News of Mordor

[Gaurwaith]

Just thought that I might be possible to build a deck somehow around the card news of mordor, combining Isengard and Nazgul and I found some nice synergies between Nazgul and Isengard men. With playing conditions on characters and reducing their strength.

36 Cards:

3 Agents of Orthanc
1 Grima, Wormtongue
3 Rohirrim Traitor
3 Unferth, Grima`s Bodyguard
4 Bill Ferny, SSF
4 Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur
2 Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
2 Lemenya, Lieutenant of Morgul

4 Men Will Fall
2 News of Mordor

4 Desertion
1 Twisted Tales
3 Black Breath

Any suggestions on this deck? Can it be competitive?

[Shelobplayer]

Isengard men generally go with Saruman. A mix between Servant of the Eye and Black Traitor + Wizard's Device.

Saruman's Power is a must if you play that culture imo. That card is just too strong.

Don't see the point of Lemenya and Black Breath. You want Nazgul that can win skirmishes on their own to make use of News of Mordor. I'd try the enduring Mount Doom nazzies probably.

Doubt it can be super competitive though.

[Phallen Cassidy]

I'd made a similar deck for Towers Standard, but it looks like I ended up deleting it. Competitive? Perhaps. My deck used 4 Black Traitor and 2-3 Grima as the only Isengard minions. The biggest benefit for using Saruman is that you don't have to run the risk of letting him die in a skirmish. Even with Wizard's Device equipped, I often chose not to have him skirmish so that I'd have a minion to spot for News of Mordor and Men Will Fall. While Grima is often overwhelmed, sometimes he'll be tossed onto the ringbearer or Legolas and survive the skirmish. For each of them, the only real function was to aid the events for Nazgul. I had the idea to play Master of Foul Folk and pull Banner of Isengard for free onto Grima for survival, but decided it was too convoluted for a minion who will still die to any Rohan companion.

In TS, the biggest pitfalls were the strength of Rohan and the twilight required to play everything you'd like - especially against Dauntless Hunter. I ran far fewer Isengard minions, so I had to save up copies of Saruman or Grima with the events and still try to find a Nazgul to play, and then find the twilight to drop everything I needed to, usually at least 9: 6 for a strong Nazgul, 2 for Grima, and 1 for the event.

That said, it's a lot of fun to suddenly overwhelm Gimli or watch Eomer die at site 5 unexpectedly from the damage. Grima helps keep Armor away, but it's no use against ring-bound rangers. If I were to remake it, I'd build a bigger deck with a fellowship which can cycle heavily, and perhaps splashing They Are Coming with 4 Moria Scouts for cycling and twilight.

Now your deck takes the opposite approach from mine - splashing Nazgul with Isengard. I agree that Black Breath isn't going to be all you want it to be, especially since you'll have relatively few chances to put it on the companions you'd like to. Agents of Orthanc, I fear, will always be worse than having a good Nazgul, but again your focus is opposite of what I had so I don't know how it plays. Lemenya has potential, but you probably won't be able to play 2 Nazgul and a Man and have enough leftover for an event. Someone else once said he's redundant: if the -2 strength is enough to keep them from competing with a 9 strength minion, you're already winning and you could've played another minion. If not, you need another minion so you can gain the upper hand. He's too easily eliminated or tolerated, and you're already playing long odds with a hybrid deck without also trying to work him in.

I really like Desertion, though. Instead of Black Breath, what about Wounded? Another condition for Rohirrim Traitor to spot, better effect, and the decks without Men are the ones Nazgul tend to do the best against. Also remember that it can be played on Barliman when facing off against Gandalf!

[ket_the_jet]

Keep in mind an unintended consequence of Black Breath--it is a card played that can trigger Grima, Wormtongue.

I think two or three Grima, Wormtongue, one Grima, Chief Counselor, and a flush of Saruman, Black Traitor is the best route to follow. If you are set on using Desertion (which isn't a bad idea), I would probably add a flush of Rohirrim Traitor as well (or three and an Unferth, Grima's Bodyguard). While I prefer Unferth in almost every way, his uniqueness makes him a liability in a deck that needs to cycle.

