The Ultimate Madril

[sgtdraino]

I've co-opted my own Post #1 for "The Ultimate Madril" deck! I was tracking stats, but the deck has changed again, and I haven't had time to mess with that lately. I may start tracking them again once I get Masterworks Madril. Instead, it's been a long time since I posted some comprehensive instructions for how to actually use this deck, so I figured it was time to do that. It's kind of amusing to compare these to the original instructions (found archived at the bottom of this post) and see just how much this deck has changed over the years.

"The Ultimate Madril" deck evolved over a period of nearly 3 years, from a deck I dubbed "Expanded Boromir Tank Deck," which you can see here:

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8139.0.html

And now, "The Ultimate Madril" in its present form, Mk 40:

Starting Cards:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Smeagol, Always Helps
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver

Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Steward's Tomb
Cavern Entrance
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
Dammed Gate-stream
The Prancing Pony
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Wise Guide
1x Radagast, The Brown
1x Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
1x Hugin, Emissary from Laketown
2x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Flaming Brand
3x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
1x A New Light
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
1x Deep in Thought
1x Saved From the Fire
1x Traveled Leader
1x One Good Turn Deserves Another
4x Something Slimy
2x What Are They?
2x Long-stemmed Pipe
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Soldier's Cache
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
2x Pallando, Far-travelling One
3x Deagol, Fateful Finder

Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Dunlending Ravager
2x Grima, Servant of Another Master
2x Grima, Wormtongue
1x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
1x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
3x Southron Leader
1x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
3x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
1x Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow
1x Web
1x Ships of Great Draught
4x Captured by the Ring
2x Led Astray
4x Sudden Strike
4x Saruman's Power
3x Too Great and Terrible
4x Evil-smelling Fens
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

Free People/Shadow: 54/54
Total Cards: 108
Total Wins:
Total Losses:
Total Games:
Win Percentage:

Bid 0. You're going to be adding a lot of burdens yourself, you're going to need all the resistance you can get. If given the option, choose to go first. If going first, start Dammed Gate-stream. If going second, you'll play Dammed Gate-stream as Site 2. Basically you want Dammed Gate-stream out ASAP so you can use it to pull One Good Turn Deserves Another.

You'll start your companions in this order: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit, Faramir, Captain of Ithilien, Ranger of the White Tree, Madril, Defender of Osgiliath, Smeagol, Always Helps, Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver. Ideally you'll draw some means of protecting Madril from Ulaire Enquea at Site 2. There's 15 cards that can do this: 3x Ithilien Blade, 2x Ranger's Cloak, 1x Saved From the Fire (if you get Gandalf out), 4x Something Slimy (to pull Stewards' Legacy), 2x What Are They?, 1x Soldier's Cache, 1x Stewards' Legacy, 1x Storied Homestead. If you don't draw any of those, you might want to mulligan. EXCEPTION: Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas is pretty high priority, if you get him in your starting hand, you might choose to risk not mulliganing. But it's a gamble either way.

You are most vulnerable when your Fellowship moves to Site 2. That's the point in the game when you'll be least prepared, have the least knowledge of what strategy your opponent is using, and the greatest chance of potentially losing Madril to a Shotgun Enquea that you're not ready for. Protecting Madril at Site 2 is your 2nd-highest priority. Worst-case scenario, if you don't draw anything to protect him, try to keep his Resistance at 5 or more when you move to Site 2, so that Faramir can protect him. That is the trickiest part of being forced to go first; You'll need to use Dammed Gate-stream to pull One Good Turn Deserves Another to play Site 2, and add a burden to keep it in your hand. Keeping that event is the HIGHEST priority, which means you'll potentially be moving to Site 2 with 2 burdens and Madril at Resistance 4, a prime target for Shotgun Enquea if you don't have other cards to protect him.

If you ARE going first, Site 2 is almost always going to be The Prancing Pony. You'll be using The Prancing Pony to pull Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith.

Site 3 is often going to be Steward's Tomb, unless your guys are really, really hurting. Assuming your deck is rolling properly, ideally you'll be playing Steward's Tomb at both Site 3 and Site 6, preventing your opponent from healing at any sanctuaries. This is much easier if you're going second, and can be particularly effective if your opponent doubles from 1-3. Then you can stick him with the Tomb at 3 while you stop at Site 2 (Dammed Gate-Stream), stop him healing, but then swap the Tomb out again for The Prancing Pony with One Good Turn Deserves Another before you move to the sanctuary yourself. Otherwise, in order to play the Tomb again at Site 6, you'll need a bit of luck, and have to draw a Led Astray to swap it off Site 3. EXCEPTION: There may be games in which your opponent's fellowship is just not wounded very much at Site 3. In that case, don't waste the Tomb there, just hold it for Site 6! Common sense, really.

So, let's say you're sitting at Site 3, it's Steward's Tomb, and it's time for you to move to Site 4. Most of the time, Site 4 is going to be Mithlond. This is particularly effective (again) if you're going second and your opponent is in front, since you can play some other site for him, but then switch it to Mithlond when it's your turn to move there. But even if you're in front, most of the time you'll still play Mithlond at 4 to get some healing, and start "resetting" some of your allies (which you hopefully have out by now). EXCEPTION: If you are playing against Nazgul, your biggest threat is Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. He'll want to switch sites all around to his advantage. IMO the most decisive actions of the game take place in Region 2, Sites 4-6. So if he's playing Nazgul with Nelya, you play Mount Doom at Site 4, and make all his Nelyas useless until you move to Site 7, at which point (hopefully) you'll have countermeasures in place.

