Need help with new Rohan/Nazgul

[Thorondir]

Hey guys, so here I am again asking for advice on a new deck I made to play a real life championship next week -- it's a small one, basically among friends, but I really want those Shadows boosters as prize!

I tried to make a Rohan wounding but since I don't own a single copy of Unheeded I found some troubles fighting big dmg +1 Uruks. Let me know what you guys think:

Fellowship (36 cards)

- Frodo, Little Master
- The One Ring, The Great Ring

- Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien (starter)
- Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (starter)

- 1x Riders of the Mark
- 1x Theoden, Rekindled King
- 2x Merry, Swordthain
- 1x Hrethel, Rider of Rohan

- 2x Rohirrim Bow
- 2x Riddermark Javelin
- 1x Herugrim
- 1x Eomer's Spear
- 1x Brego
- 2x Rider's Mount
- 1x Firefoot (def +1)
- 2x Rider's Spear
- 1x Eowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade
- 1x Coif
- 1x Rohirrim Helm
- 1x Rohirrim Shield

- 1x Freely Across Our Land
- 1x Golden Glimmer
- 2x Shadowplay
- 1x We Left None Alive
- 1x Parapet
- 1x Fortress Never Fallen
- 1x Home and Hearth

- 1x Simbelmyne
- 1x For The Mark
- 1x Charged Headlong
- 1x Hurried Barrows

I like the wounding combo but when minions break through I may have a hard time facing big guys, since I have only one skirmish event and my companions are not armed to the teeth. I'm thinking about adding one more Shadowplay (only have 2) and one more Home and Hearth (have 3), so I could be a little bit safer. I also have another copy of Golden Glimmer I could add so I can turn wounds into burdens and remove them with Home and Hearth. BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO CUT!!!!

Shadow (36 cards)

- 1x Ulaire Toldea, Winged Sentry
- 1x Ulaire Toldea, TOTO
- 4x Ulaire Attea, Second of the Nine Riders
- 1x Ulaire Enquea, LoM
- 3x Ulaire Enquea, TOTO
- 1x Ulaire Nelya, TOTO
- 1x Ulaire Lemenya, Fifth of the Nine Riders
- 1x The Witch King, Captain of the Nine Riders
- 3x The Witch King, Lord of the Nazgul

- 2x Ring of Rancor
- 1x The Pale Blade, Sword of Flame

- 1x Drawn to its Power
- 1x Dark Temptation
- 1x The Ring Draws Them
- 1x Gates of the Dead City
- 1x Black Marshal
- 1x Lingering Shadow

- 1x Keening Wail
- 1x Relentless Charge
- 1x Dark Swooping Shadows (have more to add)
- 2x Dark Fell About Him
- 1x They Will Find the Ring
- 1x Minas Morgul Answers
- 2x All Blades Perish
- 2x Between Nazgul and Prey

Strategy is obvious: corruption. Add burdens. Maybe I'll cut Stronghold of Minas Morgul, because one copy only doesn't help much. If it comes in early game, I can combo it with Dark Fell About Him, which is awesome but pretty hard. I know 37 is a lot to a Nazgul deck but I feel I can cycle it. Guess 35 would be better, though.

Sites (any help with better Nazgul sites?)

- Buckland Homestead
- Stables
- Trollshaw Forest
- Harrowdale
- Slag Mounds
- Flats of Rohan
- Isenwash
- Northern Pelennor
- The Angle

Thanks, mates.

[ramolnar]

Looking quickly:
*Woody-End. Removing one burden seems counterintuitive but you can get good stuff. It's much more useful than Isenwash. I'd also play more big-twilight sites, because you're going to need them sometimes. Northern Pelennor does basically nothing for you.

*I agree. Stronghold of Minas Morgul is too combo-rific. It's a "win more" card - it you're winning you don't need it.

*There are too many one-ofs here. Focus the shadow side, if you can. I would add Morgul Squealer so I can get my Enqueas and Witch-Kings more often.

*paying 2 for a +1 with Brought Down from Inside is expensive, and sometimes it bounces back to hand. I understand the transfer appeal, but I'd rather have an event. Or drop it.

*If you have more Simbelmyne, obviously play them.

[Thorondir]

Thanks, ramolnar!

Yeah, I tought about Woody-End, I just couldn't find the card. I go Northern Pelennor because it's a plains site and I used to play that Théoden that gives +1 str when at a plains or a battleground -- I might exchange it for a bigger twilight site, you're right.

