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Glamdring
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 2:31 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 575 Location:
--- description ---
A deck based on Dwarven Conditions and More yet to come combined with Slaked Thirsts.
--- end description ---


Introduction:
I have always loved exerting (or wounding) minions to death, and preventing my opponent from discarding important cards that tremendously help my Free Peoples. In this article, I am going to explain how one version of Dwarven Stacking can really be a pain in the beard for your opponent. This build relies mostly around Gimli, Feared Axeman, which makes your conditions “immune” to discarding! Thanks to the Return of the King set; it came out with a ton of cool stuff for Dwarven Stacking. This build I am going to talk about, relies a lot around the Shadow you are using; it sets up very quickly, so the opponent has to beware of the Dwarves constantly cycling. This build does not give a lot of possession abilities, but relies around tons of damage bonuses. But to achieve your goal, you need to set up quickly, which this deck is focused upon. The Free Peoples objectives are simple: cycle your hand, and set up your Shadow quickly to constantly bomb him.

Now about the Shadow. The Shadow Side is very “morcish” with using Morgul Archery to bring down the opponent from advancing to site 9, or slowing him down so that your Fellowship may run. This Shadow side has quite a bit of minions, and conditions help tremendously in this build as Morgul Archers focus on initiative and threats. There are exactly 21 minions, 7 events, and 7 conditions in this build, and they all focus on wounding, having initiative, and adding threats. I will begin with the Fellowship side first, as it is the basis of this deck (like I stated before, it helps set up your Shadow), then I will go through and explain the Shadow side. What exactly is a Dwarven Stacking deck, and what does it look like?

The Concept
First, I want you to take a look at the cards which the deck gets its name from: Preparations, hall of our fathers, and loyalty unshaken. Preparations allows you to exert a Dwarf to stack a card from your discard pile onto preparations; hall of our fathers stacks cards so that you can exchange the cards with your hand at the start of the maneuver phase, and Loyalty Unshaken allows you to stack two Dwarven cards from hand onto Loyalty Unshaken, and you draw card for each Dwarven card you stack there. Sweet huh? Combined with Sindri, Dwarven Lord; you can stack your Dwarven skirmish events on Loyalty Unshaken while you can play them pretentiously off. Because of the Dwarven conditions on the table, they do seem a little vulnerable to the Shadow Player that discards conditions. The solution? Gimli, Feared Axeman! With his ability to prevent Shadow Players discarding your [dwarven]conditions, he is the perfect match for this build. He also cycles pretty well (by discarding unwanted Dwarven cards) when your opponent is trying to discard your conditions. How do preparations, damage bonuses, and slaked thirsts help your Fellowship? Read on!

Free Peoples:
The Free Peoples is pretty condition heavy as it is “Dwarven Stacking,” so it is very common to start out with a condition in your hand. This build has a lot of drawing mechanisms (slaked thirsts etc.) and like I stated earlier, can be very efficient in setting up your shadow. Unless your opponent has extreme condition removal, your conditions are quite immune.

Ring-Bearer and Ring
Choosing a Ring-Bearer was easy for this build as I noticed that since there was only 5 companions in this deck, and there would be around 4 companions in the middle of the game, I decided to put a little swarm protection built in. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Frodo, Weary from the Journey! His built in swarm protection works very well since most minions people are using are at least 7-8 strength, he seemed like an obvious choice. Gimli, Bearer of Grudges seemed awful; you conditions would not have protection, and he might be assigned to a skirmish a couple times, which hurts himself by adding burdens or threats. Any other Frodo might be possible, like if you are playing against an opponent who loves discarding your cards from hand and from the top of your draw deck, you may want to put in Frodo, Courteous Halfling, or when playing against threats, Frodo, hope of the Free Peoples. Now, the Ring was easy also. Because there are not to many Dwarven wound prevention cards as in the Gondor culture (like sapling of the white tree), I wanted at least some wound prevention. The one ring, the answer to all riddles seemed nice, but I wanted some archery protection, and also some corruption protection. You could also take out the one ring, the ring of rings and put in the one ring, the ring of doom for extra swarm protection. You have complete freedom; it all depends on what decks you play in your area.

