accidentally building a realistic version of sgt. draino's deck

[Witchkingx5]

Let me preface this by explaining how I ended up here:

Enjoying the creative process of deckbuilding, I always try to set new challanges for myself, and in this case, I wanted to both include, as well as exclude some cards, try to "make them work", as they say. On the Free People side, the idea was to build a Dwarf Deck around Gimli, FA and conditions, without including Durin III, but centered around lesser used stuff like Toss Me + Loyalty Unshaken and Sindri. Meanwhile, on the Shadow Side, the general concept relies on gaining initiative through Morgul Orcs and SttF, and then using Gollum, PD with his buffs from the discard pile (LHDwT and Hobbitses are Dead) with a large toolbox of Nazgul to round it out. The "glue" that holds this deck together is the Pokémon Trainer Gollum-esque recursion engine around evil-smelling fens.

So as I was building this deck, it kept evolving more and more into a "light" version of what sgt. draini likes to play, the "Ever my Heart Rises" pile, without any intent of previously going there, albeit with some major difference. First of all, as the pinnacle of LotR TCG game esperience is undisputedly real life play against a human being face to face, showing up with a pile of approximately 700'000 cards that cost about the same as a car is just not realistic. Secondly, the goal isn't to imitate that deck per se, rather use the gained knowledge of the ideas that emerged throughout the years of testing (and me playing against the deck, for that matter), to take some functioning concepts, and port them over to this deck. I'll go into detailed card choices and later, as this deck is very much a scetch/work in progress.

So here goes nothing:

Condition Dwarves/ Initiative Gollum

Format: Movie Block

Author: Witchkinxg5

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Adventure deck:
Dunharrow Plateau
West Road
Hall of the Kings
Pelennor Plain
Pelennor Flat
Minas Tirith Second Circle
Ruined Capitol
Morgulduin
Dagorlad

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Gimli, Feared Axeman (start)
1x Linnar, Dwarven Lord
2x Sindri, Dwarven Lord
1x Legolas, Greenleaf (start)
1x Smeagol, Poor Creature (start)
2x Sam, Son of Hamfast
2x Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad
2x Axe of Erebor
2x Dwarven Axe
1x Sting, Baggins Heirloom
1x Vilya
2x Axe Strike
4x Battle Tested
1x Rest by Blind Night
3x Slaked Thirsts
4x Toss Me
1x Ever My Heart Rises
3x Loyalty Unshaken
2x Preparations
1x Shoulder to Shoulder
1x The Tale of the Great Ring

Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Plotting Deceiver
1x Gorbag, Covetous Captain
1x Gothmog, Morgul Commander
4x Morgul Destroyer
1x Morgul Detachment
4x Morgul Lurker
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlaire Lemenya, Assailing Minion
1x Úlaire Nelya, Thrall of the One
1x Úlaire Nertea, Thrall of the One
1x Úlaire Otsea, Thrall of the One
1x Úlaire Toldea, Wraith on Wings
4x Captured by the Ring
3x Hobbitses Are Dead
4x Evil-smelling Fens
3x Let Her Deal With Them
3x Streaming to the Field

Strategy:

Bid high (2-3 depending on meta/opponent) to go first, strting Gimli, Legolas nd Smeagol, pull Ever my Heart Rises, and start churning through the deck. The initial idea was to start Sindri, but I'm afraid that setup would be too fragile and could be easily moved down early - Greenleaf was first added as a potential splash for slaked thirsts, but he helps with early- (and lategame) protection overall. The general idea is to have a few buffed dwarves through conditions/events, and slked thirsts+greenlef to prevent yourself dying from swarms. Elrond, HtGG , Vilya and Shoulder to Shoulder provide some healing flexibilita, while Linnar does the rest. The deck cycles extremely fast, and could possibly be even larger, but I wanna start modestly, while Rest By Blind Night is my "last resort", or potential Shadow kill setup card.

The Shadow highly profits from the Freeps cycling, and can access a large variety of tools depending in the situation through Gollum and Evil-Smelling Fens. You can either go the Swarm, or Big Bad Beatdown route, where LHDwT on a Nazgul can be devastating. Holding on to Streaming to the Field, depending kn matchup, can be vital, but overall, the deck tries to not rely on conditions too much, and, thanks to the nature of all the drawing the dwarves do, we'll have lots of Shadow cards for most of our Shadow hands.

Now to address some ommissions:

Ring of Fury, BRC and Durin III: not the direction this deck is taking, as you want to setup and protect your conditions/engines early, and these cards don't really help. I found Elrond with Shouler to Shoulder takes care of most of the problems, while Gimli, FA does a d ecent job at protecting most of your stuff from Grond.

More Dwarven Equipment: Not enough space/synergy.

Faramir, SoD and Aragorn, RotN: I'm very torn on these, as I'd love to include them, but again... they don't ckntribute to the general game plan, and it's hard to figure out what to cut. Maybe going down on Toss Me could work, but Toos Me + Loyalty Unshaken is one of the big reasons why this deck works.

Shelob, HL: Could be included, but she doesn't do "anything" on her own, while even without Gollum, this deck can do a decent Morc impression. But she could definitely replace Gothmog or Gorbag, although I do like the fact that these cards can be included in this build.

Morgul Brute, Morgul Whelp: Powerful cards, but they only partially help the deck's plan, or should I say, one of the deck's plans. Morgul Destroyer synergizes quite well with some of the deck's recursion toolbox engines, while also generally being a bigger beater than the other 2 on average.

Morgul Ambusher: While gnerating threats, they are more of a byproduct of the game going on, and while useful, I'm not sure if I can get to 3 threats reliably for this card to be worth it. Initative is priority number 1, while the toolbox helps rounding out whatever setup you're going for, or serves as a plan B. I'm afraid this card would stretch the confines of what this deck is trying to do a bit too far.

Grima, Wormtongue. Definitely a consideration, but I'm not sure what is worse/should be cut.

So... these are just some ideas. Maybe I went too far with some aspects of the deck, and should cut those down (e.g. Gollum's recurring cards), it's really hard to say - which is why I'm throwing this list out here and would love to start a discussion about it! Especially curious about Sgt. Draino's and Dmaz's inputs to this pile of cards, as I've "borrowed" a lot of their innovative ideas to create something that I'd like to imagine as "slightly different".

Cheers!