Leaving the Shire
Volume 3, April 13, 2005
Shadow Deckbuilding
If you’ve been a faithful follower of the “Leaving the Shire” column since all the way back in Volume Two (my, how time flies), then you may remember that I promised you a Shadow deckbuilding article this time around. Being that I’m a man of my word (when it suits me – which isn’t often), today I shall provide the article I committed to writing a fortnight ago.
Unlike building a Free Peoples side, there isn’t really a checklist of things that need to be considered in every Shadow half. There’s no argument that every fellowship has at least one common goal in mind: survive. The Shadow, however, is a bit different, in that there is no repetitive theme to be had.
I’m sure you may be thinking that all Shadows do have a similar goal, in that they want the Ring-bearer dead.
This isn’t true.
Although this is an accomplishment that many minions of the Dark Lord strive for, it’s not universal by any means. Some decks could care less about ever killing a companion, and instead go straight for corruption. Other decks aren’t concerned with getting a win on the Shadow side – they just want their minions to slow the opponent down so that their own fellowship can win the race to site nine.
With that in mind, today’s article shall be focusing more on individual strategies, rather than a checklist of cards that should be included in every Shadow deck (since such a list does not exist).
So, which of the following strategies most tickles your fancy? Go ahead, click one of the links and get familiar with the different functions of the Shadow.
CORRUPTION
Primary Cultures:   
Overview: Corruption decks work to pile burdens on the Ring-bearer until his (or her, in the case of Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom) resistance reaches zero. A similar strategy can be seen in “burden” decks, which don’t care so much about corrupting the Ring-bearer, but rather adding enough of those previous black tokens to trigger powerful cards.
Raider
Raiders have a variety of cards that can stack up burdens (such as Vision From Afar, Easterling Lieutenant, and Easterling Guard), but they really shine more as a “burden” deck (rather than all-out corruption). Easterlings are the Raider subculture that deal primarily with corruption, and they’re most effective when just sticking to two burdens. This is because two burdens is an incredibly easy goal to achieve with Small Hope, and it’s the minimum requirement for most of the Easterlings’ powerful cards (such as the Easterling Captain and Easterling Polearm).
Orc
Between Bound to its Fate, Porter Troll, Mocking Goblin, and Retribution, Orcs have a potent arsenal for corrupting any Ring-bearer. The ideal combination, as discussed in Volume Two of Marching into Mordor, is Goblin Hordes to grab an Isengard Underling, which then grabs Bound to its Fate, which then adds a burden. By doing this every time you move from an Underground site (as that’s when Goblin Hordes triggers), you ensure that a multitude of burdens can be added every Shadow phase - so make sure to pack the maximum amount of Underground sites in your adventure deck.
If you’re not looking for corruption as an Orc player, but still want to get in on the burden action, check out minions like the Entrapping Orc and Hill Orc that key off of low resistances. And if you’re looking for a really nasty trick, get a few burdens on your opponent’s Ring-bearer and exert his or her fellowship with Neekerbreekers' Bog. Then, during the Shadow phase, play any Orc-culture minion and a Watchful Orc to switch the current site with an Underground one, hence placing the Bog back into your adventure deck. The next time your opponent moves, you’ll be able to drop the Bog again and watch as his or her fellowship is exerted once more.
Wraith
The Wraith culture has the most experience with corruption, having been around since before the Raiders and Orcs were even introduced to this game. No minion shows this expertise quite like Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One. This Nazgul can add up to three burdens (or four if he’s being fashionable and wearing a Ring of Rancor) in a single skirmish, just by making sure he gets wounded. How do we ensure this Ringwraith gets wounded without hoping our opponents play archery, you ask? Black Marshal helps, as does any Wraith card with a Toil cost – most specifically, Keening Wail, which also adds its own burden. But if you’re looking for the cream of the Enquea-exerting crop, go for Between Nazgul and Prey – it allows you to assign around Faramir, Son of Denethor, who can stop Enquea’s ability cold.
The Wraith culture isn’t limited just to Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One. There’s Morgul Brutes, The Pale Blade, Sword of Flame, Ulaire Attea, Second of the Nine Riders, and more. This culture can have some great corruption potential, but it’s admittedly fairly rare-intensive. If you’re looking for some more easily obtainable substitutes in your Wraith corruption deck, think of Easterling Lieutenant and Easterling Guard – both are common, and they have no cultural enforcement (meaning they have no spotting requirements and can be played in any culture).
