Alright, so I did end up splitting this deck and I'm a lot happier with both of the new FP for doing so. For this Shadow side I kept the Naith elves and leaned hard into cycling. I'm still starting Legolas just because of how common Nazgul are, but I'm considering one of the
Naith elves instead (
Pengedhel, mainly). While it's still got plenty of
events, Naith / Berserkers is much more accurate now. Here are the changes:
Free Peoples Draw Deck (45):
- 1x
Legolas, Elven Comrade- 1x
Pengedhel, Naith Warrior- 1x
Elrond, Elven Lord- 3x
Bow of the Galadhrim, Gift of Galadriel- 1x
Ancient Enmity- 1x
Feathered- 2x
Still Needed- 2x
Sword-wall- 1x
Valor- 1x
Hosts of the Last Alliance1x
Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood (Starting)
1x
Erethon, Naith Lieutenant1x
Thonnas, Naith Captain1x
Naith Troop2x
Elven Sword1x
Lembas2x
Naith Longbow3x
Alliance Reforged1x
Defiance1x
Supporting Fire1x
Shadow BetweenShadow Draw Deck:
+ 1x
Uruk-hai RampageTurns out without
Gift of Galadriel and the temptation to juggle
Still Needed, there's room for more cycling! The deck runs faster as a result, even though I added a card to each side. The Free Peoples basically play the same as Ents but better -- just remember to move the gear off of a guy before
you kill him off he is tragically vanquished.
Alliance Reforged hits the Rule of 4 immediately, then from there you can discard and draw with
Elven Sword /
Banner of Elbereth to craft your Shadow hand into what you want. I'm pretty aggressive and try to discard anything I don't think I'll play next site. The only FP cards I try to keep are the companions and possessions, and even those I'll sack with
Abandoning Reason for Madness. Lately I've been bidding 1-2 to go first just to force a double on my opponent. The Elves definitely have the potential to win, but I'm going for Shadow kills.
There are a total of 11 unique companions here, which is why discarding some companions isn't a concern -- you're gonna have to do it anyway. Most of them are interchangeable, but I tend to save a slot for Sam if he ends up at the bottom of the deck. Everyone is expendable which will annoy many of the popular decks to no end since they're expecting to kill one or two key companions and be able to spring a win from there. There's nothing quite like doubling through 6 and healing more than 5 wounds, but do be cautious of what site 7 might be.
Hosts of the Last Alliance was there to protect from Enquea, but him killing a companion really doesn't matter (doubly so if your opponent isn't playing Nazgul and you'll only see him once or twice).
Greed's about the only reason you should be afraid of having 6+ companions.
The Shadow side strategy hasn't changed, but I'll go into a bit more detail. There are only 19 minions here (eek!), and I anticipate playing ~12 every game. Unless I'm expecting my opponent to drop some serious twilight next turn, I basically whittle my hand into a choice between two or three minions (there are very few instances in which having any more is a good idea, the main exception being you've already discarded enough minions this game and are in danger of running out) and then whatever events or conditions.
Uruk-hai Rampage has been a great help, hence the second copy.
Hunt Them Down! with
Saruman's Ambition is preferable, obviously, but it's such a good fallback. The minions and pumps are tough enough to overpower (and overwhelm, in the right circumstances) skirmish-oriented decks, you've got
Scaling Ladder healing for Rohan and skirmish wounding (especially
Ranger's Bow), and very few people even put
Armor in the deck thanks to
Wormtongue. Just use your Free Peoples to cycle into what you need and then play it.
If you felt so inclined you could easily rework this to be more Machine-oriented; I already have a few of those decks so I'm hesitant to add smaller Uruks for tokens, but there's that. I'm thinking about upping the number of pumps, although I'm at a very dangerous balance between minions and supporting gear as it is. If the cycling from the Elves falls apart, the Shadow side will too... Luckily your opponent probably won't realize it, since all you really play is one big minion at a time and the risk of facing 2-3 in a double is a hard bargain. It's pretty easy to bluff unless your opponent gives you hundreds of twilight and you have nothing in return.
The main weaknesses for the FP are burdens,
RB hate, and Dunlenders. Against Easterlings you're definitely aiming to survive instead of thrive against them since the only way to handle
Easterling Captain is with skirmish events. I'm using
SaWtC because it lets Frodo be bold at the start before the Elves swarm in, though it might be better to swap for
AtAR to soak wounds from
Morgul Brute and
Morgul Destroyer. The added vitality for
Baggins Heirloom to cripple Gollum is also good. For Dunland there's not a lot of great options. Keep Legolas alive if you can so he can poke at 'em, but it's just a matter of time before a
War Club wipes through your stuff. While you should retain enough control to not outright lose to Dunland, it'll definitely slow you enough to allow the opponent to reach 9 first.
For the Shadow, direct wounding is about the only problem I have.
Berserk Butcher does a lot of
good work, but there's only 4 of him and
PATHS generally hits before I can use
Scaling Ladder. Perhaps
Broad-bladed Sword should go in at 2 or 3 copies, or another
Spies of Saruman is in order?
I probably need to pare this down from 90 cards to 80, and I'll post another update if I do. Gotta give this version some more games to see how it holds up against different strategies. Generally pretty pleased though!