The Last Homely House
Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Expanded => Topic started by: sgtdraino on May 21, 2013, 06:40:47 PM
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I've co-opted my own Post #1 for "The Ultimate Madril" deck! I was tracking stats, but the deck has changed again, and I haven't had time to mess with that lately. I may start tracking them again once I get Masterworks Madril. Instead, it's been a long time since I posted some comprehensive instructions for how to actually use this deck, so I figured it was time to do that. It's kind of amusing to compare these to the original instructions (found archived at the bottom of this post) and see just how much this deck has changed over the years.
"The Ultimate Madril" deck evolved over a period of nearly 3 years, from a deck I dubbed "Expanded Boromir Tank Deck," which you can see here:
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8139.0.html (http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8139.0.html)
And now, "The Ultimate Madril" in its present form, Mk 40:
Starting Cards:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Steward's Tomb
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
The Prancing Pony
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Radagast, The Brown
1x Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Hugin, Emissary from Laketown
2x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Flaming Brand
3x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
1x A New Light
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
1x Deep in Thought
1x Saved From the Fire
1x Traveled Leader
1x One Good Turn Deserves Another
4x Something Slimy
2x What Are They?
2x Long-stemmed Pipe
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Soldier's Cache
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
2x Pallando, Far-travelling One
3x Deagol, Fateful Finder
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Dunlending Ravager
2x Grima, Servant of Another Master
2x Grima, Wormtongue
1x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
1x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
3x Southron Leader
1x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
1x Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow
1x Web
1x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
4x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
3x Too Great and Terrible
4x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Free People/Shadow: 54/54
Total Cards: 108
Total Wins:
Total Losses:
Total Games:
Win Percentage:
Bid 0. You're going to be adding a lot of burdens yourself, you're going to need all the resistance you can get. If given the option, choose to go second. If forced to go first, start Dammed Gate-stream. If going second, you'll play Dammed Gate-stream as Site 2. Basically you want Dammed Gate-stream out ASAP so you can use it to pull One Good Turn Deserves Another.
You'll start your companions in this order: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit, Faramir, Captain of Ithilien, Ranger of the White Tree, Madril, Defender of Osgiliath, Smeagol, Always Helps, Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver. Ideally you'll draw some means of protecting Madril from Ulaire Enquea at Site 2. There's 15 cards that can do this: 3x Ithilien Blade, 2x Ranger's Cloak, 1x Saved From the Fire (if you get Gandalf out), 4x Something Slimy (to pull Stewards' Legacy), 2x What Are They?, 1x Soldier's Cache, 1x Stewards' Legacy, 1x Storied Homestead. If you don't draw any of those, you might want to mulligan. EXCEPTION: Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas is pretty high priority, if you get him in your starting hand, you might choose to risk not mulliganing. But it's a gamble either way.
You are most vulnerable when your Fellowship moves to Site 2. That's the point in the game when you'll be least prepared, have the least knowledge of what strategy your opponent is using, and the greatest chance of potentially losing Madril to a Shotgun Enquea that you're not ready for. Protecting Madril at Site 2 is your 2nd-highest priority. Worst-case scenario, if you don't draw anything to protect him, try to keep his Resistance at 5 or more when you move to Site 2, so that Faramir can protect him. That is the trickiest part of being forced to go first; You'll need to use Dammed Gate-stream to pull One Good Turn Deserves Another to play Site 2, and add a burden to keep it in your hand. Keeping that event is the HIGHEST priority, which means you'll potentially be moving to Site 2 with 2 burdens and Madril at Resistance 4, a prime target for Shotgun Enquea if you don't have other cards to protect him.
If you ARE going first, Site 2 is almost always going to be The Prancing Pony. You'll be using The Prancing Pony to pull Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith.
Site 3 is often going to be Steward's Tomb, unless your guys are really, really hurting. Assuming your deck is rolling properly, ideally you'll be playing Steward's Tomb at both Site 3 and Site 6, preventing your opponent from healing at any sanctuaries. This is much easier if you're going second, and can be particularly effective if your opponent doubles from 1-3. Then you can stick him with the Tomb at 3 while you stop at Site 2 (Dammed Gate-Stream), stop him healing, but then swap the Tomb out again for The Prancing Pony with One Good Turn Deserves Another before you move to the sanctuary yourself. Otherwise, in order to play the Tomb again at Site 6, you'll need a bit of luck, and have to draw a Led Astray to swap it off Site 3. EXCEPTION: There may be games in which your opponent's fellowship is just not wounded very much at Site 3. In that case, don't waste the Tomb there, just hold it for Site 6! Common sense, really.
So, let's say you're sitting at Site 3, it's Steward's Tomb, and it's time for you to move to Site 4. Most of the time, Site 4 is going to be Mithlond. This is particularly effective (again) if you're going second and your opponent is in front, since you can play some other site for him, but then switch it to Mithlond when it's your turn to move there. But even if you're in front, most of the time you'll still play Mithlond at 4 to get some healing, and start "resetting" some of your allies (which you hopefully have out by now). EXCEPTION: If you are playing against Nazgul, your biggest threat is Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. He'll want to switch sites all around to his advantage. IMO the most decisive actions of the game take place in Region 2, Sites 4-6. So if he's playing Nazgul with Nelya, you play Mount Doom at Site 4, and make all his Nelyas useless until you move to Site 7, at which point (hopefully) you'll have countermeasures in place.
The rest of effectively using this deck is highly situational, it depends on what strategy your opponent is using, what you have an opportunity to do, as well as effectively timing things to your advantage. I'll cover a number of strategies and address the usefulness of specific cards:
Madril, Defender of Osgiliath/ Ithilien Blade
-Would you believe I almost forgot to mention this? I guess it's just so obvious. Yes, the most basic strategy of a Madril deck is to make minions roaming with Madril, and use Ithilien Blade to discard them.
Stewards' Legacy
-Stewards' Legacy may be the most important card in your FP side. Keeping it out greatly increases your effectiveness, in conjunction with Boromir, Faramir, Ithilien Blade, Ranger's Cloak, Soldier's Cache, Pippin, Don't Look at Them, etc. It transforms Boromir into a death machine, and Faramir into the ultimate strategy-denier. Most of the time, Stewards' Legacy is the condition you want to get out first.
Something Slimy/ Long-stemmed Pipe/ Saved From the Fire/ Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
-This combo pulls you a Saved From the Fire extraordinarily quickly, for a deck this size. The first victim burned will probably be Ranger of the White Tree, and the cards you get will probably be Throne of Minas Tirith (the only way to pull it, otherwise you gotta draw it naturally), Ithilien Blade, and one other high-priority thing, which depends on what strategy you're facing. Second target to burn (often later in the game) would be Radagast, The Brown, and the cards you get will probably be Pallando, Far-travelling One (only way to pull it), Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas (if you don't already have it), and Traveled Leader (if you don't already have it in discard). Again, what you pull with it may greatly depend on what strategy you are trying to counter. If you really need mass condition-discard, Deep in Thought. If you really need burdens off, Citadel to Gate. If you really need to get a key minion out of his hand, A New Light. You get the idea.
Allies/ Mithlond/ Traveled Leader/ One Good Turn Deserves Another cycling
-A big part of this deck's effectiveness, is the ability to play Mithlond over and over, and use it to heal your allies: Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree, Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor, Hugin, Emissary from Laketown. Of course, healing all of your companions is super-helpful too. If you have Traveled Leader in your hand or discard pile, you can conceivably play Mithlond every turn, retrieving Traveled Leader with Barliman each time, or switch the site with Led Astray or Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. Because of that ability to cycle Mithlond, when you draw A Wizard is Never Late, generally you'll use it to get Barliman out, go ahead and exert Barliman to get AWINL back, and use AWINL again to grab Gandalf or another guy. Then you can just heal Barliman (and everyone else) with Mithlond. Albert Dreary is primarily there as a quick dependable counter to Greed, which can otherwise completely decimate you. Of course he's also good versus Moria, but that's about it. If you're confident your opponent isn't using Greed or Moria, you don't need Albert Dreary. Hugin is much like Barliman, except he has the ability to get back anything you want. That might be a high-priority possession like Shadowfax, but often it's retrieving high-priority conditions like Stewards' Legacy or Storied Homestead, or just cycling Something Slimy back into your deck. Note that, if you have a Something Slimy in hand, Hugin will enable you to get a discarded condition right back out on the table!
Gandalf, Wise Guide/ Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
-Gandalf's ability to cancel events is massive, in terms of denying your opponent's strategy. Particularly once he's riding Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas. Among other things, Gandalf protects your conditions from Saruman's Power, protects your guys from being killed by Hate, as well as all manner of other extremely powerful event cards. Shadowfax is the best way to add threats for this strategy, simultaneously taking burdens off. In an emergency, you can kill off a companion, spread the wounds out, take burdens off, move to Mithlond, and heal everybody!
Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
-Besides canceling special abilities with Stewards' Legacy, Faramir is a force multiplier. His ability to heal other guys means you can use things like Ithilien Blade more than once... or distribute wounds more evenly, then double to Mithlond and completely heal.
Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith/ Stewards' Legacy/ Ithilien Blade/ Ranger's Cloak/ Pippin Wearer of Black and Silver
-As previously mentioned, Stewards' Legacy turns Boromir into a death machine. With a Ranger's Cloak, he and Pippin can kill almost any minion played, with or without Madril. With Ithilien Blade he's handing out exertions left and right, again denying your opponent of various strategies, or just making minions easier to finish off... and then he just heals up again next turn! This combo is an effective counter to both The Balrog, Demon of Might, and Final Strike, which are popular Madril counters.
Storied Homestead
-Storied Homestead is first and foremost there as a counter to Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders, though it has obvious applications against other strategies too. Ideally (of course) you don't want to play this condition until your resistance is high enough to get some tokens on it, which means you'll probably need Shadowfax in play. Ranger's Cloak can also help for getting your Rangers' resistance up a little higher. You also probably don't want to play it until Site 4 or later, since you're probably up against Nazgul, and you want to wait and play it at a time when you know you'll be safe from Nelya for a while (Mount Doom in Region 2). Once you play it, you'll want to build tokens up on it with Throne of Minas Tirith and/or Soldier's Cache. In a perfect world you'd have 5 tokens on it by the time you get to Site 7 (so it's sustainable for the rest of the game), but realistically that probably won't happen often. At a minimum, hopefully it should at least protect you for a site or two, and/or force your Nazgul opponent to leave their favorite site behind. The Nazgul site in question is Buckland Homestead, which Nelya will use repeatedly to wreck your conditions if you don't stop him.
Soldier's Cache/ Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith/ Mithlond
-This is a token-generating machine. At the end of each turn, if you've got some exerts left on Boromir, you may as well use Soldier's Cache to add tokens to whatever conditions you need the most. If you're preparing to double to Mithlond, then you can exert each one of your Gondor guys to add tokens with Soldier's Cache, then move and completely heal everyone.
Throne of Minas Tirith
-Throne was originally added as a counter to Corsairs and Ships of Great Draught, the most effective counter to Madril. It's another great token generator, and offers a great advantage against any Shadow that relies on possessions (such as Warg Riders). It's also vital against Grond, Hammer of the Underworld.
Don't Look at Them
-Don't Look at Them is useful against Nazgul, but here again was primarily added for countering Raider strategies, particularly Corsairs. Raiders will likely be running heavy Ships of Great Draught, and you may simply not be able to get rid of them fast enough. Madril will be useless for most of the game. Don't Look at Them enables you to kill his most powerful minion with Smeagol. That's particularly effective with Corsairs, who don't have very many powerful minions. Raiders also don't have very effective condition discard, they're better at discarding possessions than they are conditions, particularly if you have Gandalf in play to protect things. As such, Don't Look at Them is a pretty dependable Raider counter that keeps your deck cycling.
Pallando, Far-travelling One
-Besides being re-usable condition discard, Pallando does a couple of other nice things: If you've got Stewards' Legacy out, but don't yet have Ithilien Blade, you can put Pallando on Boromir to immediately exert two minions (or one minion twice), or you can put Pallando on Faramir to cancel the special abilities of two minions at the same time. This can be particularly handy versus Nazgul, who often play two minions at once who both have extremely dangerous maneuver special abilities (e.g. Shotgun Enquea and Úlaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds). Pallando and Shadowfax also enable Gandalf or Radagast to get up to 10 strength, enough to win against Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman.
And now for the Shadow side! It's pretty routine for opponents to look at this Shadow and describe it as a "total mess," or to say things like, "I don't understand your Shadow," or "Your Shadow makes no sense." You have no idea how much this pleases me. :) This Shadow incorporates every single Shadow culture in the game, and the strategy has been dubbed "Sudden Strike," because it is focused on pulling whatever is needed from either the draw deck or the discard pile, in order to counter whatever Free People's strategy your opponent is using. The means of doing this is mostly based around Gollum, and to a lesser-degree cards like Morgul Squealer. How you actually play this Shadow is completely dependent upon what strategy your opponent is using. Identify your opponent's strategy, identify the weakness in that strategy, and then exploit it using whatever cards you need. The Sudden Strike Shadow is all about attacking your opponent's strategy at its key points, and then watch at the whole thing comes tumbling down. Here again, I'll address key strategy points and individual cards:
Sudden Strike
-The card this Shadow takes its name from. It's easier to play minions from your discard pile than from your draw deck, so this card is key for both getting a vital minion into play, as well as getting that vital minion into your discard pile, to be re-used later. All you gotta do is spot Gollum or Smeagol, and if you're using Sudden Strike to play Gollum or Shelob, you get to play a possession or condition as well! Most of the time that extra card is going to be Web, so you can continue to play Gollum and Shelob over and over for the rest of the game. BUT if you are playing against another Madril deck, you may well choose to pull out Ships of Great Draught instead, to counter Madril.
Evil-smelling Fens
-The only Shadow condition in the whole deck. Pretty obvious application: Replay whatever awesome minion your opponent really doesn't want to see again.
Gollum, Her Sneak/ Deagol, Fateful Finder
-This combo enables you to keep your hand cycling, but allow you to play Gollum from your discard pile pretty much whenever you need to.
