The Grey Company with Enduring Nazgul Beatdown...x2!

[DáinIronfoot]

Kind of a thematic deck with enduring companions on one side and enduring minions on the other. I had originally wanted to go with enduring Wraiths on both sides, but I haven't quite come up with a Wraith deck I like yet, so I settled for enduring Nazzies, something I've always wanted to try.

Here we go....

FREE PEOPLES (36 cards):

Frodo, Hope of Free Peoples with The One Ring, The Ring of Doom

Gimli, Sprinter (starting)
Oathbreaker (starting)

Aragorn, Driven By Need x4
King of the Dead
Cursed of Erech
Shadow Host
Sleepless Dead

Elendil's Army
Faramir's Company

Sting, Elven Long Knife
Gimli's Battle Axe, Trusted Weapon x2
Armor of Khazad
Anduril, Sword That Was Broken
Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
Spectral Sword x2

Stronger and More Terrible x4
Swept Away x3
Gondor Bowmen x3
Guardian

At His Command x2
End of the Game x2
Duty of Two

Most of your Wraiths staples here. Play your Wraiths, exhaust them however you can, and then make them nearly impossible to kill with Swept Away. Stronger and More Terrible (in partnership with Elven Long Knife and Aragorn DbN) removes all the threats generated by the Wraiths and Swept Away. In fact, they're SO effective at peeling threats that we have more stuff that adds threats to abuse the opponent. Ranger's Longbow adds threats for per-skirmish wounding (and hopefully a few minion deaths). Faramir's Company and Duty of Two turn threats into healing. And Armor of Khazad uses threats to make Gimli virtually indestructible.

Speaking of which, Gimli might seem an odd choice here, but he really fits very well. With just three threats around, his Trusted Weapon turns him into a 10-strength, damage +2 companion that also adds to the archery total! And as mentioned before, he can add his own threats with Armor of Khazad, but also with his own text to lay extra wounds on minions. And all that with just 3 cards...a small price to pay in this -heavy deck. Yeah, I'd say we can afford to make the room for him.

And Gimli's not the only one that actually benefits from all those threats we've added. As long as there are no more than three, Aragorn can get up to 10 strength all by himself, and with Anduril, just becomes scary. He can also use the threats to make any of the Wraiths with his own signet quite a bit more powerful with At His Command.

Again, the Wraiths, unlike other companions, are actually least vulnerable when they're exhausted, so want to get them that was as quickly as possible. Several different methods allow us to do so. Elendil's Army trades exertions for a simple strength boost to any companion that needs it. Gondor Bowmen exerts to throw out 2 archery. And Guardian can exert up to 2 Wraiths to give us the ability to have any one of them skirmish multiple times in the same turn. And that's all in addition to the natural exerting abilities that Wraiths like King of the Dead, Cursed of Erech, and Sleepless Dead already have. Once we have them exhausted, even minions like The Balrog and Sauron himself can't harm our stronger Wraiths. Only by overwhelming can our Wraiths be killed, and if THOSE minions can't do it, who can?

SHADOW (36 cards):

The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders x3
Ulaire Cantea, Thrall of The One
Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of The One x3
Ulaire Lemenya, Thrall of The One x4
Ulaire Nelya, Thrall of The One x3
Ulaire Otsea, Thrall of The One
Ulaire Toldea, Thrall of The One x2
Barrow-Wight Stalker x2
Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor

Ithil Stone

Bent On Discovery x2
Black Marshal x2
The Ring Draws Them x2

Between Nazgul and Prey x2
Dark Powers Strengthen x2
Minas Morgul Answers x2
Keening Wail x2
Relentless Charge

Our Shadow side works off a similiar strategy. Our enduring characters here don't become invincible when they're exhausted, but with strengths near or even exceeding 20, AND with most of them being fierce, who cares? Not many companions are going to win skirmishes against those kind of numbers.

Obviously, we don't want to rely on the Free Peoples player to do that exerting for us, as they'll probably do everything they can to avoid it unless they have some massive archery or other pre-skirmish wounding potential. So we have plenty of events that can exert for all kinds of nasty effects. BNaP lets us assign our own minions. MMA discards conditions. KW adds burdens. Relentless Charge helps control FP archery.

There are other ways to exert as well. Bent On Discovery and Ithil Stone exert to draw extra cards during your Shadow phases (the former doing so every turn). Black Marshal and The Ring Draws Them exert to add twilight and facilitate swarms.

