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| Hazael |
![]() Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:14 am |
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Joined: 04 Jan 2006
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Location: Up North
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--- description ---
An in-depth look at a Southron "strategic wound" strategy. How can the Southron culture cards fit together to compliment each other so well to create the "perfect" strategy?
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This article tied for 2nd place in the February 2006 LOTR TCG Strategy Article Contest, earning a $5 store credit for its author.
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Southrons are much more than just an ambush strategy on LOTR TCG!
Most people think of the Southrons as an alternative culture for the common “overwhelming” or “mass archery” strategies. Pipsqueak explained that the only effective use of Southrons is to take advantage of their ambush abilities. Well, let me show you how Southrons can be put together in order to create an extremely deadly combination of strategic wounds and strength bonuses. These cards work together so well that every single card is just as important to the whole strategy as the next, but not dependant on a single strategy.
Desert Lord, Elite Archer, and Southron Bowman have an archery ability where they can exert to exert a free peoples companion. Doing this means they do not add to the archery total, but you, the shadow player, actually have the choice in who takes the wound (exertion). This means that you can easily exhaust a companion before the skirmish phase even begins… any companion but the ring-bearer. Get this; if your opponent has cards like Great Shield or Shield of Boromir, it does not minus the archery if you use the exertion ability! Most free people decks contain one or two main characters essential to their strategy. If you can exhaust his most valuable companion, then you can really ruin his day with…
Whirling Strike and Red Wrath have the ability to wound free peoples companions during the skirmish phase. Whirling Strike is much better for this strategy. First of all, it works better with this strategy because the archers come to the skirmish phase exhausted, which means you cannot exert to use the Red Wrath ability. Secondly, you will not need to wound your opponent’s companions twice if you have the ability to exhaust the ones of your choice.
You can control the archery, exhaust the companion of your choice, and then be able to kill him long before strengths are even considered!
Anyone who has ever looked at Arrow From The South may not see its full potential until they think of it with this strategy. “Each time a companion or ally loses a skirmish involving a Man, you may place a token here. Archery: Heal a archer for each token here.” Now, each time you place a token on this condition, it’s like a future exertion for your opponent’s companions. You just use your archery special abilities, and then heal them with Arrow From The South to do it again! But how do you win skirmishes with wimpy archers…?
These archers are not just wimpy archers when you have Seasoned Leader in your hand. First of all, it gives them +1 on vitality. That alone is too good to pass up with these archers, who turn around and use this as a direct exertion for a companion, but it also makes them enduring! So each time you exert your archers to exert a companion, you’re also making him +2 strength at the same time. Just as an example… you can put Seasoned Leader on Desert Lord and exert him three times to exert a companion three times …making him strength +6 at the same time. Now his strength is 17! Not so wimpy anymore is he?
Do you notice how these cards are so perfect together that they compliment each other in so many ways? There are cards that may “help” this strategy, but will they really come together like a “perfect puzzle” or will they just take up precious space in your deck?
Mumak Chieftain, Southron Savage, and Mumak* cards have high strength and fierce bonuses useful for gathering tokens on the Arrow From The South condition. Sometimes playing with minions with high strengths can be a waste if they can only be used once. Having some Mumaks in with this deck can help to make better use of these high strengths. Example: If you can get 9 twilight, Desert Lord could have Seasoned Leader and a Mumak to make him a strength of 20 (+9), fierce, and 3x controlled archery! When playing Mumak Chieftain, you can play a Mumak from you discard pile for free! Southron Savage is strength +3 and fierce while you can spot 3 or fewer minions and twilight tokens. It’s really easy to use up twilight with this deck, but this is also extremely good for choke decks as well.
