There's been a discussion about splashing, and so, I decided to write an article like in old CC times.. *sigh*
So, let's have a look:
Splashing Nazgul in Movie BlockSplashing is one of the things that exist since Fellowship of the Ring. You remember all these Decks with a couple of
Greenleaf Splashes? Splashing means that you put a card in your Deck that actually doesn't match your main strategy, but gives some balance, maybe eliminating some weaknesses or surprising your opponent.
I'll start with one of the most Splashed minions ever, and everybody knows who it is...
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of MorgulWhen talking about Splashes, "
Shotgun Enquea" has always been listed above, as one of the best Splashes. Why that?
Actually, it's quiet simple.
First, playing against large fellowship is mostly boring and nerve-racking. That's why you need a plan B, something that can destroy large fellowships. So, The Rule of Five was created. Making some really cruel cards against large fellowships was necessary so that smaller fellowships like the three Hunters were potential. Now, taking all these points together makes
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul such a strong card. You can put him in nearly every deck, and he can always be useful by wounding some companions. And even after that, he's still a 11 strenght fierce minion!
Secondly, you can use all of his excellences also in corruption decks!
Thirdly, there are so many other points that I will have to go to the second cards, meaning:
Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol GuldurWell, many decks have the problem of using all twilight in the twilight pool. If you play a Swarm deck, it often happens that there's still some twilight left after palying your minions. Adding some expensive minions actually isn't a good option, cus' the eventuality of not being able to use it is too big.
And that's where
Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur comes into play. With his nice effect, he uses the remaining twilight for his own strength, cus' actually, this what Splashing is about; Flexibility. You can play
Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur just for 6 twilight and get a 12 strenght fierce minion or you can spend a little more twilight and get a strength boost, which is pretty unusual for the typical forestgul strategy.
Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol GuldurWhen playing against Dwarves, your opponent will hate you for splashing this card in your deck. Oh, was that a
Dwarven axe? Didn't even see it was here... I mean, nearly every deck has some posessions, and cus' of playing them on their best companions, he won't assign them to
Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur, which means that even if you can't discard the possesions, you just wound some companions! And as the most annoying thing,
Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur hasn't much of a twilight cost and is, as many the Nazguls, fierce.
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol GuldurThis one's even more cruel then The Rule of Five!
"Can you say Swarm?!?"
-NBarden Yes you can! With
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur, swarming is just a walk in the park. Play this guy and booom!, swarm the opponent. The larger the fellowship, the mightier the Swarm, and so, it's clear that
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldur is banned in Movie Block. Just amazing...
Ulaire Toldea, Messenger of MorgulWow, 5 of 9 Nazgul from FotR are nice splash cards! But even this cards ranking is well-deserved:
It's not so hard to put a couple of Burdens on the Ring-Bearer, especially in FotR Block, where everybody plays
Isildur's Bane. Just assign him to a weak companion overwhelm him. Another card that's really flexible and can be added in every corruption deck.
Ulaire Attea, the EasterlingA typical FotR Block Splash, cus' nearly every Deck plays allies. The often seen combination
Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad with
The Tale of Gil-galad can be easily prevented with
the Easterling. Splashes like
Thrarin, Dwarven Smith stand no chance against
the Easterling. And still don't forget his 12 strength....
Ulaire Toldea, Winged SentryThis is pretty simple to explain, just look at his stats: 6 twilight, 12 strength, 3 vitality and fierce: typical Nazgul stats, aren't they? But it's the ability that does the difference; with stats like that, it's no problem to win a skirmish at all, and there's one more difference, cus' this ability doesn't need any exertion. But there's more, due to the fact that there are only 3 Nazgul in TTT Block, you'll definitely surprise your opponent with this one.
Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than WindsWell, it's not
Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening. In most cases,
Ulaire Lemenya, ET is better, but it's a Hunters Rare, and Hunters is overpowered as well, so no more discussing...
Back to topic, adding threats is always nice and again, a Splashing Nazgul against big fellowships seem to be popular...
The Witch-King, Black CaptainFirst: Enduring is nice.
Second: Enduring is strong.
Third: Enduring is effective.
Fourth: Enduring is... okay, okay, but you'll all agree that Enduring is an ability that is always useful and
The Witch-King, Black Captain has one more trick (which seems similar to
Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur):
"Each Man skirmishing The Witch-king loses all strength bonuses from weapons."Yes, only
Man lose strength bonuses. What first seemed like a nice ability is useless in many cases. I mean, there are 7 freeps cultures, and this ability is only against 3 of them: Gondor, Rohan and Gandalf.
But still a good card!
So then, last but not least:
Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the OneFirst: Enduring is nice.
Second: Enduring is strong.
Third: Enduring is effective.
Fourth: Did we hear that before?
To this card I just have to say: Archery? Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch....
No problem, put 3 wounds on it and woop! transform them to burdens! Who wants to be assigned to
Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One? Someone weak? So, take a wound. Someone Strong? So, take a burden. The only possibility to get rid of this god-dammed card: Wounding with archery special abilities. But think of this: 4 wounds with archery abilities is pretty tricky to arrange.
So that was it for know. Pretty short article, but I was trying to give you an image of splashing Nazgul. As said before,
![Wraith [Wraith]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/wraith.png)
is an amazing Splash culture. Give them a chance!
Hopefully until next time,
Dominik "Witchkingx5" Fähnrich