Corruption Tips: Small Hope may be an easy way to add a few burdens, and four copies of Bound to its Fate could get twice that many, but this still isn’t going to be enough to corrupt your opponent’s Ring-bearer (unless they make the suicide fourteen-bid, in which case your deck’s construction matters very little). Try to figure out how many burdens your deck can potentially add. If you plan on corrupting, you should be able to add fourteen burdens at the absolute minimum, as that’s the starting resistance of Frodo, Resolute Hobbit with The One Ring, the Ring of Rings. If you don’t feel that you can pile enough black tokens on your opponent’s Ring-bearer, or if you’ve playtested and know that you can’t, then use cards that will key off of burdens and resistance (such as the Desert Legion) instead of going for the all-out corruption victory.
SKIRMISHING
Primary Cultures: Take your pick.
Overview: Being that every Shadow culture has minions that are strength twelve and greater (save for Gollum, but even that little rat has Shelob, Eater of Light, who can get absolutely huge), it would be a little difficult for me to list all of their individual strengths here (as it’s unlikely that I would finish this article before the next millennium party, let alone before my deadline). Instead, I’m just going to go over some of the basics of playing a skirmish-focused deck.
Tip #1: Use Big Minions. Seems obvious, I know, but not everyone has the same concept of “big.” Those seven-strength minions from your starter may be able to dominate skirmishes in sealed play, but they’re going to get trounced in constructed. If you plan on winning skirmishes regularly, your minions need to have at least ten strength (and that’s for your “smaller” minions – the bigger ones should be 14+). The fact of the matter is, companions are just too large these days. Going for overwhelms is nearly a lost cause with warriors like Durin III, Dwarven Lord patrolling the battlefields, so you’ll have to find another means of winning. It’s not uncommon for main skirmishing companions to reach a base strength of fourteen, so keep that in mind – you need to be able to beat these monsters.
Tip #2: Have Some Tricks Ready. You’re not going to defeat anyone if you don’t have some tricks up your skirmishing sleeve. If you’ve got a sixteen-strength minion that has no support cards, he’ll do one wound to a companion like Durin – and that’s it. You need cards like Whistling Death and Red Wrath to add to the punishment, or the Fierce and Damage+1 keywords to create some more problems for your opponent’s fellowship.
Tip #3: Play Some Strength Boosts. It doesn’t matter if it’s an event like Overrun, a weapon like Mordor Scimitar, or even a minion like Saruman, Agent of the Dark Lord, you need something to get that extra edge – in today’s world, even your huge minions will lose to companions that play pumps. When they drop a pump, you need to be able to answer right back with a strength-boost of your own. It’s a little silly to spend seven twilight playing Lurtz, Minion of the White Wizard, only to have him go down to a zero-twilight copy of Honed.
Tip #4: Variety Isn’t Always Good. Many new players think that using all of their biggest minions, regardless of culture, is a sure-fire way to get some Shadow kills. The reality is, if you have five minions that cost six or more twilight in your hand, you’re going to get clogged – that is, you won’t be able to play all of your minions, they’ll sit in your hand, and you won’t be able to draw into cards for your fellowship. Not only that, but your support cards (be it strength boosts or anything else) won’t be so universally useful.
SWARM
Primary Cultures:
Overview: The idea behind the “swarm” strategy is to get out as many minions as possible at each site. Size doesn’t matter – we’re looking for quantity here, not quality (a philosophy I also use when purchasing lunchmeat). When you can consistently outnumber companions with your minions, you get to assign the leftovers, giving you the ability to pick and choose whom you want to overwhelm. If you can pull off a decent swarm, you may want to go straight for your opponent’s Ring-bearer (and, potentially, the win). If you can’t take the Ring-bearer out of the game right away, try killing any weaker companions they may have – each time a character in your opponent’s fellowship dies, it makes your swarm that much more potent at the following site.
Swarm decks need two things to work properly: hand extension and twilight generation/manipulation. Hand extension refers to anything that increases the capacity of your Shadow hand. This can mean drawing cards to have access to more minions, or even using cards that allow you to play a minion that’s not taking up a slot in your hand (such as Flung into the Fray and Gollum, Plotting Deceiver). Twilight generation/manipulation is necessary to ensure that you have enough twilight to play all of the minions you have available, be it cards that add twilight like Spurred to Battle, or those that reduce twilight costs like Dark Approach and characters with Toil. Keep in mind, however, that you need this twilight to be added in the Shadow phase – Ambush won’t help you play minions unless you can get your opponent to double-move.