Stronghold is already out. I put another copy of Ring of Rancor because I can combo it with both Enqueas and the minion comes back to my hand. I'd consider it more useful than Morgul Squealer since it's free. What do you think?

Brought Down from Inside is really expensive. But it's such a nice card (and foil <3)... I'll give it a try with an event. Any hints? And, well, no more copies of Simbelmyne for me. :^(

[sgtdraino]

I like Morgul Squealer better myself, because if he gives you six guys, Squealer will enable you to shotgun one of them straight from your draw deck. The rings won't do that.

I don't play with Rohan much, so most of my comments will be general ones:

Do you have a Grima defense? Rohan tends to stack up those possessions... or are you just planning to not put more than 2 on each guy?

Golden Glimmer is a good choice for shotgun defense, but do you have any way to prevent your conditions from being discarded? I definitely would put more than one Golden Glimmer in there if you're running a big fellowship. I agree that Brought Down from Inside is too expensive for what it does, I'd swap that out for another Golden Glimmer.

If I were you, I'd also think about starting Gamling with Eowyn instead of Eomer, and running the Horn and a few followers. That would help filter those possessions out of your deck that Merry can play with, as well as give you some other pretty powerful capabilities. IMO followers are much better than that Brought Down from Inside condition.

That Shadow looks pretty solid to me, in terms of a corruption deck.

[Thorondir]

Hey, sgt, thanks for reading!

Yeah, I'll try a Squealer instead of Ring of Rancor.

Grima really f*cks me up -- I'm only able to avoid him if I have both Shadowplays in my support area, so I can exert him 2 times when he's played. But that could cost me something since he's never played alone and I'd probably need those exertions to fight bigger minions. Is there any other way to avoid him? Possession discarding is not that much for me because I can replay them pretty quick with Swordthain and Freely Across Our Land.

Instead of adding one Golden Glimmer, I added a Shadowplay. It can clog my hand when Merry doesn't come, but I don't have that much burden removal. Only with Home and Hearth, one per turn.

And about Gamling and the horns, I don't own those cards. :^(

[sgtdraino]

Hey, sgt, thanks for reading!

My pleasure. Sorry it took a while, like I said, Rohan decks are not my strong suit.

Grima really f*cks me up -- I'm only able to avoid him if I have both Shadowplays in my support area, so I can exert him 2 times when he's played. But that could cost me something since he's never played alone and I'd probably need those exertions to fight bigger minions. Is there any other way to avoid him? Possession discarding is not that much for me because I can replay them pretty quick with Swordthain and Freely Across Our Land.

Your best bet might be Merry's Sword plus Sword Rack. That will work much more efficiently than multiple Shadowplay; By exerting Merry twice, you get up to 5 exertions that you can distribute any way you want! If you wanted you could still include a Shadowplay or two, since Merry can do a Shadowplay once after he does Merry's Sword... or you could put in Unheeded and pretty much kill any minion you want in Maneuver. If you have Daddy Twofoot you could essentially do this once per turn!

[Thorondir]

That would be a dream deck... but I don't own those cards. :^(

[sgtdraino]

That would be a dream deck... but I don't own those cards. :^(

Lol. Not knowing what you dont have makes it tough to make suggestions! How about elven rope? You'd have to add an elf for that, though. Your best bet may simply be to not put three things on anybody unless you are ready with the shadowplays!

[Pepi]

Rush of Steeds is also an option. For defense against Grima.

[sgtdraino]

Hmmm, that's pretty good!

Now all you need is protection from Saruman's Power. Wise Guide is definitely the best bet for that... but do you have him?

[Pepi]

Shadowplays can limit Saruman's Power at least a little. And you can discard your own possession with Arrow Slits (u really should add a copy) if things still get too messy with Grima.

[Thorondir]

Rush of Steeds is a nice option, but I find it too expensive and I already give a lot of twilight with my healing Théoden. I'm with 2 copies of Shadowplay and have a third to add, but I still don't know if it will fit.

I'm not afraid of it clogging my hand since I gotta start with Swordthain now. Éomer and Merry. Pretty risky, I understand, but I found it's the best option since there's no way I could pull Merry from my draw deck.

[sgtdraino]

What about instead of Starting Eomer and Merry, you start Eowyn with Merry and Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver? With Eowyn and Pippin you are pretty well protected early on, and if you eventually don't want him, you can just discard him and it won't count against your 9 companion limit. Merry and Pippin can also work in conjunction with those Shadowplays.

