Instant Surprise Corruption! (LttG and non-Moria Shadow)

[Kralik]

So, it's time for me to part with one of my most beloved decks. This deck in its current form has a perfect win record against players who are not suspecting it, and a fantastic win record overall (16 wins to 1 loss). By posting it here I run the chance that it's not going to work anymore, but I'm giving it to those of you who would like to see the pained look on your friends faces when you win completely out of the blue.

The one loss was vs. Alkarin, who had lost to the deck before, and knew what was coming. He refused to double and made me walk one site at a time to my doom. Bah! (and good job!)

Here's the list, strategy below:

Ring-bearer 4R301 • Frodo, Courteous Halfling
The One Ring 9R+1 • The One Ring, The Binding Ring

Adventure Deck
1 7U329 Dunharrow Plateau
2 7U335 King's Tent
3 7U339 Hall of the Kings
4 7U342 Osgiliath Fallen
5 8U119 Crashed Gate
6 7U347 Minas Tirith First Circle
7 7U355 Ruined Capitol
8 7U359 Northern Ithilien
9 7U361 Haunted Pass

Free Peoples Draw Deck (30)
1x 6C45 • Smeagol, Poor Creature (starting)
1x 1C311 • Sam, Son Of Hamfast (starting)
1x 7R7 • Gimli, Feared Axeman (starting)
4x 9R+3 • Durin III, Dwarven Lord
3x 9R5 • Linnar, Dwarven Lord
4x 9R+7 • Ring of Fury
1x 9R8 • Ring of Guile
1x 9R9 • Ring of Retribution
3x 2U3 Dwarven Bracers
3x 1C9 Dwarven Axe
2x 5R116 • Sting, Baggins Heirloom
1x 7R12 Preparations
4x 1C6 Delving
1x 4R54 Rest by Blind Night

Shadow Draw Deck (30)
1x 9R+28 • Gollum, Dark as Darkness
1x 6C40 • Gollum, Old Villain
3x 1U178 Goblin Runner
4x 5R100 • Grishnakh, Orc Captain
4x 5C108 Orc Pursuer*
3x 5C109 Orc Runner
3x 9R+47 • Ithil Stone
4x 2U92 Spies of Mordor
3x 1R189 Lost to the Goblins
4x 7C53 Captured by the Ring

Strategy:
So the basic strategy is to corrupt the RB with 8-11 burdens in one go. This will most likely happen at site 8, but I've also pulled it off at site 7 or 9. To do this, there is one thing that must be your TOP priority:

CYCLE

Your ultimate goal is to completely deck out. Bid 2 and use Sam to peel 2-3 burdens. Play Preparations. Use Smeagol as much as possible to discard almost all cards from your hand each turn (keep Goblin Runners, LttG, and Captured By The Ring). It takes a lot of strategy to decide when to cycle and when to hold onto certain cards. If you happen to get Grishnakh, an orc, Spies of Mordor, and Ithil Stone in your hand, it would probably be best to keep those as well. But if it's just a solitary orc or solitary Spies/Stone... ditch it.

Keep your Freeps alive if you can. Use Frodo to filter rings out of your deck and see if you can play at least one Ring of Fury each turn. Be CAREFUL not to put more than two cards on any dwarf, as Grima will clog your hand and mess things up. The exception would be with Ring of Guile -- this can be discarded during manuever to prevent Grima. Keep Sam around as long as he is useful, then kill him. Frodo will be adding burdens, but don't risk Enquea. In practice, I usually kill Sam at site 4.

During the regroup phase, stack cards on Preparations. The best times to stack are when you end your turn at site 3 or 6 (obviously). But either way, don't let Ring of Fury stay unused. Exert and discard it so that you can play another one next turn. Stack mostly minions and some maybe Ithil Stone. Don't stack either Gollums or Spies/Captured unless it is your last Freeps turn and you are SURE to win. Usually it's a good idea to keep a wound on Linnar or Durin to help with cycling when you draw extra copies. Just don't overdo the exertions, as they could get you killed early, and you won't be able to reap the benefit until you are decked out anyway.

On your last Freeps turn, when either a) you are completely decked or b) your opponent can move to site 9 next turn, discard Ring of Guile to grab Rest by Blind Night. Exhaust all of your dwarves and stack as many Shadow cards on Preparations. Shuffle to deck and voila! All Shadow cards except for Preparations. You only need Frodo alive to use RbBN, so feel free to kill dwarves, Smeagol, etc. etc. as long as it is convenient (for example, killing one dwarf so that another can have more vitality to exert).

On the following turn, play Gollum DaD either by Captured by the Ring or Northern Ithilien, 3 Goblin Runners, and exert the RB. Lost to the Goblins gives you a minimum of 8 burdens, max of 9. If you got two burdens from Northern Ithilien, you get at least 10 burdens guaranteed. When I have a large number of cards left in my deck, I usually try to draw stuff with orcs first, in an attempt to get Preparations out. Or at least start a fun swarm. I have had cases where I won by both corrupting the RB *and* overwhelming. Of course, if you are a burden or two short, Answer to All Riddles may give it to you.