Possessions
Now for the possessions. The Dwarven culture has a numerous amount of possessions; which ones will benefit this build the most? I was thinking of putting in Dwarven Axe because it is zero twilight, and makes the Shadow player discard the top card of their draw deck each time bearer wins a skirmish. But since this deck relies around damage bonuses; I decided to put in Axe of Khazad-dum instead. Why? It adds a damage bonus when at mountain site; it is in their just in case our opponent does use mountain sites. There is nothing wrong with putting in Dwarven Axe; in fact, Dwarven Axe can be used to choke your opponent more; all depending on your preference.

Artifacts
Ever since Reflections came out with Dwarven rings; I have liked the cool abilities with the rings. I decided to put in ring of accretion and ring of guile so that the ring of accretion can draw (or take into hand) Dwarven cards when needed. The ring of guile can recycle your battle tested; slaked thirsts, on guard, more yet to come; you name it. If you really felt like you need some extra damage bonus and healing bonus, use ring of fury to accomplish those desires.

Events
Because of the Dwarven Stacking, the Dwarven event battle tested seems to fit the Dwarven Stacking ideas. It is zero twilight, and (usually unless you can’t spot a card stacked on a Dwarven condition) makes a Dwarf strength +4. That is our main event; so in goes four copies. Out of darkness really helps also, drawing cards at the same time making a Dwarf strength +2; so in goes two copies; they are not that important as battle tested. Dwarves do not have to much wound-prevention, but there are a few events which help prevent against wounds. The only Dwarven event I have seen so far is on guard. On guard helps (unless your Dwarven companion who has resistance 3 or less is about to take a wound; you can’t prevent it) prevent wounds, while at the same time cycling your hand and driving the Shadow Player crazy. Plus, it can be used as with Gimli, Feared Axeman to prevent your conditions. Now for the heart of the deck!! Since this build relies mostly around damage bonuses; how do the damage bonuses help your build? More yet to come!! What you do is, exert a minion twice by discarding slaked thirsts stacked on a condition, assign that “exhausted” minion to Thrarin, Smith of Erebor; finish all of the other companions’ skirmishes, and win Thrarin’s skirmish with battle tested, because he has great damage bonuses, play more yet to come to kill some minions on the table to move again! Oh, did I forget to talk about Slaked Thirsts?? Well, it draws a card during the maneuver phase for one twilight, and when stacked on a Dwarven condition; can exert a minion twice. Helps tremendously with this strategy of more yet to come. There is one more Dwarven event, and it is restless axe. Restless Axe helps a lot by recycling important cards stacked on Preparations (you can stack any card from your discard pile on preparations), and by exerting a Dwarf; you can recycle your Ulaire Nelya, third of the nine riders, desert lord or any important card at the same time exhausting a couple of minions.

Conditions
What are the Dwarven conditions that help your Fellowship? First of all, the most important is probably preparations. While preparations says you may exert a Dwarf in the Regroup phase to stack a card from your discard pile here, you can bonus off of the stacked cards with Sindri, Dwarven Lord. That generally works well with slaked thirsts, and battle tested (play battle tested off of conditions with Sindri, Dwarven Lord). Preparations can also stack Shadow cards on it, which then can be recycled with restless axe; it can also wound a minion for each Dwarven card stacked there. There goes Sauron!. Another important condition is Loyalty Unshaken. Loyalty Unshaken ideally helps tremendously with the more yet to come idea; win skirmishes with Loyalty Unshaken; make Thrarin damage 6 or more (you can even make him more damage with Linnar, Dwarven Lord). It also draws cards for each Dwarven card you stack there (limit 2), and helps cycle. Another condition that helps is dark ways. Dark Ways can heal a Dwarf twice in the regroup phase, and can take a Dwarven skirmish event into your hand from you discard pile. Although ring of fury seems much better; I have enjoyed the taking skirmish event into hand, but if it is your preference, go ahead and stick in ring of fury instead of dark ways. Stalwart Support helps cycle, and hall of our fathers stacks extra cards just in case you need them at the start of the maneuver phase.

