spot for these little guys who never saw a battle until a giant tidal wave and a hundred berserk trees crashed their factory when they were just trying to make it through an honest days work to the five o’clock buzzer.
Scaffolding was the first thing to come to mind. But it’s a lot of work to get my guys there and without a lot of payoff. Maybe if I could play them from the scaffolding...but I digress. I almost moved on until I saw the text on Isengard Tender. Discard in the regroup off an Isengard CARD (not possession) to exhaust a companion. Immediately I thought of a Palantir of Orthanc Seventh Seeing Stone/ Library of Orthanc combo which might allow me to stack this guy directly onto the Library. Then I could just discard him in the regroup to exhaust. No messy skirmishes to cross my fingers through. Then my heavy hitters like Isengard Mechanics, Orc Commander, and especially Saruman MC with staff could wade in and wound to kill. I can also stack the IM’s on the Library if I see them, because they have a similar discarding text which adds twilight.
So it works like this: I look at my own deck with the Palantir, and stack either the Mechanics or the Tender on the Library when I see them. Late game I discard the Tender off the Library to exhaust, or the Mechanics off the Library to add twilight. The Shaman uses the extra twilight to keep the Commander alive while he wounds the exhausted (and naked thanks to Saruman and Grima) companions.
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Saruman of Many Colours x3
Grima Chief Counselor x4
Isengard Tender x4
Isengard Mechanics x3
Isengard Shaman x2
Orc Commander x2
Saruman’s Power x4
Where Has Grima Stowed It? x4
Caradhras Has Not Forgiven Us x2
Library of Orthanc x2
Palantir of Orthanc, Seventh Seeing-stone x2
Staff of Saruman, Fallen Istar’s Stave x2
As far as match-ups go, it’s hard to go through each one without repeating myself with each culture. Rohan and Dwarves fall hard to possession discarding. Gandalf, Hobbits, and Gondor (both fortifications and Ithilien Blade) all fall to condition discarding. Elven archery gets hit by both.
And the discarding is not just limited to four Saruman’s Power and four Where has Grima Stowed It?. As I explain below I can recycle these two cards with We Shall Meet Again Soon, which in turn I can also recycle with Daddy Twofoot, Next-Door Neighbor.
It’s easier to talk about what can hurt this deck. Artifacts obviously can’t be discarded. And event-based decks can survive if not flourish, especially with card stacking discard stuff like Every Little Is A Gain.
Here’s the Fellowship half. The focus is to have more cards in hand at the end of any given turn to set up the Library. I do this by drawing one extra each turn with Gandalf The Grey Pilgrim and cycling a little with Questions that Need Answering. That allows We Shall Meet Again Soon to pull the Isengard Tender from the discard and put him on top, without having to reconcile UP at the end of the turn. But even if I can’t accomplish this I can recycle my shadow-side discarding stuff.
Unbound Hobbits are pretty powerful with Escape/Everyone Knows. Frodo Gamgee helps this combo out by being a floating +4. I have both Glamdring Foe Hammer and Narya to deal with the ensuing burdens.
The One Ring, The Ring of Doom
Frodo, Weary from the Journey
(34)
Tolman Cotton, Farmer of Bywater
Merry, The Tall One
Pippin, The Short One
Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim x4
Escape x3
Everyone Knows x4
Fates Entwined x2
Hobbit Sword x3
Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs
Phial of Galadriel, Star-glass
Gandalf’s Staff
Glamdring, Foe-hammer
Shadowfax, Roaring Wind
Narya
We Shall Meet Again Soon x2
Questions That Need Answering x2
Let Folly Be Our Cloak x2
Frodo Gamgee, Son of Samwise
Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor
Pallando, Far-traveling One |
| Last edited by yerkamig on Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:50 am; edited 5 times in total |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:01 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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Rather small, and again like a glorified decklist. If you want to write an article about a deck, macheteman’s article is a good format. (Not the best article, but his formatting is good.
Also, have some sort of intro. This may be a good deck, but you don’t make the most out of it.
Now onto strategy. Where’s Isengard Axe? This is a personal favorite of mine, and it adds twilight, which could be crucial if you’re trying to swarm. Abandoning Reason for madness could also be a good card, because  orcs are VERY easily adaptable to the swarm. Your choice of Grima is nice, and your explanation on how to use it is VERY NICE.