The rest of effectively using this deck is highly situational, it depends on what strategy your opponent is using, what you have an opportunity to do, as well as effectively timing things to your advantage. I'll cover a number of strategies and address the usefulness of specific cards:

Madril, Defender of Osgiliath/ Ithilien Blade
-Would you believe I almost forgot to mention this? I guess it's just so obvious. Yes, the most basic strategy of a Madril deck is to make minions roaming with Madril, and use Ithilien Blade to discard them.

Stewards' Legacy
-Stewards' Legacy may be the most important card in your FP side. Keeping it out greatly increases your effectiveness, in conjunction with Boromir, Faramir, Ithilien Blade, Ranger's Cloak, Soldier's Cache, Pippin, Don't Look at Them, etc. It transforms Boromir into a death machine, and Faramir into the ultimate strategy-denier. Most of the time, Stewards' Legacy is the condition you want to get out first.

Something Slimy/ Long-stemmed Pipe/ Saved From the Fire/ Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
-This combo pulls you a Saved From the Fire extraordinarily quickly, for a deck this size. The first victim burned will probably be Ranger of the White Tree, and the cards you get will probably be Throne of Minas Tirith (the only way to pull it, otherwise you gotta draw it naturally), Ithilien Blade, and one other high-priority thing, which depends on what strategy you're facing. Second target to burn (often later in the game) would be Radagast, The Brown, and the cards you get will probably be Pallando, Far-travelling One (only way to pull it), Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas (if you don't already have it), and Traveled Leader (if you don't already have it in discard). Again, what you pull with it may greatly depend on what strategy you are trying to counter. If you really need mass condition-discard, Deep in Thought. If you really need burdens off, Citadel to Gate. If you really need to get a key minion out of his hand, A New Light. You get the idea.

Allies/ Mithlond/ Traveled Leader/ One Good Turn Deserves Another cycling
-A big part of this deck's effectiveness, is the ability to play Mithlond over and over, and use it to heal your allies: Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree, Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor, Hugin, Emissary from Laketown. Of course, healing all of your companions is super-helpful too. If you have Traveled Leader in your hand or discard pile, you can conceivably play Mithlond every turn, retrieving Traveled Leader with Barliman each time, or switch the site with Led Astray or Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. Because of that ability to cycle Mithlond, when you draw A Wizard is Never Late, generally you'll use it to get Barliman out, go ahead and exert Barliman to get AWINL back, and use AWINL again to grab Gandalf or another guy. Then you can just heal Barliman (and everyone else) with Mithlond. Albert Dreary is primarily there as a quick dependable counter to Greed, which can otherwise completely decimate you. Of course he's also good versus Moria, but that's about it. If you're confident your opponent isn't using Greed or Moria, you don't need Albert Dreary. Hugin is much like Barliman, except he has the ability to get back anything you want. That might be a high-priority possession like Shadowfax, but often it's retrieving high-priority conditions like Stewards' Legacy or Storied Homestead, or just cycling Something Slimy back into your deck. Note that, if you have a Something Slimy in hand, Hugin will enable you to get a discarded condition right back out on the table!

Gandalf, Wise Guide/ Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
-Gandalf's ability to cancel events is massive, in terms of denying your opponent's strategy. Particularly once he's riding Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas. Among other things, Gandalf protects your conditions from Saruman's Power, protects your guys from being killed by Hate, as well as all manner of other extremely powerful event cards. Shadowfax is the best way to add threats for this strategy, simultaneously taking burdens off. In an emergency, you can kill off a companion, spread the wounds out, take burdens off, move to Mithlond, and heal everybody!

Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
-Besides canceling special abilities with Stewards' Legacy, Faramir is a force multiplier. His ability to heal other guys means you can use things like Ithilien Blade more than once... or distribute wounds more evenly, then double to Mithlond and completely heal.

Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith/ Stewards' Legacy/ Ithilien Blade/ Ranger's Cloak/ Pippin Wearer of Black and Silver
-As previously mentioned, Stewards' Legacy turns Boromir into a death machine. With a Ranger's Cloak, he and Pippin can kill almost any minion played, with or without Madril. With Ithilien Blade he's handing out exertions left and right, again denying your opponent of various strategies, or just making minions easier to finish off... and then he just heals up again next turn! This combo is an effective counter to both The Balrog, Demon of Might, and Final Strike, which are popular Madril counters.

Storied Homestead
-Storied Homestead is first and foremost there as a counter to Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders, though it has obvious applications against other strategies too. Ideally (of course) you don't want to play this condition until your resistance is high enough to get some tokens on it, which means you'll probably need Shadowfax in play. Ranger's Cloak can also help for getting your Rangers' resistance up a little higher. You also probably don't want to play it until Site 4 or later, since you're probably up against Nazgul, and you want to wait and play it at a time when you know you'll be safe from Nelya for a while (Mount Doom in Region 2). Once you play it, you'll want to build tokens up on it with Throne of Minas Tirith and/or Soldier's Cache. In a perfect world you'd have 5 tokens on it by the time you get to Site 7 (so it's sustainable for the rest of the game), but realistically that probably won't happen often. At a minimum, hopefully it should at least protect you for a site or two, and/or force your Nazgul opponent to leave their favorite site behind. The Nazgul site in question is Buckland Homestead, which Nelya will use repeatedly to wreck your conditions if you don't stop him.

