Cobra Cards Player Community ~ View topic

LotR TCG Wiki

→ Card Sets:

All

→ Forums:

TLHH

Cobra Cards Player Community Forum Index

Forum index » Lord of the Rings TCG » LOTR TCG Strategy Article Contest

Author

Message

Rate this article!

5 (Best)

[ 6 ] 60%

[ 4 ] 40%

[ 0 ] 0%

1 (Worst)

[ 0 ] 0%

Total Votes : 10

CarpeGuitarrem

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:48 pm

Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 3361 Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville

--- description ---
Using both old and new tentacles...in a lethal strategy.
--- end description ---

Note: The persons depicted in the following article are not actual persons, and thus the names have not been changed to protect the innocent. Any resemblance to actual persons is coincidential.

They call me Guitarrem, Carpe Guitarrem. Or CG, if you know me personally. But not many people know me personally. No matter how well you know me, though, you know my job. I’m a private eye, a detective. A gumshoe. At least, that’s what I do in my spare time. Full-time, of course, I play LOTR TCG. I love the game, and I wish that my hobby of gumshoeing would intersect with it. It never has...except for that one time...that one time when I got the phone call late at night...

"Hello? Is this Guitarrem, Private Eye?" It was a woman’s voice, and it sounded nervous. Scared, even. Like her life was hanging by a thread.

"Carpe Guitarrem, Private Eye, ma’am," I told her. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Mr. Guitarrem, it’s terrible...I’ve looked at Age’s End, but I don’t know which minion side I want! So many of them are so expensive...but I want something new, something current..."

"I’ll be right over, ma’am."

The Line-Up
It was only a short car ride to the address she’d given me. It seemed like forever in the rain, though. Two blocks down the street. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of this LOTR player. Well, when I started talking to her, I wasn’t surprised that I hadn’t heard of her. Her name was Sara, she told me. And she had never played a game of LOTR in her life. Sad, but true. However, she had won four boxes of Age’s End in a contest, so she had a complete Age’s End playset. It was an amazing prize, I knew. Personally, I hadn’t gotten a chance to see the new cards, so that was first on the list.

"Just the cards, ma’am."

And she showed me. As I thumbed through the cards, I saw the masked Moria goblin staring out at me, on an orange background. My hands began to shake. Moria had been dead for ages, with the exception of the odd Balrog here and there. And it was back, now? I pulled the card out, and found myself staring at a familiar face: The Watcher in the Water.

Watcher in the Water, Many-Tentacled Creature

Immediately, I saw potential. Tentacles had always been a half-made strategy, but here was a card that made it all work. It made the current site a marsh, and-on top of that-it could fetch tentacles at will from the discard pile! My LOTR mind began to whir, as I saw the potential that this card had. I shuffled through the deck to find any tentacles, and two leapt out at me...

Strong Tentacle
Reaching Tentacle

And with those in hand, I prepared to explain my strategy. However, it wouldn’t be complete without some cards that had been made in the very beginning of LOTR...

Blast from the Past
I came back to the house about ten minutes later, after having dug through my LOTR collection for some cards that had been gathering dust: the tentacle cards. I also got together some other cards to help make the deck. Fortunately, I had extras of those. I could afford to give some away. With these under my trenchcoat, I re-entered the house. And was caught by a bit of surprise.

"Afternoon, Guitarrem. Or is it still CG?"

The voice was one that caught me off guard, the type of voice that, after it speaks, Blood Runs Chill. The voice of my old partner, the Nameless Player. The one who had left my business after I had decried his reckless hatred of the new Shadow cultures. I mean, I didn’t exactly like it, but it wasn’t too bad of an idea. I mean, after the movie blocks, you have to do something new. Anyway, that ended our partnership, and he went off on his own. As did myself. And I had done fairly well. Why had he come to haunt me?

"So, Guitarrem, she tells me that you want to make a tentacle deck."

"Of course. She needs a good deck with Age’s End cards. And I’ll give it to her."

"Really, Guitarrem, even you...I wouldn’t have expected to try something so...stupid."

My hands closed into fists, and I stepped up to him. "Drop the smart talk. Let’s see how well you fight."

"Let’s see how well I play, Guitarrem. And how well you teach. Me against the lady. And to the winner, the boxes of Age’s End."