Oh, and your two heaviest hitters--Captain of the Nine Riders and the Dark Lord of Mordor himself--can be played cheaply by exerting your other Nazgul as well, a truly evil combination. The Ithil Stone, in a pinch, can make getting Sauron even easier if things work out right.

Nothing fancy after that...just beat the fellowship down! It might take a little while, but by mid-game you should be able to get several minions out each turn, get them exerted and big, and start laying several wounds on your opponent's companions every site. Between Enquea and Keening Wail, you may even be even to corrupt several of the alternate Ring-bearers. If not, just whittle the other companions down and then go after the Ring-bearer more...directly.

SITES:

The Angle
Buckland Homestead
Woody-End
Doorway to Doom
Hobbiton Market
Barazinbar
Flats of Rohan
Starkhorn
Moria Guardroom

Some help out your Nazzies (the -cost sites) and some help out your fellowship thanks to Gimli (Barazinbar, Starkhorn, Moria Guardroom), but none to such a degree that you have to kill yourself in bidding. If you're feeling dangerous, you can bid enough to go first and start with Barazinbar to grab one of Gimli's possessions, but that's entirely up to you.

Now, note that the title of this thread ends with "x2!". The reason is that I have a slight variation on the FP side--just one different companion--that really makes this quite a different deck. Check it out....

FREE PEOPLES (36 cards):

Frodo, Hope of Free Peoples with The One Ring, The Ring of Doom

Gandalf, Leader of Men (starting)
Oathbreaker (starting)

Aragorn, Driven By Need x4
King of the Dead
Cursed of Erech
Shadow Host
Sleepless Dead

Elendil's Army
Faramir's Company
Pallando, Far-travelling One

Sting, Elven Long Knife
Shadowfax, Greatheart
Anduril, Sword That Was Broken
Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
Spectral Sword x2

Stronger and More Terrible x4
Swept Away x3
Gondor Bowmen x3
Guardian

Sharpen Your Swords x3
Citadel To Gate
At His Command x2

No more self-focused Dwarf. Instead, we now have a Wizard that focuses on making the companions around him better. Gandalf does this two ways. The first is the very helpful Sharpen Your Swords, which easily provides its maximum +4 pump here. The second is a replacement for Duty of Two's healing: Citadel To Gate. Instead of adding MORE threats to heal, this handy event still heals all your companions, but then REMOVES all those pesky threats. It's a nice little trump card to save for the right moment, preferrably followed up by exerting your Wraiths again with Gondor Bowmen or something simliar.

Gandalf does center on himself a little bit, though. Greatheart allows you to add those easily-removed-later threats to make Gandalf more powerful in battle, and as a companion with the Aragorn signet, he also makes a good target for At His Command.

Oh, one more addition. Along with Gandalf comes one of the so-called "Blue Wizards": Pallando. Yes, he's great with Gandalf, but note that his drawback (exerting twice when transferred to a non-[Gandalf] companion) is actually no drawback at all with the Wraiths. In fact, it can be one of the most effective ways to quick exhaust one and protect it with Swept Away. And condition removal like Pallando offers never hurt anyone, right? Well, except our opponents, of course.

The Shadow side remains unchanged for this deck (because it seems to work so well anyway), but with no Dwarf around, our sites change a bit.

SITES:

The Angle
Buckland Homestead
Woody-End
Doorway to Doom
Hobbiton Market
Flats of Rohan
Redhorn Pass
Pinnacle of Zirakzigil
Heights of Isengard

Redhorn Pass is just a nice insurance policy against certain FP and Shadow strategies your opponent might be using, but Pinnacle of Zirakzigil and Heights of Isengard directly aid with your newest companion: Gandalf.

I tested the Gimli version of this deck the other night in a game and while my opponent survived for the win, it was REALLY close and simply came down to the worst Shadow draw of the game at the last site. ONE more minion and it would have all been over, but I just couldn't get it when I most needed it. My FP side performed brilliantly against his Balrog and mini-swarm. He DID claim a couple Wraiths early on before I was fully set up, but after that, not even Ol' Balgy with his sword and whip could touch me and I was able to fly down the sitepath. My Shadow did very, very well against his Aragorn WTG, and like I said, one more minion at the end (I was only able to play one thanks to a bad, BAD draw), and I would have had him. A very good "field test", I'd say.

But what do YOU think about it?