Soldier's Cache/ Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith/ Mithlond
-This is a token-generating machine. At the end of each turn, if you've got some exerts left on Boromir, you may as well use Soldier's Cache to add tokens to whatever conditions you need the most. If you're preparing to double to Mithlond, then you can exert each one of your Gondor guys to add tokens with Soldier's Cache, then move and completely heal everyone.

Throne of Minas Tirith
-Throne was originally added as a counter to Corsairs and Ships of Great Draught, the most effective counter to Madril. It's another great token generator, and offers a great advantage against any Shadow that relies on possessions (such as Warg Riders). It's also vital against Grond, Hammer of the Underworld.

Don't Look at Them
-Don't Look at Them is useful against Nazgul, but here again was primarily added for countering Raider strategies, particularly Corsairs. Raiders will likely be running heavy Ships of Great Draught, and you may simply not be able to get rid of them fast enough. Madril will be useless for most of the game. Don't Look at Them enables you to kill his most powerful minion with Smeagol. That's particularly effective with Corsairs, who don't have very many powerful minions. Raiders also don't have very effective condition discard, they're better at discarding possessions than they are conditions, particularly if you have Gandalf in play to protect things. As such, Don't Look at Them is a pretty dependable Raider counter that keeps your deck cycling.

Pallando, Far-travelling One
-Besides being re-usable condition discard, Pallando does a couple of other nice things: If you've got Stewards' Legacy out, but don't yet have Ithilien Blade, you can put Pallando on Boromir to immediately exert two minions (or one minion twice), or you can put Pallando on Faramir to cancel the special abilities of two minions at the same time. This can be particularly handy versus Nazgul, who often play two minions at once who both have extremely dangerous maneuver special abilities (e.g. Shotgun Enquea and Úlaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds). Pallando and Shadowfax also enable Gandalf or Radagast to get up to 10 strength, enough to win against Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman.

And now for the Shadow side! It's pretty routine for opponents to look at this Shadow and describe it as a "total mess," or to say things like, "I don't understand your Shadow," or "Your Shadow makes no sense." You have no idea how much this pleases me. This Shadow incorporates every single Shadow culture in the game, and the strategy has been dubbed "Sudden Strike," because it is focused on pulling whatever is needed from either the draw deck or the discard pile, in order to counter whatever Free People's strategy your opponent is using. The means of doing this is mostly based around Gollum, and to a lesser-degree cards like Morgul Squealer. How you actually play this Shadow is completely dependent upon what strategy your opponent is using. Identify your opponent's strategy, identify the weakness in that strategy, and then exploit it using whatever cards you need. The Sudden Strike Shadow is all about attacking your opponent's strategy at its key points, and then watch at the whole thing comes tumbling down. Here again, I'll address key strategy points and individual cards:

Sudden Strike
-The card this Shadow takes its name from. It's easier to play minions from your discard pile than from your draw deck, so this card is key for both getting a vital minion into play, as well as getting that vital minion into your discard pile, to be re-used later. All you gotta do is spot Gollum or Smeagol, and if you're using Sudden Strike to play Gollum or Shelob, you get to play a possession or condition as well! Most of the time that extra card is going to be Web, so you can continue to play Gollum and Shelob over and over for the rest of the game. BUT if you are playing against another Madril deck, you may well choose to pull out Ships of Great Draught instead, to counter Madril.

Evil-smelling Fens
-The only Shadow condition in the whole deck. Pretty obvious application: Replay whatever awesome minion your opponent really doesn't want to see again.

Gollum, Her Sneak/ Deagol, Fateful Finder
-This combo enables you to keep your hand cycling, but allow you to play Gollum from your discard pile pretty much whenever you need to.

Shelob, Her Ladyship/ Gollum (any)/ Web/ Gothmog, Morgul Leader
-Shelob is of course great for eliminating a key companion from helping out for a turn. If you can get Gothmog out at the same time though, look out! Opponent takes 3 archery, and Shelob gets really strong. If you are going up against a major Free Peoples archery deck, you'll want to get Shelob and Web out ASAP. Gollum, Old Villain is mostly there to help declog your hand, and potentially beat up a ring-bound guy running a twilight denial strategy.

Saruman's Power/ Grima, Wormtongue/ Grima, Servant of Another Master
-A lot of Free Peoples strategies rely on conditions, and Saruman's Power is the most effective condition removal in the game. This deck packs four of 'em, because sometimes you really do need 4x of them in order to take out a pesky Hobbit Hospital with multiple Scouring of the Shire in play. If conditions are the vital component of your opponent's strategy then this is how you attack it. As for Grimas, Wormtongue is most often used against Dwarf strategies. They looooooove to pile up their cheap artifacts and possessions on their guys! Grima, Servant of Another Master can be incredibly useful for disabling a key companion special ability. For example, we talked about how Gandalf, Wise Guide can protect your conditions from Saruman's Power. Well, Grima, Servant of Another Master counters that counter! He can disable Gandalf, and then blast away with Saruman's Power.