Shelob, Her Ladyship/ Gollum (any)/ Web/ Gothmog, Morgul Leader
-Shelob is of course great for eliminating a key companion from helping out for a turn. If you can get Gothmog out at the same time though, look out! Opponent takes 3 archery, and Shelob gets really strong. If you are going up against a major Free Peoples archery deck, you'll want to get Shelob and Web out ASAP. Gollum, Old Villain is mostly there to help declog your hand, and potentially beat up a ring-bound guy running a twilight denial strategy.
Saruman's Power/ Grima, Wormtongue/ Grima, Servant of Another Master
-A lot of Free Peoples strategies rely on conditions, and Saruman's Power is the most effective condition removal in the game. This deck packs four of 'em, because sometimes you really do need 4x of them in order to take out a pesky Hobbit Hospital with multiple Scouring of the Shire in play. If conditions are the vital component of your opponent's strategy then this is how you attack it. As for Grimas, Wormtongue is most often used against Dwarf strategies. They looooooove to pile up their cheap artifacts and possessions on their guys! Grima, Servant of Another Master can be incredibly useful for disabling a key companion special ability. For example, we talked about how Gandalf, Wise Guide can protect your conditions from Saruman's Power. Well, Grima, Servant of Another Master counters that counter! He can disable Gandalf, and then blast away with Saruman's Power.
Southron Leader
-This minion is the answer to multi-cultural decks. It is particularly handy against the much-hated Horn decks that play out all those Followers. With three of these guys, ways to add threats, and ways to recycle them, if your opponent is using 4 Free Peoples cultures, he's almost certain to lose.
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman/ Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
-These are primarily the answer to mono-culture decks, especially Dwarfs. The weakest point of a mono-culture Dwarf deck, is to make Gimli fight over and over until he finally goes corrupt. Also useful against other alternate ring-bearers, and Nertea is particularly useful against any 2-culture deck that uses Frodo and The One Ring, The Great Ring. Just throw down Nertea at Cavern Entrance and he's probably done.
Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow/ Too Great and Terrible
-At least a couple of the top-tier Expanded decks are Gandalf decks, and a number of other strategies still rely on Gandalf playing a key role. These give you an excellent shot of taking Gandalf out, or at least forcing your opponent to discard cards that he needed.
Morgul Squealer/ The Witch-king, Morgul King
-These are primarily there to pull important Nazgul (or Bill) out of your draw deck and/or replay important minions from your discard pile.
Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders
-This guy can be amazing against really large fellowships (Ent builds, for example), for dealing out a massive number of wounds at once, especially if used in conjunction with Neekerbreekers' Bog. Time it right, and suddenly his entire fellowship is exhausted!
Other Nazgul
-I think the rest of the Nazgul are pretty self-explanatory. Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds adds threats, and can get rid of important possessions, such as Beorning Axe on Grimbeorn. Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul is the classic for eliminating key companions. Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening is another threat adder, a cheap fierce Nazgul, fuel for Southron Leader. Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders can switch a site to either recycle something you wanted to reuse, stick the opponent with a deadly site, or give you a helpful site for your next Turn.
Site Manipulation
-Yep, it's annoying! But it's part of the meta, an integral part of Expanded strategy. You can't ignore it, and the only way to really counter opponent site manipulation, is with site manipulation of your own. Most of this deck manipulates on the Free Peoples side, using One Good Turn Deserves Another and Traveled Leader to switch sites around. There is a bit on the Shadow side though, with Led Astray and Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. The goal is pretty straightforward; play (and replay) sites that help you, but hurt your opponent. On the Shadow side of things, that might mean Neekerbreekers' Bog to exert all his guys, Steward's Tomb to stop him from healing or taking off burdens, The Bridge of Khazad-dum to hit him with a cheap Balrog, Cavern Entrance to cancel his skirmish special abilities, or Sirannon Ruins to get enough twilight to do something effective against those twilight denial decks.
Other Minions/ Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Rounding out the strategy are a smattering other other minions that help win the day, depending on what strategy your opponent is using. Dunlending Ravager is great for taking out troublesome allies, like Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor, or popular Hobbit allies. Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings can knock a big companion down enough for Shotgun Enquea to finish the job, or disable companions like Legolas, Greenleaf or Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien. The Balrog, Demon of Might is a great Madril counter, and also great at taking out more powerful companions. Sauron, The Lord of the Rings is also good for (probably) a couple of companion kills, if you have the twilight for him. Mauhur, Relentless Hunter can be useful for eliminating key weaker companions that your opponent doesn't want skirmishing. Saruman, Servant of Sauron is just more icing on the cake. Ah, it's a glorious day when you can get Saruman riding around on Sauron's back, like Master Blaster from Mad Max!
And I think that's about everything!
STATISTICS
Wins by Free People Victory:
>
Wins by Shadow Kill:
>
Losses to Opponent Free People Victory:
<
Losses to Opponent Shadow Kill:
<
Wins/Losses (>/<) by Deck Strategy:
GANDALF
Powerful Guide
>
<
Bearer of Obligation
>
<
SFTF Tanks
>
<
Snuffler Support
>
<
Ent Horde
>
<
ELF
Telepathy
>
<
Archery
>
<
Gil-galad Looping
>
<
The Twins
>
<
Elf Discard
>
<
GONDOR
Token Tanks
>
<
Madril
>
<
Three Hunters
>
<
Wraiths
>
<
Knights
>
<
Last Ruling Steward
>
<
Driven by Need
>
<
Gondor Choke
>
<
Anarion
>
<
ROHAN
Merry Men
>
<
Horn Filter
>
<
Rohan Hunters
>
<
Rohan Archery
>
<
DWARF
Dwarf Choke
>
<
Dwarf Discard
>
<
Condition Dwarfs
>
<
Counter of Foes
>
<
Lively Combatant
>
<
Dwarf Tanks
>
<
SHIRE
Hobbit Hospital
>
<
Brave Decoy
>
<
Hobbit Alliance
>
<
Shadowplay
>
<
No Visitors
>
<
Pipeweed
>
<
Bilbo Choke
>
<
GOLLUM (Free Peoples)
Bearer of Great Secrets
>
<
Smeagol Choke
>
<
Smeagol Ents
>
<
GOLLUM (Shadow)
Condition Ninja Gollum
>
<
Event Ninja Gollum
>
<
Sudden Strike
>
<
Little Snuffler
>
<
DUNLAND
Freca Site Control
>
<
Constantly Threatening
>
<
NAZGUL
Forest Nazgul
>
<
Enduring Nazgul
>
<
Twilight Nazgul
>
<
Fierce Nazgul
>
<
Assignment Nazgul
>
<
Morcs
>
<
MORIA
Goblin Armory
>
<
Fool of a Took!
>
<
Tentacles
>
<
Lost to the Goblins
>
<
The Balrog
>
<
ORC
Demoralized Bomb
>
<
Warg Super Swarm
>
<
Troll Swarm
>
<
Bound to Its Fate
>
<
Orc Direct Wounding
>
<
Goblin Hordes
>
<
Demoralized Rapid Reload
>
<
RAIDER
Corsairs
>
<
Southron Direct Wounding
>
<
Beasterlings
>
<
Easterling Corsairs
>
<
EVIL MEN
Skull Men Super Archery
>
<
Lurker Men
>
<
Hard Core Site Control
>
<
Stacking Men
>
<
ISENGARD
Wizard Conditions
>
<
Uruk Site Control
>
<
Uruk Swarm
>
<
Isengard Wargs
>
<
URUK
Uruk Hunters
>
<
Assignment Uruks
>
<
Uruk Tanks
>
<
SAURON
Besiegers
>
<
Tracker Orcs
>
<
Sauron Discard
>
<
Orc Bowmen Direct Wounding
>
<
Sauron Tank Maneuver Wounding
>
<
Wins/Losses (>/<) by Culture:
[Gandalf]
>
<
[Elven]
>
<
[Gondor]
>
<
[Rohan]
>
<
[Dwarven]
>
<
[Shire]
>
<
[Gollum](Free Peoples)
>
<
[Gollum](Shadow)
>
<
[Dunland]
>
<
[Wraith]
>
<
[Moria]
>
<
[Orc]
>
<
[Raider]
>
<
[Men]
>
<
[Isengard]
>
<
[Uruk]
>
<
[Sauron]
>
<
Defeats by Opponents (S = Shadow Kill, F = FP Victory, > = Times Defeated by Me Since I was Defeated by Them):
Last Updated: XX/XX/XXXX
If you've played me in Expanded on Gemp, then you've most likely played against this deck. It has gone through many, many, many iterations and variations, but I think it is now as perfect as it is ever going to get. This, ladies and gentlemen, is my Madril deck:
Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
The Prancing Pony
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Returned
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
2x Armor
3x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
1x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
3x Deep in Thought
2x On Your Doorstep
3x Roll of Thunder
1x Traveled Leader
2x Something Slimy
1x Last Throw
1x Might of Numenor
4x What Are They?
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Stewards' Legacy
2x The Faithful Stone
1x Shadowplay
1x Pallando, Far-travelling One
1x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin
Shadow Draw Deck:
4x Grima, Wormtongue
3x Isengard Shaman
2x Goblin Runner
4x The Balrog, Demon of Might
2x Desert Lord
3x Orc Ambusher
1x Orc Pursuer
4x Orc Runner
3x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
3x Troll of Cirith Gorgor
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
4x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
3x Ships of Great Draught
2x Grond, Hammer of the Underworld
2x Ithil Stone
4x Saruman's Power
2x Hate
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Bid high to go first, start with Dammed Gate-stream. If possible you want either Gandalf, Returned or A Wizard is Never Late in your starting hand. Mulligan if you don't get one of them. Use the site to pull Something Slimy, use Something Slimy to pull Follow Smeagol. If you were lucky enough to get a Something Slimy or Follow Smeagol in your hand, you might pull Deagol instead to get an Ithilien Blade quickly.
Ideally site 2 is the only site the opponent will ever get to play on you. Worst case scenarios are generally that he will play an underground site with The Balrog, Demon of Might before you've gotten any Armor, or possibly that you don't get Gandalf, Returned in your starting hand, he plays Neekerbreekers' Bog, and/or nails you with Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul before you get an Ithilien Blade or What Are They?
You want to use Follow Smeagol to get The Prancing Pony for site 3, so that you can pull Aragorn, Thorongil with it. If you already have some Armor, The Bridge of Khazad-dum is a good choice for site 4 (so you can ding him with The Balrog, Demon of Might when he moves there). If you don't have Armor, go with Sirannon Ruins.
Sites 5 - 7-ish are a good time to run quickly. Ideally this is done by nailing the biggest threat with your Ithilien Blade, healing one wound with Faramir, Captain of Ithilien, using Follow Smeagol to play either Neekerbreekers' Bog or Mithlond, and then moving again to heal all your guys.
Frodo, Resolute Hobbit is the biggest resistance you can get, and sometimes you need every bit of that 12.
Faramir, Captain of Ithilien doubles Ithilien Blade, protects Madril from Enquea, and is all around awesome.
Ranger of the White Tree takes the bullet for you. With Faramir's help, I've gotten him up to defender +5!
Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree is primarily a defense against Greed.
Throne of Minas Tirith and Roll of Thunder are primarily defenses against Ships of Great Draught.
Deep in Thought is general condition removal defense.
Stewards' Legacy is a fantastic card used in conjunction with Faramir's ability, and sometimes Ithilien Blade.
Gladden Homestead is an excellent defense against Ninja Gollum and Deceit/Final Strike. Also helps with other stuff.
The Faithful Stone is primarily my defense against Orc Troll Super Swarm. It's not great, but it's the best I've got.
Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin is a cycling machine, works well with On Your Doorstep.
Last Throw is the surprise they don't see coming, once you've made your 2nd move to site 8. Surprise! I'm going to 9!
The Shadow side of this deck really tends to throw people for a loop, it's such a hodgepodge of different stuff. Often times opponents have trouble believing that these different cards work together effectively... but they really do. :) The basic idea is combining cheap cycling guys with big powerful guys, with various "specialists" designed to defeat certain deck strategies. I must confess, I do love dropping a Saruman's Power condition bomb on my opponent, and taking apart his entire strategy. You'll note that this Shadow side does not use any conditions itself. The Balrog, Demon of Might is the star, he's so fantastic at bypassing all kinds of strategies, targeting key companions, and wiping them out. Ships of Great Draught is purely a Madril counter, because obviously I know the threat that Madril can be. I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory.
ETA:
Final stats for Madril Mk 4: 67.0% win rate out of 194 games.
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Replays please? :)
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this deck is a beast , i always have troubles against this one and i really enjoy the games that are bringing troubles :)
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Replays please? :)
Unfortunately many of my replay links are not working right now because Gemp is buggy, but here's a few:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$xu2zxmbpz4fmzw0z (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$xu2zxmbpz4fmzw0z)
That's the only real full-length (working) link I've got right now. It was a tough game, and things did not go as planned (didn't get Gandalf right away), but still managed to pull out a win.
Here's a time-out at site 6:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$fhi65uvktvrn80gb (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$fhi65uvktvrn80gb)
I think the guy just lost his internet, I don't think it was an actual ragequit.
Here's a couple of site 2 concessions:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$54m04x2yd57ojuvm (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$54m04x2yd57ojuvm)
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$ex3uj52t48qgjwy9 (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$ex3uj52t48qgjwy9)
this deck is a beast , i always have troubles against this one and i really enjoy the games that are bringing troubles :)
Ha! Some folks seem to think this deck is broken and/or unbeatable, but it definitely isn't. Last time I looked, it had a win percentage of around 65%. Enemies of this deck include:
The Balrog, Demon of Might
Mountain-troll
Corsair Marauder
Morgul Squealer
Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
Hides
Ships of Great Draught
Too Long Have These Peasants Stood
Saruman's Power
Deceit
Final Strike
Greed
Demoralized
Hate
A Host Avails Little
Horribly Strong
Unseen Foe
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enjoy site 9 http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=pizza_fan$tfdm69225qt4o80e
:) i should have counted better the tokens to leave 0 inside :/
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enjoy site 9 http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=pizza_fan$tfdm69225qt4o80e
lol. Yeah, that was crazy! TEN nazgul in all! The most nazgul I've ever seen played at once. I think everybody was there except Ulaire Cantea.
