Marching into Mordor
Volume 5, May 18, 2005.
The Uruk-hai Culture
The Uruk-hai of Middle-earth are vicious, powerful, and well-mannered (if you’ve ever had dinner at Orthanc, you know what I’m talking about). Because of these attributes, they make great warriors when it comes to a game of The Lord Of The Rings Online TCG.
Although they haven’t been placing highly in any recent major events online, the Uruks still show great promise. I always loved the wide-spread use of the damage+1 keyword found in the Isengard-culture Uruks, and the same definitive trait can be seen in this relatively new Shadow culture.
As with any Shadow strategy, the Uruk-hai have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. In order to best make use of the minions of Saruman (and learn how to defeat them), these traits must be analyzed closely. The following is a list of what the Uruks are capable of, and what will cause them some serious problems.
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
DAMAGE BONUSES
The most common trait of the Uruk-hai culture is also the most powerful. Playing multiple strong minions with damage bonuses makes the Free Peoples player run out of vitality very quickly. The damage bonus from the Uruks also makes for some intimidating stops – if your opponent took four wounds on the first site, they’ll likely take four more on the double-move just from the minions that are in play.
CROWD CONTROL
In a world without Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul, the Uruk-hai shine. Many Shadow cultures find it difficult to deal with larger fellowships, but Uruks have many options at their disposal. Invincible Uruk ensures that your minions stay on the table against large fellowships, while Shingle in a Storm adds a damage bonus to your already dangerous minions – and it’s non-unique. My favorite crowd-control card from the Uruk culture, however, is Broken in Defeat. Playing a single minion and saving your twilight will often times guarantee an overwhelm with this card. If you really want to spice it up, consider splashing some Orc Skulkers – adding an infinite amount of strength to your Uruk can never be a bad thing.
RESISTANCE-TRIGGERED EFFECTS
Although this isn’t a particularly strong facet of the Uruk-hai yet, it does seem to be the direction in which the culture is moving. There are a plethora of cards for reducing resistance (such as Suppressing Uruk), but not many that will yield great rewards for achieving this goal. Still, with cards like Uruk Zealot, who can reduce the strength of all companions except the Ring-bearer, this Uruk-hai strategy shows promise. Keep an eye out in future sets for more cards that will punish an opponent’s companions that have low resistances.
CONDITION REMOVAL
In a world of Sudden Furies, Fortifications, and Dwarven Skills (amongst others), condition removal on behalf of the Shadow is key, and nobody does it better than the Uruks. Devastation will knock out a condition when an Uruk wins a skirmish (which isn’t difficult with their high base strengths and Saruman, Agent of the Dark Lord), while Tempest of War does the job if you’re looking for a more explosive effect. Even if you’re not playing an Uruk variation that specifically relies on reducing the resistance of companions (as detailed above), Tempest of War can be splashed along with Our Foes are Weak. This will reduce a companion’s resistance by at least four (three for Our Foes are Weak, one or more for Tempest of War), which puts pre-War of the Ring block companions at two or less – just enough to blow up the opponent’s support area.
If you’re looking to fit this condition-removal capacity into an Uruk deck that doesn’t focus on resistance for the main strategy, consider this little package:
This should be a headache for any player that relies on support area conditions, and for those who don’t, Grima, Wormtongue makes it so that the four copies of Our Foes are Weak aren’t a total waste of deck space.
POSSESSION REMOVAL
Most Free Peoples cultures these days will use some possessions, but they certainly won’t last long against the Uruk-hai. Broken Heirloom can take out a possession in the maneuver phase (works great with Our Foes are Weak or Hill of Sight), while the Crushing Uruk makes excellent use of the Lurker keyword. It’s often not difficult for an Uruk to win a skirmish, and after the Crushing Uruk cashes in on a victory, future battles will become even easier.
