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| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:23 pm |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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--- description ---
Explore the amazing combo that utilizes Gothmog, lieutenant of morgul to heap wounds onto your opponent’s un-expecting fellowship.
--- end description ---
First of all, I would like to thank The Jord for giving me permission to use his idea for this article. Some of you may have seen the “Gothmog Death Loop” thread in the LOTR Gameplay Questions section of the forums. In this thread The Jord showed us an interesting and powerful way to replay Gothmog, lieutenant of morgul to destroy your opponent with tons of wounds. The one problem was that it needed tons of twilight to work. In this article, we will explore the Gothmog death deck, the different combo’s it uses, and how to pull off the great Gothmog bomb with as little twilight as possible.
The Gothmog Bomb:
Let’s take a close look at what this deck is capable of by examining the cards needed for the bomb, and how to pull it off.
Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul: Gothmog is the central minion of the deck, and, as you can see, he has the potential to be quite devastating to your opponent. Also, to be effective, he requires several sites to be controlled, so that is a critical function of this deck.
Gorgoroth Troop: This is the next part of the Gothmog bomb, and it does two things for you. First, it gets Gothmog where you want him, stacked on a site. The second thing it does for you is pumps Gorgoroth Troop’s strength up. It also has no cost to stack a minion on a site, so that gives you freedom to do it again and again.
Gorgoroth Officer: This minion completes the loop, and lets you play Gothmog several more times, while pumping him up enormously with strength +6 each time you play him. This loop is not infinite, but rather, it depends on the number of cards you have in hand.
So how does the loop work? Well it’s pretty simple; first you need a copy of ithil stone to get an extra card in hand. Then play Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul, Gorgoroth Troop, and Gorgoroth Officer in any order. This leaves you with 6 cards in hand. When you reach the skirmish phase, stack Gothmog on a site you control with gorgoroth troop, and then play him with gorgoroth officer. Repeat this until you have no more cards. Each time you played Gothmog the Free-peoples player must assign wounds to their fellowship. And on top of that, you end up with a fierce, 31 strength Gothmog and a 20 strength gorgoroth troop. Another thing you can do is stack Gothmog again, so you can pull the loop later without having him jam up your hand.
The problem is that it costs 35 twilight and many sites controlled in order to work. Obviously, two rather large problems. So, we need to find ways to reduce the twilight cost of the bomb, and control as many sites as possible. So let’s look at the cards that support this Death Bomb.
The Deck:
Again, for any shadow-kill deck, the best Free-Peoples side to use is Cycling Dwarves with Gloin, Son of Groin. This way, you can make sure you don’t burn the necessary cards early in the game. And, they also get your site-controlling cards into play.
As for the shadow side of things, it is based in besiegers and site control. The object is to control 6 or more sites, work the several combos possible, and set up to effectively use the Gothmog bomb.
Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul: Gothmog is the beast of the deck, heaping on wounds and being a tough skirmisher too. He works in several different combos, including the big bomb.
Gorgoroth Troop: Another key minion, getting your other minions stacked onto sites to be played again and again. This minion will reappear in many combos.
Gorgoroth Officer: An excellent minion to complete loops with gorgoroth troop and any minion that has a “when you play” special ability. Most importantly, Gothmog, lieutenant of Morgul.
Siege Troop: Siege troop is possibly the most splashed minion for site control decks. You almost always get a site controlled with him.
Gorgoroth Berserker: The Berserker is especially effective while you have initiative, but can also be effective against decks that add threats. There are also a couple cards in the deck that have threat adding capabilities.
gorgoroth engineer: This minion can add plenty of threats, and is great in combination with Gorgoroth officer. The threats help Gorgoroth berserker, so this minion can be very helpful.
mordor pillager: Mordor pillager has a very easy way to take control of a site, but it can be prevented by your opponent. This minion is especially effective against rainbow fellowships, three hunters, or any deck that uses several cultures. It is not uncommon to have the main culture combined with a Frodo Ring-Bearer and a Gandalf splashed in. also, to prevent you from controlling the site, the Free-peoples player must exert a companion, and that helps you as well since this deck focuses on wounds.
gorgoroth sapper: The Sapper is a great way to play a minion from a site. It also only costs one card to use the ability since all the minions are besiegers.
gorgoroth swarm: This minion is your defense against large fellowships. If you can spot six companions, you get to take control of a site and play any minion from your discard pile. Gothmog is obviously a good choice, but also Gorgoroth sapper to pull a minion from a site, or another Gorgoroth swarm to take control of another site and play another minion from your discard pile, can be extremely effective.
