NappyKorn's Underground/Mountain Dwarves with Machinegun Enqueavs.My Frodo/Sam/Wizard Choke with Slowly Advancing NazziesNK's deck I'd seen before, and it's usually lethally effective. The Free Peoples side uses some of the Dwarves' heaviest hitters (
Durin III,
Dain Ironfoot,
Gloin SoG, and
Gimli FA) with
Slinker, either winning skirmishes with the Dwarves or just negating minions with
Slinker's skirmish ability. It helps that he uses
Resolute Hobbit as his Ring-bearer, so he can add LOTS of burdens and use
Slinker's text pretty much whenever he needs it.
He also slaps a
Follow Smeagol onto
Slinker and controls the sitepath, laying down mountains and underground sites for his Dwarves to use with
Mountain Homestead and
Till Durin Wakes Again. Nothing too fancy beyond that...just some basic weapons and rings to make the Dwarves bigger, though not enough to make Durin his normal beastly self.
The Shadow side is all about the famous
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul, pairing him with
Ring of Rancor for maximum carnage. (Last time I played this deck,
Shotgun Enquea slaughtered me almost singlehandedly.) It also has a smattering of other Nazzies and
![[Wraith]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/wraith.png "Wraith")
Orcs that harrass the Ring-bearer, get initiative to get bigger, and add some threats and/or burdens along the way.
My deck has a semi-choke for the FP side, with only Frodo, Sam, and Gandalf (with a
Radagast tossed into the deck for potential help later in the game). It makes Frodo and Sam big with
A Promise and swords, and Gandalf is rather large eventually as well with
Foe-hammer,
Gandalf's Staff,
Radagast's Herb Bag, and
Pallando.
Of course, it uses
Saved From The Fire to help set all this up. The starting fellowship has
Leader of Men, who is burned as soon as possible in favor of
Gandalf Returned, who then loads up on the aforementioned gear.
Like NK's deck, my fellowship ALSO benefits from site control, with
Concerning Hobbits being my prime Hobbit event. Other pumps come in the form of
Servant of the Secret Fire and the token conditions (which Returned can reinforce)
Sudden Fury and
Not the First Halfling.
Once Gandalf and all his stuff are out, the deck chokes pretty well. The spells are all free thanks to
Gandalf's Staff and
Concerning Hobbits is free as well, so the only twilight added is during the fellowship phase...and again, once Gandalf is burned and resurrected, there's not much to be added after that.
My Shadow side is sort of a hybrid between my favorite Forestguls (who help set up
Concerning Hobbits) and
Shapes Slowly Advancing. I've used this condition before, but always as a sort of side strategy. This time, it's the main focus, with the goal not of possible corruption, but of forcing the FP player to take companions into hand and then, when they're replayed, hammering them with
Out of Sight and Shot and
Surrounded by Wraiths. It cycles like mad with
Hatred Stirred,
Ithil Stone, and lots and lots of Nazzies; like most of my Ringwraith decks, this one typically drops 4+ Nazgul by the latter half of the game.
Dark Approach is a big help in this regard (especially paired with
Black Shadow), but the cost of replying companions over and over helps out a lot too.
Okay, now the actual game. I bid to make him go first. My Shadow draw was terrible, with NO Nazgul and
Swarthy Sneering Fellow the only minion in my hand. But my FP hand was excellent, so I kept it. I put Ferny on Smeagol to force him to either exert early (he already had
Follow Smeagol, which I knew would be problematic) or add a burden to win. He chose the latter, saving the exertion to use
Follow Smeagol that turn and play Site 3. Somewhat surprisingly, he stayed, perhaps falsely thinking I had more minions in my hand. Lucky me.
My first turn, I played
Not The First Halfling,
A Promise, and used a
SftF to pull Returned (using his text to grab
Foe-hammer),
Gandalf's Staff, and of course,
Sent Back. I had the Herb Bag in my hand, so Gandalf started out fully loaded.
Unfortunately, so did the twilight pool...one thing I hadn't thought fully through. Between the condition and all Gandalf's tricks, I added 14 twilight before I ever moved! With it being Site 2 and all minions being roaming, he was a LITTLE limited in what he could do, but not enough. He made me pay for my oversight and got three minions out, including a
Morgul Brute. Four wounds and a burden later, I stayed.
Site 3 was relatively uneventful. I only got one Nazgul out, but that was enough to also play
SSA,
OoSaS,
and SbW. He took a wound from the Nazzie but managed to kill it before regroup (negating Shapes), used
Follow Smeagol again, and opted to stay. As he did so, though, he used
There's Another Way to replace Site 3 with my least favorite site in the game:
Steward's Tomb. Not much healing in my immediate future.... :-\
My FP hand was awful, but fortunately I didn't give him much twilight, so I was able to limp into Site 3 without any further damage.