Now for the decklist!

Dwarven Stacking (35 cards)
Here is the Dwarven Stacking decklist. Revolving around a lot of conditions with Gimli, Feared Axeman, it can still pack a punch!

Ring-bearer and Ring:
frodo, weary from the journey
the one ring, the ring of rings

Starting Fellowship:
Gimli, Feared Axeman
Sindri, Dwarven Lord

Fellowship:
Gimli, Feared Axeman (Starting Fellowship)
Sindri, Dwarven Lord (Starting Fellowship)
Thrarin, smith of Erebor
Linnar, dwarven lord
out of darkness x2
more yet to come x3
on guard x3
battle tested x4
restless axe
slaked thirsts x4
axe of Khazad-dum x4
ring of accretion
ring of guile
hall of our fathers
loyalty unshaken x3
preparations x2
dark ways
stalwart support

Strategy:
Bid around 0-2 (don’t bid more than 3, or you on guard will not work), all depending on your preference and the deck you are playing. Set up quickly by playing your Dwarven conditions, while drawing cards with out of darkness, slaked thirsts, and loyalty unshaken. Get Thrarin, smith of Erebor damage 3 (by playing a Possession and artifact on him), and set up your other dwarves with the Possessions/Artifacts. Play more yet to come when needed, and double move as soon as possible. Use preparations to stack slaked thirsts or battle tested, all depending on the need of your dwarves. Prevent wounds with on guard, and have fun! If you have a good amount of players which use conditions, take out one on guard, and stalwart support and put in blood runs chill x2 for a lot of condition discarding. There is one bad side of blood runs chill. You exert a Dwarf companion twice to discard conditions. It might make your dwarves weaker with vitality.

Dwarven Stacking Matchups:
Here are the Dwarven Stacking Matchups that may be helpful in some ways (like knowing what decks you can beat).

Condition Discarding Shadow Sides: When playing against condition discarding Shadow sides, it may hurt you a bit since Gimli, Feared Axeman says to either discard a Dwarven card from hand or exert a Dwarven companion which gets kinda annoying when your opponent uses Buckland homestead to discard conditions. You definitely can defend against it, but, it gets harder to defend against when your opponent is using complete condition discarding.
Morgul Archery: Pretty easy. Choke them out with about 3-4 companions, and advance to site nine. When playing against Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul, use slaked thirsts stacked on a condition to exert Ulaire Enquea twice. (The Free peoples player has the first maneuver action)
Possession Discarding: Easy! Although it may seem bad, your Battle Tested will come in handy.....
Forest Nazgul: Harder than most Matchups. They swarm (with dark approach) and your Frodo is a bit unprotected.
Corruption: Easy so far; just try to survive for your Shadow side to beat your opponent.

Now for the Shadow Explanation:

The Concept
Since “Morgul Archery” sounds easy to explain, it is! Basically it is archery with Wraith Morgul Orcs. About nine-tenths of the Wraith Orcs have to do with archery, archery, and more archery. The archery cards that are most commonly used are Morgul Ambusher, Morgul banner-bearer, Morgul lurker, Morgul creeper, and Gothmog, Morgul Commander. One cool thing about Morgul archery is that it has a fair amount of threats. What happens when a companion dies? Hehehehe, more archery wounds! Now how do these fellas work together?

The Shadow
As you probably know, this Shadow relies around Archery (duh). It does take a little bit of time to set up, but when set up fully, you can really hurt your opponent! I have personally play-tested this build, and I can say that it is very effective against many Fellowships. The main objective when playing this deck, is to set up by playing your conditions, maybe a few Nazgul with there came a cry, and play Gollum to add threats to trigger the Morgul Ambusher game text. When I play it usually, I always try to keep at least a few minions in my hand to know when to bomb my opponent; it is better to be patient and wait, then to be impatient and lose your deadly momentum that would’ve happened if you waited! Overall, Morgul archery is pretty easy to play, but I will give an explanation on the Morgul archers to give you a bit of “idea” on how it works.