What could I do? I agreed. And immediately called Sara into the next room, as Mr. Nameless prepared the deck he had brought with him. I laid out the cards I had brought out, next to the new Age’s End cards, and explained how the deck worked.

Goblin Runner
Evil-Smelling Fens
Foul Tentacle
Huge Tentacle
Foul Things

"The key of the deck is to play tentacles like crazy, so that you can get them in your discard pile. You see, when you play Foul Tentacle, you can grab the other Foul Tentacles, then grab a Huge Tentacle, then the Watcher. However, this won’t help you if you don’t have enough tentacles. This is where the Watcher comes in.

"He can play tentacles from your discard pile whenever, so you want him to hit the table when all of your tentacles are discarded. That way, you can have 17 minions on the table. With 16 tentacles, Reaching Tentacle and Strong Tentacle will be incredibly powerful, and the other tentacles can pile up on the Ring-bearer. Game over."

I could see that she understood, so I left her with the cards, plus Goblin Runner, Foul Things, and Evil-Smelling Fens, which I explained were there to help her with twilight generation, tentacle recursion, and ensuring that the current site would be a marsh. And then I remembered that there was no Free Peoples side for her to use. So, I slipped out of the back door, and went back to my office, where I always keep emergency decks. I took a quick look around, and found a Solo Smeagol deck.

That was it-site path manipulation, and marsh sites. Everything the Watcher wanted. I grabbed the deck off of the shelf, and ran back to the house. And slipped in the back door. And Sara was waiting, with a question...

Game Time
"But...how can this work at a non-marsh?" Her voice was filled with concern, lots of it. And she was scared.

I smiled. "That’s easy. You see, the discarding action happens when the card is in play. Before that can happen, however, you must resolve ’When you play...’ events. And when you play Huge Tentacle, that brings out Watcher, who makes the site a marsh again. But you shouldn’t have to worry about non-marshes. This Free Peoples side will stick marshes on the site path when you need them, and Evil-Smelling Fens will take care of the rest. Now, you’re ready. But don’t forget: be ready to drop the bomb at Site 7."

I gave her a really fast but thorough briefing on Solo Smeagol, and then she was ready. I sent her out into the room, to face the wolf. The Nameless wolf. I sat back; he had already gotten his deck in hand. And the two made their starting bids. Sara remembered my instructions, and got the bid to go second. She revealed Smeagol, and he revealed Frodo. And then, he went on to play an insane starting fellowship of Ents and Hobbits. Nine companions on the table, starting.

"Bet you weren’t expecting that one, little sugar-girl," he laughed.

She shut her eyes. He was testing her, I could tell. And she passed. The game went on, with him smirking every time his ents beat up on her few tentacles, although he was having trouble playing his corsairs. And his hand was beginning to clog. I took a deep breath. Everything was going according to plan. Unfortunately, Evil-Smelling Fens was a goner against Pallando. But marsh sites filled Region 2 and spilled into Region 3. The Nameless had moved into Site 7.

Sara looked up at him. And said, "It’s time."

I still remember how she played that Huge Tentacle, and fetched the Watcher from her deck. And then, the Nameless’ face dropped. As she played tentacle after tentacle to the table. He’d flooded the twilight pool, and he was paying for it. Two Goblin Runners helped give her more pool to play with, and there it was: 12 tentacles and the Watcher. The unlucky 13 minions. And then the Nameless made his assignments.

It was ugly for him. Frodo ended up with 3x Foul Tentacle and a Huge Tentacle on him, and the ents were all assigned. The little guy went down swinging, and a smile of triumph was on Sara’s face. The Nameless grunted, and snatched up his cards, storming for the door. Sara smiled at me as I came towards her, nodding. She’d won.

Conclusion
Yes, that was the story...and I’ll remember it for a while. You want the decklist and matchups? Okay, I’ll give those to you below. But if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to work on my Freeps. I’ve got an LOTR date with a cute girl, and I need to figure out a way to beat my own tentacle Shadow.