:) i should have counted better the tokens to leave 0 inside :/
Well, you only left one, and you couldn't have known I had Deep in Thought. You could have Cavern Entrance-ed me, if you'd had that. How come you don't stock that one?
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Having played an epic game against this deck today, my guess is that the list here is not completely up to date, but I'd suggest some minor changes anyway.
Freeps:
I'd add a Barliman Butterbur, PPP to the freeps, you play 4 AWINL and only 2 (3 if we count Albert) Gandalf characters and a list of great events that you can recur with Barli. It'd also justify a 2nd copy of Beorning Axe, since you could just play it on Barli and get yet another event back.
I'd cut both Ranger Cloaks, I've always found them underwhelming, even in LRS builds.
-2 Roll of Thunder +1 Throne of Minas Tirith: Throne is superior to Roll against possession based strategies imo, and a great card on its own right. Roll is still nice as a one of, especially if you do decide to add PPP.
That's about it for now for the freeps, but I guess I'll make my version of your deck soon as I only have my Powerful Guide deck on gemp and noone seem to be playing standard :((((((((
As for the shadow side, since you are playing Demon of Might you totally need to add a couple of Whip of Many Thongs, Weapon of Flame and Shadow. That card is a complete beating, just imagine playing it on Cavern Entrance, it totally catches most deck with their pants down, no Traveled Leader to save them, and it takes away like 99% of the potentially problematic events. I'd even play The Balrog's Sword to make sure that an alpha strike really hurts.
And there you have it, the recipe to obliterate my freeps side :D
As I said, I'm pretty sure you already made changes to the list you posted, but these are my two cents. Great deck all in all, looks super fun to play (and to play against)!!! It felt like I was playing against a Gifts Ungiven rock MTG deck for some reason :D
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Having played an epic game against this deck today, my guess is that the list here is not completely up to date, but I'd suggest some minor changes anyway.
You're right, it's not up to date! Here is the current incarnation, which has an 85%-87% win rate out of about 130 games:
Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
The Prancing Pony
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Returned
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
1x Flaming Brand
3x Ithilien Blade
3x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
2x Deep in Thought
3x On Your Doorstep
2x Traveled Leader
4x Something Slimy
1x Last Throw
1x Might of Numenor
4x What Are They?
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
1x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Old Villain
3x Grima, Wormtongue
2x Isengard Smith
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
4x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
1x Goblin Runner
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
2x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
4x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
3x Ships of Great Draught
1x Ithil Stone
4x Captured by the Ring
3x Saruman's Power
4x Evil-smelling Fens
4x Howdah
1x Rapid Reload
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
The main change to the FP side, is that the 3x Roll of Thunder were replaced with 3x Throne of Minas Tirith. It seems like that's been better protection against Ships of Great Draught.
The Shadow side changed more significantly. All the Sauron culture stuff was taken out, except for Sauron himself. This was replaced with more archery stuff. Mainly Gothmog and Mouth of Sauron to get out Howdah and whatnot. Improves cycling/filtering too. Also added Gollum and 4x Evil-smelling Fens for playing out choice minions from discard, adding threats, and just more stuff I can play for cheap. New version is slightly more Nazgul-heavy, too.
I'd add a Barliman Butterbur, PPP to the freeps, you play 4 AWINL and only 2 (3 if we count Albert) Gandalf characters and a list of great events that you can recur with Barli. It'd also justify a 2nd copy of Beorning Axe, since you could just play it on Barli and get yet another event back.
The issue is, I find it easier to reuse On Your Doorstep than to do Barliman. I'd need at least 2 Barliman to reuse him, and with On Your Doorstep I can get whatever I want, not just Gandalf events.
I'd cut both Ranger Cloaks, I've always found them underwhelming, even in LRS builds.
Ranger Cloak is a defense against the Ships of Great Draught/Enquea/Steward's Tomb combo that can otherwise take out Madril. It also enables me to take a hit from The Balrog, Demon of Might without dying. It's also another way to add threats if I need to, or if Madril dies, it enables Pippen to still be effective.
-2 Roll of Thunder +1 Throne of Minas Tirith: Throne is superior to Roll against possession based strategies imo, and a great card on its own right. Roll is still nice as a one of, especially if you do decide to add PPP.
Yep, figured that out with the current build.
As for the shadow side, since you are playing Demon of Might you totally need to add a couple of Whip of Many Thongs, Weapon of Flame and Shadow. That card is a complete beating, just imagine playing it on Cavern Entrance, it totally catches most deck with their pants down, no Traveled Leader to save them, and it takes away like 99% of the potentially problematic events. I'd even play The Balrog's Sword to make sure that an alpha strike really hurts.
I've tried it in the past, but generally I never have those items when I've got a Balrog in hand, or else they just don't give me quite enough twilight. I find The Balrog effective enough on his own, normally.
As I said, I'm pretty sure you already made changes to the list you posted, but these are my two cents. Great deck all in all, looks super fun to play (and to play against)!!! It felt like I was playing against a Gifts Ungiven rock MTG deck for some reason :D
lol. I'm glad you enjoyed playing against it! I don't think there's too many that would echo that thought! Thanks for the comments.
ETA:
Final stats for Madril Mk 8: 83.4% win rate out of 151 games.
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Looks strong. I would add Fires Rage Unchecked (along with the normal Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer, and mine also has Orc Assault Band) to your list of threats. You can only consistently add 2 twilight in the maneuver phase (with Robin Smallburrow, more with events, I suppose), so deep in thought may hit too late. All of Sauron's condition discard will stop that Stewards Legacy from messing up the combo. Still seems like a force to be reckoned with, though!
As for the whole "Use the whip of many thongs to stop Travelled Leader when at Cavern Entrance" thing, surely that's stopped cold by the Balrog's text, anyway?
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Looks strong. I would add Fires Rage Unchecked (along with the normal Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer, and mine also has Orc Assault Band) to your list of threats.
I actually took out all the Sauron stuff except for Sauron himself. For me, it seems to be working better like that.
You can only consistently add 2 twilight in the maneuver phase (with Robin Smallburrow, more with events, I suppose), so deep in thought may hit too late. All of Sauron's condition discard will stop that Stewards Legacy from messing up the combo. Still seems like a force to be reckoned with, though!
The FP side tends to generate a LOT of twilight every time I move, so normally there is plenty left over to do Deep In Thought. Also, with Faithful Stone out, there is an incentive for the opponent to leave some. Sauron's condition discard tends to be minion-based, which is pretty easy to stop with Steward's Legacy, or via other means. About the only condition discard that tends to be effective against my FP is the timeless Saruman's Power, and of course that site where you can play a nazgul to discard a condition.
As for the whole "Use the whip of many thongs to stop Travelled Leader when at Cavern Entrance" thing, surely that's stopped cold by the Balrog's text, anyway?
Yep. I love that Balrog, he's good against so many strategies!
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It's not a guaranteed win, I agree (though I have Shadow's Reach for Steward's Legacy), but if you don't get Deep in Thought before my first Mordor Veteran and Fires Rage Unchecked, you could end up in a spot of bother. I'd love to play it against you!
How is Sauron a threat to you, though? Surely he eats up all the pool only to meet an Ithilien Blade?
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It's not a guaranteed win, I agree (though I have Shadow's Reach for Steward's Legacy), but if you don't get Deep in Thought before my first Mordor Veteran and Fires Rage Unchecked, you could end up in a spot of bother. I'd love to play it against you!
Here's a pretty recent game I played against beseigers, a good one:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$h19ymysbhxzdshqg (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$h19ymysbhxzdshqg)
Their Marching Companies was pretty effective as a counter to Madril. I could discard it, but he was pretty good at playing it back out again. Aragorn's Bow was a big help, once I got it out.
How is Sauron a threat to you, though? Surely he eats up all the pool only to meet an Ithilien Blade?
Ah, you misunderstand. When I say I took out all the Sauron stuff, I mean that THIS DECK used to have Sauron-culture stuff in its Shadow side, but I took it out and decided that archy/gollum/nazgul stuff was more effective.
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Ah. I see what you mean. I was saying that a threat to your fellowship would be the Sauron Threat Orcs.
The combo of Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer along with Fires Rage Unchecked, normally with a few Orc Slaughterer on Orc Assault Band and Orc Patrol to round it all off. If the first 3 hit the table along with an Assault Band, if you don't smack them in the Maneuver phase (unlikely if they have at least 1 FRU in play), they will overwhelm 4 companions with ease, corrupting Frodo before you even know what's hit you. It's actually a really fun shadow, not just effective against this deck (has a bit of trouble against Solo RBs, though, as you cannot add the 3 threats.
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I think any Madril deck should run 3-4X Drawing His Eye. It's really handy for picking off Shadow cards that could hurt you, like Mumak Rider or the Balrog.
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The combo of Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer along with Fires Rage Unchecked, normally with a few Orc Slaughterer on Orc Assault Band and Orc Patrol to round it all off. If the first 3 hit the table along with an Assault Band, if you don't smack them in the Maneuver phase (unlikely if they have at least 1 FRU in play), they will overwhelm 4 companions with ease, corrupting Frodo before you even know what's hit you. It's actually a really fun shadow, not just effective against this deck (has a bit of trouble against Solo RBs, though, as you cannot add the 3 threats.
All I can say, is that I generally haven't had much trouble from these kinds of decks. For one thing, Fires Rage Unchecked is pretty important to get them to survive past Maneuver, and this deck can normally get rid of that pretty quickly with Deep In Thought, or Something Slimy to pull Gladden Homestead. If that fails, I can still put a dent in those special abilities with Steward's Legacy and/or Storied Homestead, and for anybody else that gets through, if they power up using threats, I'll just put 'em on Frodo with the ring. They take threats off to get stronger, I add burdens to survive, and then next turn just add threats back to take the burdens off with Shadowfax.
There are a few deck types that tend to give me a real challenge, though:
Corsairs with Ships of Great Draught
-Probably the best straight-up Madril counter. The Ships counter Madril, while Corsair Marauder takes out the bow and any other good possessions, and Castamir comes in for the beatdown. If I can get Throne of Minas Tirith out early enough, usually I can do okay against this. But if I don't, the deck is in trouble. Here is one such game:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$iwbwxvf22pfkf2zp (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$iwbwxvf22pfkf2zp)
Uruks with Greed
-Greed can really ruin my day if I'm not ready for it. Once I see I'm going up against Uruks, I keep a Deep In Thought ready in my hand, and get out Gladden Homestead and/or Albert Dreary asap. Once again, if I get one of these things early enough, I do okay. If the Greed happens before I'm ready though, big problems. Here's a game where Greed caught me with my pants down:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$oe2szf77lvcx9h2f (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$oe2szf77lvcx9h2f)
Forest Nazgul
-Even though these guys don't normally pack a direct counter to Madril, for some reason they are often the biggest challenge I face. They have tricks to play out a bunch of powerful fierce guys relatively cheaply. There are a few cards that let them take a few threats off, which is sometimes enough to counter their roaming. They've also got that Enquea that can exert all of my guys. Play him a few times in a row, and it gets very difficult to survive. Here's one:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$qwj49k5fqztdzdj0 (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$qwj49k5fqztdzdj0)
Orc Troll Swarm
-You know the type: Demoralized with orcs that exert you, and then that troll that plays every single minion out of their discard pile, while the twilight never seems to go down. Most of the time my Faithful Stone is enough to keep me alive (along with my other tricks), but sometimes the swarm is just too much. Here's one that didn't kill me, but slowed me up enough to beat me to the end:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$r5vom4m36hhotrtd (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$r5vom4m36hhotrtd)
I think any Madril deck should run 3-4X Drawing His Eye. It's really handy for picking off Shadow cards that could hurt you, like Mumak Rider or the Balrog.
That is a super annoying card, having been on the business end of it many times! :) But most times there's no one single card that is that much of a threat to me, that I don't already have a counter for. Plus, this deck often doubles, and Drawing His Eye won't help me with that second move. Finally, I'm not sure what I'd take out to add that in, and I certainly don't want to make it any bigger than it already is.
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You can counter Mountain Troll easily. When there are troll and Rallying Orc in play, just put the first exertion on Faramir to trigger Steward's Legacy. This prevents Troll from playing more Orcs.
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Most Troll Swarm players are wise to this by now, and won't give you a chance to exert Faramir until they've played absolutely everything else they can play.
This deck has seen a couple of updates since I last posted. Here's the latest:
Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
The Prancing Pony
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
2x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
2x Deep in Thought
1x New-awakened
2x On Your Doorstep
2x Traveled Leader
4x Something Slimy
1x Last Throw
4x What Are They?
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Old Villain
3x Grima, Wormtongue
2x Isengard Smith
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
4x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
2x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
3x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
3x Ships of Great Draught
1x Ithil Stone
4x Captured by the Ring
3x Saruman's Power
3x Evil-smelling Fens
4x Howdah
2x Rapid Reload
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
The biggest change is that I replaced Gandalf, Returned with Gandalf, Wise Guide. I did this because I kept getting my butt handed to me by Corsairs who use a fair bit of condition removal to keep me from getting my Throne of Minas Tirith going. Gandalf, Wise Guide is (of course) excellent at thwarting this, as well as protecting against lots of other event strategies. The downside is that I can't get Shadowfax nearly as fast. To offset this I downsized my number of possessions, and upsized my number of Deagol copies. I also quit bidding anything to go first, since I can't get the burdens off as quickly. Seems to work okay. Less effective in some ways, but more effective in others. Still evaluating with strategy actually seems to be better overall.
ETA:
Final stats for Mk 10: 77.4% win rate out of 62 games.
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I think 4 Deagol 1 Shadowfax isn't the best ratio you can use, I'd cut some Deagols for more Shadowfax, maybe 3-2, possibly 2-3. Getting GOTM out in fellowship has significant advantages, can be the difference between a "lost" and "won" turn.
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Having lost to this deck twice, including one of the games that you listed, I don't understand having only 2 Ithilien Blade. That's the scary card in this deck. What are They? is just 1-for-1. Ithilien Blade is 2-for-1 thanks to Faramir, then more with healing. Are you really using the Ranger's Cloaks?
