gondor / easterling deck - help needed

[jahataku]

Hello everyone!

I've been playing on gccg for a month with this deck and it appears i have big problems with it... I'm looking for some more experienced players to help me tweak it... After testing, i encountered problems with corruption of Boromir and too many twilight giving from the very beginning of the game... Shadow has been doing pretty well...



The One Ring - Answer To All Riddles
Boromir, Bearer of Council
Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith
Faramir, Captain of Gondor



Sites:
1 - Steps of Edoras
2 - West Road
3 - Beacon of Minas Tirith
4 - Anduin Banks
5 - Pelennor Flat
6 - Minas Tirith Sixth Circle
7 - Osgiliath Crossing
8 - Cross Roads
9 - Slag Mounds



Freeps: (37)

Aragorn, Heir of Elendil x3
Elendil, The Tall x2
Sam, Son of Hamfast x2

Knight's Spear x2
Sapling of The White Tree x4
Anduril, Flame of the west
Narsil, Blade of the Faithful
Ring of barahir
Scroll of Isildur x2
The shards of narsil
Seeing Stone of Minas Anor
Seeing Stone of Orthanc

Garrison of Osgiliath x2
Noble Leaders x4

Defend it and hope
Hard choice x2
hidden knowledge x3
Swordarm of the white tower x2



Shadow: (37)

Gollum, stinker x4
Enquea, lieutenant of morgul x4
Easterling Captain x3
Desert Legion
easterling skirmisher x4
easterling lieutenant x4
easterling guard x4
easterling army x2

easterling polearm x4

small hope x3
surging up

discovered
vision from afar x2

[Shelobplayer]

I play a very similar Noble Leaders deck on GCCG, and the most notable weakness of your list is the lack of condition removal imo. I play a small elf ally package with Elrond, HtGG + Vilya, Calaglin and Rumil and Secret Sentinels and TLAoEaM. Also Aragorn, RotN can come in handy at site 4 after you given a load of twilight. I also play 3 TSoN to stack excess Noble Leaders, and 4 Still Sharp (it is personal preference, I always wanted to play Still Sharp :p). It is working pretty good for me in that form.

[hrcho]

Remove:
3x Hidden Knowledge - it's really not necessary. 4 Noble Leaders with 4 tokens on it is enough. Especially with extra skirmish events

Seeing Stone of Minas Anor and Seeing Stone of Orthanc - those will be of no use. You'll have enough artifacts to pump Elendil without them.

The Shards of Narsil -  same as for seeing stones.

Ring of Barahir - With 4 copies of Noble Leaders in deck, I'd try to use them the same turn I get them, so there is not much chance to see tokens at the start of turn.

Defend It and Hope - this will be of very little help to your deck as it is not a wounding deck.

Replace:
3x Aragorn, Heir of Elendil with 1x Aragorn, Captain of Gondor or Aragorn, King in Exile - you'll have strong companions with lots of pumps and defender +1 won't make much of a difference, while healing every turn might help a lot.

2x Elendil, The Tall with 1x Elendil, The Tall - you need just 1 copy, because you'll be pulling him out with Denethor, LoMT if you don't get him.

2x Knight's Spear with 4x Gondorian Sword - potential damage bonus can be very helpful and it can help a lot to cycle your hand. Potential strength bonus from Knight's Spear will not be much needed with all the pumps you'll have.

2x Swordarm of the White Tower with 4x Sentinels of Numenor - with Heir of Elendil gone, you'll have no defender + companions and potential strength bonus in Fierce can help.

Add:
1x Coat of Mail - play on Boromir to protect him from swarm

1x Armor - play on any other companion you seem fit. It can help a lot against Uruks, Cave Troll of Moria, Balrog, Troll of Cirith Gorgor and other nasty dmg+ minions.

