The Last Homely House
Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Movie => Topic started by: Alazzar on October 14, 2009, 08:07:17 PM
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Disclaimer: This is a deck that I thought I'd come up with years ago, and recently rebuilt. However, in looking through the old Lord of the Rings Online game forums, I actually found a post where I myself said that I had designed the deck with a guy by the name of Mike French. Suddenly, memories started resurfacing, and I recalled having IM'd with him about this deck. Honestly, I don't remember whose idea it was, nor do I remember who contributed more to the construction. In fact, I'm not even sure how close the current version is to the one we came up with. I say this because I'm all about giving credit where credit's due, and I've recently realized that I can't take all the credit for this deck.
That being said, I play this deck in Austrian format, though it's pretty much legal for Movie Block, so I'm posting it here. This deck has a shadow side that is pretty much powerless if its support area gets nuked; however, if your opponent doesn't take out the key ships/conditions in time, they will face a swarm unlike one they've ever seen before. It's definitely a single-move kill deck, in that it only takes one site to drop 10-15 minions once you're ready to "pull the trigger" (as my good friend Rubbercarp says).
Is it the most reliable swarm out there? No. But it may just be the most fun.
The Free Peoples side is simply designed to draw/filter as many cards as possible, play its entire hand, and hopefully survive the resulting onslaught. It's not meant to race to site 9.
There will be further notes after the decklist.
Ring-bearer
Frodo, Courteous Halfling
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles
Companions
Gimli, Unbidden Guest (Starting)
Eowyn, Lady of Rohan (Starting)
Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark
Hrethel, Rider of Rohan
Elite Rider x2
Theoden, Tall and Proud
Sam, Samwise the Brave
Merry, Swordthain
Possessions
Rider's Spear x4
Rider's Mount x4
Brego
Firefoot
Herugrim, Sword of the Mark
Eowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade
Eomer's Spear
Sting, Baggins Heirloom
Conditions
Tale of the Great Ring
We Left None Alive
Arrow-Slits
Thundering Host x4
Fortress Never Fallen
Events
Calculated Risk x4
Delving x4
Simbelmyne x4
Allies
Hlafwine, Village Farmhand
Deor
Leowyn
SHADOW
Minions
Corsair Marauder x2
Corsair Ruffian x2
Corsair Plunderer x4
Corsair Lookout x2
Goblin Scavengers x4
Goblin Runner x4
Moria Scout x3
Gollum, Plotting Deceiver
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur (Not legal in Movie Block, I know; see below)
Conditions
They Are Coming x2
Goblin Swarms
Goblin Armory x4
Under Foot x4
Possessions
Black Sails of Umbar x4
Corsair War Galley x4
Goblin Scimitar x4
Ok, first thing's first: I actually play this deck in Austrian format, which is why I can have a copy of Nertea. In Movie Block, my default thought would be to just swap him with Enquea, but I don't know that that's really necessary. I might even just take another Moria Scout instead.
You may have noticed a few odd things in this deck, such as Corsair Ruffian x2/Corsair Marauder x2 instead of just 4 Marauders. Well, instances like that can usually be attributed to what I have in my collection.
Once again, the Fellowship isn't anything fancy -- it just draws and filters cards and makes sure to get possessions on companions in order to stay alive. The fellowship is seriously so low-priority that I will discard anything (and I mean ANYTHING) from the Free Peoples side during my Shadow turn if it means getting even the smallest advantage. That's part of why there are so many FP possessions -- this way, I can afford to discard some and still get my guys equipped.
Yes, there are 10 companions. If you're not playing against corruption, just don't play Sam. Also, you can pop Merry into your hand and discard him to make room for another companion if need be.
Ok, now on to the fun stuff: the Shadow.
This is not an easy Shadow to play. I already feel like Moria generally takes more skill than pretty much any other Shadow, and mixing the Corsairs in makes this especially true. You have to really know when to hold and when to play with this deck. While you're setting up, there's virtually no reason to play Moria minions -- all you want to do for the first several sites is get your boats out and play Corsairs so you can get enough tokens to gain permanent initiative. If you hadn't guessed by looking at the deck list, the whole purpose of the deck is to get initiative with the Corsair War Galley and then repeatedly draw a new hand of 8 cards during the Shadow phase by using numerous copies of Under Foot in a single turn. With the Moria orcs adding twilight (Runners, Armories + Scimitars) and the Corsairs drawing cards, you can play quite a few minions on any given turn.
When you finally decide that you're set up enough to pull the trigger and drop your swarm on your opponent, you play everything in your hand and then use Under Foot to draw a new one. When you draw a new hand, use They Are Coming and/or Corsair Plunderer to filter out all your Free Peoples cards, so when you use your next Under Foot, you can draw another new hand. You probably shouldn't pull the trigger unless you have at least two copies of Under Foot ready: one in play and one in hand.
Your Black Sails of Umbar can be used to play the Corsair Plunderers that filter FP cards out of your hand, and as they do so, they add tokens to other Black Sails, which allow you to play another Plunderer for free, which allows you to filter more cards and add more tokens, allowing you to play another for free... you get the idea.
Twilight is only really an issue if you didn't get Armories out. And, if you don't have Armories out, you probably shouldn't start your swarm just yet.
Gollum is tossed in there because it's assumed you'll get initiative, thus allowing you to play him from your discard pile (free hand extension, woohoo!).
The deck is huge at 92 cards, but that's why you have to sacrifice your Free Peoples side for the good of the Shadow. Just draw and filter as many cards as you can on your FP turns. Using Rohan means you can have a large fellowship (Eowyn offers some amount of Enquea protection) where most of your companions can at least take bumps from big minions (especially when being pumped by Thundering Host).