I greatly understand Wise Guide and think it's really smart, because it stops Saurman's Power. I'm beginning to think Power is the strongest Shadow card in Expanded.
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I think 4 Deagol 1 Shadowfax isn't the best ratio you can use, I'd cut some Deagols for more Shadowfax, maybe 3-2, possibly 2-3. Getting GOTM out in fellowship has significant advantages, can be the difference between a "lost" and "won" turn.
As long as I get GOTM by somewhere around the middle of the game, I don't normally have any trouble with burdens. Even if I stocked 4 GOTM instead of 1, in a 108-card deck, I'm still not that likely to just draw it naturally early in the game. Plus, the Deagols help me get other possessions too, whatever I happen to need. And I have other ways of adding threats, if GOTM doesn't show up soon.
Having lost to this deck twice, including one of the games that you listed, I don't understand having only 2 Ithilien Blade. That's the scary card in this deck. What are They? is just 1-for-1. Ithilien Blade is 2-for-1 thanks to Faramir, then more with healing.
As long as I can get out one Ithilien Blade, that's usually good enough. If I get the other one too, that's just icing on the cake. Thanks to all the Deagols and Dammed Gate-stream, I can usually get what I need fairly quickly. The advantage of What Are They? is against Final Strike. Final Strike can stop Ithilien Blade, but it can't stop What Are They? So, when I'm up against Ninja Gollum, What Are They? becomes pretty crucial.
Are you really using the Ranger's Cloaks?
Oh yeah! They've got multiple uses. If I put one on Aragorn, he can swing twice without any help from Faramir. If I put one on Faramir, he has even more healing power. If I put one on Madril, Madril is better protected against Enquea, even with a Ships/Tomb/Enquea combo, and he also gets enough Resistance to add another token when I play Storied Homestead. Ranger's Cloak also enables my guys to absorb a hit from The Balrog, Demon of Might, should he surprise me underground. It also offers a bit of protection from Hate, and enough vitality for a guy to swing Ithilien Blade even if he just got hit by Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders. Also, if Madril does get killed, or the opponent has a way of taking my threats off in Shadow, Ranger's Cloak enables Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver to keep killing enemies, and another way of adding threats during skirmish for a potential double move.
I greatly understand Wise Guide and think it's really smart, because it stops Saurman's Power. I'm beginning to think Power is the strongest Shadow card in Expanded.
Wise Guide has been great, so far. Really puts a dent in a lot of nasty Shadow event strategies; Saruman's Power, Hate, Discovered, Fierce in Despair, Red Wrath, A Dark Shape Sprang, Return to Its Master, Between Nazgul and Prey, Horribly Strong, all those nasty surprises. And if Gandalf has GOTM, he can stop two events.
Saruman's Power is strong, but IMO it's one of the few good counters to Hobbits with all their Shire conditions, protected by multiples of Scouring of the Shire.
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I didn't see the point of Ranger's Cloak when I only looked at the list first, but now that I played 10-12 games against this deck, it completely justified it's spot for me.
I also agree on that What are They? is better than IB - Final Strike has place, and should be in the vast majority of expanded format shadow builds imho. Generally not in corsairs and certain swarms - and I think this deck already has a good matchup against those (kudos for making an Madril deck that's actually good against corsairs). This build doesn't need to discard every minion in maneuver like some other builds with Citadel of Minas Tirith, it has good kill potential in skirmish - it is usually enough to take off the major threats with it.
I never gave much credit to Wise Guide before I actually played against it. Hard to explain how annoying it is that he cancels Sudden Strike, I'll have to pick some of those up irl now...
About the shadow side:
I'm not sold on Howdah, what do you think about replacing it with Countless Companies, PAvise and up the number of GATS?
Have you ever managed to use Isengard Smith's regroup ability? I just don't see it ever happening, I understand that you need it for Saruman's Power, but how about replacing it with Sudden Strike? That'd get you a minion for power for the same cost (Gríma) with only a reasonable restriction and you have a whole lot of other useful targets for it.
I'd also add 1-2 copies of Final Strike, that card is just insane.
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About the shadow side:
I'm not sold on Howdah, what do you think about replacing it with Countless Companies, PAvise and up the number of GATS?
The original reason Howdah was put in there, along with Mouth of Sauron, is because it costs nothing and Mouth can filter them (and Rapid Reload) out of my rather large deck. In other words, they're there mainly for cycling/filtering purposes. Of course, 4x Howdah is pretty great as a potential +4 Archery that I can activate right when I want it. I originally toyed with the idea of Pavise, but ultimately it is pretty expensive. GATS is pretty expensive too. The only reason he's in there, is to nail Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien, or knock down a bigger guy enough for shotgun Enquea to take him out the rest of the way. The other issue to consider, is the fact that my Shadow tends to play quite a bit of Saruman's Power, so I'm not reliant on having any of my conditions stick around for long. Countless Companies probably wouldn't last long enough for me to make good use of it. Caravan of the South is tempting though, and possibly Whisper in the Dark.
Have you ever managed to use Isengard Smith's regroup ability? I just don't see it ever happening, I understand that you need it for Saruman's Power, but how about replacing it with Sudden Strike? That'd get you a minion for power for the same cost (Gríma) with only a reasonable restriction and you have a whole lot of other useful targets for it.
That's a good point. A great point, actually. Yes, I have occasionally used Isengard Smith's regroup ability, but it is a rare thing. The one nice thing about Smith, is that he can ditch Artifact weapons, if there's less than 5 people. Still, I do rarely get to use it, because he's pretty easy to beat up.
I'd also add 1-2 copies of Final Strike, that card is just insane.
I would, but here again I can't count on keeping it out, because of Saruman's Power. And I already stock plenty of Ships of Great Draught as a counter to Madril.
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Have you ever managed to use Isengard Smith's regroup ability? I just don't see it ever happening, I understand that you need it for Saruman's Power, but how about replacing it with Sudden Strike? That'd get you a minion for power for the same cost (Gríma) with only a reasonable restriction and you have a whole lot of other useful targets for it.
This was a great suggestion, I think it's made a definite improvement!
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This was a great suggestion, I think it's made a definite improvement!
Glad you like it, I personally added a Web and a copy of Her Ladyship when I started playing Sudden Strike. It can also fetch Ships of Great Draught (or Final Strike ^^).
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lol still not feeling the Final Strike for my particular minion side, but I do like the idea of being able to grab ANY possession or condition out, I overlooked that it's not just Gollum conditions and possessions. Still, unless I put in multiple Shelobs, I can only do that once, unless he's playing with Smeagol.
This is a good tactic against my type of madril deck though, which does play Smeagol; Sudden Strike can pull Ships of Great Draught! Thanks for pointing that out.
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Pulling Her Ladyship and a Web can be devastating against some fellowship sides (archery most notably, I found that they have a relatively easy game against nazgul if built well, so I added Shelob as protection), and I just like having the option to pull one possession/condition with Sudden Strike even if my opponent is not playing Smeagol. I'm also thinking about adding a single copy of Not Easily Destroyed, so I could get the option to do crazy stuff with shotgun Enquea if I pull it. I guess I go jealous of Rapid Reload :)
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By popular request, here's the latest version of this deck (Madril Mk 16):
Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
The Prancing Pony
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
2x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
3x Deep in Thought
1x On Your Doorstep
2x Traveled Leader
4x Something Slimy
1x Last Throw
4x What Are They?
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Grima, Servant of Another Master
2x Grima, Wormtongue
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
3x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
2x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
3x Ships of Great Draught
1x Ithil Stone
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
3x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
3x Evil-smelling Fens
3x Howdah
2x Rapid Reload
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Only a few minor changes this time around:
Took out one On Your Doorstep and replaced it with Barliman Butterbur, PPP. Somehow I never realized how amazing this guy can be! If you're in front, Barliman Butterbur, PPP + Traveled Leader + Mithlond = Everybody heals every turn! And, of course, now I don't have to worry so much about whether to hold a key Gandalf event I can't use yet.
Took out New-awakened, put a 3rd Deep In Thought back in. I had added New-awakened as a counter to a deck I've seen a couple of times that essentially plays no minions! It just plays The Number Must Be Few, and then never gives you a chance to discard it in Maneuver. My thought was to cancel it with New-Awakened in Fellowship... but the odds of drawing that one event are terrible, and the odds of facing that deck are also very low. I think I'd have just as much luck trying to figure out what I'm playing against, and then wiping out my own guys whenever possible, if I've already played too many.
Took out one Grima, Wormtongue and replaced it with Grima, Servant of Another Master. This was a suggestion from Pepi as a counter to Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor decks. It's been great for that, as well as for a lot of other deck strategies that center on using a key companion's special abilities.
Took out the two copies of Isengard Smith (rarely got to use him) and one copy of The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor (3 is plenty), and replaced these with 3x Sudden Strike (a great suggestion upthread from Shelobplayer). These have really done a great job of pulling out exactly what I need to screw over any particular deck type.
Added 2x Led Astray (a good suggestion from Ramolnar to up my site manipulation as another counter to Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor decks), and took out one Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul and one Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders (figured Led Astray is better) in order to make room.
Took out one Howdah, and replaced it with a fourth copy of Saruman's Power. Condition discard is a vital counter to a lot of deck strategies. Gollum's tricks should help me get a Grima when I need one, but I have to draw the event. So, more events! I figured I can do without a single Archery one-shot.
And now, a focus on the Shadow side! I've seen quite a few people playing variations of this deck's FP side, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone play with the Shadow side! I often hear comments to the tune of, "Your Shadow side makes no sense," and "I don't understand your Shadow side." IMO, my Shadow side is the best "rainbow" Shadow out there. It uses every culture except for Uruk-hai and Dunland. Everything serves a purpose, and I'll attempt to explain how it all works together. So here's a look at the Shadow side, in detail:
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Old Villain
-I originally put him in for cycling, then added more and more support cards. It's really amazing what this guy can do to support other minions! He's like the Gandalf of the Shadow culture! He adds threats, adds twilight, replaces sites, pulls minions out of your draw deck, and then recycles them later! He even soaks up Archery.
1x Grima, Servant of Another Master
-Almost like a mini Cavern Entrance that I can pull with Sudden Strike or recycle with Evil-smelling Fens. If the opponent is relying on a key companion's special abilities, This Grima takes care of that. And then there's Saruman's Power, of course.
2x Grima, Wormtongue
-Really knocks those giant Dwarfs back down to Dwarf-size, and fouls up the opponent's hand for a turn too. And then there's Saruman's Power, of course.
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
-This guy serves two purposes: To team up with Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul to kill a guy with lots of vitality, and also to help exhaust key problem companions, like Cirdan, Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien, or Legolas, Greenleaf.
3x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
-This guy is primarily a deck-cycling tool, pulling out the various copies of Howdah and Rapid Reload. Then, once you get to site 5, he can sometimes exhaust-out an entire fellowship with Rapid Reload, if there's enough twilight.
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
-Originally added as a counter against other Madril decks. Skipping the Maneuver and Archery phases is a great counter to a whole bunch of different deck strategies, and restricting his assignment to the more powerful companions is icing on the cake. Not to mention 3 damage and fierce! This guy is great.
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
-Cheap archery, and a powerful guy if you play out a cheap guy with him (like Gollum or Grima) to take the extra FP Archery hits. Or, if you're playing against those Hobbits that only seem to heal MORE when you play guys for them to fight, just play Gothmog and put hits on them, until you're ready to hit them hard and get rid of their conditions.
2x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
-The biggest minion in the game. If you get enough twilight to put this guy out, it's almost guaranteed to be two kills. Plus, once the burdens and threats start adding up, he actually gets pretty cheap!
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
-This guy is both a Madril counter, and also like having an extra Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman. His best use is against decks that use alternate Ring-bearers. Put him on that Gimli or that Isildur, and your opponent's deck isn't looking so good. Only one copy allowed, so this is a good guy you can get with either Sudden Strike or Morgul Squealer.
3x Morgul Squealer
-Speak of the devil. If your opponent puts out 6 companions and a bunch of twilight, look out! Here he comes with a bunch of terrible Nazgul! If your opponent sticks to 5 companions but uses an alternate Ring-bearer, Sudden Strike will get your Bill Ferny or Dark Horseman out, and Morgul Squealer will keep those guys coming in future turns.
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
-He's a powerful Nazgul. But if there's a threat (and with Gollum there probably will be), he's also a bit like a Morgul Squealer! And then there's that whole "Ring-bearer cannot take threat wounds" thing. Gimli's Helm? Not today you don't!
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
-Adds more threats, and gets rid of key possessions! What's not to like? If the opponent is able to stop one of your maneuver actions (via Steward's Legacy or Ithilien Blade or whatever), playing this guy with Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul can really cause him a dilemma.
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
-The classic, and still strong. I think everybody is pretty familiar with this guy, enough said.
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
-Having been on the business end of this guy many times myself, he can really cripple a large fellowship quite rapidly. You need quite a bit of twilight to pull him off, but large fellowships will often give it to you. This guy is particularly good against other Madril decks. Can't swing that Blade if you're exhausted!
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
-It's nice to be able to change a key site, either to screw over his fellowship, or for yourself so you can play that site over again later. Sometimes it's also good to have a strength 10 guy who isn't roaming at site 2.
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
-Amazing against mono-culture decks, and can still be pretty effective even against rainbows. I think most are probably already familiar with this guy.
3x Ships of Great Draught
-Madril decks are strong! This is the answer. Ships of Great Draught serves no other purpose in this deck other than to counter other Madril decks... which it does very effectively. And if you get two out at once, it's very difficult to get rid of (because they can recycle each other), unless the opponent has Throne of Minas Tirith with some token action. Still, the most effective way to use this card, is to hold it until you are confident you can immediately kill Madril (usually with Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul).
1x Ithil Stone
-This deck has enough Ringwraith culture cards to get this out pretty easily once you draw it. After that, it's great having that extra card each Shadow phase, and also great to play Sauron, The Lord of the Rings for a little bit cheaper.
4x Captured by the Ring
-Pretty straightforward. Gets your Gollum, adds threats. And costs nothing, so it's very easy to cycle.
