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NBarden
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:30 am
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
--- description ---
Its a fact of life. Free peoples rainbows rock, minion rainbows don’t. Or do they?
--- end description ---

Since the introduction of Lord or the Rings TCG, there have been rainbow fellowships. Signets were developed with the purpose of promoting a wide variety of rainbow decks, and Trust Me Like You Once Did and Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk were very strong at making rainbow fellowships take off. Even till now, rainbow fellowships are going strong, with decks like The Three Hunters and the Refuge rainbow leading the way in rainbow fellowships. The rainbow fellowship was able to exist because the companions were static, and the intricate combos that made rainbow decks great were able to be executed with considerable ease, with each culture accentuating the overall strategy of the deck while covering each other’s weaknesses.

However, with minions, we have a different story. Rainbow minions have never been very easy to work with, because minions are not static, that is, they are discarded each turn. However, with proper care, a good, solid rainbow minion deck can be used with devastating effect. Instead of having to cover all the weaknesses of various minion strategies, rainbow minion decks are all out assault machines designed only to bring a strategy to its best and leave your opponent on his knees begging for mercy. A strategy may be as simple as mass beatdown, or as intricate of a site control grind.

Before we begin, let’s define what a rainbow deck is. Quite simply, a rainbow deck is a deck that uses cards from many different cultures. This is not to be confused with a splash or a package, a true rainbow deck uses cultures to interact with each other with devastating accuracy.

So how do you go about building a rainbow deck? Look for cards that work well with a given strategy, not culture. Forget about culture. That’s all there is to it!

One quick rule of thumb, and then we’ll look at a few decks. Try to avoid using cards that have spotting requirements. Using these cards will make your deck combo-intensive, which can cause problems VERY easily in a rainbow deck. However, as we’ll see later, there is a place for cards that have spotting requirements, and they can help very much.

Well...all this strategy is nice and good, but when do we get to see the decks in action? So, without further adieu, here are the decks!

Beatdown

Let’s start with an easy one. Hog twilight, play big bad minions, kill companions with said minions, run Grimbeorn in the Free Peoples to clobber everyone and stop hand clog.

(33 cards)

Sauron

Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor x 4
Host of Udun x 2
Siege Troop x 4
Army of Udun x 2
Olog-Hai of Mordor x 4

Orc

Mountain Troll x 4
Orkish Berserker x 4

Moria

The Balrog, Demon of Might x 4

Gollum

Gollum, Skulker
Captured by the Ring x 4

Quite simply, beat ‘em up. All your minions are at least strength 17 (except Gollum) and can be played without spotting. Gollum is an additional strength +2 to any minion for even more kill power, and Captured by the Ring adds a threat as well just for fun. The deck hogs the twilight, and is a rudimentary example of a rainbow deck, and thus, I wouldn’t recommend playing this deck unless paired with Killer Grimbeorn.


Rainbow Possessions

This deck relies on a card that spots another card, Troll of Cirith Gorgor. As such, the dominate force in this deck is Sauron, which can easily turn it into a deck that is not truly a rainbow deck (possessions don’t count). However, we notice another strategy that works very well with this strategy, and that is the Gollum possession strategy with Shelob, Eater of Light. Throw in some Uruk-hai fun and suddenly, you get a truly rainbow shadow deck.

(37 cards)

Sauron

Troll of Cirith Gorgor x 4
Orc Ambusher x 4
Orc Pursuer x 4
Orc Slayer x 4
Grond, Hammer of the Underworld

Gollum

Shelob, Eater of Light x 4
Web x 4
Larder x 4

Uruk-hai
Covetous Uruk x 4

Dunland

Hides x 4

This deck is 37 cards and cycles well. Once you draw a Shelob, Eater of Light, you can grab a web and you get a Shelob every turn, and every time you play her you get to grab a possessions. Hides also cycles, and you have plenty of Sauron Orcs to get a Troll of Cirith Gorgor in play. They then stack on Web, which makes Shelob colossal. Covetous Uruk is a toned down Troll of Cirith Gorgor, but is still fun to use. With 13 possessions, they both get to be beasts, and any Free Peoples possessions help the mayhem. In the meantime, Grond helps anyone you don’t like, and Larder helps cycle AND pump when you’re in a pinch.

Begin to get the idea? Good. Let’s try another deck, this one more complicated.

Site Control Grind

Here we have a difficult deck to design. First, we have to take control of a lot of sites. Then, we have to do something with these sites. The strategy for this particular deck is grind, so we’ll see what we can do with that. Isengard and Uruk-hai excel at taking control of sites, and Sauron excels at abusing them to grin your opponent to dust.

(35 cards)

Isengard

Attack on Helm’s Deep x 2
Down to the Last Child x 2

Uruk-hai

Poised For Assault x 2
Cashing Uruk x 4
Ugluk, Ugly Fellow x 2
White Hand Guard x 4
White Hand Destroyer x 2
White Hand Invader x 4

Sauron

Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul x 4
Siege Troop x 3

Orc

Black Gate Sentry x 3
Orkish Skirmisher x 3

Your Isengard cards can work with your Uruk-hai minions, as well as poised for assault for easy site control. If that’s not enough, Siege Troop takes control of more sites.