Each card serves a purpose. Let’s take a peek!

Minions:
The minions are probably the most important when building a deck. (if you didn’t have any minions, you wouldn’t be able to kill your opponent) So, choosing minions is important, but easy when you have an idea for your deck.

Morgul Lurker: This Morc is so good! While you have initiative, the minion archery total is +2, and combined with streaming to the field, he can pull out a couple archery wounds each turn. He is a must have for all Morgul archery builds.

Morgul Ambusher: While spotting 3 threats, he adds another +2 to the archery total. Works well with Morgul Lurker, and all the other archery cards.

Morgul Creeper: Not the best Morgul archer in my opinion, but he still can pack a punch when the Ring-bearer bids 3, or the Ring-bearer takes archery wounds with the one ring, the ring of rings. Still is good!

Morgul Banner-bearer: Used just in case you don’t have enough twilight or minions out (like when playing choke), and a good card to discard when reconciling too.

Gothmog, Morgul Commander: This dude is sweet! While you have initiative, each of your Wraith minions is and archer. How better can he get? Of course, he is 7 twilight, but what the nuisance; he is still good.

Morgul Squealer: When playing against huge Fellowships, this Morc is a key minion. He can play any Wraith minion from your discard pile, or if you can spot 6 companions, can play 2 Wraith minion from your draw deck at twilight cost -1 each. SWEET!

Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul: Hurts enormous Fellowships. He becomes even deadlier if the Ring-bearer takes to many archery wounds. *hehehehe* In addition, he is fierce, and can win a few skirmishes against Elves when needed (since most Elves don’t use strength events except for the Elvents strategy).

Ulaire Cantea, Faster than Winds: Adds threats against huge Fellowships, discards annoying possessions, and is fierce. Works very well with Morgul Ambusher.

Gollum, Nasty Treacherous Creature: The basic Gollum (and only) that is used in this build. I thought of putting in Gollum, dark as darkness, but Gollum, Nasty Treacherous Creature seemed much more fun as it can exert any companion in the regroup phase by discarding him. Depending on your opinion, you can switch out the Gollum when needed.

Events:
The events (only 7) help with adding threats, and that is all I can say, but they do work well with Morgul Ambusher.

Captured by the Ring: Plays Gollum from your draw deck or discard pile while at the same time adding a threat.

There came a cry: Adds a threat when you can spot a Nazgul, or even gets worse when you have initiative! It helps with setting up you archery bombs faster, and it may be discarded when reconciling your hand depending on the situation.

Conditions
These Wraith conditions are very important in this build as they help with initiative gaining, and exerting companions, or adding threats. Don’t try to cut the conditions from the deck as they help tremendously with the Shadow side, unless you really know what you are doing.

flung into the fray: The perfect card for Morgul archery! It stacks a Wraith minion during the regroup phase, and can exert a companion when playing it off of the condition. It gets really annoying for the Free Peoples player when they keep stacking Gothmog, Morgul Commander, or Ulaire Cantea, faster than winds while discarding their possessions.

fat one wants it: Add more threats! Even though you may not get this in your first few hands, it still is important if you do, because it is super when combined with Captured by the Ring.

Streaming to the Field: Makes you gain initiative, and hurts your opponent more! Plus, maybe you can overwhelm a companion with Gothmog, Morgul commander! The rules say that the Free Peoples player must have 4 cards and an extra card in hand for each Morgul Orc you can spot. For instance: You play four Morgul Orcs, the Free Peoples player must have 8 cards in hand to have initiative (usually you don’t get this many out). Please tell me if I have this description wrong with streaming to the field.

