ENTRY #5
Expanded FormatSHADOW (34 cards):The Witch-King, Dark Lord x4
Ulaire Enquea, Dark Threat x2
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman x2
Ulaire Cantea, Black AssassinUlaire Cantea, Faster than WindsUlaire Toldea, Wraith on WingsUlaire Toldea, Eight of the Nine Riders x2
Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x3
Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally ThreateningUlaire Otsea, Duplicitous SpecterMorgul Skulker x4
Ithil StoneRing of Terror x4
Hatred StirredMoving this Way x2
Lost in the Woods x4
The main strategy is, of course, to strew the sitepath with forests, and then drop a WK with
Ring of Terror (fierce d+1?) and tons of Nazzie recursion. The Nazzies I picked are sort of a package that does anything, with Nazzies that do various stuff, but can be discarded for the WK, the main point is just to wreak havoc with the wk running crazy, you've got tons of rule of 5 enforcers so he can do that, and some assistance beatdown if necessary from other guys, he doesn't have to be the main thing, but he's definitely there to cycle. Oh yeah,
Hatred Stirred and
Morgul Skulker can really shuffle Nazgul back into the deck so that if you can get a filter freeps, like
Gamling's Horn, you can run the deck off of reshuffled cards. Send the Nazzies that work back in the deck, if you hit gold, drop 'em, otherwise, slam WK style,
LITW and discarding to bang.
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ENTRY #6
Expanded FormatFREE PEOPLES (36 cards):Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom w/ The One Ring.
The Ring of RingsLegolas, Son of Thranduil (starting)
Duilin, Ranger from Blackroot Vale (starting)
Smeagol, Poor Creature (starting)
Arwen, Staunch Defender x3
Uruviel, Woodland MaidNenya, Ring of Adamant x3
Galadriel's Silver EwerPhial of GaladrielGwemegilArwen's BowSword of the Fallen x2
Elven Bow x2
Gondorian BladeRanger's CloakThe Last Alliance of Elves and MenNo Stranger to the ShadowsThe Saga of ElendilSafe PassageDon't Look At ThemSecluded HomesteadGondor Bowmen x2
Natural Cover x2
Feathered x4
A Ranger's Versatility x2
The FP side does a little choking (partly from being a small fellowship but mostly from
NSttS and
Safe Passage) and a good amount of archery, so if all goes well you won't be skirmishing too often. If you do,
Duilin has 10 strength at most sites here (as you'll see shortly) and the
Gondorian Blade, so he should be able to defeat or at least survive most minions that are around to skirmish. Arwen becomes beastly later on: with your sites out, minions can be as much as
-6 strength going up against her tanked out (
Gwemegil and
Arwen's Bow) 9 strength
damage +1. If that's STILL not enough,
Feathered combined with your archery makes for an AWESOME pump. If archery doesn't do enough,
A Ranger's Versatility makes for a lethal combo with
Feathered instead.
Not a perfect FP side, especially since you're soft against burdens early on, but should be fun and more than hold its own against most decks.
Wait, why are we weak against burdens early on? Because you'll be bidding 2 or 3 to ensure you Shadow side goes first and lays down the sitepath for your opponent. Speaking of which....
SHADOW (36 cards):Ulaire Lemenya, Dark Enemy x4
Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow x4
Ulaire Attea, Black PredatorUlaire Nertea, Black HorsemanUlaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x3
Ulaire Otsea, Duplicitous Specter x2
Ulaire Otsea, Seventh of the Nine RidersSword of Minas Morgul x2
Sword of Dol Guldur x2
Fell Beast x3
Winged MountNazgul Blade x3
Ithil StoneHatred Stirred x2
Flung Into the FrayDark Approach x4
Foul ClutchesThe point here is rather simple: play and/or discard possessions to make
Dark Enemy huge, then pull back the possessions you need with
Hatred Stirred, stack Lemenya on
FItF, and rinse and repeat each site to beat the fellowship down.
Black Shadow is here mainly to pull back
Dark Approach over and over to make our Nazzies cheap and save twilight for the rather expensive
Sword of Minas Morgul (for Lemenya) and
Sword of Dol Guldur (for Toldea...he helps his own cause!). Those swords turn Lemenya into a
damage +1 beatstick and Toldea into a troublesome condition remover, as well as boosting their strength, so I think the
cost of each is MORE than worth it.
The Fell Beasts and
Winged Mount not only play for free and further boost strength, but they can be used to unclog your hand, discarding any unneeded
possessions along the way. (On the FP side, by the way, Arwen also contributes towards this with
Gwemegil and
Arwen's Bow and
Poor Creature has a built-in method to do it as well!
)
Black Horseman can make sure
Winged Mount is free and further boosts any Nazzie bearing either mount.
Black Predator ALSO has a built-in discarding ability that can boost him further, and
Foul Clutches can also be a nasty surprise to spring at the right time if you have some possessions to discard from hand.
