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| Shadows |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:50 pm |
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Joined: 21 Aug 2006
Posts: 136
Location: the underworld
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--- description ---
It’s a big beefy Aragorn going head to head with the Troll that attacked him at the Black Gate round 2...and this time your opponents fellowship is in the way...
--- end description ---
"... foul half-trolls..."
I was watching The Return of the King the other day, and it got to the black gate scene, and as I was watching it I thought, wow that troll is just so cool, he gets this close to killing Aragorn, that’s pretty impressive...
Well thankfully for all of us troll fanboys out there, decipher must have realised how cool this particular troll is, and have made a pretty cool minion out of him, namely Troll of cirith gorgor.
Now even at first impressions this guy is a pretty beastly minion, and that text is just begging to be abused. However, as I’m sure many people found out when Mount Doom first came out, he is harder to use than on first impressions, after all:
-he costs 7 to start, and has to spot another  minion to play
-14 strength isn’t enough to go head to head with the biggest companions
-even Dwarf free peoples have no more than 5 or 6 possesions generally.
but he is fierce and damage+1, which are always nice to have. So, having made a few attempts in expanded, that where actually very powerful, I decided to have a go at creating a standard format Troll-Possesion deck, and what better free peoples to partner it than his very nemesis from the Black Gate, Aragorn, Isildur’s Heir and his fellow Noble Leaders.
Shadow
So let’s start by putting together our shadow side. Well for starters the focus of the deck is Troll of Cirith Gorgor, so we’ll want to put in four copies of him, so that he can be used as much as possible.
If we look through our cards, we find a lovely minion called Covetous Uruk, who has exactly the same ability as the Troll, only he’s 6 strength weaker, but 3 twilight cheaper, and has no spotting requirement. He’s also non-unique so we can have several copies of this beasty in at once. Finally, as if he needed any more reason to be included, he also is damage+1.
With the focus of this deck being the Troll, and his Uruk friends, we need some cheap shadow possesions to make them huge, as rather helpfully, the Troll and Uruk’s text does not specify the spotted possesions have to be free peoples. For this deck I have chosen to use Web, Spider Poison and Larder.
Web allows me to stack Gollum on it, so I can keep replaying him and gettings threats even when i’m out of captured by the ring (which is very important as we’ll see later), and larder allows me to cycle excess orcs out of my hand. Spider Poison I put in, because it was the first cheap possesion I found 4 copies of.
Now as I just mentioned threats are important in this. Why I hear you ask? Well threats are going to be our way of making sure our Troll hangs around.
After all, if we’ve got ourselves a 26 strength fierce damage+1 troll, then we want to be able to play him on more than just four sites.
This is achieved by a card from Siege of Gondor, called their marching companies. For the cost of a single threat we can stack any minion on a site we control, or play them off. This means we can stack and re-use our Trolls. However for this to work, we need an easy form of site control, and what better card to do this than siege troop? Not only is it a very strong minion, that we can use as a spotting requirement for the Troll, it provides obscenely easy site control.
Finally to get those threats we use Gollum with captured by the ring, as this can easily and cheaply get threats on. Alright now we have the main cards, let’s see what other cards will help...
Fat one wants it - Combined with captured by the ring, we get two threats everytime Gollum is played.Nice.
gollum, skulker - I chose to use this Gollum, simply because he can be used to get an extra +2 on any minion I choose.
Orc pursuer - a cheap orc to spot for the troll, and if the free peoples player over plays, and gives up initiative, then he becomes a ten for one twilight, which isn’t bad. He also drops the trolls roaming penalty by one.
So that gives us our final decklist that looks like this...
Total:38
Minions:
4x Troll of Cirith Gorgor
4x Covetous Uruk
4x Orc Pursuer
3x Siege Troop
3x Mordor Soldier
1x Gollum, Skulker
Possesions:
4x Spider Poison
4x Larder
4x Web
Events:
4x Captured by the Ring
Conditions:
2x Their Marching Companies
1x Fat One wants it
Strategy:
In the first few sites, you should set up your possesions, and if you can get enough twilight in the 1-3 double say, then play siege troop to try and get that site.
Use Gollum to get some threats on, and then site 5 aim to play your first troll (though if you have enough twilight earlier, then by all means go for it sooner.) If you can get that site, then aim to always have at least on troll of cirith gorgor stacked on a site at a time. Also, if any of your Orc Pursuers survive to regroup, then stack them as well, so you can always have a minion ready for spotting for the troll.
If you can’t spot a minion for the troll, or you can’t afford it, then Covetous Uruk can be played, hopefully a few at a time, and they can still do major damage. In the later sites, it’s easy to get enough twilight to drop an orc pursuer, a troll of cirith gorgor and a covetous uruk, which any felowship should find hard to deal with.
Match-ups
Elvents - Probably one of the toughest match-ups, as they don’t have any additional possesions for you to spot, and they can win alot of skirmishes. Hopefully though, your damage+1 will mean they can’t afford to lose more than a couple of skirmishes, otherwise things can get ugly for them quickly.