Southron Leader
-This minion is the answer to multi-cultural decks. It is particularly handy against the much-hated Horn decks that play out all those Followers. With three of these guys, ways to add threats, and ways to recycle them, if your opponent is using 4 Free Peoples cultures, he's almost certain to lose.

Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman/ Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
-These are primarily the answer to mono-culture decks, especially Dwarfs. The weakest point of a mono-culture Dwarf deck, is to make Gimli fight over and over until he finally goes corrupt. Also useful against other alternate ring-bearers, and Nertea is particularly useful against any 2-culture deck that uses Frodo and The One Ring, The Great Ring. Just throw down Nertea at Cavern Entrance and he's probably done.

Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow/ Too Great and Terrible
-At least a couple of the top-tier Expanded decks are Gandalf decks, and a number of other strategies still rely on Gandalf playing a key role. These give you an excellent shot of taking Gandalf out, or at least forcing your opponent to discard cards that he needed.

Morgul Squealer/ The Witch-king, Morgul King
-These are primarily there to pull important Nazgul (or Bill) out of your draw deck and/or replay important minions from your discard pile.

Ulaire Enquea, Sixth of the Nine Riders
-This guy can be amazing against really large fellowships (Ent builds, for example), for dealing out a massive number of wounds at once, especially if used in conjunction with Neekerbreekers' Bog. Time it right, and suddenly his entire fellowship is exhausted!

Other Nazgul
-I think the rest of the Nazgul are pretty self-explanatory. Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds adds threats, and can get rid of important possessions, such as Beorning Axe on Grimbeorn. Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul is the classic for eliminating key companions. Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening is another threat adder, a cheap fierce Nazgul, fuel for Southron Leader. Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders can switch a site to either recycle something you wanted to reuse, stick the opponent with a deadly site, or give you a helpful site for your next Turn.

Site Manipulation
-Yep, it's annoying! But it's part of the meta, an integral part of Expanded strategy. You can't ignore it, and the only way to really counter opponent site manipulation, is with site manipulation of your own. Most of this deck manipulates on the Free Peoples side, using One Good Turn Deserves Another and Traveled Leader to switch sites around. There is a bit on the Shadow side though, with Led Astray and Ulaire Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders. The goal is pretty straightforward; play (and replay) sites that help you, but hurt your opponent. On the Shadow side of things, that might mean Neekerbreekers' Bog to exert all his guys, Steward's Tomb to stop him from healing or taking off burdens, The Bridge of Khazad-dum to hit him with a cheap Balrog, Cavern Entrance to cancel his skirmish special abilities, or Sirannon Ruins to get enough twilight to do something effective against those twilight denial decks.

Other Minions/ Saruman, Servant of Sauron
Rounding out the strategy are a smattering other other minions that help win the day, depending on what strategy your opponent is using. Dunlending Ravager is great for taking out troublesome allies, like Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor, or popular Hobbit allies. Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings can knock a big companion down enough for Shotgun Enquea to finish the job, or disable companions like Legolas, Greenleaf or Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien. The Balrog, Demon of Might is a great Madril counter, and also great at taking out more powerful companions. Sauron, The Lord of the Rings is also good for (probably) a couple of companion kills, if you have the twilight for him. Mauhur, Relentless Hunter can be useful for eliminating key weaker companions that your opponent doesn't want skirmishing. Saruman, Servant of Sauron is just more icing on the cake. Ah, it's a glorious day when you can get Saruman riding around on Sauron's back, like Master Blaster from Mad Max!

And I think that's about everything!

STATISTICS

Wins by Free People Victory:
>
Wins by Shadow Kill:
>
Losses to Opponent Free People Victory:
<
Losses to Opponent Shadow Kill:
<

Wins/Losses (>/<) by Deck Strategy:

GANDALF
Powerful Guide
>
<
Bearer of Obligation
>
<
SFTF Tanks
>
<
Snuffler Support
>
<
Ent Horde
>
<

ELF
Telepathy
>
<
Archery
>
<
Gil-galad Looping
>
<
The Twins
>
<
Elf Discard
>
<

GONDOR
Token Tanks
>
<
Madril
>
<
Three Hunters
>
<
Wraiths
>
<
Knights
>
<
Last Ruling Steward
>
<
Driven by Need
>
<
Gondor Choke
>
<
Anarion
>
<

ROHAN
Merry Men
>
<
Horn Filter
>
<
Rohan Hunters
>
<
Rohan Archery
>
<

DWARF
Dwarf Choke
>
<
Dwarf Discard
>
<
Condition Dwarfs
>
<
Counter of Foes
>
<
Lively Combatant
>
<
Dwarf Tanks
>
<

SHIRE
Hobbit Hospital
>
<
Brave Decoy
>
<
Hobbit Alliance
>
<
Shadowplay
>
<
No Visitors
>
<
Pipeweed
>
<
Bilbo Choke
>
<

GOLLUM (Free Peoples)
Bearer of Great Secrets
>
<
Smeagol Choke
>
<
Smeagol Ents
>
<

GOLLUM (Shadow)
Condition Ninja Gollum
>
<
Event Ninja Gollum
>
<
Sudden Strike
>
<
Little Snuffler
>
<

