Sauron orc threats!!!

[Gartax]

Hi, to you all

Hisale request me to put my deck list for the shadow side that I have use in the Movie Block league.

Let me introduce myself first, I play LOTR since summer 2002 and I have never quit since.  I have been building this deck since 2006. First I had it pair with a Shelob eater of light deck in order to prevent the set back of the Mordor Guard. But then i realise that I did not need the web mecanique since it was really rare the there was threat left in the regroup phase.

Then I try adding Grinsnack (never used his ability, since I need those HP), Using orc that had threat in skrimish (I found that I need 3 hp to prevent exerting mount from rohan). Using only 2 grond, 30 cards, 32 cards, 1 ithil stone… all those variant were good but not consistant enought.

3 grond is necessary against knight. Without a quick Grond you have next to no chance. Without enought cards, you won't have enought bullet in order to win a war of attrition.

As you can see I have put a lot of effort in that deck and I have played more than 200 games with it and more then half of those in expanded and WARS format. In all my game my shadow was always scary no matter the format.

Now here is my decklist.

Essential minion (17 ):
4 Mordor Guard (must keep in hand until ready to pull a good attack)
4 Mordor trooper
4 Mordor veteran
4 Orc officer
1 gollum ( I use vile creature, but Stinker is a good choice too)

Other good minion, but expendable (6 minion)
1 Ulaìre Enquea (6 companion or 5 burden using orc officer)
2 orc Patrol(back up to get an early swarm in case you did not draw that fire raged unchecked, plus it can help you to get ride of preparation, sixth level, tale of the great ring, stone tower, citadel of the stars and other nasty condition)
3 orc slaugtherer

Other 12
4 fire raged unchecked (imperative to get a good swarm site 4 or 5, and the strenght bonus give you more versatility in other to control the skirmish phase)
3 captures by the ring
3 grond
2 ithil stone

Total 35 cards

This shadow can beat any freep, but that does not mean it is automatic. First you need a cycling freep. Dwarf, pipeweed etc. Your freep must not have many cards that clog your hand, since it is imperative that you draw as many minion as possible.

Then you need too keep track of your minion count and on your key minion at all times and adjust your strategy accordingly. Don't worry if you played nothing at site 5. you have plenty of times in the third regions. With this deck you can afford to be patient, but not overly so, never forget, Attrition his your friend. I have been throwing strong attack simply to force him to use ROTN, aragorn bow, greenleaf, gondor bowman. For me if my opponnent use his ressource then my attack is successfull.

Strategy to win :
Using this deck you have 3  way of winning.

Corruption : Using orc officer, mordor guard and mordor veteran or trooper.

Swarm : You only need to have as many orc as there is companion since mordor guard and veteran can skyrock the strenght of any orcs.

Attrition : Using Grond to soften the Freep defenses and multiple attack to make him spent those ressources.

I have played 40 games in that league, 5 defeats. Of those defeat only one was du because my shadow could not kill my opponent.
Of my 35 win 32 was shadow kill.

I have face archery (both loose and direct wounding),  elf, last alliance, Knight, pipeweed, ents, eowyn, Dwarf, Slaked thirts… almost every type of freep possible.

Belive me this shadow side is deadly.

If you use gemp I can put some replay of it playing againts particuliar freep if you request it.

[hsiale]

First game I've seen this shadow side (a month ago) I had my FP killed in a site 5 swarm that I completely did not expect. I did not even know Mordor Guard exists. After seeing how it works I decided I have to build this deck and try playing it. It worked really well. Most games the opposing FP was killed even though draws were not that great as they could be due to deck being paired with rainbow wounding FP that uses lots of maneuver events which can clog hand from time to time.

I still haven't played the deck enough to really finetune my version. Biggest change I've done is removing all cards to add my favourite condition - Orc Banner, which fits this deck really nicely - after one or two skirmishes won using Mordor Veteran, I don't need more threat tricks, as base strength of my orcs goes high due to banners triggering.

The decklist I'm currently using:

4x Mordor Guard
2x Mordor Trooper
4x Mordor Veteran

3x Mordor Warrior
4x Orc Officer
2x Orc Patrol
2x Orc Slaughterer

1x Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul

2x Grond, Hammer of the Underworld
1x Ithil Stone

1x Dead Marshes
4x Fires Raged Unchecked
4x Orc Banner
1x Flames Within

I haven't played this deck against knights yet (except one game against knights that started Denethor, Steward of the City, where I corrupted the ring-bearer without winning a single skirmish), but I agree that 3rd Grond would be very useful in such matchup. Only one Ithil Stone because it requires playing a minion that can exert to play it. All conditions have no spotting requirements (that's why I removed Barren Land and Window of the Eye, despite the second being extremally cool and fitting the deck theme).

[Gartax]

I never thought about mordor warrior ! great catch!! you can also look at orc rager.

AS for the orc banner, I really like that card, but againt achery deck the 4 vitality gollum saved my @$$ so many times. He also help to get that early swarm using fires raged uncheck.

But them orc banner can be deadly even without the mordor guard. But that leave you more vulnerable to discard condition....

thanks for the input I really got something to think about

[Gerontius]

A few suggestions- Gorgoroth Servitor is useful against archery decks, and shuts down Greenleaf, Gondor Bowmen, etc. It's a bit of a sacrifice to make because it means one fewer minion out there, but sometimes it's worth it. Also, Enduring Evil is fantastic late game once you have a few burdens, and gives you a much better shot at overwhelming.