2x Led Astray
-The power of being able to reuse a key site, and also add 3 twilight at the same time... well it's pretty amazing. I've complained about this card in the past because it really is super-annoying... but I can't fault its effectiveness!
3x Sudden Strike
-Pull any minion out of your draw deck. Whatever it is that will mess them over the most. For a cost of 2, you've basically got a Shadow side wild card! And if you're playing against a Madril deck that uses Smeagol, you can play Sudden Strike to get out Gollum plus Ships of Great Draught!
4x Saruman's Power
-The most powerful condition bomb in the game... and absolutely vital if you're going up against Solo Smeagol, or Hobbits with their pesky 4x Scouring of the Shire. It's practically the only way to stop them, IMO. I'm just glad I don't see more people using Bill the Pony, Dearly Loved. Frankly, I'm amazed they don't, seems like a no-brainer awesome combo to me.
3x Evil-smelling Fens
-Kind of like Sudden Strike, except for your discard pile! Whatever minion will mess them over the most... he's back again, thanks to Gollum! Plus this is a cheap condition you can easily cycle out of your hand.
3x Howdah
-Cheap Archery, quickly filtered out of your deck by The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor, and quickly cycled out of your hand because it costs nothing. Then you get to save it up and use it when it works best... which is often in conjunction with Gothmog, Morgul Leader.
2x Rapid Reload
-You can really catch a fellowship with its pants down if they generate a huge amount of twilight, and you're ready with this. Exhaust EVERYBODY, and then pick the survivors off with regular Archery later. And don't forget that this card also counters those irritating Traveled Leader and There's Another Way cards!
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
-Fabulous card. Cheap, easy to cycle, and then it can sit in your support area making your opponent nervous. Best not to use it though, unless you are very confident that he can't kill the guy you put it on.
Well, that's the Shadow side! It occurs to me that some of the sites are also a key part of the Shadow strategy, so let me run through them as well:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
-A cheap site for you, but a cheap site for you playing The Balrog on them as well.
Cavern Entrance
-It can be vitally important to stop their skirmish special abilities in order to kill them, especially if they're running The One Ring, The Great Ring. Also a good Balrog site.
Steward's Tomb
-More and more I find myself putting this on one of the sanctuaries, when once I would never have imagined wanting to do that! But I find I can pretty effectively heal myself, and stopping your opponent from healing can often be the difference that wins you the game.
Neekerbreekers' Bog
-What could be better than a site that heals all your guys, but exerts all of theirs? Not much! Again, a key site. Especially if you're able to recycle it.
Mount Doom
-If your opponent is running site manipulation, this is the only way to stop it... at least for one Region. I recommend playing this in Region 2, and then (potentially) playing Steward's Tomb at site 6. Also a good Balrog site.
Sirannon Ruins
-Biggest twilight site of the game. Nothing fancy, just a lot of twilight! :)
That covers it. Thoughts?
ETA:
Final stats for Mk 16: 81.8% win rate out of 137 games
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Once again we've had a few updates to this deck. We've gone from Mk 16 all the way to Madril Mk 20!
Madril Mk 20
Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
The Prancing Pony
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Radagast, The Brown
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
2x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
3x Deep in Thought
2x Traveled Leader
1x One Good Turn Deserves Another
4x Something Slimy
4x What Are They?
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Gollum, Plotting Deceiver
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Grima, Servant of Another Master
2x Grima, Wormtongue
1x Saruman, Black Traitor
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
3x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
2x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
1x Web
3x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
3x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
3x Evil-smelling Fens
2x Rapid Reload
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Changes to this version:
Added Radagast, took out Last Throw
-This was initially a counter to The Number Must Be Few, which I'm seeing more and more of. Players will play The Number Must Be Few, and then play no more minions, giving you no opportunity to cancel it unless you have Fellowship condition removal (which hardly anybody does). Radagast gives me a chance to up my move limit on a permanent basis, if I need to. I suppose a second copy of The Number Must Be Few could still screw me, but oh well! The added advantage, is that drawing Last Throw mostly relied on luck. With Radagast, if I think I might need to triple from site 6, I can ditch Pippin and use Barliman Butterbur to grab A Wizard is Never Late to get Radagast.
Added One Good Turn Deserves Another, took out On Your Doorstep
-One of the continued weaknesses this deck had been having, was against Nazgul who play Buckland Homestead at Site 2 along with Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders to discard my Follow Smeagol, and then keep playing it over and over throughout the rest of the game to get rid of all of my conditions. I decided the best way to counter this was with One Good Turn Deserves Another pulled at Site 1, to make sure I get the Site 2 of my choosing. Sure, there's still a chance he could play Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders to switch it to Buckland Homestead, but he won't be knocking out my ability to play the next site, which was the most damaging thing about him doing that at Site 2 (discarding Follow Smeagol). An additional bonus of the OGTDA strategy, is that I can make sure that Site 2 isn't Underground, making me safe from The Balrog, Demon of Might. The two biggest threats I can face at Site 2 are Shotgun Enquea or The Balrog, Demon of Might, so this modification theoretically cuts my chances for catastrophy at Site 2 in half. It was tough taking out On Your Doorstep, as I like the idea of being able to get virtually anything back... but realistically with only 1 out of 108 cards, it was always unlikely that I would draw it in time to really help me out much.
Added Gollum, Plotting Deceiver, took out a Howdah
-With the things my deck can do with Gollum, I decided it would be to my advantage if I could play him any time I have initiative. And so, this guy got added in. I took out a Howdah because I figured a +1 Archery one-shot paled in comparison to the advantages this Gollum could give me.
Added Shelob, Her Ladyship, took out the other Howdah
-A number of people had been suggesting that I add Shelob for a while now. I still find her a bit expensive for what she does, but she can be very handy against heavy archery decks, and being able to exclude a key character can truly make the difference in a game. To add her in, I took out the other Howdah. It's funny, I started out with 4x Howdah, and they've been gradually dwindling off over time as I find other things that are more useful. Truly one Rapid Reload with a bunch of twilight is worth more Howdahs than I can legally fit in a deck, so I think this was a good choice.
Added a Web, took out Ithil Stone
-This was a tough one, as I really like Ithil Stone. But again, 1 card out of 108 that I have to draw, versus a Web that I can potentially play out of my draw deck with Sudden Strike, and another means of getting Gollum and/or Shelob out when I need them, using them over and over. So, I think this was a good choice.
...and that's it! For a while I did some experimenting with replacing the Deep in Thought cards with New-awakened as a further counter to The Number Must Be Few... but New Awakened just sucks so much compared to Deep in Thought that I switched back.
Current stats for Mk 20: 87.2% win rate out of 47 games.
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Current stats for Mk 20: 87.2% win rate out of 47 games.
Madril Mk 20 is now OFFICIALLY the most successful Madril deck I've ever made. Current stats:
Total Games Played: 151
Wins: 129
Losses: 22
Win Percentage: 85.4%
The previous most successful of my Madril decks was Madril Mk 8:
Total Games Played: 151
Wins: 126
Losses: 25
Win Percentage: 83.4%
Only Madril Mk 4 has more games under its belt, but a considerable lower win percentage:
Total Games Played: 194
Wins: 130
Losses: 64
Win Percentage: 67.0%
I reckon Mk 20 will most likely stay in the 80% range, since it would take an additional 69 games with ZERO losses to get it to 90%! Although its current percentage is most likely reading a bit low, because it always takes me a few games to figure out how to most effectively play a new deck version. There were a number of early losses that Mk 20 suffered, which at this point probably wouldn't have been losses.
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*mutters while studying shadow side of hate*
Need to find awesome counters so I can make a nice FP with my nazguls to explictly play against you. ;)
Oh and we need to play some more games! Need to mess up them statistics! lets play a couple of thousand games so we both land on the 50/50 line or something ;)
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Here's the latest Madril iteration, Madril Mk 24:
Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
The Prancing Pony
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Radagast, The Brown
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
2x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
2x Deep in Thought
2x Traveled Leader
1x One Good Turn Deserves Another
4x Something Slimy
4x What Are They?
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Soldier's Cache
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
1x Pallando, Far-travelling One
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Gollum, Plotting Deceiver
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Dunlending Ravager
1x Grima, Servant of Another Master
2x Grima, Wormtongue
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
2x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
2x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
1x Web
3x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
3x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
3x Evil-smelling Fens
2x Rapid Reload
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Changes to this version:
-Removed Follow Smeagol. Realized I wasn't using it, and couldn't really depend on it anyway.
-Added Soldier's Cache. This has been a great edition. Good token machine, good safeguard against Shotgun Enquea, and (in theory) would work well to kill off down to 6 guys vs a TNMBF deck.
-Took out one Deep in Thought to add Pallando, Far-travelling One. This can make Gandalf strong enough to beat Dark Horseman, and seems to be more effective condition removal vs. Nazgul, who tend not to leave enough twilight for Deep in Thought. Or, in a pinch, Pallando and Shirriff can work together to give me enough twilight for DiT.
-Added Dunlending Ravager. Really wanted all cultures in my Shadow, and Ravager is a good choice to take out key Allies.
-Removed Saruman, Black Traitor. Initially he was in there to guarantee some condition removal vs. Wise Guide decks, but I don't see those very often, and too often I run into a situation where Saruman, Servant of Sauron is already in play.
-Removed one The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor. Two seems to be plenty.
-Added Mauhur, Relentless Hunter. Now my deck has all Shadow cultures, and Mauhur is able to assassinate or tie up key companions.
The win percentage is currently only 72.7% out of 22 games, but I feel like I've been facing a greater proportion of really tough decks lately. I still feel like this is tactically an improvement on Mk 20. Time will tell!
Need to find awesome counters so I can make a nice FP with my nazguls to explictly play against you. ;)
Forest Nazgul are indeed still consistently the biggest challenge for this deck. I feel like there is a procedure out there which should give me a better fighting chance, but I don't think I've found it yet. Maybe some of you guys can help me out with some suggestions? Here's my current procedure:
1. Use Dammed Gate-stream at earliest opportunity to pull One Good Turn Deserves Another, to get some mastery over the sites.
2. Survive as best as possible to Site 3.
3. Play Mount Doom in Region 2, to stop the Nelya Condition hate for a while.
4. Keep the threats up high, as most Nazgul decks can easily remove 2 or 3 in Shadow.
5. Play Storied Homestead in Region 2 and get some tokens on it, to prevent Nelya site manipulation in Region 3.
The problem is, none of this seems to be enough. I get hit with Sixth of the Nine Riders repeatedly, worn down, can't use Deep in Thought because there's never enough twilight, and eventually guys start dying. It seems like these decks can consistently play out 4-6 pretty strong Fierce Nazgul for relatively little twilight. So, what's to be done? At this point, I'm tempted to just go ahead and kill off down to 5 companions early, concentrate on keeping those guys alive, and just focus on killing the the opponent with my Shadow. But I don't know if that would really be any more effective, and it's tough to limit this fellowship to 5. I guess I'd probably have to forget the roaming, and go with Frodo, Faramir, Aragorn, Smeagol, and Gandalf, and maybe play Grimbeorn if/when one of those guys bites it. Thoughts? Ideas?
ETA: I'm also thinking about adding Flaming Brand back in, but I'm not sure what I'd remove to fit it in. Suggestions?
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I suppose it's high time I update this thread!
There have been a number of changes to this deck since I last posted it. At this point I've even gone beyond version numbers. Here's the latest iteration:
Starting cards:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Steward's Tomb
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
The Prancing Pony
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Radagast, The Brown
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
2x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Flaming Brand
2x Ithilien Blade
1x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
1x A New Light
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
1x Deep in Thought
1x Saved From the Fire
1x Traveled Leader
1x One Good Turn Deserves Another
4x Something Slimy
3x What Are They?
2x Long-stemmed Pipe
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Soldier's Cache
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
2x Pallando, Far-travelling One
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Dunlending Ravager
1x Grima, Servant of Another Master
2x Grima, Wormtongue
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
1x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
1x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
2x Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow
1x Web
2x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
3x Sudden Strike
3x Saruman's Power
3x Too Great and Terrible
3x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Rapid Reload
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Some radical changes to this version:
-Removed Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain and Beorning Axe. I found I was rarely getting the axe on Grimbeorn in time for it to be much use, or else I'd end up with the axe in my hand, and waiting forever for Grimbeorn to show up. I also found I was mostly using Beorning Axe to retrieve Shadowfax... but most of the time if I've lost Shadowfax it means I'm up against Corsairs, and neither the Axe nor a retrieved Shadowfax are going to be around for long.
-Added Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith. I was sad way back when I first took Boromir out of this deck, since the original objective was to have a deck where Boromir plays a key role. Now I'm very pleased to have him back, and even more pleased that he now works really well in it! He can absorb hits and heal much like Grimbeorn could, he can work in conjunction with Soldier's Cache to pile tokens up on a choice condition, and he works in conjunction with Stewards' Legacy to exert minions. Boromir with Stewards' Legacy and an Ithilien Blade can single-handedly disable Final Strike by exhausting Gollum. Plus, of course, he can guarantee me at least one Ithilien Blade swing per turn.
-Removed Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow. Originally this was my backup if Ships of Great Draught came out and/or Madril was killed, but these days I have so many ways to protect Madril, as well as a strong chance of getting rid of Ships quickly, that the bow isn't really necessary. Plus it's a possession that only Aragorn can bear, and there's no guarantee I will get Aragorn early enough to use it... or like the Beorning Axe, the bow ends up in my hand with no Aragorn out, and I hate to get rid of it.
-Added another Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas, for a total of two. GOTM seems to be the only thing that really hurts if I lose it and can't get it back, so rather than try to find a way to retrieve cards, I finally just put in another one! Now I get it more quickly, and if I lose it, there's another one.
-Added Flaming Brand. As discussed above, certain Nazgul builds seem to be the toughest thing for this deck to fight. Adding Flaming Brand really helps even the score. More guys can actually beat Nazgul, kill them quickly, to either fight another one in Fierce or move again.