2x Might of Numenor - extra healing is always helpful

This will effectively remove 11 cards from your fellowship and add 8 other which makes it a total of 34 cards. This will help your drawing a lot. You'll have no condition removal, but you'll have plenty of healing and pumps to survive even a triple run (when you play Narsil on Elendil). There is a very good chance to get at least one of these cards in your first two hands: Aragorn, Elendil, Narsil and Anduril. Those you don't get, you pull out with Denethor. Your toughest match will probably be after that card pulling at site 4 as you will probably add a lot of twilight and your opponent will have lots of cards in hand, but with a wee bit of luck you can easily survive. If you happen to get Hard Choice early, you can use it to heal Denethor at site 3 to use him again or keep him healed.


As for your shadow, you should decide whether you want to corrupt your opponent or kill him with Easterling Captain and Easterling Army mostly. If you want to go with former add more Vision From Afar and Gathering to the Summons. If you got with the latter, add Raider Bow and Ships of Great Draught. In any case you go, instead of 4 copies of Gollum, Stinker, go with 1 copy of Gollum and 4 copies of Captured by the Ring. Also switch your site 8 to Northern Ithilien. You don't need 4 copies of Ulaire Enquea, LoM, 2 will do fine or 3 if you really like it.

[ket_the_jet]

Welcome to the boards.

hrcho is one of the best there is at building decks around here; you would be well-off to listen to his advice.

As for the Shadow, I would dump the Desert Legion, all four Easterling Guard, two Shotgun Enquea, and three Gollum, Stinker and add four Captured By the Ring, one Evil-Smelling Fens, and three Raider Bows.

I think the Easterling Captain route is the best way to go--focus on getting two burdens and then pump up all of your minions in skirmishes.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

Here is how I would run the Easterlings at 34 cards:
Easterling Captain x3
Easterling Army x2
Easterling Regiment
Easterling Pillager
Easterling Lieutenant x4
Easterling Footman x2
Easterling Skirmisher x3
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul x2
Gollum, Stinker

Vision From Afar x2
Discovered x2
Captured By the Ring x4

Small Hope x2
Evil-Smelling Fens

Easterling Polearm x4

Hope that helps.
-wtk

[jcb213]

Regardless of whether you try to corrupt or you try to get 2 burdens and then kill stuff by skirmishing, both versions of Easterlings should be playing 4 copies of Small Hope.

[tristelune]

Regardless of whether you try to corrupt or you try to get 2 burdens and then kill stuff by skirmishing, both versions of Easterlings should be playing 4 copies of Small Hope.

Must agree with that. It's the staple card in those types of decks. You need it quick. Like Hides in a Dunland deck I would say...

[Gil-Estel]

I would indeed suggest the Captured instead of all the Gollums. Though Hrcho has said to get rid of the Shards, I would add more of them. They are great stacking companions that can heal later. Also Still Sharp is a nice addition then.

[Elessar's Socks]

For a 2-burden build (32 cards or so), Small Hope x4 and Easterling Footman x2 works well for me. I'd also add Raider Bow; even if the Captain isn't in play to take advantage of it, having 10 twilight added to the pool tends to discourage double moves.

Not sure how many copies of Red Wrath to settle on, but 2-3 seems good. I like having it as an option even though it's not a guaranteed kill, given ways to prevent wounds and exert minions. Bold Men and Grim gets thrown in sometimes, too.

[hrcho]

I never liked Easterling Captain and so my Easterling decks are more corruption based. Here is how it looks:

4x Easterling Guard
4x Easterling Lieutenant
3x Easterling Army
1x Gollum, Stinker
1x Ulaire Enquea, LoM

3x Easterling Polearm

2x Small Hope
3x Evil-Smelling Fens

4x Vision From Afar
4x Gathering to the Summons
4x Captured by the Ring
1x We Must Have It
1x A Dark Shape Sprang

I was very successful with this deck. I even managed to corrupt Frodo, RH by site 5 and he bid 0.

My other version of Easterling deck is focused on adding 5 burdens and then mopping the floor with Enquea, LoM. Especially nice combo is Enquea, LoM with Ring of Rancor at Slag Mounds. This one is not as competitive, but it's sooo much fun.