Overall, your article is to short, and discussed very little strategy.
Oh, and my pet peeve. The match-up section. Every article on one deck must have a match-up section. Sorry, but that automatically drops it by one point.
I was trying to decide 3 or 4, but your lack of a match-up section puts it at a three. I’m going to hold off on oting for a little bit, because you may have some improvements you want to make, but right now you’re at a three. |
 -Trade With Me
 Add the popcorn smiley to your sig, help it achieve world domination.
What if the hokey pokey really IS what its all about? 
As I lay in bed staring at the stars last night, I thought to myself, "where the heck is the ceiling?"
 Spotlight on....Sense of Obligation. |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:20 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 a match-up section would be nice. that would give you a 5 from me. |
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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| yerkamig |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:50 am |
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Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 240
Location: Corvallis, OR
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NBarden wrote: Rather small, and again like a glorified decklist. If you want to write an article about a deck, macheteman’s article is a good format. (Not the best article, but his formatting is good.
Also, have some sort of intro. This may be a good deck, but you don’t make the most out of it.
Now onto strategy. Where’s Isengard Axe? This is a personal favorite of mine, and it adds twilight, which could be crucial if you’re trying to swarm. Abandoning Reason for madness could also be a good card, because orcs are VERY easily adaptable to the swarm. Your choice of Grima is nice, and your explanation on how to use it is VERY NICE.
Overall, your article is to short, and discussed very little strategy.
Oh, and my pet peeve. The match-up section. Every article on one deck must have a match-up section. Sorry, but that automatically drops it by one point.
I was trying to decide 3 or 4, but your lack of a match-up section puts it at a three. I’m going to hold off on oting for a little bit, because you may have some improvements you want to make, but right now you’re at a three.
Maybe we should have a glorified decklist contest. 
I like the Isengard Axe as well, especially with Master of Foul Folk, but I’m not trying to swarm here. Although I did consider trying to set that up with Discoveries and Abandoning Reason. But with Grima it was too much. Instead I wanted to focus on my Isengard Pope-mobile.
Thanks for the comments NBarden. |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:07 am |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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You still have slight formatting problems, and the match-up section should be more laid out like this
Dwarves: Possession Discarding. You should also expound a little more on the specifics.
Rohan: Possession Discarding. Again, expound.
Ents: Ents would be hit hard with condition removal.
Three Hunters: Easy victory, repeated discarding of Forth the Three Hunters and No quicker Path leave the fellowship without pumps, and if that’s not enough, go for focus to take out their healing.
NBarden’s crazy multicultural deck that dies at site 2: Easy victory. He died at site 2.
Or at least something resembling that slightly.
Tolman Cotton? Wha...? I though I was the only guy who ran him (in my crazy multicultural deck that dies at site 2). And if you’re running unbound hobbits, Aragorn, Wingfoot rules the crucial double. Or triple if you want to add Radagast.
You could also use Crouched Down / Measure of Comfort / G for Grand, etc to do pretty well...and Merry, Loyal Companion is better than Merry, The Shot One. As is Merry, From O’er the Brandywine.
Oh, and a crazy idea for Gandalf. Start Gandalf, Leader of Men, burn him Saved From the Fire and use Pinnacle of Zirkazigil or Sent Back to play Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim. And then burn someone else, send ’em over the Falls of Rauros and play him again. It would really help you cycle the deck.
And if you want to cycle the deck for no reason, Old Toby at Trollshaw Forest cycles pretty well.
Good work, and if there were only improvements to be made with the article, I would have given you a 4, but there were, IMO changes to be made with the deck. A high 3 and a gp. |
-Trade With Me
Add the popcorn smiley to your sig, help it achieve world domination.
What if the hokey pokey really IS what its all about?
As I lay in bed staring at the stars last night, I thought to myself, "where the heck is the ceiling?"
Spotlight on....Sense of Obligation. |
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| Anonymous Prodigy |
![]() Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 10:06 am |
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Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 4197
Location: United States
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| Good article, but I agree with NBarden on a few points; the decklist is glorified, and the match-up section, as well as the formatting, could use some editing. Plus, the article was quite short. Otherwise, a good article. I give it a 4. |
| I had to put something here. |
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| masswelter13 |
![]() Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:42 am |
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Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 27
Location:
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I am also a fan of longer, more informational formats...
But a 4 will do.... |
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