Archery/Wounding decks - A so-so match. All of your minions have a reasonable amount of health, and if wounding is really prevalent in your meta, consider adding in 2-3 copies of sweeter meats. The look on your opponents face when you sweeter meats the wound they were using to kill your troll with eowyn, lady of ithilien just before the troll overwhelms her is priceless.
Dwarves - this one of the easiest matches. With all their possesions, your trolls and covetous uruk should easily be able to match even Durin III’s strength, and your minions are quite cheap, so the choke aspect shouldn’t be too much of a problem
Solo Smeagol - ugh. He will have next to no possesions, will choke you, and can destroy your threat mechanism with his clever hobbits. Hopefully you can slow him down enough to run to the end, as if you can get a couple of minions in, then he will have to use several pumps to stay alive.
Rohan/Rohan and Dwarves - Again quite an easy match-up due to the large amounts of twilight they add, and their numerous possesions. Their horses can be annoying at wounding your siege troops, and stopping you getting that site however.
Refuge decks - Can be quite nasty, as they actually have quite abit of possesion discarding, and they’re healing is annoying, as it means you have to overwhelm companions, you can’t just wear them down. Still, if you can get a Troll through their archery, and with a decent amount of strength, they aren’t the strongest in the skirmish phase so you should be able to lay on the hurt...plus plenty of companions, so plenty of threats to go off, so shouldn’t be too hard.
...So now that we have the shadow, lets get those Noble Leaders ready for war...
Free Peoples
We’ll start with our ring-bearer. It’s a gondor deck, and we need to spot Boromir for Noble Leaders so who better to use than Boromir, bearer of council? And in order to overcome his rather weak resistance, we’ll use the one ring, the ring of rings.
For the starting fellowship, we can no longer use Faramirm, Captain of Gondor, as he’s been rotated, so we’ll use Faramir, Prince of ithilien, who only costs one, and has a nice defender+1 ability.
Denethor, lord of minas tirith is an obvious choice, allowing us to grab any 2 gondor cards we might need at sites three and six.
As this is the Isildur’s Heir version of the noble leaders deck, we want a couple of copies of Aragorn, Isildur’s Heir. Whilst we can always grab him at site three with Denethor, it’s nice to have one for healing, or increasing the chances of getting him before site three. This Aragorn is such a great companion, giving out defender+ bonuses and also getting up to very big strengths.
Finally to round out the companions we’ll use Elendil, the tall. I prefer him to the other Elendil, as he doesn’t cost to play and he can give a triple moving capacity.
Being a noble leaders deck, we want to include four copies of noble leaders. It’s a great pump, and gives tokens for Aragorn. Another card we’ll include is heirs of gondor. Whilst only getting one token to start with, this can easily help win skirmishes easier than noble leaders due to the +2 bonus it gives.
Finally, we’ll use guarded city, as it can easily reinforce 5 or 6 tokens everytime it’s used. Some other cards that greatly help the deck are:
Brego, Loyal Steed - Reinforces a token, and can wound minions before skirmish, always nice.
Storied homestead - Cancels minions nasty special abilities (Ulaire enquea, thrall of the one anyone?) and also gives more tokens for Aragorn.
Anduril, flame of the west - I actually prefer this to the new Anduril, as it makes the triple from 3-6 much easier, as you can choose the sancturary you move into, such as a nice caras galadhon, rather than say an anduin banks.
Throne of minas tirith - Shamefully easy token reinforcing, and provides some very nice possesion removal.
Stewards legacy - When combined with brego, loyal steed can take out problem minions pre-skirmish.
So, without further ado, let’s look at our deck-list...
Total:38
Starting:
1x Boromir, Bearer of Council
1x The one ring, the ring of rings
1x Denethor, lord of minas tirith
1x Faramir, prince of ithilien
Companions:
2x Elendil, the tall
2x Aragorn, isildur’s heir
Possesions:
4x Sapling of the white tree
4x Kingsfoil
2x ithilien blade
1x anduril, flame of the west
1x narsil, blade of the faithful
1x faramir’s sword
1x scroll of isildur
1x ranger’s cloak
1x brego, loyal steed
1x throne of minas tirith
Events:
4x guarded city
Conditions:
4x noble leaders
3x heirs of gondor
2x storied homestead
1x houses of healing
1x Stewards Legacy
Strategy
Get out your token cards a.s.a.p. Bid one and go first, and use pippin, wearer of black and silver to get you to site three. If you haven’t got him by then, then grab Aragorn and Anduril. It’s probably best to keep your noble leaders in hand till you have Aragorn out, so you can maximise the number of tokens on it. After that it’s a case of using the damage bonuses from noble leaders to kill off minions, and then doubling to the end.
Match-ups
Orc Corruption - Boromir has 11 resistance which helps. Grab Scroll of isildur at site three whatever you do. You have the guarded city to help against bounf to it’s fate, and you should have enough strength on tap to keep their minions from winning too many skirmishes with retribution.