Encirclement: This condition really helps you cut the twilight cost of your cards, with 6 sites controlled, each card is twilight cost -3. that means tons of your minions will either be free or cheap, and your conditions and events will all be free. Plus, this condition can help cycle your hand if it clogs.
Barren Land: This condition serves two purposes. It exerts ring-bound companions at the later sites, and reduces twilight cost of a minion. That is important for when you drop the big bomb.
Troop Tower: The main purpose of this card is to control sites, but it can also be a powerful strength boost for your minions.
Tower Walkway: Again, use this card to take control of a site, but also gives another powerful strength bonus. With one each of this condition and troop tower, your besiegers will be incredibly strong.
Peril: peril is a great condition because it lets you play a minion for extremely little twilight. The drawback is that it works in the regroup phase. However, in this deck it fits perfectly, because Gothmog’s effect works anytime you play him. So you can use this condition to dish out extra wounds if you have a copy of gothmog in hand. One great way you can use peril is to play gothmog from a site, like usual, and then, instead of leaving him in play, stack him with Gorgoroth Troop, and play a Gothmog in the regroup phase for  or for free if you control 4 or more sites.
Ithil Stone: This useful artifact lets you take a card into hand at the start of the shadow phase (extremely important to the Gothmog Bomb) and reduces the twilight cost of a minion.
Din of Arms: This even is extremely powerful when it works, it can control a site, make all besiegers strength +3, and, no matter what, forces your opponent to discard the top card of their draw deck.
Needless to say, this deck is large and is packed full of minions, and loaded with cards that can take control of sites. Here is the complete deck list.
[38]
(24)
4x Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul
3x Gorgoroth Troop
3x Gorgoroth Officer
3x Siege Troop
2x Gorgoroth Berserker
2x gorgoroth sapper
2x mordor pillager
2x gorgoroth swarm
2x gorgoroth agitator
(9)
3x Encirclement
2x Barren Land
2x Troop Tower
2x Tower Walkway
2x peril
(2)
2x Ithil Stone
(3)
2x Din of Arms
Gameplay Strategy: The deck needs to be on the large side, not only because of the Dwarven cycling, but also because gorgoroth officer and gorgoroth sapper will be discarding many cards. Keep your Dwarves alive and cycle some Gothmog’s and other minions involved with the Gothmog Bomb, beneath your draw deck. And don’t be afraid to discard some of the minion during play. In the early game take control of as many sites as possible, and stack a few minions with Gorgoroth Troop. That way you can play them with the sapper, or officer, again and again, and stack them for later use. While this deck includes no skirmish pumpers, it does have plenty of ways to make your besiegers super-strong. Troop tower, tower walkway, and din of arms are three good ways to increase strength, not even taking into account the texts of some minions involved. Add that strength to the wounding of Gothmog, and you have a force to be reckoned with. Stacking minions with Gorgoroth troop pumps his strength up, but can also get your besiegers out of hopeless skirmishes, plus it lets you use them later on.
Now, we’ll look at a few of the combos you can use to effectively destroy your opponent.
Gothmog, Sapper, Gorgoroth Troop: This is an easy way to hurt the fellowship. Play gorgoroth troop, and gorgoroth sapper. Discard a card from hand to play Gothmog, the free-peoples player has to assign a wound for each site you control, and then stack Gothmog, and the sapper to make gorgoroth troop Strength 18. Gothmog can be used again the next time you have a sapper or Gorgoroth officer.
Gorgoroth Troop, Gorgoroth officer, Gorgoroth engineer: This combo is an amazing threat machine. With enough twilight, you can easily max-out the threats; then stack the engineer for future use, while making the Troop strength +2. Or leave the engineer out to skirmish because he will be fierce and have massive strength from Gorgoroth officer.