DUNLAND
Freca Site Control
>
<
Constantly Threatening
>
<

NAZGUL
Forest Nazgul
>
<
Enduring Nazgul
>
<
Twilight Nazgul
>
<
Fierce Nazgul
>
<
Assignment Nazgul
>
<
Morcs
>
<

MORIA
Goblin Armory
>
<
Fool of a Took!
>
<
Tentacles
>
<
Lost to the Goblins
>
<
The Balrog
>
<

ORC
Demoralized Bomb
>
<
Warg Super Swarm
>
<
Troll Swarm
>
<
Bound to Its Fate
>
<
Orc Direct Wounding
>
<
Goblin Hordes
>
<
Demoralized Rapid Reload
>
<

RAIDER
Corsairs
>
<
Southron Direct Wounding
>
<
Beasterlings
>
<
Easterling Corsairs
>
<

EVIL MEN
Skull Men Super Archery
>
<
Lurker Men
>
<
Hard Core Site Control
>
<
Stacking Men
>
<

ISENGARD
Wizard Conditions
>
<
Uruk Site Control
>
<
Uruk Swarm
>
<
Isengard Wargs
>
<

URUK
Uruk Hunters
>
<
Assignment Uruks
>
<
Uruk Tanks
>
<

SAURON
Besiegers
>
<
Tracker Orcs
>
<
Sauron Discard
>
<
Orc Bowmen Direct Wounding
>
<
Sauron Tank Maneuver Wounding
>
<

Wins/Losses (>/<) by Culture:

 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 (Free Peoples)
>
<
 (Shadow)
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<
 
>
<

Defeats by Opponents (S = Shadow Kill, F = FP Victory, > = Times Defeated by Me Since I was Defeated by Them):



Last Updated: XX/XX/XXXX

If you've played me in Expanded on Gemp, then you've most likely played against this deck. It has gone through many, many, many iterations and variations, but I think it is now as perfect as it is ever going to get. This, ladies and gentlemen, is my Madril deck:

Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps

Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
The Prancing Pony
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Returned
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
2x Armor
3x Ithilien Blade
2x Ranger's Cloak
1x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
3x Deep in Thought
2x On Your Doorstep
3x Roll of Thunder
1x Traveled Leader
2x Something Slimy
1x Last Throw
1x Might of Numenor
4x What Are They?
1x Don't Look at Them
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Stewards' Legacy
2x The Faithful Stone
1x Shadowplay
1x Pallando, Far-travelling One
1x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff Cock-Robin

Shadow Draw Deck:
4x Grima, Wormtongue
3x Isengard Shaman
2x Goblin Runner
4x The Balrog, Demon of Might
2x Desert Lord
3x Orc Ambusher
1x Orc Pursuer
4x Orc Runner
3x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
3x Troll of Cirith Gorgor
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
4x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
1x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
1x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
3x Ships of Great Draught
2x Grond, Hammer of the Underworld
2x Ithil Stone
4x Saruman's Power
2x Hate
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

Bid high to go first, start with Dammed Gate-stream. If possible you want either Gandalf, Returned or A Wizard is Never Late in your starting hand. Mulligan if you don't get one of them. Use the site to pull Something Slimy, use Something Slimy to pull Follow Smeagol. If you were lucky enough to get a Something Slimy or Follow Smeagol in your hand, you might pull Deagol instead to get an Ithilien Blade quickly.

Ideally site 2 is the only site the opponent will ever get to play on you. Worst case scenarios are generally that he will play an underground site with The Balrog, Demon of Might before you've gotten any Armor, or possibly that you don't get Gandalf, Returned in your starting hand, he plays Neekerbreekers' Bog, and/or nails you with Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul before you get an Ithilien Blade or What Are They?

You want to use Follow Smeagol to get The Prancing Pony for site 3, so that you can pull Aragorn, Thorongil with it. If you already have some Armor, The Bridge of Khazad-dum is a good choice for site 4 (so you can ding him with The Balrog, Demon of Might when he moves there). If you don't have Armor, go with Sirannon Ruins.

Sites 5 - 7-ish are a good time to run quickly. Ideally this is done by nailing the biggest threat with your Ithilien Blade, healing one wound with Faramir, Captain of Ithilien, using Follow Smeagol to play either Neekerbreekers' Bog or Mithlond, and then moving again to heal all your guys.

Frodo, Resolute Hobbit is the biggest resistance you can get, and sometimes you need every bit of that 12.
Faramir, Captain of Ithilien doubles Ithilien Blade, protects Madril from Enquea, and is all around awesome.
Ranger of the White Tree takes the bullet for you. With Faramir's help, I've gotten him up to defender +5!
Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree is primarily a defense against Greed.
Throne of Minas Tirith and Roll of Thunder are primarily defenses against Ships of Great Draught.
Deep in Thought is general condition removal defense.
Stewards' Legacy is a fantastic card used in conjunction with Faramir's ability, and sometimes Ithilien Blade.
Gladden Homestead is an excellent defense against Ninja Gollum and Deceit/Final Strike. Also helps with other stuff.
The Faithful Stone is primarily my defense against Orc Troll Super Swarm. It's not great, but it's the best I've got.
Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff Cock-Robin is a cycling machine, works well with On Your Doorstep.
Last Throw is the surprise they don't see coming, once you've made your 2nd move to site 8. Surprise! I'm going to 9!