[Gartax]

I have thought about Gorgoroth Servitor, but he is quite expensive and playing him prevent the freep from spending his ressources. So I may kill a companion on that site, but on later site he would have retain all his bullet. So at the cost of 1 companion I loose 2 valuable attack.

plus on a 4 cost minions with 2 vitality more often than not will not allow me to add the second round of threat with the mordor guard.

As for enduring evil, I have try that in the past, but I found out that I almost never use them and that I don't need them. I f I draw them early I have to discard them, I can't affort to kept them in my hand. So I need to be lucky that I draw one when my opponent move to site 8 or 9, else they are useless. And considering that 90% of my game are over before site 8....

But thanks for the suggestion it force me to rethink my things!!!

[Ringbearer]

I use Endurign Evil x1 in my deck to prevent Tale of the great ring shenanigans.

[neopium]

As for enduring evil, I have try that in the past, but I found out that I almost never use them and that I don't need them. I f I draw them early I have to discard them

I'm thinking about your choice of cards. Gollum, vile creature sure gets a bump from the threats, but as far as I have tested the deck, you really need those threats for your Orcs. I considered Gollum, Stinker, but the comment you made on Enduring Evil applies with him too: before you can put some burdens, Stinker is not very powerful.

I still haven't played the deck enough to really finetune my version.

I was wondering if you finally tried it more and fined tuned this deck.

[Invincible]

I don't think Enquea is that necessary for 2 reasons.

1- 6 companions allowas you to add 6 threats instead of 3, so it can result in a more versatile boost on your orcs.

2- Killing a companion with enquea will deplete the threats.

The only instance where it is better to play enquea is when the mechanic of the orcs does not work properly (which is rare). That is why I beleive 1 copy is enough, and you might not want to play it every game.

It is also quite challenging to mplay against this shadowside without being boring, so congratulations to Gartax for this one, it is this very deck that I keep in mind when I build my Freepeople side since the day he made it a while ago. My finest FP victories are in my opinion, the 2 or 3 times I survived against it in maybe a dozens of games.

[neopium]

After a few days of testing, I think I found a good equilibrium for my deck that is inspired from this thread.

Here are, The Tales of Mordor:

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
Ring: The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry

Adventure deck:
Sleeping Quarters
Rohirrim Camp
Hall of the Kings
Osgiliath Fallen
City Gates
Minas Tirith Third Circle
Osgiliath Channel
Northern Ithilien
Dagorlad

Free Peoples Draw Deck (35):
1x Legolas, Greenleaf
4x Aragorn, Wingfoot
1x Boromir, Son of Denethor
1x Merry, Friend to Sam
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
3x Bilbo, Retired Adventurer
1x Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals
3x Aragorn's Bow
1x Red Book of Westmarch
3x The Council of Elrond
3x Might of Numenor
3x Unheeded
4x Gondor Bowmen
1x The Saga of Elendil
4x Shadowplay
1x The Tale of the Great Ring

Shadow Draw Deck (35):
1x Gollum, Stinker
4x Mordor Guard
2x Mordor Trooper
4x Mordor Veteran
4x Orc Officer
2x Orc Patrol
2x Orc Slaughterer
1x Grond, Hammer of the Underworld
1x Ithil Stone
4x Captured by the Ring
1x Dead Marshes
4x Fires Raged Unchecked
1x Flames Within
4x Orc Banner

On the shadow side, I chose to use Gollum, Stinker because I never really used the pump on Gollum, Vile Creature.

The only exception was when I have had another Captured by the ring in hand and I thought my opponent would double move. Then I exerted him twice so that he could die and come back and add one more threat in the next shadow phase.

Otherwise, winning skirmishes with him is useless because this is an overwhelm deck: wounds on companions don't matter much, while adding a burden or two can change everything!

With Stinker, I think I will have no problem with getting him killed: people are so frightened by him that they do whatever they can to kill him quickly.

I also tried hsiale version without cards, but before you can place threats, you cannot do much. Your minions are roaming until site 5 (with City Gates (7U344)) or 6 and it is hard to put three of them on the table and add the necessary threats with Mordor Guard. Without threats, Fires Raged Unchecked doesn't help you much either... So Captured by the ring is very efficient (thus the four copies) to have your swarm ready early. Moreover, Gollum can absorb archery very well and is a cheap minion that can make a swarm work.

Orc banner is great in this deck: even when you cannot overwhelm your opponent with Mordor Veteran, you can easily win the skirmish. Then, Orc Banner becomes very good.

I just have one copy of Grond, Hammer of the Underworld because I mostly play casual games with friends and too many of them can lead to NPE. In a tournament, I will sure think about putting 3 of them again...

Finally, I didn't keep Enquea shotgun (see above comment from Invincible) nor Mordor Warrior. The latter was just not good enough and the only usage I found was to cycle quicker. But for cycling, I have my Tales fellowship that proved to be good enough.

There are two ideas behind the fellowship:
- massive direct wounds (and recycling of Unheeded with Bilbo, Retired Adventurer)
- Getting your tales (Gondor bowmen rocks) with The Council of Elrond and drawing like crazy with Red Book of Westmarch (Might of Numenor does not count in the rule of 4)

For Bilbo, I tried Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled with 2x Consorting with Wizards but he adds too much twilight (or burdens, but then I also added Sam, Son of Hamfast).

I also thought about Bilbo, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit but with the massive wounding, I don't really care about conditions. I am more vulnerable to Saruman's Power anyway.

So the fellowship is not the best I have seen but it worked quite well when I tested it and it allows me to clean my hand from fellowship cards, making the shadow even more efficient (I once had 3 Orc Officer in play that added 9 twilight at site 4 on Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms!).