Once you have the sites controlled, Gothmog kicks into gear by blasting the fellowship into nothingness. White Hand Invader hurts as well.

Black Gate Sentry and Orkish Skirmisher finish off the fellowship. For pure insane beatdown, Siege Troop and White hand Destroyer can easily demolish a companion or two, while helping control sites like crazy.

YOUR SECTION

Give me a rainbow minion deck you’d like me to construct, and I’ll take it on. Remember, the deck must have one goal that can utilize multiple cultures to enhance its ability to achieve it.

EL’s Wounding Deck

35 cards

Orc

Orkish Lackey x 4
Watchful Orc x 4
Goblin Hordes x 4

Men

Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings x 4
Countless Companies x 2
Pavise x 4

Gollum

Gollum, Threatening Guide
Captured by the Ring x 4
Not This Time x 2
Promise Keeping x 2
Fat One Wants It x 2

Lackey/Mumak Commander combo kills companions in the maneuver phase easily. Then, they have threats to deal with. Anything that gets through that mess gets a little ninja to deal with.

NappyKorn’s Threat Deck

Wraith

Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening x 2
Ulaire Cantea, Faster than Winds
Morgul Destroyer x 3
The Witch-King, Morgul King x 3
Morgul Ambusher x 4

Swarming Like Beetles

Gollum

Gollum, Vile Creature
Gollum, Threatening Guide

Fat One Wants It x 2
Plotting x 2
Not This Time x 2
Promise Keeping x 2

So Polite x 2
Captured by the Ring x 2

Web

Raider

Southron Captain x 3
Troop of Haradrim x 3

Threat Grind! Add tons of threats, use Morgul Ambusher, Swarming Like Beetles and Troop of Haradrim to wound outside skirmish, Gollum wounds inside skirmish, Southron Captain, Morgul Destroyer provide mega beatdown, as can Gollum, Vile Creature. WK grabs back your crucial Wraith cards. Shoot ’em up and bash ’em up.

Gate Troll’s Corruption Deck

Gollum

Gollum, Stinker
Captured by the Ring x 4
Web x 2
Heavy Burden x 2
Not Yet Vanquished x 2

Wraith

Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One x 4
Ulaire Attea, Second of the Nine Riders x 3

Raider

Desert Legion x 2
Easterling Guard x 4
Easterling Lieutenant x 4
Heavy Axeman x 2

Orc

Mocking Goblin x 4

Straightforward, add tons of burdens. Easterling love unbound companions, which solves up everything except ring-bound hobbits. Some tanks to beat people up, Gollum adds burdens in regroup, your Nazgul help the burdens along, and you got everything need for a beast of a corruption deck. The deck is kinda a hybrid corruption/beatdown deck that can rip your opponent apart.

IN THE SHOP:

(none)

Thanks for reading this article! Please leave comments and suggestions for improvement!

~NBarden

I decided to write a shorter article this month so that you’d have a break from my long boring articles that I usually write. Something short, different and fun seemed in order. Very Happy
Last edited by NBarden on Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:15 pm; edited 5 times in totalExclamation-Trade With MeExclamation
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NappyKorn
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:22 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 552 Location: USA
Nice article, I may take a deck or two off this and try it out since I’m Pretty New to the whole playing part. You say to give you a deck idea and see what you can I would like to see if Threat Hazzies would work good with the Gollum, Vile Creature/Plotting combo. Would be interesting to see what The Threatguls could be with the potential enormous threats that plotting could give them. Not sure if just 2 cultures would count as a rainbow but maybe throw in some other minion that work well with threats.

NK
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NBarden
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:57 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
I’ll see what I can come up with.
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elf lvr
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:20 pm
Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 3065 Location: Rivendell
I skimmed, and it looks okay.

But I’m surprised not to see a multiculture wounding deck (Orc and Men, at least, with maybe Raider or Sauron added in).
Happy Hunting! Elf Lvr
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Gate Troll
Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:02 pm
Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 384 Location: Udun Vale, Home of the one and only... Gate Troll!
This was a fun one to read. Personally I’d like to see a Rainbow Burden deck. Anyway, I give it a 5. Thumbs Up
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NBarden
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:55 am
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
EL’s updated. I’ll work on NK’s next. Sorry, but EL’s was just so easy. Smile
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NBarden
Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:22 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
Updated with NK’s.
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lem0nhead
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:19 am
Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 2981 Location: Blood Island
I dont know if it’s what youre doing with GT’s idea NB but i wanna see ur take on a sauron/orc culture burden deck.
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NBarden
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:49 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
I’m using a Gollum corruption deck with some Nazgul and some Easterling stuff.

I’d rather use three or more cultures, lem0n...any other culture you’d like me to try to use?
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lem0nhead
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:56 pm
Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 2981 Location: Blood Island
Erm easterling would seem an obvious choice. Splash a small hope some polearms and a captin or 2?
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

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