[c_c_j]

My suggestions:
1) Why not start with merry, aldred, and eomer? You can let aldred die one you don't need him any more. His ability can be surprisingly useful too.
2) Definitely add more home and hearth. Do you have Tale of the Great Ring or Cliffs of Emyn Muil? These could help protect both frodo and merry.
3) Maybe replace herugrim with another Rider's spear? Herugrim could clog up your hand, especially since you only have 1 copy of Theoden.
4) For the shadow, replace your Toldeas with Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow if you have him. More copies of Lingering Shadow would be good. Once his companions have LS, you can play Neekerbreekers' Bog on him.
5) Ulaire Nelya, 3rd of the Nine so that you can recycle Buckland Homestead and maybe Neekerbreekers' Bog.

What kind of decks are you expecting to go against?

[Thorondir]

sgtdraino, I did consider starting with Éowyn, Merry and Pippin and discard Pip when minions are not roaming anymore. But Éomer is such a reliable companion. He's a tough killing machine. He endures when I start Éomer and Merry and no companion comes to hand... He got killed only on site 7 during both matches of the championship. And I had 5 more companions and yet a Simbelmynë to buy them. I do have 2 copies of Éomer and could put both on deck, but I wouldn't know what to cut... maybe the event.

c_c_j,
1) Dude, Merry + Aldred + Éomer is definitely a very good choice! Indeed! Thanks mate.
2) Merry didn't get overwhelmed because of the Unyielding I added (2 copies). Actually deck is pretty different now. And with Aldred that won't be a big problem I guess...
3) I Herugrim comes early I just discard it and take it back with Swordthain later. Now I use Theoden, Ednew I wanna make him a very good tank and fighter.
4) Excellent idea about Neekerbreeker's Bog. Unfortunately I only have a single copy of LS but I'm looking forward to buy more.
5) Maybe I'll try it when I have a Neekerbreeker's Bog! But for now I guess Nelya wouldn't do much, since I already have a card that discards conditions.

Many thanks, once more, guys!

[c_c_j]

1) Dude, Merry + Aldred + Éomer is definitely a very good choice! Indeed! Thanks mate.

You're welcome. I've been using a Merry's Sword deck for a long time now (it's one of the first decks I built) and in my experience, my deck frequently fails if I don't start with these three guys. 

[Thorondir]

Yes, because Merry gets overwhelmed pretty soon and then your deck is done. I was facing that. Now, with Aldred, I have only one problem: too much companions. Let's see:

- Frodo, Resolute Hobbit (yeah, bearer)
- Merry, Swordthain (key)
- Aldred
- Éomer, TMOM (main fighter, can be a tough guy even without events)
- Éowyn, LoI (easily beats down tanks, good combo with rest of the deck)
- Théoden, Ednew (he's here because he can be a 11 str, 4 hp, dmg +2, which is awesome)
- Riders of the Mark (can combo with Éomer and Éowyn)
- Gamling, Defender of Hornburg (I don't know, he's here because he can bring the possessions I discard to heal and wound, so I can get them back with Merry)

What do you think? I guess 8 is way too much for this kind of deck, considering I already have a copy of Simbelmyne I could use to pull a companion.

[sgtdraino]

Well, I personally don't think 8 is too many. If you're going over 5, then I say why not max 'em out? I routinely run 9. But if you're sure you want to take somebody out, I'd take out Riders of the Mark, as it's mostly just useful as a one-shot. Éomer, TMOM and Éowyn, LoI obviously should stay in, Théoden, Ednew is a great tank, and Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg is very useful as a filter.

[Pepi]

I also think you it would be best if you just max out the 9. The more comps you have, the more useful Merry's Sword is. And even if you don't decide to play all 9 (due to not drawing them or due to your opponent's shadow), it's always nice to have some replacements ready. I'd add Hrethel or if you don't really need another fighter ... Riddermark Soldier is a decent option. Better than one would expect.

[Thorondir]

Yeah, guys, I guess you're right. Eight is fine. I just don't like all the twilights I give... Riddermark Soldier is like an event I can suicide when time is needed. But he would clog my hand because I'd hold him to play in last sites, for sure.

I made some changes, still with 36, but I think it's a fine deck by now. I need to improve shadow but I don't own the cards and it's getting pretty hard to find more Lingering Shadows. Last night I added 8 burdens in just one turn.

[sgtdraino]

The more comps you have, the more useful Merry's Sword is.

I don't think he's got Merry's Sword.

[Pepi]

Ow, my bad. I guess I saw c_c_j talking about it and I just concluded somehow it's in the deck.