-Added another Ranger's Cloak, for a total of two. This deck is at its most vulnerable at the early sites, it's vitally important to protect Madril from things like Shotgun Enquea until it can get established. Ranger's Cloak on Madril means Shotgun Enquea can't get him. At later sites, Ranger's Cloak on another Ranger may enable him to take a hit from The Balrog, Demon of Might and survive. Ranger's Cloak is also another way to add threats if I need them, and can also be used in conjunction with Pippin to take out minions even if Madril didn't make them roaming. Boromir with Ranger's Cloak and Stewards' Legacy can enable Pippin to kill a minion with 4 vitality, even if Madril is dead! Ranger's Cloak also boosts resistance so Faramir can heal guys, or Storied Homestead gets more tokens on it.
-Added A New Light. Being able to see what your opponent is going to hit you with when you move, and change that a little bit, is huge. Especially when you really rack up the twilight like this deck does. A New Light is particularly handy for getting that Mountain-troll out of their hand after they've already discarded most of their minions, or ditching that Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders that's going to totally #$&*@! you around with the sites.
-Removed one Deep in Thought and one Traveled Leader (now have only one of each). For reasons that will become clearer, one of each of these is now all I need. ;)
-Added Saved From the Fire. I wish I can remember who suggested this to me, because it has been awesome. A real game-changer. I find myself using it almost every game. For reasons which will become clear, I can get it pretty much whenever I need it, and sacrifice a guy to pull precisely what I need to counter whatever strategy I'm playing against. If I need Gondor stuff, Ranger of the White Tree takes the hit. If I need Gandalf stuff, Radagast, you're my man. Then of course I still get the triple-move, but with no downside. I can spread the threat wounds out, take off burdens and add threats back with GOTM, then move to Mithlond or Neekerbreekers' Bog and heal everyone. Corsairs? Here comes Throne of Minas Tirith. The Number Must Be Few? Watch me kill off down to 6. Demoralized and Goblin Hordes? I'll grab Deep in Thought, Traveled Leader, and Pallando. Great stuff.
-Removed one What Are They? (now have 3). It's a little astonishing to think that this Madril deck only has 3x What Are They? and 2x Ithilien Blade. But truly, that's all it needs!
-Added 2x Long-stemmed Pipe. This came from the same guy who suggested Saved From the Fire (thanks again!). Again, this was a game-changing addition. I can grab Long-stemmed Pipe with Something Slimy and use it to pull out any [Gandalf] card. Most of the time that card is going to be Saved From the Fire, which Barliman will then put in my hand for me to use. But sometimes it might be something like Traveled Leader, Deep in Thought, Citadel to Gate, whatever I need. Or if I already have everything I need, I'll just rid my deck of a duplicate copy of something I don't need! And to top it off, once I have both of these out, I can use them to get rid of a condition in Regroup. Fantastic.
-Added another Pallando, Far-traveling One (for a total of 2). Having re-usable condition removal that makes a guy stronger has been great, so getting it out more quickly is also great. With Pallando and Shadowfax on Gandalf or Radagast, it doesn't matter what that racist, Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman does, either way he's going to lose. Or if I really need to get rid of a condition, I'll just put Pallando on Smeagol and murder a guy guaranteed.
-Removed Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff #$&*@!-Robin. I like the Shirriff, but as a single card I have to draw naturally, I just wasn't getting him often enough to justify his presence.
-Removed Gollum, Plotting Deceiver and replaced him with Gollum, Her Sneak. Almost a no-brainer. I can't count on having initiative, but with 4x Deagol in my deck, I'm now practically guaranteed to be able to throw out a Gollum whenever I need one, thanks to Her Sneak. Vital in a deck that relies on Evil-smelling Fens and Sudden Strike.
-Removed one The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor (now have only one). I realized I only really need him once, to get out my single copy of Rapid Reload. After that, if I want to use Rapid Reload, I can just go with Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings, or pull Mouth back out of my discard. Speaking of which...
-Removed one Rapid Reload (now only have one). I find I'm usually not using Rapid Reload much, there's only a few deck strategies against which it really comes in handy. As such, I've found that one copy is sufficient.
-Removed one Sauron, The Lord of the Rings (now have only one). Sauron is so expensive it's rare there's an opportunity to play him. And if there is such an opportunity, I'll grab him with Sudden Strike or Evil-smelling Fens.
-Removed one Ships of Great Draught (now have two). Thanks to Sudden Strike, if I need Ships quickly to counter another Madril deck, I find I can get it pretty fast by using Sudden Strike to pull Gollum or Shelob. And often I can tech sufficiently to kill a Madril deck without even having Ships out!
-Removed one Saruman's Power (now have three). Three seems to do the job sufficiently. I used to really pack in the condition hate for Hobbit Hospital, but these days I find if I play carefully, often times I can take them out with or without their conditions.
-Added 2x Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow and 3x Too Great and Terrible. During the recent Expanded League, we saw a strong upsurge of Gandalf decks, particularly Powerful Guide. Those decks did very well, taking the top places in the League, and handily defeated my deck multiple times. As such, clearly this Gandalf guy is dangerous, and steps must be taken! These are those steps. Thanks to these additions, my deck is now MUCH stronger against any deck that relies on Gandalf.
That's it! Currently this deck has played 135 games, with a win percentage of 86.7%, putting it on track to become the most successful version of this deck. The current champ is Madril Mk 20, with 158 games and 84.8%, so it will take another 23 games before we know for sure. So far so good, though!
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Currently this deck has played 135 games, with a win percentage of 86.7%, putting it on track to become the most successful version of this deck. The current champ is Madril Mk 20, with 158 games and 84.8%, so it will take another 23 games before we know for sure. So far so good, though!
It's official! I've just played my 158th game with this current version:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$ggtwhkrna09ed07l (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$ggtwhkrna09ed07l)
...and the win percentage is holding precisely where it was before: 86.7% (137 wins, 21 losses). So, this is the best of the various versions listed in this thread. Only one version has had more games played with it (Madril Mk 4, with 194 games), but it only has a win percentage of 67.0%. We're now at around Mk 37 (I gave up with the numbering system a few versions ago). So, in 33 versions, we've increased the win percentage by almost 20%. Doesn't seem like much when you phrase it like that!
I've now updated Post #1 of this thread, where I'm starting to track statistics for this deck, to see what it tends to be strong against, and what it tends to be weak against. I'm also starting a list of players who have beaten this deck, so good luck making it to the leader board! From this point forward, each time someone beats me, I'll give them 1 gold here on the forum (assuming I can find a post they've made). So, come at me! ;)
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-Added Saved From the Fire. I wish I can remember who suggested this to me, because it has been awesome. A real game-changer. I find myself using it almost every game. For reasons which will become clear, I can get it pretty much whenever I need it, and sacrifice a guy to pull precisely what I need to counter whatever strategy I'm playing against. If I need Gondor stuff, Ranger of the White Tree takes the hit. If I need Gandalf stuff, Radagast, you're my man. Then of course I still get the triple-move, but with no downside. I can spread the threat wounds out, take off burdens and add threats back with GOTM, then move to Mithlond or Neekerbreekers' Bog and heal everyone. Corsairs? Here comes Throne of Minas Tirith. The Number Must Be Few? Watch me kill off down to 6. Demoralized and Goblin Hordes? I'll grab Deep in Thought, Traveled Leader, and Pallando. Great stuff.
-Added 2x Long-stemmed Pipe. This came from the same guy who suggested Saved From the Fire (thanks again!). Again, this was a game-changing addition. I can grab Long-stemmed Pipe with Something Slimy and use it to pull out any [Gandalf] card. Most of the time that card is going to be Saved From the Fire, which Barliman will then put in my hand for me to use. But sometimes it might be something like Traveled Leader, Deep in Thought, Citadel to Gate, whatever I need. Or if I already have everything I need, I'll just rid my deck of a duplicate copy of something I don't need! And to top it off, once I have both of these out, I can use them to get rid of a condition in Regroup. Fantastic.
Credit where credit is due:
On another note: you could run a single copy of SFTF in your Madril deck and trash it with Something Slimy into Long-Stemmed Pipe and scavange it with Barliman, that 3rd gondor dude who is only there for spotting requirements looks expendable to me. Been thinking about that tech for a while but never found a list for it, maybe it could fit into yours.
This deck is going like gangbusters! We're now up to 188 games, 167 wins, still 21 losses. That's right, at least a 30-game winning streak. 88.8% win percentage!
Free People/Shadow: 54/54
Total Cards: 108
Total Wins: 167
Total Losses: 21
Total Games: 188
Win Percentage: 88.8%
ETA: Final stats on this version are:
Total Wins: 189
Total Losses: 32
Total Games: 221
Win Percentage: 85.5%
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Time to update this again!
Only a couple of major changes, the rest is just tweeking and fine tuning:
The Ultimate Madril Mk... 38?
Starting Cards:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Steward's Tomb
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
The Prancing Pony
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Radagast, The Brown
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Hugin, Emissary from Laketown
2x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Flaming Brand
2x Ithilien Blade
1x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
1x A New Light
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
1x Deep in Thought
1x Saved From the Fire
1x Traveled Leader
1x One Good Turn Deserves Another
4x Something Slimy
3x What Are They?
2x Long-stemmed Pipe
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Soldier's Cache
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
2x Pallando, Far-travelling One
3x Deagol, Fateful Finder
Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Dunlending Ravager
2x Grima, Servant of Another Master
2x Grima, Wormtongue
1x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
1x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
3x Southron Leader
1x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
1x Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow
1x Web
1x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
4x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
3x Too Great and Terrible
4x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Changes to this version:
-Added 1x Hugin, Emissary from Laketown. I found that, with recycling Mithlond around, Hugin can be pretty effective at getting back something I really need. If that something is a condition I lost, sometimes I can then use Something Slimy to get it right back out again! Hugin was one of those cards it was hard for me to ever think of a use for until now... but in this deck he's great!
-Took out 1x Deagol, Fateful Finder (now have only 3x) Hated to do it, but had to make room for Hugin, and everything else seemed too vital.
-Added 1x Grima, Servant of Another Master and 1x Saruman's Power back in, so I'm back to a total of 4x Grimas and 4x Saruman's Power. I was finding 3x and 3x just weren't cutting it.
-Took out The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor and Rapid Reload. These have been dwindling for a while, and now they're finally out altogether. I just wasn't using them. Their main purpose was versus Horn decks, but I've got something much better for that now...
-Added 3x Southron Leader. This is the guy that can utterly destroy fellowships if you can spot 4 or more cultures. I added him in after several defeats against a couple of clever Horn deck builds by Shelobplayer (aka B0r0m1r), and it has been well worth it.
-Added 1x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening. Mostly fuel for Southron Leader to use, but it can be good to have another cheap Nazgul for other reasons too.
-Took out 1x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings, 1x The Balrog, Demon of Might, 1x Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow, 1x Ships of Great Draught, and 2x Gothmog, Morgul Leader. Now have just one copy of each. Had to make room!
-Added 1x Sudden Strike and 1x Evil-smelling Fens, for a total of 4x of each. With now only one copy of most of my "magic bullet" minions, it is extra important that I'm able to grab and recycle the right minion at the right time. This helps make that happen.
And that's it! The current stats are not quite as impressive as the previous version, which at last count had an 85.5% win percentage out of 221 games, but they are still pretty good: 83.0% win percentage out of 159 games. I personally believe it is superior to the previous version, though I don't yet have the numbers to prove it. :)
Free People/Shadow: 54/54
Total Cards: 108
Total Wins: 132
Total Losses: 27
Total Games: 159
Win Percentage: 83.0%
Wins by Free People Victory:
>///////7
Wins by Shadow Kill:
>//////////10
Losses to Opponent Free People Victory:
<//2
Losses to Opponent Shadow Kill:
<0
Wins/Losses (>/<) by Deck Strategy:
GANDALF
Powerful Guide
>0
</1
Bearer of Obligation
>0
<0
SFTF Tanks
>//2
<0
Snuffler Support
>0
<0
Ent Horde
>0
<0
ELF
Telepathy
>0
<0
Archery
>0
<0
Gil-galad Looping
>/1
<0
The Twins
>0
<0
Elf Discard
>0
<0
GONDOR
Token Tanks
>0
<0
Madril
>0
<0
Three Hunters
>0
<0
Wraiths
>/1
<0
Knights
>/1
<0
Last Ruling Steward
>/1
<0
Driven by Need
>0
<0
Gondor Choke
>0
<0
Anarion
>0
<0
ROHAN
Merry Men
>0
<0
Horn Filter
>//2
<0
Rohan Hunters
>0
<0
Rohan Archery
>0
<0
DWARF
Dwarf Choke
>0
<0
Dwarf Discard
>/1
</1
Condition Dwarfs
>/1
<0
Counter of Foes
>/1
<0
Lively Combatant
>0
<0
Dwarf Tanks
>/1
<0
SHIRE
Hobbit Hospital
>///3
<0
Brave Decoy
>0
<0
Hobbit Alliance
>0
<0
Shadowplay
>0
<0
No Visitors
>0
<0
Pipeweed
>0
<0
Bilbo Choke
>0
<0
GOLLUM (Free Peoples)
Bearer of Great Secrets
>0
<0
Smeagol Choke
>/1
<0
Smeagol Ents
>0
<0
GOLLUM (Shadow)
Condition Ninja Gollum
>//2
<0
Event Ninja Gollum
>/1
<0
Sudden Strike
>0
<0
Little Snuffler
>0
<0
DUNLAND
Freca Site Control
>0
<0
Constantly Threatening
>0
<0
NAZGUL
Forest Nazgul
>0
<0
Enduring Nazgul
>0
<0
Twilight Nazgul
>0
<0
Fierce Nazgul
>0
<0
Assignment Nazgul
>/1
<0
Morcs
>0
<0
MORIA
Goblin Armory
>0
<0
Fool of a Took!
