I'm starting to think one of your stronger threats will be conditionless Hobbit Hospital. With Boromir SoD or Gandalf. You can replace your Site 7 with Silverlode Banks. I know the chances of using it are low, but you seem to be strong enough against FP archery. And it won't backfire.
Anduin Wilderland doesn't backfire either, since Legolas is almost never around by then.
Silverlode Banks is tempting, but I feel like it's exceedingly rare that I'll be up against a fellowship with no ranger when they hit Site 7. Still, I might test it out. Conversely, I can think of multiple times when I've been glad to skip the Archery Phase at Site 7, either because he's got
Greenleaf and
Aragorn's Bow complete with
The Saga of Elendil and
The Tale of Gil-galad, and can shoot the crap out of my minions
KoI or no
KoI... or occasionally because he's running Moria swarm archery, and I'm happy that his minions can't shoot at my guys either.
Yes, Saruman's Ambition doesn't belong here. But won't be necessary as HaA can have, more or less, the same function and cost (with TAC and Goblin Runner) than ARfM: and draw 3 to discard 3 (except your decision will be smarter and you will have a small minion for free). What can you remove? I really don't know.
The mere inclusion of 2 additional goblinses will make your TAC-Cycle-Machine start earlier, and that's huge I think. If you manage to free more than 2 slots, then add copies of HaA...
Maaaaaybe. I've tested a version with 3x
HaA, but still the same number of
minions (6), and I wasn't really all that thrilled with it. Note that even if you add more
minions, you still can't have more than 4x
Goblin Runner, so your chances of getting a setup where he can reduce the cost of
HaA by adding twilight in, doesn't really improve by adding more Moria minions. On the contrary, if you haven't drawn
Goblin Runner yet, then it's going to cost you +1 twilight to play some other
guy from discard, on top of the 2 you'll pay for
HaA.
- 2x Such A Little Thing is good in theory, but in practical situations your opponent will have plenty of things to discard at the time you pull it. 2 in 100 is too low a chance. Though Boromir is often tough, KoI + 7 pumps make your Shadow tougher than his tricks: enough to kill pumped hobbitses, exhaust LoG and kill fighting allies (even Elrond).
It's okay with me if he discards other things to keep Boromir. From my experiences so far, sometimes I manage to kill Boromir, other times I still make him get rid of useful possessions. About the only times it doesn't feel very effective, is if he's running a pipeweed deck.
- 1x Cantea is the same here: if you splash 1x your opponent will just assign him to either an expendable guy or an unarmed one. Won't scare nor overwhelm often without Black Breath, Blade Tip, Nazgul Blade or Black Steed. Against weapons you already have Troop of Uruk-Hai, and TLAoEaM is often worse than a weapon (Scrabbler or Power).
- 4x Lurtz might be unnecessary. I'd remove 1 as he's really expensive, you can replay him with Uruk Captain.
- Perhaps 4x Uruk Captain is too much. I think it will be so against choking FPs. -1.
Cantea is out. More on this in a minute. Interesting thoughts on Lurtz and
Uruk Captain, you may be on to something there. Maybe 3x of each? Who would go in instead?
I can't propose anything else by now. 5 slots = 2 Goblins + 3 HaA. = Much greater cycling. Give it a try and then judge.
I'll try a version with this, and let you know how it goes.
House of Elrond will be useless often, replace it with Rivendell Terrace to draw faster with that plenty of men cards you have (5 + 4 ).
In my experience, I rarely have Boromir or Aragorn exactly on Site 3, I get then either before or after.
House of Elrond is helping me out more now, because I can bid 4 instead of 3. Pull Sam, take off 3, kill off Sam, take off the last burden when I move to
House of Elrond. I feel like 4 is generally enough to guarantee I go first 95% of the time.
If Gimli is going to be a kamikaze, then you can use Disquiet of Our People! With Thrarin + Shoulder to Shoulder is even greater. I used once that combo against a paled guy who pulled his best swarm at 5 with Balrog and Cave Troll included...
