WraithEnts (Freeps Only)

[Dictionary]

The goal of this deck is to use Wraiths with a reasonable degree of effectiveness without using the cards Stronger and More Terrible or Swept Away. I don't expect this deck to be top-level, but I wanted to try something vaguely original and get it working as effectively as possible.

Ring-Bearer and Ring:
Frodo, Hope of Free Peoples
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles

Starting Fellowship:
Forest Guardian
Oathbreaker

Adventure Deck:
1 Steps of Edoras
2 King's Tent
3 The Dimholt
4 Pelennor Plain
5 City Gates
6 Minas Tirith Sixth Circle
7 Osgiliath Crossing
8 Northern Ithilien
9 Dagorlad

Free Peoples Cards:
3x King of the Dead
1x Cursed of Erech
1x Dead Man of Dunharrow
1x The Saga of Elendil
2x Oathbreaker
4x Sleepless Dead
4x Treebeard, Oldest Living Thing
1x Sting, Baggins Heirloom
1x Mithril Coat
2x Crack Into Rubble
4x Elessar's Edict
4x End of the Game
1x O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
1x Nine Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom
4x Ent Draught

34 cards

Ent Draught is the keystone card of this deck. It gives your wraiths an essential extra vitality point, which equals more strength, as well as the ability to exert at will, which means you can heal them without worrying about them being subsequently overwhelmed as a result. It also works very effectively with End of the Game, as you can exhaust your wraith for more strength and damage, then use the pump for even more strength and a heal at the end of the skirmish. There are a ton of companions in this deck, partially to guarantee drawing enough of them, partially because using Elessar's Edict doesn't count as a wraith death, and partially for healing with Treebeard. Ent Avenger is to get those initial Ent Draughts out and to help with card draw, you can ditch him once you have Treebeard (Unless you need Crack Into Rubble). Foes of Mordor is a card I've considered, as it also gives free exerts (If required for more strength) and is anti-mordor, and you see a lot of besiegers in Movie Block.

The largest problem this deck faces is a lack of condition discard, best thing I have so far is Crack Into Rubble, which is pretty weak. Any Ent or Gondor cards that I'm missing? If not I may have to chuck in Gandalf. Also need Anti-Grond. Again, Gandalf would solve this problem, but I'd have to re-arrange the deck a bit to incorporate him.

[Durin's Heir]

Wraiths with Ent Draught? Great idea sir!

The largest problem this deck faces is a lack of condition discard, best thing I have so far is Crack Into Rubble, which is pretty weak. Any Ent or Gondor cards that I'm missing?

You can use Brooding On Tomorrow to counter conditions, Unhasty Ents (except Treebeard) like your starting Forest Guardian will make you lose initiative. Pack 2x, or 3x if you need it from the start. If your Forest Guardian gets killed, you'll need another Unhasty Ent like Lindenroot, Birchseed or another Forest Guardian to keep losing initiative. Forest Guardian is awesome for cycling, one of the most underrated cards ever! That means you can make the deck a bit bigger without too much concern.

Adventure Deck:
8 Northern Ithilien

Watch out with this site! If you aren't using Gollum in your Shadow deck, can be really troublesome and you can be either killed by Ninja Gollum or corrupted. Also there's a corruption combo with this site, Watcher in the Water + Evil-Smelling Fens and Gollum + Fat One Wants It: for each threat over 1 each 2 threats and each in the pool (after playing the Watcher), the Shadow player can add 2 burdens!

The safest site 8 (if you aren't using its text) is Watchers of Cirith Ungol: Orcs are rarely splashed, and when they are the main force there's a lot of better pumps for them than removing 2 threats to give them +3 (Morgul Destroyer needs only 1 threat). And they don't rely on strength as their main weapon.


EDIT: Did the math wrong with the Northern Ithilien corruption, Fat One Wants It can't add threats if Gollum is immediatly discarded by the Watcher. Thus you remove 2 threats to add 2 burdens only... still a demoniacal combo .

[Not a Zombie]

Watch out with this site! If you aren't using Gollum in your Shadow deck, can be really troublesome and you can be either killed by Ninja Gollum or corrupted. Also there's a corruption combo with this site, Watcher in the Water + Evil-Smelling Fens and Gollum + Fat One Wants It: for each threat over 1 and each in the pool (after playing the Watcher), the Shadow player can add 2 burdens!

I want to see this deck in action!

[Dictionary]

I had completely forgotten about BoT, for some reason I thought it needed Gandalf himself. That card could definitely make the deck a lot stronger, I think I'll throw in Lindenroot since I may go above 6 companions (And potentially lose Forest Guardian to Enquea) but Lindenroot has 4 vitality, so he should be a safe bet. Thanks for the site 8 tips too, I often can't find a site 8 that benefits my shadow (I usually use ) so I'll use Watchers of Cirith Ungol in the future. I'll post an update after some playthroughs with the changes.