>0
<0
Tentacles
>0
<0
Lost to the Goblins
>0
<0
The Balrog
>0
</1
ORC
Demoralized Bomb
>0
<0
Warg Super Swarm
>/1
<0
Troll Swarm
>0
<0
Bound to Its Fate
>/1
<0
Orc Direct Wounding
>0
<0
Goblin Hordes
>0
<0
Demoralized Rapid Reload
>0
<0
RAIDER
Corsairs
>/1
<0
Southron Direct Wounding
>0
<0
Beasterlings
>0
<0
Easterling Corsairs
>0
<0
EVIL MEN
Skull Men Super Archery
>//2
<0
Lurker Men
>0
<0
Hard Core Site Control
>0
<0
Stacking Men
>0
<0
ISENGARD
Wizard Conditions
>0
<0
Uruk Site Control
>0
<0
Uruk Swarm
>0
<0
Isengard Wargs
>0
<0
URUK
Uruk Hunters
>0
<0
Assignment Uruks
>0
<0
Uruk Tanks
>0
<0
SAURON
Besiegers
>/1
<0
Tracker Orcs
>0
<0
Sauron Discard
>/1
<0
Orc Bowmen Direct Wounding
>/1
<0
Sauron Tank Maneuver Wounding
>0
<0
Wins/Losses (>/<) by Culture:
[Gandalf]
>/1
</1
[Elven]
>0
<0
[Gondor]
>////4
<0
[Rohan]
>//2
<0
[Dwarven]
>////4
</1
[Shire]
>///3
<0
[Gollum](Free Peoples)
>/1
<0
[Gollum](Shadow)
>///3
<0
[Dunland]
>0
<0
[Wraith]
>/1
<0
[Moria]
>0
</1
[Orc]
>/1
<0
[Raider]
>/1
<0
[Men]
>//2
<0
[Isengard]
>0
<0
[Uruk]
>0
<0
[Sauron]
>///3
<0
Defeats by Opponents (S = Shadow Kill, F = FP Victory, > = Times Defeated by Me Since I was Defeated by Them):
elgordis
F/1
szeryf
F/1
Last Updated: 11/15/2014
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Nowhereman had some very kind words:
I was thinking about the Madril deck and this is what I've concluded. There are several manipulations in the game, even starting in Fellowship block. There is twilight manipulation. Any time you can increase (goblin armories, etc) or decrease (No strangers, bill the pony, etc) the twilight pool to your advantage, you get the upper hand. There is card number manipulation, like dwarves and mordor taking out opponent's decks. There is site manipulation (which is seen most in Expanded). And I'm sure there are others, but here's what I find so fascinating about the Ultimate Madril. It strives (very well) at manipulating card probability. Normally, when building a deck, one applies multiple copies of a single card in order to have more probability of GETTING THAT card in any given game. To manipulate card probability is to scrap the fundamental probability logic and just pull out what you need. Pulling. The Ultimate Madril deck is all about pulling. Minions (whichever suits best), possessions, conditions, characters, etc. I find probability manipulation to be one of the most effective and also one of the most confusing ideas in the game. Because one card triggers another and that one triggers another. On the surface, the Ultimate Madril looks like a complete and total mess, like a child got onto your account and just decided to pick cards he thought were pretty. But, it is intricately designed with (I would imagine) dozens of different combos and counters for a huge variety of decks. Its a completely different ball game-its almost a completely different card game when compared to the simplicity of, say, a dwarf deck. Durin, Damage and De-deck. I am not even sure that Decipher really knew of the range and complexity of its cards when they made them. If you don't mind, I'd like your permission to attempt to play the Ultimate Madril. I'd like to get a better grasp on pulling and finding just the right combos to oppose other decks.
I have made one single modification to the Ultimate Madril deck, not yet updated in post #1. I never thought I'd do this, but I finally did!
...I took out Aragorn, Thorongil.
I ended up replacing him with a second Ranger's Cloak. For the longest time, ever since I replaced Grimbeorn with Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith, I'd get out The Prancing Pony, and have to decide what Ranger I was going to pull. More and more often, that Ranger turned out to be Boromir. he's just AMAZING with Stewards' Legacy. So then, since Aragorn is the 10th companion, I have to decide at some point whether to discard Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver in order to get Aragorn out. And more and more often, the answer turned out to be: Don't. Pippin is generally more useful. And with Aragorn gone, there is no more debate about it, no more hemming and hawing about whether to keep him in my hand if I draw him, or discard him. Pippin is there to stay, and Aragorn is officially benched!
But truly, I can't say enough about the awesomeness that is Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith. When I first embarked on this journey with Madril, my original goal was to make a deck in which Boromir kicks #$&*@!, because he's my favorite character. It's so gratifying that the ultimate, natural evolution of this deck ended up doing just that: Boromir is one of the biggest #$&*@! kickers on the team! Armed with Ithilien Blade and Ranger's Cloak, with Stewards' Legacy out, and a little help from his buddy Pippin and his bro Faramir, Captain of Ithilien, Boromir can defeat many of the counters that ordinarily cause problems for the Madril strategy:
The Balrog, Demon of Might
-Balrog attacking you underground? Normally a problem for Madril, but not with Boromir on the case! Just assign The Balrog to a Gondor guy (Boromir if you want!), exert Boromir 3x with Ranger's Cloak, activate Stewards' Legacy, exert Balrog 3x, and finish with Pippin. Boom.
Final Strike
-Gollum messing with your Ithilien Blades with Final Strike? Again, no problem! Just have Boromir swing first! Gollum will be able to cancel Boromir's swing, but after that Gollum will be exhausted (Stewards' Legacy), and the rest of your actions can't be stopped.
Ships of Great Draught
-The primary counter for Madril, still the best. Makes Madril useless, for as long as it stays on the table. But here again, Boromir and Pippin become your Batman and Robin, capable of taking out any single minion the opponent throws at you. All you gotta do is keep your Stewards' Legacy out, and have bro Faramir protect you from Enquea.
Hate
-Hate can be a tricky one, since normally your Rangers all have three vitality. After one swing, there's a chance a Hate could finish one of them. Of course, Gandalf, Wise Guide helps defend against these surprises... but so does Boromir! You gotta exert a minion to play Hate. Boromir swings, discards one minion, and (hopefully) exhausts the others with Stewards' Legacy. And assuming he's got his Ranger's Cloak on, even if the opponent can still pull off a Hate after that, Boromir can stand another hit.
Minion special abilities
-A wide variety, too many to even list. You name it! There's lots of minion special abilities that can hurt you, but the minions often have to exert to use them. With Boromir and Stewards' Legacy, that ain't happening!
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I've added an updated comprehensive tutorial to post #1, that explains how to effectively play with this deck. For convenience, here it is again:
Bid 0. You're going to be adding a lot of burdens yourself, you're going to need all the resistance you can get. If given the option, choose to go second. If forced to go first, start Dammed Gate-stream. If going second, you'll play Dammed Gate-stream as Site 2. Basically you want Dammed Gate-stream out ASAP so you can use it to pull One Good Turn Deserves Another.
You'll start your companions in this order: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit, Faramir, Captain of Ithilien, Ranger of the White Tree, Madril, Defender of Osgiliath, Smeagol, Always Helps, Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver. Ideally you'll draw some means of protecting Madril from Ulaire Enquea at Site 2. There's 15 cards that can do this: 3x Ithilien Blade, 2x Ranger's Cloak, 1x Saved From the Fire (if you get Gandalf out), 4x Something Slimy (to pull Stewards' Legacy), 2x What Are They?, 1x Soldier's Cache, 1x Stewards' Legacy, 1x Storied Homestead. If you don't draw any of those, you might want to mulligan. EXCEPTION: Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas is pretty high priority, if you get him in your starting hand, you might choose to risk not mulliganing. But it's a gamble either way.
You are most vulnerable when your Fellowship moves to Site 2. That's the point in the game when you'll be least prepared, have the least knowledge of what strategy your opponent is using, and the greatest chance of potentially losing Madril to a Shotgun Enquea that you're not ready for. Protecting Madril at Site 2 is your 2nd-highest priority. Worst-case scenario, if you don't draw anything to protect him, try to keep his Resistance at 5 or more when you move to Site 2, so that Faramir can protect him. That is the trickiest part of being forced to go first; You'll need to use Dammed Gate-stream to pull One Good Turn Deserves Another to play Site 2, and add a burden to keep it in your hand. Keeping that event is the HIGHEST priority, which means you'll potentially be moving to Site 2 with 2 burdens and Madril at Resistance 4, a prime target for Shotgun Enquea if you don't have other cards to protect him.
If you ARE going first, Site 2 is almost always going to be The Prancing Pony. You'll be using The Prancing Pony to pull Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith.
Site 3 is often going to be Steward's Tomb, unless your guys are really, really hurting. Assuming your deck is rolling properly, ideally you'll be playing Steward's Tomb at both Site 3 and Site 6, preventing your opponent from healing at any sanctuaries. This is much easier if you're going second, and can be particularly effective if your opponent doubles from 1-3. Then you can stick him with the Tomb at 3 while you stop at Site 2 (Dammed Gate-Stream), stop him healing, but then swap the Tomb out again for The Prancing Pony with One Good Turn Deserves Another before you move to the sanctuary yourself. Otherwise, in order to play the Tomb again at Site 6, you'll need a bit of luck, and have to draw a Led Astray to swap it off Site 3. EXCEPTION: There may be games in which your opponent's fellowship is just not wounded very much at Site 3. In that case, don't waste the Tomb there, just hold it for Site 6! Common sense, really.
So, let's say you're sitting at Site 3, it's Steward's Tomb, and it's time for you to move to Site 4. Most of the time, Site 4 is going to be Mithlond. This is particularly effective (again) if you're going second and your opponent is in front, since you can play some other site for him, but then switch it to Mithlond when it's your turn to move there. But even if you're in front, most of the time you'll still play Mithlond at 4 to get some healing, and start "resetting" some of your allies (which you hopefully have out by now). EXCEPTION: If you are playing against Nazgul, your biggest threat is Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. He'll want to switch sites all around to his advantage. IMO the most decisive actions of the game take place in Region 2, Sites 4-6. So if he's playing Nazgul with Nelya, you play Mount Doom at Site 4, and make all his Nelyas useless until you move to Site 7, at which point (hopefully) you'll have countermeasures in place.
The rest of effectively using this deck is highly situational, it depends on what strategy your opponent is using, what you have an opportunity to do, as well as effectively timing things to your advantage. I'll cover a number of strategies and address the usefulness of specific cards:
Madril, Defender of Osgiliath/ Ithilien Blade
-Would you believe I almost forgot to mention this? I guess it's just so obvious. Yes, the most basic strategy of a Madril deck is to make minions roaming with Madril, and use Ithilien Blade to discard them.
Stewards' Legacy
-Stewards' Legacy may be the most important card in your FP side. Keeping it out greatly increases your effectiveness, in conjunction with Boromir, Faramir, Ithilien Blade, Ranger's Cloak, Soldier's Cache, Pippin, Don't Look at Them, etc. It transforms Boromir into a death machine, and Faramir into the ultimate strategy-denier. Most of the time, Stewards' Legacy is the condition you want to get out first.
Something Slimy/ Long-stemmed Pipe/ Saved From the Fire/ Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
-This combo pulls you a Saved From the Fire extraordinarily quickly, for a deck this size. The first victim burned will probably be Ranger of the White Tree, and the cards you get will probably be Throne of Minas Tirith (the only way to pull it, otherwise you gotta draw it naturally), Ithilien Blade, and one other high-priority thing, which depends on what strategy you're facing. Second target to burn (often later in the game) would be Radagast, The Brown, and the cards you get will probably be Pallando, Far-travelling One (only way to pull it), Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas (if you don't already have it), and Traveled Leader (if you don't already have it in discard). Again, what you pull with it may greatly depend on what strategy you are trying to counter. If you really need mass condition-discard, Deep in Thought. If you really need burdens off, Citadel to Gate. If you really need to get a key minion out of his hand, A New Light. You get the idea.
Allies/ Mithlond/ Traveled Leader/ One Good Turn Deserves Another cycling
-A big part of this deck's effectiveness, is the ability to play Mithlond over and over, and use it to heal your allies: Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree, Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor, Hugin, Emissary from Laketown. Of course, healing all of your companions is super-helpful too. If you have Traveled Leader in your hand or discard pile, you can conceivably play Mithlond every turn, retrieving Traveled Leader with Barliman each time, or switch the site with Led Astray or Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. Because of that ability to cycle Mithlond, when you draw A Wizard is Never Late, generally you'll use it to get Barliman out, go ahead and exert Barliman to get AWINL back, and use AWINL again to grab Gandalf or another guy. Then you can just heal Barliman (and everyone else) with Mithlond. Albert Dreary is primarily there as a quick dependable counter to Greed, which can otherwise completely decimate you. Of course he's also good versus Moria, but that's about it. If you're confident your opponent isn't using Greed or Moria, you don't need Albert Dreary. Hugin is much like Barliman, except he has the ability to get back anything you want. That might be a high-priority possession like Shadowfax, but often it's retrieving high-priority conditions like Stewards' Legacy or Storied Homestead, or just cycling Something Slimy back into your deck. Note that, if you have a Something Slimy in hand, Hugin will enable you to get a discarded condition right back out on the table!
Gandalf, Wise Guide/ Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
-Gandalf's ability to cancel events is massive, in terms of denying your opponent's strategy. Particularly once he's riding Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas. Among other things, Gandalf protects your conditions from Saruman's Power, protects your guys from being killed by Hate, as well as all manner of other extremely powerful event cards. Shadowfax is the best way to add threats for this strategy, simultaneously taking burdens off. In an emergency, you can kill off a companion, spread the wounds out, take burdens off, move to Mithlond, and heal everybody!
Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
-Besides canceling special abilities with Stewards' Legacy, Faramir is a force multiplier. His ability to heal other guys means you can use things like Ithilien Blade more than once... or distribute wounds more evenly, then double to Mithlond and completely heal.
Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith/ Stewards' Legacy/ Ithilien Blade/ Ranger's Cloak/ Pippin Wearer of Black and Silver
-As previously mentioned, Stewards' Legacy turns Boromir into a death machine. With a Ranger's Cloak, he and Pippin can kill almost any minion played, with or without Madril. With Ithilien Blade he's handing out exertions left and right, again denying your opponent of various strategies, or just making minions easier to finish off... and then he just heals up again next turn! This combo is an effective counter to both The Balrog, Demon of Might, and Final Strike, which are popular Madril counters.