Enduring Nazgul corruption - Use guarded city to reinforce storied homestead, and use that to keep Enquea under control. Other than that, it’s just a case of trying to move as fast as possilbe, in order to get away before they get set up, as there isn’t much else you can do.
Swarm - Any kind of swarm deck is easy enough to fight, as with all those tokens sitting around Boromir should have a hard time being overwhelmed. The only issue might be having enough resistance to have Boromir keep fighting, though Aragorn and Faramir’s defender+ should help.
Forestguls - Boromir should be able to survive against one or two Nazgul, though it’s probably best to try for a shadow kill, as not even that many tokens will save Boromir from 3 or 4 nazgul, especially if he’s bearing a lost in the woods.
Corsairs - Your two biggest companions both use artifacts rather than possesions, and you can sink their ships with throne of minas tirith, so it’s not too hard a match-up. For once.
Final Decklists:
Total:38
Starting:
1x Boromir, Bearer of Council
1x The one ring, the ring of rings
1x Denethor, lord of minas tirith
1x Faramir, prince of ithilien
1x pippin, wearer of black and silver
Companions:
2x Elendil, the tall
2x Aragorn, isildur’s heir
Possesions:
4x Sapling of the white tree
4x Kingsfoil
2x ithilien blade
1x anduril, flame of the west
1x narsil, blade of the faithful
1x faramir’s sword
1x scroll of isildur
1x ranger’s cloak
1x brego, loyal steed
1x throne of minas tirith
Events:
4x guarded city
Conditions:
4x noble leaders
3x heirs of gondor
2x storied homestead
1x houses of healing
1x stewards legacy
Total:38
Minions:
4x Troll of Cirith Gorgor
4x Covetous Uruk
4x Orc Pursuer
3x Siege Troop
3x mordor soldier
1x Gollum, Skulker
Possesions:
4x Spider Poison
4x Larder
4x Web
Events:
4x Captured by the Ring
Conditions:
2x Their Marching Companies
1x Fat one wants it
Conclusion
The deck may seem a little big at 38 cards per side, but the possesions in the shadow are all one cost, with no spotting requirement, and so can easily be played to clear your hand.
There are only four events on the free peoples, Denethor can clear your deck, and most of your other cards can be played straight to the table, cycling your hand pretty well.
Therefore, in conclusion, if you want a fun deck to play but that’s also pretty powerful, but more inventive than your usual deck, then have a go at this. Thanks for reading...
Shadows. |
| Last edited by Shadows on Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:37 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:35 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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| That’s a very unorthodox and cool deck. Although the one thing I miss is being updated to RoS, aside from including Throne of Minas Tirith. You might want to have a look at new matchups, like Bill Ferny and Evil Men Possessions. |
| "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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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:46 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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| did you make this deck? I know just a few days ago i saw one almost exactly like this in the clinic, I just skimmed it, but looks pretty good. |
 Sop's haves/ top wants
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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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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:01 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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Have you tested this deck? I’m sorry, but there are cards that you have to have to get him in play, namely, minions. And you only have three other minions, so I don’t see him being played unless for some crazy reason you can cycle your hand completely. Perfect distribution, you draw a necessary card to get him in play about 1 every 10 cards. And then you have to get the Troll of Cirith Gorgor, you may not be able to get him in play until site 4-5, by which time the FP will have had free reign to set up without that much hindrance and will be ready to deal with him. I know that Captured by the Ring thins out your deck a little, but not that much.
Its a good strategy, but the deck doesn’t look like it would work unless you paired it with a crazy cycling deck...(dwarves). So, have you tested it? |
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| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:05 pm |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: The Jungle
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yeah, i remmember a deck almost exactly like this also. and it seemed to me that in your shadows match-up section you pretty much said "this deck does well against dwarves and rohan." every other match-up you gave was either bad or so-so.
i’ll wait to vote.
-macheteman |
Check out my best article The Utterly Corrupt Corruption,
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:08 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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Grima, Wormtongue would kill this deck. Instant hand clog, unless you spread the possessions out.
And your FP is just waiting for corruption to bash it over the head. Not sure how you’d solve that problem,  is notoriously weak in anti-burden... |
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Add the popcorn smiley to your sig, help it achieve world domination.
What if the hokey pokey really IS what its all about?
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| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:24 pm |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: The Jungle
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| pippin engine. it would be pretty easy since pippin is already in the starting fellowship. but even this does not stop all corruption. |
Check out my best article The Utterly Corrupt Corruption,
If at first you don't succeed...Sky-diving isn't for you.
"Combat is dangerous. It tends to interupt your breathing process."
ROLF!!! |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:26 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
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| Like Shapes Slowly Advancing w/ Forestguls. Forestguls is the worst match-up for this deck...as they can easily survive and then force you to throw your companions into your hand, thus clogging it for your Shadow side not to work well... |
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| Pywils |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:23 pm |
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Joined: 14 Jan 2007
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sorry, but your freeps doesnt work.
Faramir costs 2 (he gets played BEFORE denethro)
denethor costs 2 (you can’t start him first because of spotting)
Pippin costs 1
5 twilight?  |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:25 pm |
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