Site 4 began a slow, slow grind with my Shadow side. I got two out now, and while he managed to discard one with Dain's ability, he was forced to start paying attention to Shapes. He chose to take Gimli back into hand, comforted by the fact that he'd he able to play him next turn for only
![[2]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/2.png "2")
(thanks to Dain).
Unable to heal, I dragged my small, wounded fellowship forward. Sam fell valiantly defending Frodo from further damage, and I stayed.
Next turn, he doubled for the first time, once again taking Gimli into hand to negate Shapes at Site 6. But my Nazgul began to get to him, and he was forced to keep piling on the burdens to protect Smeagol (
Dark Horseman avoiding Dwarves helped) and taking some wounds with his other companions. He still only had one
Mountain Homestead out, so only Durin was able to regularly defeat Nazgul thrown his way, and even he had to be selective. By the time the dust had settled, he had made it to Site 6, but Dain had fallen, Gimli was clogging his hand, burdens were reaching high levels, and wounds were starting to pile up...more by now than the sanctuary would be able to handle.
Unable to double myself, I forged ahead to Site 5, the choking my only saving grace. I FINALLY got my first pumping event, using
Concerning Hobbits and
Not the First Halfling to help Frodo and Gandalf avoid too much more damage. I think I had 6 wounds between them now...good thing my Ring was
Ring of Doom and its vitality +2! I stayed.
NK replayed Gimli (now at
![[4]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/4.png "4")
thanks to Dain's demise and
Surrounded by Wraiths), finally got another
Mountain Homestead, and moved forward. I hammered him again with four Nazzies, aided by the fact that he forget to play Site 7, allowing me to play
Woody-End to combo with the two
Dark Approach and
Black Shadow I had in hand. Much of the healing the sanctuary had afforded was wiped out. Knowing Shapes wasn't going to be enough by itself now (the potential healing of taking companions into hand would help him a lot more than it would hurt him), I chose not to use it and instead forced him to stay with his wounds and ever-increasing burdens.
As per usual for my turn, I drew no more pumps (STILL had not seen a single one of my FOUR copies of
Servant of the Secret Fire), no
Radagast, and nothing else to really help, so moved ahead to Site 6. I took a little more damage here, but like I seemed destined to do this whole game, I simply survived. With what I believe was eight total wounds by now, I stayed, thankful to see no
Steward's Tomb under my feet at THIS sanctuary.
Next turn, I claimed my second Dwarf kill, as Gimli became a speed bump over which my Nazzies sped. He managed to do some healing with
Ring of Fury, but now down to four companions and only 2 burdens from corruption, things were still looking a bit dire. With Nazgul still on the table, he stayed at Site 8.
I healed as much as I could, healing Gandalf fully and leaving three wounds on Frodo. Why? Because I FINALLY got two copies of
Servant of the Secret Fire, and I used them to fend off NK's next attack, exerting Gandalf each time I played
SotSF to lay wounds on his minions (thanks to
Radagast's Herb Bag). Even through there were now two Morgul Brutes on Frodo, with
SotSF, another timely
Concerning Hobbits,
Sudden Fury, and
Ring of Doom, was able to actually win and avoid any further damage. I was finally confident enough to double, and if I had drawn
Radagast (and potentially been able to triple to Site 9 and win right then and there), I probably would have. But since NK was about to move to 9 anyway, there was no point, so I stayed.
It all came down to this. My own fellowship lagging far behind, and only one site left in front of NK's reduced and wounded fellowship, it was up to my Nazzies to settle this game. Unable to play Site 9 last turn thanks to an exhausted Smeagol, I once again got to play it myself, choosing to drop
Sirannon Ruins with its Shadow number of
. Between that and another
Dark Approach, I was able to drop only three Nazgul...but one of them was my trump card (which, to be honest, I'd forgotten I tossed in
):
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul! That's right...I killed him with his own primary Shadow card, using
Shotgun Enquea to kill off Durin. Now with more minions than he could handle, and Frodo unable to pump with
The Great Ring enough to survive his skirmish because he was pretty much maxed out on burdens, I was able to claim the most improbable victory EVER.
It is only because I kept my burdens down that I survived. He had drawn his own Shotgun Enqueas plenty of times throughout the game, but couldn't use him because I kept my burdens low enough (though his Brutes and
Ulaire Attea, Wraith on Wings sure tried to remedy that!) and obviously never had anywhere close to 6 companions. I thought I was done for from the moment I saw
Steward's Tomb, but this game was a testament to never, EVER giving up, because you never know when a miracle like your OWN
Shotgun Enquea might save your butt.
Great game, NK...probably the best I've ever played. Sorry it took me so long to report on it.
If you want to add anything (I probably forgot some details since Sunday), go for it!
Topic: Online Game Results (Read 24780 times)