Storied Homestead
-Storied Homestead is first and foremost there as a counter to Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders, though it has obvious applications against other strategies too. Ideally (of course) you don't want to play this condition until your resistance is high enough to get some tokens on it, which means you'll probably need Shadowfax in play. Ranger's Cloak can also help for getting your Rangers' resistance up a little higher. You also probably don't want to play it until Site 4 or later, since you're probably up against Nazgul, and you want to wait and play it at a time when you know you'll be safe from Nelya for a while (Mount Doom in Region 2). Once you play it, you'll want to build tokens up on it with Throne of Minas Tirith and/or Soldier's Cache. In a perfect world you'd have 5 tokens on it by the time you get to Site 7 (so it's sustainable for the rest of the game), but realistically that probably won't happen often. At a minimum, hopefully it should at least protect you for a site or two, and/or force your Nazgul opponent to leave their favorite site behind. The Nazgul site in question is Buckland Homestead, which Nelya will use repeatedly to wreck your conditions if you don't stop him.
Soldier's Cache/ Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith/ Mithlond
-This is a token-generating machine. At the end of each turn, if you've got some exerts left on Boromir, you may as well use Soldier's Cache to add tokens to whatever conditions you need the most. If you're preparing to double to Mithlond, then you can exert each one of your Gondor guys to add tokens with Soldier's Cache, then move and completely heal everyone.
Throne of Minas Tirith
-Throne was originally added as a counter to Corsairs and Ships of Great Draught, the most effective counter to Madril. It's another great token generator, and offers a great advantage against any Shadow that relies on possessions (such as Warg Riders). It's also vital against Grond, Hammer of the Underworld.
Don't Look at Them
-Don't Look at Them is useful against Nazgul, but here again was primarily added for countering Raider strategies, particularly Corsairs. Raiders will likely be running heavy Ships of Great Draught, and you may simply not be able to get rid of them fast enough. Madril will be useless for most of the game. Don't Look at Them enables you to kill his most powerful minion with Smeagol. That's particularly effective with Corsairs, who don't have very many powerful minions. Raiders also don't have very effective condition discard, they're better at discarding possessions than they are conditions, particularly if you have Gandalf in play to protect things. As such, Don't Look at Them is a pretty dependable Raider counter that keeps your deck cycling.
Pallando, Far-travelling One
-Besides being re-usable condition discard, Pallando does a couple of other nice things: If you've got Stewards' Legacy out, but don't yet have Ithilien Blade, you can put Pallando on Boromir to immediately exert two minions (or one minion twice), or you can put Pallando on Faramir to cancel the special abilities of two minions at the same time. This can be particularly handy versus Nazgul, who often play two minions at once who both have extremely dangerous maneuver special abilities (e.g. Shotgun Enquea and Úlaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds). Pallando and Shadowfax also enable Gandalf or Radagast to get up to 10 strength, enough to win against Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman.
And now for the Shadow side! It's pretty routine for opponents to look at this Shadow and describe it as a "total mess," or to say things like, "I don't understand your Shadow," or "Your Shadow makes no sense." You have no idea how much this pleases me. :) This Shadow incorporates every single Shadow culture in the game, and the strategy has been dubbed "Sudden Strike," because it is focused on pulling whatever is needed from either the draw deck or the discard pile, in order to counter whatever Free People's strategy your opponent is using. The means of doing this is mostly based around Gollum, and to a lesser-degree cards like Morgul Squealer. How you actually play this Shadow is completely dependent upon what strategy your opponent is using. Identify your opponent's strategy, identify the weakness in that strategy, and then exploit it using whatever cards you need. The Sudden Strike Shadow is all about attacking your opponent's strategy at its key points, and then watch as the whole thing comes tumbling down. Here again, I'll address key strategy points and individual cards:
Sudden Strike
-The card this Shadow takes its name from. It's easier to play minions from your discard pile than from your draw deck, so this card is key for both getting a vital minion into play, as well as getting that vital minion into your discard pile, to be re-used later. All you gotta do is spot Gollum or Smeagol, and if you're using Sudden Strike to play Gollum or Shelob, you get to play a possession or condition as well! Most of the time that extra card is going to be Web, so you can continue to play Gollum and Shelob over and over for the rest of the game. BUT if you are playing against another Madril deck, you may well choose to pull out Ships of Great Draught instead, to counter Madril.
Evil-smelling Fens
-The only Shadow condition in the whole deck. Pretty obvious application: Replay whatever awesome minion your opponent really doesn't want to see again.
Gollum, Her Sneak/ Deagol, Fateful Finder
-This combo enables you to keep your hand cycling, but allow you to play Gollum from your discard pile pretty much whenever you need to.
Shelob, Her Ladyship/ Gollum (any)/ Web/ Gothmog, Morgul Leader
-Shelob is of course great for eliminating a key companion from helping out for a turn. If you can get Gothmog out at the same time though, look out! Opponent takes 3 archery, and Shelob gets really strong. If you are going up against a major Free Peoples archery deck, you'll want to get Shelob and Web out ASAP. Gollum, Old Villain is mostly there to help declog your hand, and potentially beat up a ring-bound guy running a twilight denial strategy.
Saruman's Power/ Grima, Wormtongue/ Grima, Servant of Another Master
-A lot of Free Peoples strategies rely on conditions, and Saruman's Power is the most effective condition removal in the game. This deck packs four of 'em, because sometimes you really do need 4x of them in order to take out a pesky Hobbit Hospital with multiple Scouring of the Shire in play. If conditions are the vital component of your opponent's strategy then this is how you attack it. As for Grimas, Wormtongue is most often used against Dwarf strategies. They looooooove to pile up their cheap artifacts and possessions on their guys! Grima, Servant of Another Master can be incredibly useful for disabling a key companion special ability. For example, we talked about how Gandalf, Wise Guide can protect your conditions from Saruman's Power. Well, Grima, Servant of Another Master counters that counter! He can disable Gandalf, and then blast away with Saruman's Power.
Southron Leader
-This minion is the answer to multi-cultural decks. It is particularly handy against the much-hated Horn decks that play out all those Followers. With three of these guys, ways to add threats, and ways to recycle them, if your opponent is using 4 Free Peoples cultures, he's almost certain to lose.
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman/ Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
-These are primarily the answer to mono-culture decks, especially Dwarfs. The weakest point of a mono-culture Dwarf deck, is to make Gimli fight over and over until he finally goes corrupt. Also useful against other alternate ring-bearers, and Nertea is particularly useful against any 2-culture deck that uses Frodo and The One Ring, The Great Ring. Just throw down Nertea at Cavern Entrance and he's probably done.
Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow/ Too Great and Terrible
-At least a couple of the top-tier Expanded decks are Gandalf decks, and a number of other strategies still rely on Gandalf playing a key role. These give you an excellent shot of taking Gandalf out, or at least forcing your opponent to discard cards that he needed.
Morgul Squealer/ The Witch-king, Morgul King
-These are primarily there to pull important Nazgul (or Bill) out of your draw deck and/or replay important minions from your discard pile.
Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders
-This guy can be amazing against really large fellowships (Ent builds, for example), for dealing out a massive number of wounds at once, especially if used in conjunction with Neekerbreekers' Bog. Time it right, and suddenly his entire fellowship is exhausted!
Other Nazgul
-I think the rest of the Nazgul are pretty self-explanatory. Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds adds threats, and can get rid of important possessions, such as Beorning Axe on Grimbeorn. Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul is the classic for eliminating key companions. Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening is another threat adder, a cheap fierce Nazgul, fuel for Southron Leader. Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders can switch a site to either recycle something you wanted to reuse, stick the opponent with a deadly site, or give you a helpful site for your next Turn.
Site Manipulation
-Yep, it's annoying! But it's part of the meta, an integral part of Expanded strategy. You can't ignore it, and the only way to really counter opponent site manipulation, is with site manipulation of your own. Most of this deck manipulates on the Free Peoples side, using One Good Turn Deserves Another and Traveled Leader to switch sites around. There is a bit on the Shadow side though, with Led Astray and Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. The goal is pretty straightforward; play (and replay) sites that help you, but hurt your opponent. On the Shadow side of things, that might mean Neekerbreekers' Bog to exert all his guys, Steward's Tomb to stop him from healing or taking off burdens, The Bridge of Khazad-dum to hit him with a cheap Balrog, Cavern Entrance to cancel his skirmish special abilities, or Sirannon Ruins to get enough twilight to do something effective against those twilight denial decks.
Other Minions/ Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Rounding out the strategy are a smattering other other minions that help win the day, depending on what strategy your opponent is using. Dunlending Ravager is great for taking out troublesome allies, like Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor, or popular Hobbit allies. Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings can knock a big companion down enough for Shotgun Enquea to finish the job, or disable companions like Legolas, Greenleaf or Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien. The Balrog, Demon of Might is a great Madril counter, and also great at taking out more powerful companions. Sauron, The Lord of the Rings is also good for (probably) a couple of companion kills, if you have the twilight for him. Mauhur, Relentless Hunter can be useful for eliminating key weaker companions that your opponent doesn't want skirmishing. Saruman, Servant of Sauron is just more icing on the cake. Ah, it's a glorious day when you can get Saruman riding around on Sauron's back, like Master Blaster from Mad Max!
And I think that's about everything!
Thoughts? Questions? Additions?
ETA: Actually just made another minor modification to the deck; took out 1x What Are They?, added 1x Ithilien Blade. More copies of What Are They? were originally in the deck because (at the time) it was the only guaranteed way to stop Ninja Gollum with Final Strike out. But thanks to the one-man wrecking crew that is Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith/ Stewards' Legacy, Final Strike is no longer as much of an issue. So now it makes more sense to swap a What Are They? out for the more permanent and reusable Ithilien Blade.
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Kind of alongside with what Nowhereman was getting at: what I like about the shadow is the various options for "hand-extension". Basically any card that allows you to either get something from the deck or back from the discard pile, or allows you to play the card from deck or discard pile is so clutch in this format.
Observing your hand-extension here is what spurred me to swap one of my Gollums for Plotting Deceiver in my Movie deck (Her Sneak is a little more reliable since initiative isn't guaranteed, but since it's only Movie block its the best we got there :) )
I think the 3 TGAT are justifiable. Most of the decks I've seen in expanded that can really just clobber you into submission rely on Gandalf global control. If there's any way you can remove him, the decks are just limping along with Grimbeorn as a tank and a bunch of semi-useless events.
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Heh heh, I miss being able to add gold to posts! :)
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Hey man, I just wanna say thanks so much for writing up the explanations. I'm newly returning to this game and being able to read through all the explanations is really helping me to get a better grasp of what is capable now. I look forward to building a deck inspired by some of your really cool ideas and combos.
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Thanks, so kind of you to say. I look forward to seeing you on gemp!
I'd also recommend you check out the Expanded Meta thread:
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8835.0.html (http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8835.0.html)
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Thanks for the link! I have no experience with Gemp- actually plan on playing in person! Getting back into the game with a friend in Springfield, VA and we're hoping to get some others back into it as well!
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You should definitely still try Gemp though. The way it keeps track of all the math, tokens, and rules makes it soooooo convenient, not to mention lots more opportunities to play games. You can play against your friends on gemp too! I've done that, simply for the convenience of not having to keep track of all the tokens!
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Are you guys going to be playing in springfield? I'm in Gaithersburg so I'm reasonably close by. I'd be interested in playing with you all sometime if you'll have me.
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Hey Sgt.!
First of all hats off for what you have done here. This analysis is amazing! I think about your deck a lot lately, so I`d be interested in your opinion on my thoughts.
I`ve noticed two things - this deck gives a lot of twilight and is kind of dependent on your conditions especially Steward`s legacy. I'm picturing in my head match up against Forrest Guls, how do you cope with them?
Your opponent can repeatedly destroy your conditions with Buckland Homestead and I don`t think you could retrieve them that quickly. Also when trio Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders, Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds and Ulaire Otsea, Duplicitous Specter repeatedly come into play it has to get you so bad - in corporation with site changing Nelya.
I would be very interested to see match up like this. How do you deal with that :)
Naturally I can imagine several scenarios when you easily make it against them in case your opponent does not draw good and you do. But im thinking in general, if both sides draw equally good.
Let me know your view, I`d appreciate it :)
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Hey Sgt.!
First of all hats off for what you have done here. This analysis is amazing! I think about your deck a lot lately, so I`d be interested in your opinion on my thoughts.
I`ve noticed two things - this deck gives a lot of twilight and is kind of dependent on your conditions especially Steward`s legacy. I'm picturing in my head match up against Forrest Guls, how do you cope with them?
Your opponent can repeatedly destroy your conditions with Buckland Homestead and I don`t think you could retrieve them that quickly. Also when trio Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders, Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds and Ulaire Otsea, Duplicitous Specter repeatedly come into play it has to get you so bad - in corporation with site changing Nelya.
I would be very interested to see match up like this. How do you deal with that :)
Naturally I can imagine several scenarios when you easily make it against them in case your opponent does not draw good and you do. But im thinking in general, if both sides draw equally good.
Let me know your view, I`d appreciate it :)
Hey LukasSchor! Wow, a fairly recent post!
It is amazing to think that this deck is nearing its TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY. Wow, does that make me feel old.
Had some people ask me about this deck recently, so I figured I'd pay it a visit and bump it.
As to LukasSchor's questions, I think I mostly addressed them in the procedures and analysis in Post #1: If your opponent is playing Nazgul, then you drop Mount Doom in Region 2 at the earliest opportunity. If he plays Buckland, he will only get one use out of it. If he holds Buckland for Region 3, then you will probably be too set up at that point for it to help him much. Forest Nazgul rely on forests for their strength, and the Madril deck will almost entirely be playing it's own sites, which are mostly not Forests.
Of the Nazgul you mentioned, Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders is the only one that can't be countered, and if he drops with Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds, Stewards' Legacy will instantly disable Cantea. Then Smeagol's event just plays Mithlond, and the damage is undone.
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Hello! I am looking into making a deck to expanded and this style of deck is really interesting for me so I was wondering how does it fare nowadays? Also I haven't used GEMP but does that use player council versions of cards because their version of Madril seems heavily nerfed?
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Gemp uses Decipher and PC versions depending on the format. PC Madril is nerfed, but not dumpstered for sure, however this deck probably wouldn't fare as well there.