But if I am looking for cards to fit into my “perfect puzzle”, you may wonder why I would consider Mumak Chieftain and Southron Savage to be effective enough with this strategy to put them in. Well, how do you think I get enough twilight during the skirmish phase to use my Whirling Strike? When a minion mounted on a Mumak wins a skirmish, he adds 2 twilight to the pool; and if I throw a Raider Halberd in, I just exert my Mumak Chieftain or my Southron Savage to add 2 twilight. This is why it is also well equipped for choke and especially good for anything else. The cool part about this is I can put a Seasoned Leader on one of my Mumak Chieftains or Southron Savages, adding more vitality for the +2 twilight and making him enduring! So a Mumak Chieftain with a Seasoned Leader and a Raider Halberd (6 twilight cost) is technically considered “ambush 6”, a strength of 22, and fierce**. If that’s not cheap, I don’t know what is!
Now, you may say “Oh, that’s not really that great, because they would always come into the skirmish phase exhausted.” Ha! That’s the difference between losing a skirmish with tons of vitality and winning a skirmish with little vitality! What good is vitality when you are planning on losing the skirmish in the first place? What good is vitality if you plan on winning the skirmish?*** Unless your minion is fierce, vitality only makes you feel warm and cozy inside in the case your opponent decides to move again. Then, I must ask, “Why are you allowing your opponent to move twice in one turn?” If your minion is fierce, then I have a little something called “Whirling Strike”. An exhausted minion about to lose a skirmish would simply play Whirling Strike to kill the companion in the first skirmish and then be able to play in the fierce skirmish.
Another thing you may wonder about is… “What good would strength be if you plan on killing them with Whirling Strike?” Well, I am not the one who chooses which companion I am going to skirmish. If I keep his main characters exhausted, he has two choices. 1. He could take the chance by skirmishing with his stronger main character and risk my playing Whirling Strike or… 2. He could skirmish with his minor character and take additional wounds from losing the skirmish because of his low strength or lesser abilities. Now, I have additional tokens on my Arrow From the South for later on.
One more...
One card that all Southron decks should not do without is Rallying Call. "Shadow: Remove (1) and play a Southron to add a threat." Its great for soaking up extra twilight left behind and putting it to good use. With this strategy, It goes great with Seasoned Leader’s game text "Skirmish: Remove a threat to play a condition from your discard pile." You can easily spot threats during the skirmish phase (just not after the skirmish phase if you know what I mean) when using Rallying Call. Everytime you go into a skirmish with Seasoned Leader, you can remove a threat and 1 twilight to play another Seasoned Leader. Then, if you have Raider Halberd, all you do is exert to make him strength +2 and add 2 twilight! Now, if you do this one more time, you can have enough twilight to play Whirling Strike! You can use Rallying Call for the threats or as a way of saving twilight for the future. It’s nice to know you have options.
This is one of those strategies you feel really safe with. You don’t have to “get lucky” or wait for a certain minion to go with certain weapon. You don’t even have to have tons of minion cards in your hand to pull off a good shadow setting. No other culture complements its self so much, while still maintaining a variety of options.
If you start making a Southron deck after reading this, I don’t blame you.
*I only use Mumak (as opposed to Mumakil and War Mumak) because I believe the Mumak is the only mount worth the high twilight cost.
**As long as I have at least one Mumak in my discard pile (not unlikely)
***With exception to a few skirmish and regroup abilities not included in this strategy
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Masterpiece Example...
Desert Lord x2
Elite Archer x4
Southron Bowman x4
Mumak Chieftain x2
Southron Savage x3
Raider Halberd x4
Mumak x3
Whirling Strike x3
Arrow From The South x2
Seasoned Leader x3
Rallying Call x2 |
Last edited by Hazael on Mon Feb 27, 2006 3:26 pm; edited 10 times in totalSome of the best scenarios on EE...