The Shadow side of this deck really tends to throw people for a loop, it's such a hodgepodge of different stuff. Often times opponents have trouble believing that these different cards work together effectively... but they really do. The basic idea is combining cheap cycling guys with big powerful guys, with various "specialists" designed to defeat certain deck strategies. I must confess, I do love dropping a Saruman's Power condition bomb on my opponent, and taking apart his entire strategy. You'll note that this Shadow side does not use any conditions itself. The Balrog, Demon of Might is the star, he's so fantastic at bypassing all kinds of strategies, targeting key companions, and wiping them out. Ships of Great Draught is purely a Madril counter, because obviously I know the threat that Madril can be. I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory.

ETA:

Final stats for Madril Mk 4: 67.0% win rate out of 194 games.

[Not a Zombie]

Replays please?

[argyles]

this deck is a beast , i always have troubles against this one and i really enjoy the games that are bringing troubles

[sgtdraino]

Replays please?

Unfortunately many of my replay links are not working right now because Gemp is buggy, but here's a few:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$xu2zxmbpz4fmzw0z

That's the only real full-length (working) link I've got right now. It was a tough game, and things did not go as planned (didn't get Gandalf right away), but still managed to pull out a win.

Here's a time-out at site 6:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$fhi65uvktvrn80gb

I think the guy just lost his internet, I don't think it was an actual ragequit.

Here's a couple of site 2 concessions:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$54m04x2yd57ojuvm
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$ex3uj52t48qgjwy9

this deck is a beast , i always have troubles against this one and i really enjoy the games that are bringing troubles

Ha! Some folks seem to think this deck is broken and/or unbeatable, but it definitely isn't. Last time I looked, it had a win percentage of around 65%. Enemies of this deck include:

The Balrog, Demon of Might
Mountain-troll
Corsair Marauder
Morgul Squealer
Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
Hides
Ships of Great Draught
Too Long Have These Peasants Stood
Saruman's Power
Deceit
Final Strike
Greed
Demoralized
Hate
A Host Avails Little
Horribly Strong
Unseen Foe

[argyles]

enjoy site 9 http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=pizza fan$tfdm69225qt4o80e
i should have counted better the tokens to leave 0 inside :/

[sgtdraino]

enjoy site 9 http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=pizza fan$tfdm69225qt4o80e

lol. Yeah, that was crazy! TEN nazgul in all! The most nazgul I've ever seen played at once. I think everybody was there except Ulaire Cantea.

i should have counted better the tokens to leave 0 inside :/

Well, you only left one, and you couldn't have known I had Deep in Thought. You could have Cavern Entrance-ed me, if you'd had that. How come you don't stock that one?

[Shelobplayer]

Having played an epic game against this deck today, my guess is that the list here is not completely up to date, but I'd suggest some minor changes anyway.

Freeps:

I'd add a Barliman Butterbur, PPP to the freeps, you play 4 AWINL and only 2 (3 if we count Albert) Gandalf characters and a list of great events that you can recur with Barli. It'd also justify a 2nd copy of Beorning Axe, since you could just play it on Barli and get yet another event back.

I'd cut both Ranger Cloaks, I've always found them underwhelming, even in LRS builds.

-2 Roll of Thunder +1 Throne of Minas Tirith: Throne is superior to Roll against possession based strategies imo, and a great card on its own right. Roll is still nice as a one of, especially if you do decide to add PPP.

That's about it for now for the freeps, but I guess I'll make my version of your deck soon as I only have my Powerful Guide deck on gemp and noone seem to be playing standard (((((((

As for the shadow side, since you are playing Demon of Might you totally need to add a couple of Whip of Many Thongs, Weapon of Flame and Shadow. That card is a complete beating, just imagine playing it on Cavern Entrance, it totally catches most deck with their pants down, no Traveled Leader to save them, and it takes away like 99% of the potentially problematic events. I'd even play The Balrog's Sword to make sure that an alpha strike really hurts.

And there you have it, the recipe to obliterate my freeps side

As I said, I'm pretty sure you already made changes to the list you posted, but these are my two cents. Great deck all in all, looks super fun to play (and to play against)!!! It felt like I was playing against a Gifts Ungiven rock MTG deck for some reason

[sgtdraino]

Having played an epic game against this deck today, my guess is that the list here is not completely up to date, but I'd suggest some minor changes anyway.

You're right, it's not up to date! Here is the current incarnation, which has an 85%-87% win rate out of about 130 games:

Starting Fellowship:
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring
1x Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
1x Ranger of the White Tree
1x Madril, Defender of Osgiliath
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Smeagol, Always Helps

Adventure deck:
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Cavern Entrance
Steward's Tomb
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Mithlond
The Prancing Pony
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
Sirannon Ruins

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Gandalf, Returned
1x Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain
1x Aragorn, Thorongil
1x Albert Dreary, Entertainer From Bree
1x Beorning Axe
1x Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas
1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
1x Flaming Brand
3x Ithilien Blade
3x Ranger's Cloak
3x Throne of Minas Tirith
4x A Wizard Is Never Late
1x Citadel to Gate
2x Deep in Thought
3x On Your Doorstep
2x Traveled Leader
4x Something Slimy
1x Last Throw
1x Might of Numenor
4x What Are They?
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
1x Houses of Healing
1x Stewards' Legacy
1x Storied Homestead
1x The Faithful Stone
1x Deagol, Fateful Finder
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff Cock-Robin

Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Old Villain
3x Grima, Wormtongue
2x Isengard Smith
2x Mumak Commander, Giant Among the Swertings
4x The Mouth of Sauron, Messenger of Mordor
1x Goblin Runner
2x The Balrog, Demon of Might
3x Gothmog, Morgul Leader
2x Sauron, The Lord of the Rings
1x Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow
4x Morgul Squealer
1x The Witch-king, Morgul King
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
2x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
3x Ships of Great Draught
1x Ithil Stone
4x Captured by the Ring
3x Saruman's Power
4x Evil-smelling Fens
4x Howdah
1x Rapid Reload
1x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

The main change to the FP side, is that the 3x Roll of Thunder were replaced with 3x Throne of Minas Tirith. It seems like that's been better protection against Ships of Great Draught.

The Shadow side changed more significantly. All the Sauron culture stuff was taken out, except for Sauron himself. This was replaced with more archery stuff. Mainly Gothmog and Mouth of Sauron to get out Howdah and whatnot. Improves cycling/filtering too. Also added Gollum and 4x Evil-smelling Fens for playing out choice minions from discard, adding threats, and just more stuff I can play for cheap. New version is slightly more Nazgul-heavy, too.

I'd add a Barliman Butterbur, PPP to the freeps, you play 4 AWINL and only 2 (3 if we count Albert) Gandalf characters and a list of great events that you can recur with Barli. It'd also justify a 2nd copy of Beorning Axe, since you could just play it on Barli and get yet another event back.

The issue is, I find it easier to reuse On Your Doorstep than to do Barliman. I'd need at least 2 Barliman to reuse him, and with On Your Doorstep I can get whatever I want, not just Gandalf events.

I'd cut both Ranger Cloaks, I've always found them underwhelming, even in LRS builds.

Ranger Cloak is a defense against the Ships of Great Draught/Enquea/Steward's Tomb combo that can otherwise take out Madril. It also enables me to take a hit from The Balrog, Demon of Might without dying. It's also another way to add threats if I need to, or if Madril dies, it enables Pippen to still be effective.

-2 Roll of Thunder +1 Throne of Minas Tirith: Throne is superior to Roll against possession based strategies imo, and a great card on its own right. Roll is still nice as a one of, especially if you do decide to add PPP.

Yep, figured that out with the current build.

As for the shadow side, since you are playing Demon of Might you totally need to add a couple of Whip of Many Thongs, Weapon of Flame and Shadow. That card is a complete beating, just imagine playing it on Cavern Entrance, it totally catches most deck with their pants down, no Traveled Leader to save them, and it takes away like 99% of the potentially problematic events. I'd even play The Balrog's Sword to make sure that an alpha strike really hurts.

I've tried it in the past, but generally I never have those items when I've got a Balrog in hand, or else they just don't give me quite enough twilight. I find The Balrog effective enough on his own, normally.

As I said, I'm pretty sure you already made changes to the list you posted, but these are my two cents. Great deck all in all, looks super fun to play (and to play against)!!! It felt like I was playing against a Gifts Ungiven rock MTG deck for some reason

lol. I'm glad you enjoyed playing against it! I don't think there's too many that would echo that thought! Thanks for the comments.

ETA:

Final stats for Madril Mk 8: 83.4% win rate out of 151 games.

[Legion]

Looks strong.  I would add Fires Rage Unchecked (along with the normal Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer, and mine also has Orc Assault Band) to your list of threats.  You can only consistently add 2 twilight in the maneuver phase (with Robin Smallburrow, more with events, I suppose), so deep in thought may hit too late.  All of Sauron's condition discard will stop that Stewards Legacy from messing up the combo.  Still seems like a force to be reckoned with, though!

As for the whole "Use the whip of many thongs to stop Travelled Leader when at Cavern Entrance" thing, surely that's stopped cold by the Balrog's text, anyway?

[sgtdraino]

Looks strong.  I would add Fires Rage Unchecked (along with the normal Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer, and mine also has Orc Assault Band) to your list of threats.

I actually took out all the Sauron stuff except for Sauron himself. For me, it seems to be working better like that.

You can only consistently add 2 twilight in the maneuver phase (with Robin Smallburrow, more with events, I suppose), so deep in thought may hit too late.  All of Sauron's condition discard will stop that Stewards Legacy from messing up the combo.  Still seems like a force to be reckoned with, though!

The FP side tends to generate a LOT of twilight every time I move, so normally there is plenty left over to do Deep In Thought. Also, with Faithful Stone out, there is an incentive for the opponent to leave some. Sauron's condition discard tends to be minion-based, which is pretty easy to stop with Steward's Legacy, or via other means. About the only condition discard that tends to be effective against my FP is the timeless Saruman's Power, and of course that site where you can play a nazgul to discard a condition.

As for the whole "Use the whip of many thongs to stop Travelled Leader when at Cavern Entrance" thing, surely that's stopped cold by the Balrog's text, anyway?

Yep. I love that Balrog, he's good against so many strategies!