[Durin's Heir]

@ Dictionary: Lindenroot is the best choice. Try to pack at least 2x BoT, to replay it if gets discarded, and to keep Shadow conditions falling from the very start. That way, BoT will force the opponent to choose which condition gets discarded, and if that is not enough you can choose by yourself with Crack Into Rubble. So 3x BoT would be much better for that purpose, you can discard the other copies with the Assignment "disadvantage".


Unfortunately, with the current assembling you won't lose initiative more than once per turn, to abuse that initiative cycle you'd need to add Gandalf + Echoes of Valinor, or a Man (like Driven By Need) with Seeing Stone of Orthanc. Or other cultures like Dwarves (Out of Darkness, works with allies), Elves or Shire (RBoWM + Bilbo + tales), which would change too much your current goal.

- Gandalf might also discard possessions (Roll of Thunder) and control burdens (Narya), which are skills your current deck lacks; Forest Guardian / Lindenroot + Echoes of Valinor would provide good cycling.
- Bilbo + RBoWM + Pippin FtF + A Light in His Mind + tales would provide cycling, burden removal and a very strong Ringbearer (OEG, CWW). And TSC abuse if you want to take another step further. But threats'd have to be removed by Wraith cards or Nine Fingered Frodo...
- Aragorn Driven By Need + Seeing Stone of Orthanc would provide threat remotion and cycling. And with another Man (like Gondorian Merchant or Ranger of Osgiliath) you might also abuse Hardy Garrison...

Those are ways to abuse BoT, that is, use it more than once per turn. Gandalf seems the less agressive to your current building, and is also the only one which offers a response to possessions/artifacts.

An awesome benefit of adding a drawing engine to this deck, is that the combo with the "unhasty circumventing" of Ents makes you run through the draw deck much faster and find sooner what you want. Paired with a Shadow that can play from discard (like Evil Afoot with or Uruks), or with many copies of key cards, you might try a larger deck if you are willing to change the current building.


@Not a Zombie: I've never played a Northern Ithilien corruption deck, but it's based on that site's text and Watcher in the Water to keep playing/discarding Gollum, there are some builds in this site (see below). If you lack threats or twilight to do the trick, you can max out threats with Plotting + Gollum and add a lot of twilight with Troubled Mountains (once the Watcher is played).

As edited in my previous post, I did the math wrong with threats and burdens, because didn't consider that Fat One Wants It can't add a threat if Gollum is discarded by The Watcher. So the correct math is the following: for each 2 threats and in the pool (+ for the Watcher), you can add 2 burdens.

Here are some builds (though they don't use the underrated Troubled Mountains):

- No one corrups the way Cthulhu does:
- Eater of Light, by neopium:

[Durin's Heir]

Hmmm, revising tales of post-fellowship phases, found a card that might help your Wraiths: Banner of the White Tree.

[Dictionary]

That's an awesome card for wraiths, will definitely add I found Banner of Westernesse while looking for card draw, but I must have been thinking of the elven one. Even so, the healing might be useful, as wraiths don't really need any other hand weapons. (I don't like Spectral Sword)

[Dictionary]

Here's an update for the deck. I'm still experimenting with certain combos, but this is definitely much better than the first version.  May add more Banner of the White Tree; this pump really is fantastic for wraiths. Added the Shadow list as well, because cycling synergy between the two halves has become much more important – Pretty much your basic Movie Moria shadow.

Free Peoples:
1x Forest Guardian
3x King of the Dead
1x Cursed of Erech
1x Dead Man of Dunharrow
1x The Saga of Elendil
2x Oathbreaker
4x Sleepless Dead
3x Treebeard, Oldest Living Thing
1x Sting, Baggins Heirloom
1x Mithril Coat
2x Crack Into Rubble
4x Elessar's Edict
4x End of the Game
2x Lindenroot
3x Brooding on Tomorrow
2x Banner of the White Tree
1x Nine Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom
4x Ent Draught

Shadow:
2x Goblin Backstabber
2x Goblin Marksman
2x Goblin Flankers
4x Goblin Scavengers
4x Goblin Runner
2x Goblin Scrabbler
2x Goblin Warrior
3x Host of Moria
4x Goblin Scimitar
2x Moria Axe
4x Host of Thousands
4x Goblin Armory
3x Goblin Swarms
2x They are Coming

80 cards

I can still clear the deck by the end game. Moria is reasonably effective, still undecided on exact minion types needed. Grond is still a big problem. If there are no Gondor or Ent counters I may have splash Gandalf, however I fear this would dilute the deck too much.

[Dictionary]

Added yet another Banner of the White Tree, replacing End of the Game, as it's a much more versatile pump; I quite often find myself discarding End of the Game because I have no exhausted wraiths. Also, End of the Game is a bit awkward for this deck because wraiths have to both be exhausted and able to win the skirmish, or else they'll die. I like having it there as a healing option though, as the fellowship does tend to end up with a lot of wounds spread through it.