Considerations:
*Secrecy is quite important! Most opponents that faced this deck had no idea what I was going for, and so they either a) moved slowly or b) added burdens with Grishnakh. Both help considerably.

*There is never any advantage in doubling. Never. I think it's nearly impossible that this deck could win by making it to site 9.

*Frodo, Resolute Hobbit can ruin your day. If they don't bite at Grishnakh's two burdens bait, then you may want to go for swarm. Discard your LttG and WHAMMO! hit them with 10+ minions at site 8.

*It's a good idea to keep a minion in hand to stop a large Fellowship at site 7 so you get an extra Freeps turn. Often Captured by the Ring is worth holding onto.

*Adding more than 3x Goblin Runners or LttG clogs. It would be worthless to have 4x each in hand with 15 cards left in your draw deck. The corruption has been "tried and true" for me... but you have to deck out first!

*Other ideas that I tried that didn't work were: Moria for Shadow (what a joke) and Gandalf MoW instead of Smeagol. Neither could deck out nearly as fast as and Old Villain + Poor Creature.

*Pelennor Flat would be too risky for my own Freeps if I was facing corruption.

Ways to Beat this Deck:
Actually, it's rather easy. Just make sure your RB ends up exhausted. If it's a weak RB, like Frodo, he can fight the wimpy orcs. RB's like Isildur or Boromir can exert themselves. Also, you could force your opponent to walk ahead of you to site 9, as the dwarves will not survive.

Suggestions are welcome as long as they do not recommend changing the entire theme of the deck! ("I recommend dropping all Delving, switching Sam for Leader of Men and adding Saved from the Fire, Sent Back, Manager of Wizards, and Brooding on Tomorrow. Then throw in some Honed for the damage bonus boosts and Blood Runs Chill. Add some They Stole It to the Shadow with Promise Keeping and...")

[Not a Zombie]

I'd change only 2 things personally. Drop one bracers and add one rest by blind night, so that in case you don't quite deck out you are less likely to have it in your last few cards. I also might switch delving for calculated risk, your dwarves will have more vitality then. It does cost 2 though, so its mostly preference. Otherwise I love this deck!

[Kralik]

I've thought about Calculated Risk, hmmm... maybe I will try one or two vs. Delving. Against a threat-adding shadow, it could be useless, so that's a bit of a problem. Rest By Blind Night suggestion is probably a good idea... there have been several games where I only make it down to 3 or 5 cards. I just get lucky.

[Cw0rk]

Very nice deck indeed. I played vs a LttG deck(not yours) a few days ago and I had no idea what was going on until corruption.

[legolas3333]

i would suggest adding a special axe, such as gimli's batlle axe or axe of erebor for extra healing with ring of fury

[Kralik]

I'd be a bit concerned about the benefit of such an axe... for example: Axe of Erebor. It costs 2 vs. the 0 of Dwarven Axe with no extra use (dmg+1 doesn't matter if Gimli is dmg+3 with Ring of Fury. And he's not going to win many skirmishes anyway).

If I ever have axes in my hand during the Shadow phase, I try to discard them anyway.

[Imrahil]

So I'm guessing the optimum hand is 4x Goblin Runner, 4x Lost to the Goblins, and 1 Captured by the Ring?  It almost seems like you should have two Preparations in play, one of which you stack your "perfect hand" on, and one you stack other shadow crap on.

After shuffling the first one back in, find a way to reconcile before shuffling the second one in.  That way you could deck out a lot sooner because you don't have to "hold" cards in hand for half the game.

And you could potentially have more goblins on the field...

[legolas3333]

but you don't need 4 runners, 3 will do just fine

[Imrahil]

four means that you have options, because the deck works whether you have three runners and four LttG, or four runners and three LttG.

Kilark does say that four copies makes the deck clog, which is why I wanted to suggest a second Preparations.  It might be worth a shot.

[Kralik]

Imrahil, you are mistaken... four runners means you will discard 4 cards with each LttG, but add a limit of 3 burdens apiece. 3 Runners + 3 LttG = nine cards and 8/9 + 2 burdens. If you had four runners, you'd have to ensure at least 12 cards in your deck, which requires more Preparations exerts.

And as for clog -- HAND CLOG is the problem. 7 LttG cards to hold vs. 6 means your hand won't cycle well.

[Witchkingx5]

But a 4th Lttg wouldn't be so bad at all, maybe just as a drawback, if he doesn't fall into Grishnakh or if he uses Resolute Hobbit. You could still discard it, though.

[Imrahil]

sorry, should have read the card more carefully.

[Kralik]

You could still discard it, though.

Surprise is key.

[Witchkingx5]

sorry, should have read the card more carefully.

Why that? I read it about 10 times and I don't think I misread it...

You could still discard it, though.

Surprise is key.

Agree, might be the point.