I've been talking with friends about the TTT league off-site, and I thought I would share some of my commentary here.
WEEK 1Nearly everyone picked the Aragorn starter. Without going into a detailed analysis, let's just say this starter was head and shoulders better than the Theoden starter. With boosters this starter had better surviving and better doubling power than the best FOTR league decks (and that was already a Bid High and Go First format).
Wingfoot was probably the stand-out card. The Theoden starter had a perfectly good shadow side, but couldn't survive or double well.
Also of note: lack of punishment for big fellowships. Guaranteed Southron Commanders turned out to be much less scary than even scattered Enqueas.
Given the abilities of this FP side, strategy for this format was simple: Bid High and Run.
WEEK 2Nearly everyone picked the Legolas starter. I found this choice less obvious. Although the FP can pack quite a bit of direct damage, it could be thwarted by saving up minions for the double move. Eowyn had the better FP side, especially if you had the 6 Rohan pumps from the Theoden starter. However, Legolas had the better shadow. The Southrons were quite imposing against Elf and Hunter FPs, and Mumaks and pump made
Southron Commander in particular much better able to prevent fellowship explosions.
Dunland was no longer playable with so much direct damage running around, so everyone who went Aragorn was pushed into going Legolas. I think the better build kept hobbits and stealths and ran some elf and dwarf pump ahead of direct damage. Theoden/Eowyn with Uruks was also a good deck this week, although it was vulnerable to southron swarms on double moves due to its lack of ability to deal with
Southron Commander.
Strategy here required more caution.
WEEKS 3-4More players picked the Witch-King starter, I think, but not by as wide of a margin. Both starters provided viable swarming shadows based on either Sauron orc hand extension or Isengard orc condition stacking. The Sauron shadow was better, but both were playable.
The bigger difference was in FPs. Ents, with their high strength and vitality, steamrolled Dunland, Southrons, and Uruks, and their
Golden Hall gave other FPs trouble. RBRs (and Elves and to a lesser extent Rohan) had a harder time with these shadows, which many people were still running, so they were not a good option. Rohan could demolish Isengard orcs, though. Rohan and Elves both had some defense against Sauron swarm (
Rohirrim Bow and
QAMB) although a good shadow player could play around these to some extent. The Faramir starter did provide multiple copies of Sam; with all the Hobbit Swords and stealths around, he was by far the best defense both against swarms and against
Southron Commander.
Sauron orcs, played correctly, could usually get kills, provided they could do one of two things. One, leverage
Southron Commander (probably on a
Mumak) against large fellowships; or two, play
Orc Insurgent against a vulnerable FP.
Orc Insurgent pretty much guaranteed a shadow win against anyone running 4 or more FP cultures. This kills wounding decks (they have to give up either Gimli or
Wingfoot).
Ents could easily survive most shadows and fit easily with hobbits and stealths to provide the best defense against
Southron Commander. Given these things, the Witch-King starter was the clear pick, and the strategy here was to play cautiously and go for shadow or FP wins as opportunities presented.
FRODO DIESI was recently told that I had established a reputation for deadliness in the league. I thought that was funny; I do not think I am the deadliest player here, nor close to it. But it's true that my Sauron-centered deck went 9-1 in week 3, with the only loss due to a mistake on my part. In week 4, the deck went 10-0 with 10 shadow victories. I thought I'd lay out, here, just how the deck achieves its deadliness.
One thing I should emphasize first: this is not Moria with Goblin Armories. Hand extension is easy for Sauron, and it's actually twilight that most constricts a successful swarm.
1) Bid low, go second, and don't pass them unless you see a disaster coming (e.g., their Sam + 2 swords + Heir of Elendil). This keeps burdens down for
Palantir Chamber (or possibly Pippin) if you end up running. It also sets up several other key sites. I usually bid 1, knowing I could remove that burden by playing Sam.
2)
Teeth of Mordor. This is not in the starter. It's uncommon from a small set, so many people had one. I opened two in week 4, and that's what made my week more consistent. Orcs stacked on Teeth are almost never *necessary* to get a successful swarm off, but they give you a lot more flexibility in how you play your early shadow hands, as you can threaten stacking orcs instead of threatening a swarm. Since early swarms are easily stealthed into uselessness, this is really key. Surprisingly useful even against Rohan, unless they get lots of horses right away.
3)
Golden Hall. Best case scenario, you toss Hobbit Swords or Rohirrim Bows, but getting rid of weapons (and elven bows) helps you stack orcs, too.
4)
Ered Nimrais. (Site 4, 2 pool, +3 cost for comp/allies.) When they move here, you play either nothing or a big orc you know can survive. Doubling into 5 will be very risky, so they'll probably stop; if they do stop, on the following turn, you either get a bunch of bonus twilight for site 5 and 6 swarming or stacking, or they delay playing companions (and hence giving off valuable twilight) until the following turn, when it will be most deadly to them -- the turn they are moving into the sites with no skirmish cancellation (or better yet, into
Cavern Entrance).
5) Properly costed orcs. The 1 and 2 cost orcs are the important ones. The best one is the 7/2 that spots 6 companions and exerts for a card. The 6/2's are also good and the 5/2's for 1 are good as well. Twilight is the limiting factor on a swarm so you want as many of these as possible. If you are not running
Teeth of Mordor, you can also use Isengard orcs and other cheap 2 vitality minions. The 3 and 4 cost orcs (except Insurgent) are useful only for early swarms (the -3 site number), not for late swarms, so there should not be many of them.
6) Exert to draw. This is not something you can rely on since it leaves you extra vulnerable to
QAMB and Rohirrim Bows, but it is useful in some match-ups.
Orc Insurgent goes in this category, too.
7)
Cavern Entrance. (Site 7, 7 pool,
Saruman's Snows.) Not in any starter and uncommon in a big set; this was a very lucky first week pull for me, although it didn't matter much that week.
Cavern Entrance does 2 important things. First, it prevents Severed, although this is just the equivalent of getting 1 extra orc. Second...
8)
Southron Commander +
Mumak. The
Mumak is important; 2 stealths are hard to come by. Even then, however, this doesn't make swarms work since they can stealth the first skirmish and then dump companions in fierce when the swarm is gone. You either need
On the March to back it up, or
Cavern Entrance. At
Cavern Entrance these cards read "spend 7 to get the equivalent of 1 + X orcs, where X is the number of companions you see over 5." If you've been following along with math, you can see that this is not an amazing value -- you could get about 4 orcs for the cost of these cards. But it reduces the number of cheap orcs you need to have in hand, making the swarm easier to set up. I ran 2 of each and that seemed to be about right.
All told, a hand of SC,
Mumak, and 6 cheap orcs can get a kill against almost any fellowship at
Cavern Entrance. Insurgents and
Teeth of Mordor can make this easier to set up in many cases. Without
Cavern Entrance, it will still work well at site 6 and above; you just might need a little extra twilight and 1 or 2 more orcs.
-- Felagund
Topic: Towers Sealed Commentary -- Frodo Dies (Read 1051 times)