Both Otseas help bring more cards (and hopefully
possessions) into hand each turn, as does the
Ithil Stone. The Nazgul Blades make for good discarding fodder but can also be a nice boost if you decide to play them since most of our sites are forests. To help ensure we DO have forests, we also have
Third of the Nine Riders to control the path if something goes awry.
And that just leaves, of course, the oft-mentioned sitepath.
SITES: The Angle Woody-end Buckland Homestead Hill of Sight Caras Galadhon Mere of Dead Faces Dammed Gate-stream Old Forest Road Trollshaw ForestSix forests in all, which clearly helps both sides of our deck.
The Angle and
Woody-end in particular help our Shadow side, as the former can possibly snag more possessions for our Nazzies and
Woody-end can be used to grab Lemenya if we need him.
Old Forest Road is awfully nice with our Elves.
Buckland Homestead is included here for its obvious Nazzie help, but if playing an opponent that you know doesn't run a lot of conditions, could easily be substituted for another forest like
East Road or a different site that could help one of our sides out (like
Fortress of Orthanc or
Fords of Isen).
Mere of Dead Faces is nice with Smeagol, and
Dammed Gate-stream should be used ASAP to grab
Safe Passage (or, if you already have
Safe Passage,
Don't Look At Them instead, which is good at discarding MORE cards and pairs especially well with
A Ranger's Versatility ).
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ENTRY #7
Standard FormatSHADOW (38 cards):The Witch King, Dark Lord x3
Ulaire Enquea, Dark Threat x3
Ulaire Attea, Dark Predator x3
Ulaire Lemenya, Dark Enemy x3
Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds x2
Mordor Veteran x2
Ring of Rancor x4
Shadowy Mount x3
They Came From Mordor x2
They Feel The Precious x2
A Shadow Fell Over Them x4
Ghastly Host x3
Morgul on The MarchThere Came A Cry x3
The stategy is simple. Add tons of threats. Stop them from moving with
Ghastly Host. Overwhelm with
Mordor Veteran and then they have lots of wounds.
Any questions?
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ENTRY #8
Expanded FormatSHADOW (35 cards):The Witch-king, Dark Lord x4
Ulaire Enquea, Dark Threat x4
Ulaire Cantea, Faster than WindsUlaire Cantea, Black AssassinUlaire Lemenya, Assailing MinionUlaire Lemenya, Servant of the ShadowUlaire Lemenya, Eternally ThreateningUlaire Nelya, Thrall of the OneUlaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders x2
Ulaire Nertea, Servant of the ShadowUlaire Nertea, Dark HorsemanUlaire Nertea, Thrall of the OneUlaire Otsea, Thrall of the OneUlaire Otsea, Seventh of the Nine RidersUlaire Otsea, Duplicitous SpecterMorgul Skulker x3
Ithil Stone x2
Ring of Terror x3
Hatred Stirred x2
All Blades Perish x3
The WK and
Dark Threat use wraiths to pump or to destroy large fellowships.
Ithil Stone gives you more cards to work with every shadow phase. While
Morgul Skulker,
Ring of Terror and
Hatred Stirred all get your minions back from discard pile or from play for repeated uses. Meanwhile the
Ring of Terror can make the WK damage +1, and you may even get the threats to use it repeatedly.
All Blades Perish is just because a wounding deck, like knights or RBR would probably massacre the WK, who relies on winning fights.
The rest of the deck is made up of singletons of some of the most powerful nazgul in the game, that are nevertheless most useful in particular circumstances. The idea is to burn the wraiths that aren't especially useful at the moment, while recycling those that are good against your opponent's deck. Note that I have not used any Attea or Toldea, focussing on slightly fewer different Nazgul to make the WK's text more likely to give strength +2:
Ulaire Cantea, Faster than Winds (for large fellowships/possession discard)
Ulaire Cantea, Black Assassin (for large fellowships/low resistance)
Ulaire Lemenya, Assailing Minion (for flooded pools)
Ulaire Lemenya, Servant of the Shadow (turn wraiths into condition discard)
Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally threatening (rainbow)
Ulaire Nelya, Thrall of the One (archery/wounding)
Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders (site path fixing/condition discard)
Ulaire Nertea, Servant of the Shadow (low resistance)
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman (dual culture fellowships)
Ulaire Nertea, Thrall of the One (site 2/archery)
Ulaire Otsea, Thrall of the One (archery)
Ulaire Otsea, Seventh of the Nine Riders (one companion exhausted)
Ulaire Otsea, Duplicitous Specter (wounds spread around)
The FP would probably be Dwarves with Gandalf,
Saved from the Fire. This would give a powerful level of card draw and filtering to set up hands that are bursting full of Nazgul.
Meanwhile the site path includes
Buckland Homestead and more evil sites for repeated play with
Third of the Nine Riders.
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