I've made some changes. But now it's back onto those weather cards. This will be an entirely new strategy and an entirely new approach to Shadow sides. The first thing to get your head around is that it need feature only a single minion: Saruman. Obviously, this minion cannot be assigned to skirmishes or take wounds during the archery phase...
So I guess the obvious question is: how do you win if you have a deck which can't skirmish?
The answer is, more or less: you don't. The purpose of a weather deck is to screw over your opponent's Free Peoples side so much that they have no Shadow cards to play against your running fellowship! So let's see some examples, and I hope that the strategy will work. It's an experiment, so let's see what you think about this.
Caradhras Has Not Forgiven Us (V) Event • Maneuver
Spell. Weather.Exert Saruman twice to return a companion and all cards borne by that companion to the Free Peoples player's hand.
1 V 123
A simple card to start with. This is the most obvious way messing around with a FP side can destroy a Shadow strategy - by hand clog!
Saruman's Frost (V) Condition • Support Area
Weather.To play, spot Saruman.
Response: If a companion is played, discard this condition to make the Free Peoples player add a burden or discard that companion.
1 V 135
Saruman's Chill (V) Condition • Support Area
Weather.To play, spot Saruman.
Response: If a Free Peoples possession or artifact is played, discard this condition to make the Free Peoples player add a burden or discard that card.
1 V 134
These are examples of encouraging your opponent to keep their Free Peoples cards in their hand or risk corrupting themselves. I chose burdens because there are only a very limited number of burdens any deck can take, as opposed to other things such as twilight or threats. Though, if you think another prevention cost might be more appropriate for the strategy, feel free to suggest it.
Cruel Caradhras (V) Condition • Support Area
Spell. Weather.While you can spot Saruman and no minions, the maneuver phase is not skipped.
Regroup: Discard this condition and return Saruman (or
Saruman's Reach if you can spot no minions) to your hand to make the move limit -1. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.
1 V 124
This card is to get the best out of your copies of
Saruman's Reach (V) allowing you to trigger evil sites such as Pellennor Flat without any minions. Just to reiterate,
Saruman's Reach (V) does the following:
Saruman's Reach (V) Condition • Support Area
To play, spot Saruman.
Saruman may be spotted.
Response: If your Shadow card is about to exert Saruman as a cost, discard this condition to pay that cost instead.
1 V 137
Hence the text on
Cruel Caradhras about spotting Saruman and no minions. And, just in case you've forgotten, this is Saruman who is suddenly useful in a whole different light. Obviously, the regroup ability doesn't appear to be that useful in this strategy, but that will change in a future post (and to an extent with
Cruel Caradhras above).
•
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard (V) Minion • Wizard
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Sit: 4
Saruman may not take wounds during the archery phase and may not be assigned to a skirmish.
When you play Saruman, you may play an
condition from your discard pile.
Regroup: Spot another
minion to return Saruman to your hand.
3 V 68
This is probably also a good time to remind you of the only weather card we have so far seen:
No Ordinary Storm (V) Event • Shadow
Weather.Choose one: reveal 2 weather cards from hand to play Saruman from your draw deck or discard pile; or discard X weather cards from hand and exert Saruman to exert X companions.
"'This is the work of Saruman!'"1 V 130