Another helpful tactic for the Swarm deck is to have a Free Peoples side that draws a large amount of cards (Dwarves with No Pauses, No Spills is a perfect example). If you can draw cards to ensure that you have an eight-minion Shadow hand every site, that’ll be a big help.
Orc
The Orc swarm is fueled primarily by the hand extension that Goblin Hordes provides. On top of that, Orcs have many cheap minions that get even bigger at Underground sites (such as Denizen of Moria), and twilight generation with cards like Demoralized, Scurrying Goblin, and Spurred to Battle.
Wraith
There are two Wraith-culture swarms that are popular today – Morgul Orcs (or “Morcs” as they’re commonly called) and the new Nazgul Swarm. Morgul Orcs tend to play a single, inexpensive Nazgul, then drop masses of Morgul Brutes, Morgul Destroyers, and Morgul Whelps on the opponent’s head. The Brutes and Destroyers cause wounds, add burdens, and add threats when they’re played, which results in a very wounded fellowship that will eventually crack under the consistent pressure.
The Nazgul Swarm doesn’t offer as many minions as your typical swarm, but they’re all big, fierce Ringwraiths. Dark Approach is the key to this deck, especially when combined with Ulaire Toldea, Black Shadow – playing Nazgul for minus-four twilight means that you can often times get upwards of five Nazgul at any given site. Not a particularly large swarm in terms of quantity, but having five massive, fierce minions will be much more than your opponent’s primary fighters can handle. Add to the mix The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders (who works nicely in Morc swarms, as well), and you’ve got a strong Shadow side.
Swarming Tip: Don’t play your minions unless you can do some damage. If your opponent has five companions out and you have five small minions in your hand, it’s probably not going to be worth it. Instead, save them up, get some reconciles in, and set yourself up to drop a bigger bomb once you’re fully prepared. Also realize that if you hit your opponent hard once on a double-move, they’ll forever think about that mistake when the option is presented to them again – it’ll be entirely possible to bluff if you have no minions in your hand, because your opponent will be too afraid to double-move into another bomb.
WOUNDING
Primary Cultures: 
Overview: Sometimes a Shadow side can manage to wound a fellowship to death without ever winning a skirmish. Wounding decks most commonly rely on archery fire to reach this goal – a constant hail of arrows can only be tolerated for so many sites before the opponent’s Ring-bearer starts doing one heck of a Hellraiser impression.
Men
Long Battle Bows can cause two wounds against any deck playing Men (of both the Gondor and Rohan varieties), while Precision Targeting forces a small group of companions to take hits for the team. By not allowing those wounds to spread out, Precision Targeting gives you a better chance of killing characters off. Elevated Fire can also be a big help, as can the Mumak Rider, who has a nice possession-removal ability to go along with his “archer” keyword.
Raider
Desert Lord, Southron Bowman, and War Towers are some of the keys here. For some real fun, toss a Seasoned Leader on your Desert Lord, and he not only gets to fire an extra exertion, but will also most likely win his skirmish (after having gained the “Enduring” keyword, which will make him strength+2 for each wound he has). Winning a fight in a wounding deck isn’t something you regularly count on (as the minions are much better at shooting arrows than they are at close-range combat), so every time you can pull off a skirmish victory, it’s like getting a big Christmas bonus. The War Towers make the threats accumulate so that when you do finally kill a companion off, there’s a good chance they’ll be taking their trip to the dead pile on the buddy system.
Wounding Tips: There’s not much to say, except that your priority should be on wounding, not on winning skirmishes. Don’t worry about skirmish events unless they’re wound-related, like Whistling Death and Whirling Strike. Just remember that virtually every card in your deck should cause either wounds or exertions, be it through archery fire, the addition of threats, or directed wounding during some other phase (such as with Bloodthirsty). Also note that Pitiless Orc makes a great splash minion for this strategy, and Anduin Banks should always be the first site to go into your adventure deck if you plan on obtaining a wounding victory.
Now that you’ve got a Shadow and Free Peoples side, there’s only one step left to building your deck – choosing sites. The selection process is much more complicated than one might think, as games are often won and lost based on what sites have been played.
Being that the construction of the Adventure Deck is so important, I’ll be devoting an entire article to it – check back in two weeks!
- Zach Shephard
From 8pm to 10pm Server Time (type “/time” in any lobby online to find the server time) on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, Zach can be found in the Beginner’s Lobby, answering questions and discussing strategy with new players. Feel free to visit him any time! He gets lonely…
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