Minions (24)
Foul Tentacle 4x
Goblin Runner 4x
Huge Tentacle 4x
Reaching Tentacle 4x
Strong Tentacle 4x
Watcher in the Water, Many-Tentacled Creature 4x

Conditions (4)
Evil-Smelling Fens 4x

Events (4)
Foul Things 4x

Total Cost: $24.72

Matchups:
Archery/Wounding: Well, mass archery is certainly a problem, but most other wounding (except RB wounding) presents no problem. There’s plenty of minons to spread wounds around on. This deck shuts down Eowyn, because most of the minons have very low vitality, so there’s not a lot of wounds she can spot on minions. Solo Smeagol could give problems, though, as his wounding can finish off most of the tentacles, leaving him to face only the Watcher, for a simple skirmish win.

Minion Discarding: Against a swarm? Not a problem. Most of your sites will be marshes, so you don’t need the Watcher to ensure that your tentacles stay alive. You’ll still have enough minions to take down the Ring-bearer.

Elvents: Well, this could be a major problem...except that, your opponent can’t win every skirmish all of the time. So, some of the elfies will go down. You may have to drop the tentacle bomb early, and multiple times. Eventually, though, you ought to be able to get the Ring-bearer.

Tank Companions: With this deck, the only strength that matters is the strength of the Ring-bearer. And the Ring-bearer is not generally the tank. Against a swarm, he’ll go down. Furthermore, Reaching Tentacle and Strong Tentacle can easily beat down the other companions.

And in case you were curious about the Free Peoples side, here’s one that works well (use with Dammed Gate-Stream to grab Safe Passage, and include several marsh sites, obviously).

Ring-Bearer and Ring
Smeagol, Bearer of Great Secrets
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles

Conditions (15)
Don’t Look at Them 4x
Follow Smeagol 3x
Nice Fish 3x
Poor Wretch 4x
Safe Passage

Events (14)
Clever Hobbits 3x
Not Listening 4x
Power According to His Stature 4x
Still Far Ahead 3x

Possessions (3)
Fishing Boat 3x

Total Cost: $24.05

~~
And that’s that! I hope you enjoyed this article, because I enjoyed writing it!

~CG

Last edited by CarpeGuitarrem on Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:26 pm; edited 2 times in total"ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm)

NBarden

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:02 pm

Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...

Great! I love it! The only problem is that its more creativeness and less strategy, but a fun article. Easy 4.

-Trade With Me Exclamation

Add the popcorn smiley to your sig, help it achieve world domination.
What if the hokey pokey really IS what its all about? Shocked

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.

lem0nhead

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:10 am

Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 2981 Location: Blood Island

As soon as started reading that i knew i was gonna give you a 5. Absolutely great CG. Loved it.

I agree with NB but that doesnt matter you still get 5 for making me smile.

Ban shampoo, demand real poo.
Popcorn

My Trade List and CC References
"Smart guy, especially considering his head is filled with lemon juice and seeds. That boy’s juicy brain is FULL of good stuff" ~ DainIronfoot
"No fair! And all I got was an oily unconscious steward!" ~ Pippin.
"Okay, stop me if you've heard this one. An elf, a man, and a dwarf walk into the Riddermark..." ~ Eomer

BearerOfQuality

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:31 am

Joined: 20 Jun 2007 Posts: 217 Location: United Kingdom

You know, i give it 5 too. It’s not my favourite deck strategy, but I am starting to be convinced to it. Plus, I find a lot of the articles a bit long-winded, so it’s refreshing to read something like this.

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:09 am

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.

that was a sweet way to begin an article 5

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

(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. Razz

Anonymous Prodigy

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:19 am

Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States

This is probably the most original article I have ever seen. Applause

An easy 5 from me! Very Happy

I had to put something here.

lem0nhead

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:20 am

Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 2981 Location: Blood Island

Hey you were right CG, this does blow EL’s small deck list in his article out of the water! Again great job!

Ban shampoo, demand real poo.
Popcorn

TheHobbit13

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:02 am

Joined: 27 Jul 2006 Posts: 1303 Location: minnesota

i would have liked to have seen more strategy.. right now it seems like a low four to me .. i like the strategy,but i would have liked to have seen more strategy and less story. i will weight to vote.. could you also get prces for this deck??

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

sickofpalantirs

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:30 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.

he explains how the deck works doesn’t he???

Sop's haves/ top wants Exclamation

Anautikus

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 5:25 pm

Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 687 Location:

yea it’s pretty straight forward. it’s tentacles!

My Haves/Wants
Let's Trade! Cool