Agents of Orthanc is all but useless in this build. Wouldn't you rather play a Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur with that pool? Or--we are in Movie Block here, right?--Ulaire Nelya, Thrall of the One?

Anyways, I will echo the group's thoughts: News of Mordor is best anchored by Saruman, Black Traitor. Grima can be fun (though worthless when Slaked Thirsts is in play).  Enduring Nazgul with Black Marshall might be the best way to win skirmishes.
-wtk

[Gaurwaith]

Thanks for all the recommendations, somehow it did not really work to combine the Isengard men with Nazgul so i tried out how you suggested with a nazgul deck with Grima and Saruman as support.

3 Grima, Wormtongue
4 Saruman, Black Traitor
3 Bill Ferny, SSF
4 Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur
4 Ulaire Toldea, Winged Sentry
2 Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul

3 Black Steed
3 Nazgul Sword
2 Sword of Dol Guldur

3 Men Will Fall
2 News of Mordor
3 Morgul Gates

It worked better than with the Men. The 3 Nazgul can be powered up quite strong and have nice abilities but still did not work 100% good. If the draw is good it stopped quite good and I could easily move with the Fellowship to the end but it didn´t really kill all the companions. What could I change to make the Deck kill?

[Phallen Cassidy]

It looks like you're playing Towers Standard, so I would drop most of those possessions - the deck is highly draw dependent, and adding possessions into the mix is only going to make it worse. The Black Steeds can make companions hurt, but the I think the swords will just clog your hand.

To answer your question, though, most Nazgul decks are going to struggle in Towers Standard already - Eomer is just too good of a skirmisher. News of Mordor can put your opponent in a bind with that unexpected extra wound. Consider Saruman's Ambition for cycling, perhaps? What Fellowship are you running it with?

[Durin's Heir]

I have very scarce experience with Nazgûl in Movie block, but here it goes...

As a general rule, in most decks the minion ratio should NEVER go below 45% for Beatdown (or 55% for Swarm). That's your lowest safe level, but often works better from 50%. Don't count non-fighters like Saruman (but count all copies of his Staff, that don't surpass the copies of Saruman himself) or weak ones that won't cause harm like Grima (without Unferth, or outside a Swarm) and Ferny. Also, count direct minion fetching/recycling cards like Captured by the Ring, Web or Host of Thousands.

In non-filtered decks, half of your deck (and thus, likely your hand) will be FP so having 50% minions means 2 minions in hand most of the times.

Here I see 10 Nazgûl skirmishers in 36 cards! So you need 6 or 8 more fighters. Cantea FTW is a good fighter by himself, and can get rid of annoying possessions (like Armor) if paired with threat-adding sites like Hall of the Kings and City Gates*, but often don't play/discard him before site 4 (that's unless you face 6 comps or the FP adds threats by itself) so your opponent doesn't fear adding threats at Site 3. You need another Nazgûl to keep the ratio pressing your opponent, perhaps Nelya Thrall of The One or Otsea Thrall of The One, which are fierce and enduring (giving you better chances against Rohan and archery). Even Desert Lord, to counter Cirdan and fight...

You also need ways to counter FP tricks like archery (Wreathed in Shadow) or fortifications (1x Saruman's Power, considering your 4 copies of Black Traitor). Also, Wizard Storm can stop fellowships cold (pun intended) if that's your real purpose, and can be replayed by A Fell Voice on the Air. Those are much better support card goals than brute strength, in my opinion.


Hope this helps.

[Gaurwaith]

Thanks for all your help! I tried out several versions but you are right Nazgul in total is not the strongest deck in Movie and at the end I tried an Enduring Nazgul Deck and added 3x Saruman and 2x News of Mordor but I guess it would have worked without even better. But at least i learned sth about Deck building and it was a try worth

I was running it with the Noble Leaders Deck I posted before. Which I played with Ninja Gollum before but I wanted to have a new shadow for it (35-36 cards). Since this shadow here did not worked well any ideas what is good playable with 35 cards and that fellowship?