That's about it. Once again, if your support area gets knocked out (namely your ship that has enough tokens to give you initiative), you're kind of in trouble. But by about site 5 or 6 you should be set up and ready to hit, so if they haven't cut your support by then, you should be able to get 10-15 minions out.
The deck takes practice, but it's a ton of fun. =P
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Yeah. It's nasty.
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Pain in the #$&*@! to play against that shadow. All I'll say on that!
-wtk
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This is most creative combination of Shadow cultures I think I've ever seen. Nice work. I am going to have to try this sometime (although probably with a different fellowship).
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This is most creative combination of Shadow cultures I think I've ever seen. Nice work. I am going to have to try this sometime (although probably with a different fellowship).
Glad you like it. =P While it's certainly fine to play a different fellowship, I'll say this: the shadow is *very* dependent on having the Free Peoples help it out. You have to have a lot of drawing/filtering (once again, the deck is huge at 92 cards and requires you to get at least one War Galley out early), and you have to be willing to discard any Free Peoples cards you get during your Shadow phase.
But yeah, if you end up trying it out, lemme know how it works!
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I have played against a similar deck and its very nasty. Obviously some decks can kill it easly once properly set up but you usually can swarm before they got fully loaded so that's the power of this shadow (if paired with the right freeps).
There is just one thing that breaks it apart: The Tale of the Great Ring #-o If you face that you would probably have to use one first swarm to kill companions and make the freeps discard the condition and then a second swarm to kill, but that could be VERY HARD depending on which deck you are playing against.
Always look out for Gandy Deep in Tought / Sleep caradhras / Roll of thunder tricks (i love them and always pack a few in deck that uses gandy). Good idea would be kill him as soon as possible, even before you got the oportunity to make the BIG FAT SWARM.
Anyway, this shadow is awesome!
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Yeah, I wouldn't call this a "competitive" deck because I never consider a shadow side competitive if it's so heavily reliant on conditions (well, with the possible exception of straight Moria, as it can still throw together a decent swarm even if all its conditions get nuked, so long as a few of them get replayed). Also, I don't consider it to be very competitive to be relying on getting initiative with a card that your opponent can just discard after you spent several turns setting it up.
Still, this deck is fun as heck to play in casual games! :D
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I play a similar shadow, but it is more simple, but also very effective. It is more Moria, but the corsair twist lies in the 4 boats, 2 plunderers (which make me go through my deck faster) and 4 marauders. Marauder is essential. No footman's armor, no Aragorns bow, none of all that. Depending on my opponent I play conditions and possessions only, so no maneuver/archery/skirmish and ditch the rest with my fellowship. I usually get a 10-15 character swarm out, once I started with a 10 minion swarm, but due to Goblin Swarms the next turn it was a 15 minion swarm.
Oh, by telling my own experiences about Corsair/Moria swarm, I'm trying to tell you that I LOVE this deck, haha. And props to the title man...Moria Navy, love it!
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In the Navy... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwq1_9VH68)
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hmm are you the one who killed me with this deck on gccg a couple days ago?
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Never played on GCCG. In fact, I'm not even sure what it is. =P
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I am quite sure it was Heije who played his deck against me. It was the first time I had seen something like that and very creative. :gp: to both of you for making a [Moria] swarm that works just as, if not more efficient.
-wtk
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I am quite sure it was Heije who played his deck against me. It was the first time I had seen something like that and very creative. :gp: to both of you for making a [Moria] swarm that works just as, if not more efficient.
-wtk
thats who it was!
i remember my internet stopped at the start of his shadow phase and when it reset he had like 10-12 minions it was quite funny the way it worked out
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Heije is Gil-Estel, by the way.
-wtk
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Ahhhh, you blew my cover! :mrgreen: ....and Lego, do I sense some disbelieve? :D
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It seems like your identity has been coming up more and more these days.
http://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/index.php/topic,2985.msg39919.html#msg39919
Doesn't change the fact that whenever people call you GE, I still think of General Electric!
-wtk
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no it was just funny cause i came back and was like wow i missed something
and i actually figured it out later, i took a screenshot and figured out how you did it with gollum and the corsair possessions
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It seems like your identity has been coming up more and more these days.
http://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/index.php/topic,2985.msg39919.html#msg39919
Doesn't change the fact that whenever people call you GE, I still think of General Electric!
-wtk
Well, Gil = light, and man do I have a lot of energy...so it's fine by me! :)
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I used to play a similar shadow too, but I had more minions and didn't use those initiative cards except Gollum. I used Rohan and Gandalf (A wizard is never late) instead of having Gimli.
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i beat this deck today but only by throwing out 10+ archery on consecutive sites, i think it was 10 at site 7, 12 at site 8
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This is an old-block deck, which was play often (at least at toc in the netherlands) during rotk release. Very nasty. But if you survive the bomb then you probably win. Naturally they played it without Nertea:)
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nice job
in fact I have a very similar swarm deck for austrian format
40 cards
black sails of umbar 4x
corsair plunderer 4x
ulaire nertea messenger of dol guldur
ulaire enquea lieutenant of morgul
they are coming
goblin runner 4x
goblin scavengers 4x
goblin scimitar 4x
host of thousands
moria scout 3x
grima wormtounge
isengard smith 3x
isengard warrior 3x
isengard shaman 4x
saruman power
saruman snows
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dude, play higher vitality moria minions and goblin reinforcements and throw in threat of the unknown maybe, even more card drawing!!!!
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used this deck for the first time today
17 minions, site 4
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It was site five. I knew what was coming, but there was nothing I could do about it.
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i got lucky, my first reconcile, all but three were shadow cards and i had they are coming out