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| Hazael |
![]() Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:39 am |
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Joined: 04 Jan 2006
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Location: Up North
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| exarrkun |
![]() Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 8:07 am |
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Joined: 25 Jan 2006
Posts: 93
Location: Belgium
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good article Hazael 
I’m breaking down my southron instead of building it
but thanks to that, you will have my seasoned leader’s 
i just want to ad some cards:
if you play a mumak chieftain with mumak and seasoned leader, you should put field of the fallen in your deck. one exertion=strength +3!!
allso you should not underrest the second game text of seasoned leader.
you should see the face of your opponent when you play another seasoned leader during the skirmish phase!!  for this you will need a rallying call and a ships of great draught for recycling the seasoned leader’s.
and if you play with lots of pool adding during the skirmish phase you will have lots of pool during the regroup so put in these cards:
fierce in despair (a lot of pool but if it works... beye durin!!!)
cast unto the winds (for cleaning up the mess... )
5/5!!! |
a story that has a happy ending is a story that isn't over yet...
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| syndrome |
![]() Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 Jul 2005
Posts: 423
Location: A cold place.
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In some places it was a little... iffy. I attribute that totally to your quirky personality 
Overall, I thought it was good, and very well thought out. Though, you might want to look into some of the cards exarrkun mentioned.
4/5 |
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| Hazael |
![]() Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 6:11 pm |
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Joined: 04 Jan 2006
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Location: Up North
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personal opinions about these other cards:
Field of the Fallen would be great for Mumak Chieftain and Seasoned Leader, but with my "strategic wound" strategy, it is just takes up too much space in my deck and costs too much to be effective enough. Also, it would only help me in one area... I cant use it on my archers if they are exhausted or on my other minions if I want to use Raider Halberd. If I am about to put a card into my deck, I think to myself, "Will I be able to use this card effectively everytime it comes into my hand? Does it give me options in case something unexpected happens?"
Looking at it... I may put it in for the ability to spot a companion in the dead pile to make them -1. Then, I can use the other text now and then.
Rallying Call is something I put in my personal deck. Although it starts to fall away from my original goal of "strategic wounds", it is definately worth the cost! I really dont mind taking up space with a card that costs 0 twilight in this deck, becuase its not an overwhelming deck. I have room for cheap pumps for my expensive southrons. When my opponents take the expensive route with their fellowship strategy, I can have something to soak up the extra twilight and put it to good use. Plus, Rallying Call is put to very good use when I can kill companions. 
-if your thinking that threats would be part of "strategic wounding", think about this... Can you choose where the threats go? No, so threats really do not help me when my goal is to kill a select companion.
Cast Unto the Winds is a card I used to put into my deck. It is really good when you can spot threats, but if I am killing companions during the skirmish phase, I am leaving no threats for the regroup phase. Plus, saving the twilight until the regroup phase is not helping my skirmishes at all. I find that using Whirling Strike during the skirmish phase is infinitely better with this strategy than using Cast Unto the Winds during the regroup phase. If I can kill the companion during the first skirmish, then on the fierce skirmish, he can wound or maybe even overwhelm the lesser companion. I have tested the heck out of this, and I have found that it is unlikely (in my personal strategy) that the requirements for Cast Unto the Winds ever come together just right in order to use it anyway.
Fierce In Despair ...thats what makes those ambush southrons so freaking good. In this strategy, I dont have the twilight when I am using Whirling Strike and these expensive southron minion archers. |
Some of the best scenarios on EE...
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| ingold55 |
![]() Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:38 pm |
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Joined: 10 Oct 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: Out on the front line
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| good article! very interesting and helpful! |
There is a power in this world beyond any of us, and Jesus is that power and The Savior.
 this is my attempt to look cool.
Trade list (Want Balrogs and Aragorns) |
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| Hazael |
![]() Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 5:17 pm |
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Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Posts: 444
Location: Up North
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| I put Rallying Call in. Thx guys for your ideas |
Last edited by Hazael on Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:23 pm; edited 1 time in totalSome of the best scenarios on EE...
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| AnxiousChieftain |
![]() Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:36 pm |
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Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 3947
Location: Maryland
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| Cool article! You might want to include a sample decklist though, to help people out. |
| MODS RULE. - lem0nhead |
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| the feared |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:57 am |
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Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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| Hey this is the best one I have tried yet out of the ones I have seen on the web site. |
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| Hazael |
![]() Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:41 pm |
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Joined: 04 Jan 2006
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