What Gimli are you going to use? All seem helpful here: DoE helps with cycling, SoG survives better and DotMR chokes. SoG + StS + Elrond is a good combo actually.
As a matter of fact, Gimli is now back out, and Legolas is back in.
Shoulder to Shoulder is out too. More on this in a minute.
Gandalf will be stronger, at least for a while. You might use Wizard Staff to make him even stronger, and use his vitality as a pump in emergency cases (I can't recall the huge number of times it has saved me).
I'd probably be more inclined to add
Trust Me As You Once Did, before a
Wizard Staff.
Okay, here's the latest version with 3x
HaA. Technically I'm tweeking an even newer version, but this is the version with the most
Orcs and the most copies of
HaA:
Starting cards:
Ring-bearer:
Frodo, Old Bilbo's HeirRing:
The One Ring, Isildur's Bane1x
Arwen, Daughter of Elrond1x
Legolas, GreenleafAdventure deck:
Green Dragon InnTrollshaw ForestHouse of ElrondHollinThe Bridge of Khazad-dumCaras GaladhonAnduin WilderlandGates of ArgonathSlopes of Amon HenFree Peoples Draw Deck:
1x
Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk1x
Aragorn, Ranger of the North4x
Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith1x
Sam, Son of Hamfast3x
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell1x
Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree1x
Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor1x
Erland, Advisor to Brand1x
Ottar, Man of Laketown1x
Bounder2x
Asfaloth3x
Gwemegil2x
Armor1x
Athelas1x
Blade of Gondor2x
Flaming Brand2x
Horn of Boromir2x
Sting4x
Foul Creation4x
A Wizard Is Never Late1x
Deep in Thought2x
Sleep Caradhras2x
Might of Numenor2x
Hobbit Intuition4x
Hobbit StealthShadow Draw Deck:
4x
Lurtz, Servant of Isengard4x
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard4x
Troop of Uruk-hai4x
Uruk Captain4x
Uruk Raider4x
Goblin Runner1x
Goblin Scrabbler1x
Goblin Warrior1x
The Balrog, Durin's Bane4x
Tower Assassin2x
Beyond the Height of Men2x
Hate and Anger3x
Saruman's Power4x
Savagery to Match Their Numbers3x
Wariness2x
Such a Little Thing4x
They Are ComingSome big changes with this build.
I removed
Shotgun Enquea and Ulaire Enquea. I decided that most Fellowships probably aren't going to try to run 6 guys against Uruk-hai.
One of the biggest changes, which I feel may be revolutionary, is replacing
Uruk Ravager with
Uruk Raider, and a full complement of 4x
Tower Assassin. It seems like essentially EVERY Fellowship Block deck runs Allies, so this gives me a cheap fierce strength 9 Uruk with or without
KoI. I really feel like this has legs.
Took out Palantir of Orthanc, I think it's better that I save that twilight up to play guys, rather that ditch his hand.
Took out 1
Beyond the Height of Men, after realizing you can't get rid of
Mithril-coat with it. Kept 2 copies, since getting rid of
Armor is pretty important to winning with Uruks. This way hopefully there will be less chance I'll draw it before they get some
Armor out for me to ditch.
Added 3x
Wariness. I feel like there's a big tendency in the meta to really depend on those
Hobbit stealth events. If I can cancel one unexpectedly, it may mean a surprise death.
Bred For Battle is out of this version, but I've already added it back into a later version.
All Dwarfs are out,
Shoulder to Shoulder is out, we're once again back to having no FP conditions, so I've shifted the balance back over to 2x
Sleep, Caradhras and 1x
Deep in Thought. I may go full-on Sleep, too often I find myself unable to play
DiT, especially with
Shoulder to Shoulder out.
Added a 2nd
Asfaloth, for early Arwen strength. Added
Athelas for healing and better counter-Nazgulery.
Experimented with 2x
Might of Numenor with this version, but it's back out for later versions. Backfires too often.
At this point, I'm seriously thinking about taking
out entirely.