Gorgoroth swarm: A good combo with any other minion you need against large fellowships.
Really, you can use Gorgoroth troop and Gorgoroth officer with ANY minion to get two beastly minions for the skirmish phase.
Playing the Gothmog Bomb: No matter how many combos you can make with this deck, the main objective is to drop the Gothmog bomb and kill the fellowship. So now we’ll see how it works.
First of all, you need to drop the bomb in the third region, where you will be able to have the necessary twilight, and have control of enough sites. Make sure you get to pick the sites, that way you can play a site that adds 3 twilight. It is best to have at least 6 sites controlled, and a copy of each condition and artifact in your support area (troop tower and tower walkway are not necessary, but they make your minions real beasts for the skirmish phase). You also need a copy of Gothmog, lieutenant of morgul, Gorgoroth troop and Gorgoroth officer in hand. Since you control six sites, each of your [souron] cards are twilight cost -3, and since you are in region 3, none of your minions are roaming. At the start of the shadow phase, draw a card. Play Gothmog and discard ithil stone to play him for free; that adds six wounds. Play Gorgoroth officer and discard barren land to play him for free. And play Gorgoroth troop for 3. If there are any archery wounds, place them on Gothmog but don’t kill him unless you have another copy stacked on a site (it is still better to keep him alive so that Gorgoroth troop gets the bonus for stacking him). In the skirmish phase, stack Gothmog with the troop’s text, and discard 2 cards to play him with the officer’s text. His twilight cost is 3. Repeat this until you run out of cards. Then leave Gothmog in play and stack the officer. When all is done, you will have played Gothmog 4 times, and sent 24 wounds at the fellowship, (assuming there is a copy of troop tower and tower walkway in play) you have a 28 strength Gorgoroth troop and a strength 37 and fierce Gothmog, plus they are strength + however many minions are stacked on sites, which is at least one. Or you can stack Gothmog again, to play him for free in the regroup phase, which will add another 6 wounds. And all this is done for 12 twilight.
A way to save even more twilight when playing this bomb, is to start out regularly, but then only stack-and-play Gothmog from the site twice. then stack him once more, and play a copy from hand in the regroup phase using peril. this will add 24 wounds for only  twilight.
Your opponent may not allow you the ideal set-up, and will hinder it if he can, so here are a few other scenarios, how much twilight they cost, and how many wounds they dish out.
4 sites controlled: With four sites controlled, encirclement only reduces twilight cost by . So, to complete a full loop you will need 18 twilight, and it will give your opponent 12 wounds to chew on. But, if you utilize peril (you must have an extra copy of Gothmog in hand) to overcome this, you can send 12 wounds for only 14 twilight.
Sapper, Gorgoroth Troop: What if you don’t have a copy of Gorgoroth officer in hand? Well, just use the sapper to play Gothmog from a site, and stack him during the skirmish. Then use peril to play a copy from hand during the regroup phase. If you have 6 sites controlled Gothmog will obviously be played for free. This combo can dish out 12 wounds for  if you have an ithil stone and barren land in play.
No Gothmog: What do you do when you don’t have a Gothmog in hand? Just play your Gorgoroth Officer and Gorgoroth Troop like usual, and pull Gothmog from a site. Then continue loop. This doesn’t let you play Gothmog as many times, but it does save twilight. 18 wounds for 9 twilight.
No ithil stone or barren land: If you do not have these twilight reducing conditions in play, the cost of the Bomb will cost an extra  . But, just by limiting how many times you stack-and-play Gothmog, you can save a good deal of twilight, and if you save a copy in your hand, you can use peril to get force more wounds on the fellowship for free. This scenario would give you 24 wounds for 14 twilight tokens. You can also hold back, and only use the Officer’s ability once, this would give you 18 wounds for 11 twilight.
This deck is incredibly powerful, and can absolutely destroy your opponent, but let’s look at a few match-ups that can give this deck some trouble.
Directed Archery: This is a tough one, because the Free-peoples player can break a link in the chain, making you un-able to complete the loop.