[Legion]

It's not a guaranteed win, I agree (though I have Shadow's Reach for Steward's Legacy), but if you don't get Deep in Thought before my first Mordor Veteran and Fires Rage Unchecked, you could end up in a spot of bother.  I'd love to play it against you!

How is Sauron a threat to you, though?  Surely he eats up all the pool only to meet an Ithilien Blade?

[sgtdraino]

It's not a guaranteed win, I agree (though I have Shadow's Reach for Steward's Legacy), but if you don't get Deep in Thought before my first Mordor Veteran and Fires Rage Unchecked, you could end up in a spot of bother.  I'd love to play it against you!

Here's a pretty recent game I played against beseigers, a good one:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$h19ymysbhxzdshqg

Their Marching Companies was pretty effective as a counter to Madril. I could discard it, but he was pretty good at playing it back out again. Aragorn's Bow was a big help, once I got it out.

How is Sauron a threat to you, though?  Surely he eats up all the pool only to meet an Ithilien Blade?

Ah, you misunderstand. When I say I took out all the Sauron stuff, I mean that THIS DECK used to have Sauron-culture stuff in its Shadow side, but I took it out and decided that archy/gollum/nazgul stuff was more effective.

[Legion]

Ah.  I see what you mean.  I was saying that a threat to your fellowship would be the Sauron Threat Orcs.

The combo of Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer along with Fires Rage Unchecked, normally with a few Orc Slaughterer on Orc Assault Band and Orc Patrol to round it all off.  If the first 3 hit the table along with an Assault Band, if you don't smack them in the Maneuver phase (unlikely if they have at least 1 FRU in play), they will overwhelm 4 companions with ease, corrupting Frodo before you even know what's hit you.  It's actually a really fun shadow, not just effective against this deck (has a bit of trouble against Solo RBs, though, as you cannot add the 3 threats.

[bibfortuna25]

I think any Madril deck should run 3-4X Drawing His Eye. It's really handy for picking off Shadow cards that could hurt you, like Mumak Rider or the Balrog.

[sgtdraino]

The combo of Mordor Guard, Mordor Veteran and Orc Officer along with Fires Rage Unchecked, normally with a few Orc Slaughterer on Orc Assault Band and Orc Patrol to round it all off.  If the first 3 hit the table along with an Assault Band, if you don't smack them in the Maneuver phase (unlikely if they have at least 1 FRU in play), they will overwhelm 4 companions with ease, corrupting Frodo before you even know what's hit you.  It's actually a really fun shadow, not just effective against this deck (has a bit of trouble against Solo RBs, though, as you cannot add the 3 threats.

All I can say, is that I generally haven't had much trouble from these kinds of decks. For one thing, Fires Rage Unchecked is pretty important to get them to survive past Maneuver, and this deck can normally get rid of that pretty quickly with Deep In Thought, or Something Slimy to pull Gladden Homestead. If that fails, I can still put a dent in those special abilities with Steward's Legacy and/or Storied Homestead, and for anybody else that gets through, if they power up using threats, I'll just put 'em on Frodo with the ring. They take threats off to get stronger, I add burdens to survive, and then next turn just add threats back to take the burdens off with Shadowfax.

There are a few deck types that tend to give me a real challenge, though:

Corsairs with Ships of Great Draught
-Probably the best straight-up Madril counter. The Ships counter Madril, while Corsair Marauder takes out the bow and any other good possessions, and Castamir comes in for the beatdown. If I can get Throne of Minas Tirith out early enough, usually I can do okay against this. But if I don't, the deck is in trouble. Here is one such game:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$iwbwxvf22pfkf2zp

Uruks with Greed
-Greed can really ruin my day if I'm not ready for it. Once I see I'm going up against Uruks, I keep a Deep In Thought ready in my hand, and get out Gladden Homestead and/or Albert Dreary asap. Once again, if I get one of these things early enough, I do okay. If the Greed happens before I'm ready though, big problems. Here's a game where Greed caught me with my pants down:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$oe2szf77lvcx9h2f

Forest Nazgul
-Even though these guys don't normally pack a direct counter to Madril, for some reason they are often the biggest challenge I face. They have tricks to play out a bunch of powerful fierce guys relatively cheaply. There are a few cards that let them take a few threats off, which is sometimes enough to counter their roaming. They've also got that Enquea that can exert all of my guys. Play him a few times in a row, and it gets very difficult to survive. Here's one:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$qwj49k5fqztdzdj0

Orc Troll Swarm
-You know the type: Demoralized with orcs that exert you, and then that troll that plays every single minion out of their discard pile, while the twilight never seems to go down. Most of the time my Faithful Stone is enough to keep me alive (along with my other tricks), but sometimes the swarm is just too much. Here's one that didn't kill me, but slowed me up enough to beat me to the end:

http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=sgtdraino$r5vom4m36hhotrtd

I think any Madril deck should run 3-4X Drawing His Eye. It's really handy for picking off Shadow cards that could hurt you, like Mumak Rider or the Balrog.

That is a super annoying card, having been on the business end of it many times! But most times there's no one single card that is that much of a threat to me, that I don't already have a counter for. Plus, this deck often doubles, and Drawing His Eye won't help me with that second move. Finally, I'm not sure what I'd take out to add that in, and I certainly don't want to make it any bigger than it already is.