CARD ADVANTAGE
If there’s one thing that reconciling has taught me, it’s that card advantage wins games. After all, how useful are the cards in your deck if you don’t draw half of them? The more options you have in your hand, the better your chances of winning, and the Uruks seem to realize this. Although there are certainly far too many Uruk-hai drawing abilities to list here, I can surely point out two of my favorites: Uruk Zealot and Strange Device. The aforementioned Uruk Zealot isn’t just good for reducing the strength of companions – he also draws three cards any time he wins a skirmish (and at a base strength of fourteen, that’s not going to be a difficult task). Strange Device is a new-and-improved version of Abandoning Reason for Madness, resulting in three cards drawn for a very manageable price. Add to this the Uruks' many cards that make use of the Muster keyword, and you've got a culture that can fly right through your deck.
For all of their strengths, however, the Uruk-hai are far from flawless. As stated earlier, in order to better understand how to use the Uruks (and how to beat them), one must also learn their weaknesses.
EXPENSIVE
Although the Uruk-hai culture does have a reasonably wide range of twilight costs for its minions, the ones that are going to win skirmishes are expensive. Often times, if you can only get one minion out (even if that minion wins its skirmish), it won’t stop the Free Peoples player from double-moving. Add to this the fact that Uruks roam until site five, and you’ve got a mighty expensive culture. This can certainly lead to hand clog, but thankfully, the card-drawing potential of the Uruk-hai culture helps to circumvent this weakness.
INSUFFICIENT KILLING POWER
When all’s said and done, the Uruks aren’t good at wiping a fellowship out, they’re good at getting it to stop moving. Putting those extra wounds on companions (thanks to the damage+1 trait) will certainly get an opponent to stop in their tracks, but it won’t necessarily lead to a lot of deaths. Uruk-hai can do some serious damage early on (often times enough to let your fellowship take a sizable lead for the win), but they tend to run out of steam in region three – your opponent just has to heal up at the sanctuary and limp into site nine. Part of the problem can certainly be the culture's lack of fierce minions - it doesn't matter how big and menacing a single Uruk is, it can only get one kill if it's not fierce.
Although there’s a chance you’ll kill an opposing fellowship with Uruks (especially when they make gutsy double-moves), don’t count on ever getting a Shadow kill against a fellowship that single-moves all game.
NEW CULTURE
As with the Orc and Men cultures, the Uruk-hai have only been around for two sets. As such, they don’t have access to as many tools as cultures that have been around for so much longer. However, there are some Isengard cards that specify playing on an Uruk-hai, rather than an Isengard-culture minion. These gems are few and far between, but often times they’re worth seeking out (Broad-bladed Sword comes to mind).
MAGIC BULLETS
There are two “magic bullets” out there today (cards that will shoot down a specific strategy) that can bring the Uruks to a screeching halt – Belt of Erebor, and to a lesser extent, Armor of the Citadel. Each of these cards removes all damage bonuses from minions skirmishing their bearers, and this can spell certain doom for your Uruk-hai. The damage bonus may be the simplest of the Uruks’ strengths, but it’s also the most powerful. Although Armor of the Citadel doesn’t see a whole lot of play these days, the Belt of Erebor can be found in many Dwarf decks, which are currently experiencing great popularity. Thankfully, the Uruk-hai culture has some possession removal to deal with this problem; until you draw cards capable of this feat, however, the Belt of Erebor and Armor of the Citadel will cut your Uruks’ efficiency down to size.
With those strengths and weaknesses of the Uruk-hai in mind, how would one build a killer deck to abuse this culture? Regardless of what type of strategy you’re going for, this is always a good starting point:
SARUMAN, AGENT OF THE DARK LORD
Be it resistance or a ruthless beatdown that you're focusing on, Saruman, Agent of the Dark Lord can add just the right amount of punch to any Uruk-hai deck. His ability to pump your minions results in many skirmishes won, and his Lurker keyword ensures that he’ll be around to do his job. And the best part? You can get two copies of this white wizard of Isengard just by snagging his Black Rider starter deck.
-Zach Shephard
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