Ent Cycle / Hate and Anger

[NappyKorn]

Trying to keep the decks coming and I searched for hate and anger in TS and to my surprise no one had one posted. Here is my idea followed by strategies for each side.


Bearer and Ring:
*The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles (4R1)
*Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir (1R289)


Fellowship (35):
2x *Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree (1R69)
4x *Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor (1U70)
1x *Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals (1R288)
1x *Treebeard, Earthborn (4R103)
1x Bounder (1C286)
1x *Gandalf's Staff (2R22)
1x *Birchseed, Tall Statesman (5U15)
1x *Ent Horde (6R28)
3x *Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim (2P122)
1x *Host of Fangorn (6U32)
1x *Merry, Friend to Sam (1R302)
1x *Pippin, Just a Nuisance (4R313)
1x *Quickbeam, Bregalad (6C33)
1x *Skinbark, Fladrif (6R35)
1x Ent Avenger (6C27)
1x Escape (4R300)
4x A Wizard Is Never Late (1R87)
2x Grown Suddenly Tall (4R92)
4x Servant of the Secret Fire (1R83)
1x *Glamdring (1R75)
2x Hobbit Sword (4C306)

Idea here is to cycle out with AWINL to help your shadow setup in time. Get AWINL in hand play it to grab Barliman (if one is not yet in play) exert him to play it again to grab another companion. Fat Albert is here to help you avoid a greed abviously. Grown Suddenly Tall help know out other troublesome conditions as well. Birchseed help you keep Merry healed in between sanctuaries and escape gives you the extra exert on him (until you flush it away by your own hands). Not sure if it will be anything other than surviving power (especially since I tend to not chance a double when I have this much twilight pumping out) but it has helped me filter out my deck to improve my chances of a shadow kill. Anyway let me know what you think.

Shadow (35):
1x *The Palantir Of Orthanc (3R67)
1x Greed (1R125)
4x Saruman's Ambition (1C133)
2x Spies of Saruman (1R140)
1x They Are Coming (1C196)
4x Hate And Anger (3U53)
3x Goblin Backstabber (1C174)
4x Goblin Runner (1U178)
4x Moria Scout (1C191)
3x Orthanc Warrior (4C165)
4x Uruk Soldier (1C154)
4x Uruk Spy (1R155)

Basical Hate and Anry swarm here with a few extras. Greed to thin out players that don't listen to the rule of 5, Palantir to remove pesky cards in opponents hand that could save their ring-bearer in a skirmish, and Spies of Saruman to let all my minions get through to the skirmish phase. Basically drop an Uruk-hai and a orc with a few Hate and Anger in hand after you have filtered through you free peoples cards and swarm the ring-bearer. If you have the extra twilight and fear events empty the remaining pool with Palantir of Orthanc and get rid of them. Another interesting idea is when you get a useful card with Palatir drop a Uruk soldier to send it to the discard pile .

Sites:
(1T)Western Emyn Muil (4U329)
(2T)Fangorn Forest (4U332)
(3T)Golden Hall (4U338)
(4T)White Rocks (4U346)
(5T)Deep of Helm (4U347)
(6T)Hornburg Armory (4U354)
(7T)Cavern Entrance (4U355)
(8T)Valley of Saruman (6U119)
(9T)Orthanc Library (4U362)

Fangorn Forest is to filter out Treebeard (which gives you an extra ent to spot to make the others cheaper).
Golden Hall to get rid of early bows and other annoying weapons.
Deep of Helm is obvious to make the first uruk free (which is the best site for an attempted first swarm if ready).
Cavern Entrance is your best bet for a late swarm as it prevents the ring-bearer from getting help from events and/or skirmish specials.
Orthanc Library is to get extra cards in hand since with this swarm you are focusing on a ring-bearer kill and not many other companions will die unless you greed em.


I have played this deck a few times on GccG and the loss I remember is when I didn't notice Legolas had his bow and foolishly assigned everything to Frodo and let Legolas win therefor wounding one of the minions on Frodo preventing the overwhelm. Dumb move on my part for not paying attention. I have  pulled off swarms at site 5 that didn't go my way due to letting archery play a role and then another swarm at Cavern Entrance with Spies of Saruman in play and won the game. It's best to be patient and not expect multiple swarms, but if the early first swarm does fail it can produce another later if you don't get bad draws from Hate and Anger.

Thanks in advance for the reviews,

NK

[ket_the_jet]

Thanks in advance for the reviews,

Three years later, your thanks were misguided.

The Free Peoples seems like a fairly generic Ent build. I might not suggest two Albert Dreary, but what do I know? I'd like to see a Sting, Baggins Heirloom in there because why not?

I've always loved Hate and Anger and Saruman's Ambition allows you to play them for cheap. But you should generate enough twilight with Goblin Runner to not need those extra copies.

I like Uruk Raider or Uruk Stalker better than Uruk Spy, personally, and why not combine the Palantir of Orthanc's hand clogging capabilities with Grima, Wormtongue or Grima, Chief Counselor? Either is a fine choice to include.

The biggest problems with Hate and Anger, in my experience, is that it is draw-dependent. But how cool would a Men Hate and Anger deck be, drawing Men Will Fall so Goblin Runner overwhelms Eomer?
-wtk

[Not a Zombie]

And if you are running Uruk Raider and Uruk Stalker, you have to run Tower Assassin