Choke: Without enough twilight, you may have trouble playing what you need in the early game, and that will affect the Gothmog Bomb later on.
Run-decks: While these decks usually give enough twilight, they might go too fast for your shadow to set-up properly.
Heavy Site Liberation: The deck should be able to handle a few sites being liberated, but if it is happening contantly, you could have some trouble.
There are a few kinds of fellowships which this deck especially excels against .
Solo-Ring-Bearers: While solo ring-bearers may have some built-in choking, the shadow doesn’t need nearly as many wounds or minion in play to be effective, and therefore, needs less twilight. Since all the wounds from Gothmog will go directly onto the Ring-Bearer, this is a strong match-up.
High-Twilight Fellowships: Obviously, the twilight makes this deck extra deadly, since you will have no problem playing your minions, and using the combos.
Exerting Decks: The more your opponent exerts himself, the better you will be able to kill him.
Threat Decks: decks that add threats can help you since when you kill a companion, the threats trigger, giving you more wounds.
Three Hunters: It is easy to control sites when playing against this deck, because they cannot stop your mordor pillager’s. As you control more and more sites, encirclement will drasticly reduce the twilight cost of the  cards.
Elvents: Since you don’t have to win skirmishes in the early game, you don’t have to worry about your minions being killed or overwhelmed. Also, you can stack your minions to get them out of trouble, and use them later. or leave them there for extra strength with troop tower.
And any decks that focus on the skirmish phase should be easy to beat, since the deck doesn’t focus on winning skirmishes (or need to win skirmishes) until the last few companions are left.
Lastly, I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and hope you give this deck a try, and see how devastating a Gothmog Bomb can be.
I appreciate you all, your time, your votes, and any constructive criticism. Thank you.
-macheteman |
Last edited by macheteman on Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:08 am; edited 5 times in totalCheck 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."
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:33 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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Location: Maryland
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Cool idea (even though you didn’t think of it  ).
It seems like the deck should be slimmed down to less than 35 cards though. Have you play-tested the deck and found it to need so many?
I also would have liked to see a part that told the decks that it was good against. You listed the decks that it isn’t good against, but you didn’t really tell when the deck would win.
A solid 4 from AC.
- AC |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:52 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
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| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:07 pm |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: The Jungle
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thanks for the votes, i’ll add some match-ups that are good with this deck. i hav’ne playtested it, but your shadow should be discarding 12-20 cards per game itself with the gorgoroth sapper, and gorgoroth officer. and it’s pared with Dwarven cycling, so it may be in more danger of decking-out than jamming.
this deck may not be an auto-win, but it is powerful, and seems pretty solid. plus, it does have an insane combo.
again, thanks for the votes, and i’ll make a few changes.
-mm |
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."
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:39 pm |
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| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:46 pm |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: The Jungle
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yeah, site liberation is especially a pain. and NPE hurts everything but gollum since he has so much recursion. the best defense aganst an NPE shadow is Frodo, Courteous Halfling.
-mm |
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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| Pywils |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:56 pm |
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Joined: 14 Jan 2007
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| i find that rarely are any liberation sites used anymore, but with the upcoming Uruks, I don’t know |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:01 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
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The only thing I don’t like about this shadow is the fact that it’s so qualification-heavy when you pull it off. You need a heap of twilight, something you don’t usually get, especially versus choking shadows. In fact...the only Freeps I can think of that gives off  in a turn is Ents. But other than that, it only averages about  to . Not going to get you very far.
But it is a nice deck, and I like how you give some smaller combos. I just feel you need to explain how it could be strong against most decks. More matchups would help...like Three Hunters, Refuge... |
| "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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| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:09 pm |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: The Jungle
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thanks for the feedback. the whole point is to drop the bomb with , whitch is fairly easy to get in region 3 when you pick the site. and i’ll try to give some more match-ups.
-mm |
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."
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| macheteman |
![]() Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:30 pm |
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Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: The Jungle
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ok, i added a couple more match-ups, if there are any more specific ones you want me to go over just ask. i’m not too familiar with Refuge decks, so i didn’t include that match-up.
-mm |
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."
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