Got this idea indirectly from NK. Mwaha.
SHADOW (37 cards):The Witch-king, Black Lord x2
The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine RidersThe Witch-king, Lord of the NazgulUlaire Cantea, Fourth of the Nine RidersUlaire Enquea, Ringwraith in Twilight x2
Ulaire Enquea, Duplicitous LieutenantUlaire Lemenya, Winged HunterUlaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x2
Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in TwilightUlaire Nertea, Dark Horseman x2
Ulaire Otsea, Black-Mantled WraithUlaire Otsea, Duplicitous SpecterUlaire Toldea, Black Shadow x3
Morgul Whelp x3
Shapes Slowly Advancing x4
Surrounded By Wraiths x2
Out of Sight and Shot x2
Moving This Way x2
Beyond All DarknessDark Approach x4
This deck, as hinted in the title, revolves around three cards:
Shapes Slowly Advancing,
Surrounded By Wraiths, and
Out of Sight and Shot. With even just a couple Nazgul out at once to deal with, Shapes will eventually force the FP player to start taking companions into hand whether they want to or not. (
Ulaire Lemenya, Winged Hunter and
Ulaire Otsea, Black-Mantled Wraith are other sneaky ways to get a companions in their hand.) When replayed,
Surrounded By Wraiths and
Out of Sight and Shot pummel companions, exhausting the ones played AND dishing out extra exertions on top of that.
Black Lord--if in your hand--also specifically exerts the Ring-bearer, which has far-reaching effects we'll get to in a second. If all goes well, you can use
Beyond All Darkness at the right time to force them to discard any companions in their hand, making it that much more difficult to even get them back.
With the Ring-bearer taking exertions either because of
Black Lord or the FP trying to spread other damage around, you can REALLY put the kabash on the RB with the twilight Nazzies included here.
Lord of the Nazgul and
Ulaire Enquea, Ringwraith in Twilight lay some wounds on the beleaguered Ring-bearer, and
Ulaire Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight and the
Morgul Whelp then spot those wounds to get big and nasty.
Dark Horseman will hopefully get to routinely go after the Ring-bearer as well.
Most of the rest is standard Nazgul/Forestful fare.
Third of the Nine Riders makes sure you have some forests around,
Duplicitous Specter cycles a little,
Moving This Way cycles a LOT,
Dark Approach makes sure you're able to get your nazzies out, and
Black Shadow helps pull it (or
Beyond All Darkness) back.
I don't have a FP side paired with this yet, nor a complete site listing, but I'd strongly recommend some of the normal Forestgul staples like
The Angle,
Buckland Homestead,
Caras Galadhon (particularly useful here to prevent RB protection as companions disappear), and
Hill of Sight.
East Road is a MUST, as it pairs very nicely here for obvious reasons.
So, what do you think? This is very rough and could probably use some help, but I think it could be very unpleasant, and at the very LEAST would keep the FP moving very slowly down the path once you got set up.
I toyed with some other cards in here, like
Chief Counselor,
Sting of Shelob,
Declined Business,
Desperate Defense of The Ring,
The Dark Lord Advances,
Tower Lieutenant, and others, but it was just too convoluted. I decided to go with all Nazzies in the end, as it makes
Shapes Slowly Advancing work. But if anyone has any OTHER suggestions....