So here is the Shadow Side:

Morgul Archery (35 cards)
Here is my favorite Shadow side, it really works well, and cycles fast with a Dwarven Stacking Fellowship side.

Minions:
Morgul lurker x4
Morgul Ambusher x4
Morgul creeper x3
Morgul banner-bearer x2
Gothmog, Morgul commander x2
Morgul squealer
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul x2
Ulaire Cantea, faster than winds x2
Gollum, nasty treacherous creature

Events:
captured by the ring x4
there came a cry x3

Conditions:
streaming to the field x4
flung into the fray x2
fat one wants it

Strategy:
Play as many conditions as you can, and try to set up as quickly as possible with threats and streaming to the field. Try to keep an extra copy of Streaming to the Field in hand; your opponent might discard the one in play! Save the minions for archery bombs (or play the minions in your hand if you think it really hurts your opponent); play Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul to kill a companion or two when faced against a huge Fellowship. You are the correct judge of the cards; play them as you think is best.

Morgul Archery Matchups:
Here are the Matchups that you could either win, or lose with the Morgul Archery build.

Gondor Knights: Super easy! Save up for an archery bomb, and play Anduin banks to slaughter. Gothmog, Morgul Commander is very useful, since the Knights generally are blow-outs.
Ents: Very easy. Play Anduin Banks at the right time, and bomb them constantly with archery. Just like knights in some ways....
Choke Builds: Probably the hardest of all builds; your Morgul archers rely around a lot of twilight in the pool, so this may be harder. You will probably only get the archery total to +4 every turn once you spot everything, but that threat is generally easy to defend against.
Elves: Really easy! Against elves that use a lot of archery, you can easily defeat them! Since the Shadow player always shoots first, there is more chance that you can win against them. Elvents are also easy, you don’t win skirmishes; you shoot them!
Refuge Rainbow: This strategy may be easy/hard the way your opponent uses it. When I was playing my bro (CBB) against his refuge rainbow build, as soon as he played 6 or more companions, he usually died. Sounds weird? So if your opponent playing refuge rainbow uses only 3-4 companions with refuge out, it is very hard because they keep discarding companions from hand to heal their companions on the table.
Condition Discarding: Not as bad as you think; you have streaming to the field x4, so it will not be that dramatic when they discard a condition (unless they discard it right in the maneuver phase with seclusion).

Okay, finally here is the full decklist:

Free Peoples

Ring-bearer and Ring:
frodo, weary from the journey
the one ring, the ring of rings

Starting Fellowship:
Gimli, Feared Axeman
Sindri, Dwarven Lord

Fellowship:
Gimli, Feared Axeman (Starting Fellowship)
Sindri, Dwarven Lord (Starting Fellowship)
Thrarin, smith of Erebor
Linnar, dwarven lord
out of darkness x2
more yet to come x3
on guard x3
battle tested x4
restless axe
slaked thirsts x4
axe of Khazad-dum x4
ring of accretion
ring of guile
hall of our fathers
loyalty unshaken x3
preparations x2
dark ways
stalwart support

Shadow Side

Minions:
Morgul lurker x4
Morgul Ambusher x4
Morgul creeper x3
Morgul banner-bearer x2
Gothmog, Morgul commander x2
Morgul squealer
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul x2
Ulaire Cantea, faster than winds x2
Gollum, nasty treacherous creature

Events:
captured by the ring x4
there came a cry x3

Conditions:
streaming to the field x4
flung into the fray x2
fat one wants it

Sites:
[3]Trollshaw Forest
[3]North Undeep
[3]city of kings
[2]Hobbiton market
[1]Pelennor flat
[1]slag mounds
[0]Anduin banks
[0]doors of Durin
[0]crags of Emyn Muil

Conclusion
As you can see, Dwarven Stacking can really set up your Shadow, while at the same time annoying your opponent. This Morgul archery strategy works very well against most Fellowships, and really packs a punch.

So thanks for reviewing and rating my Strategy Article!

-Glamdring-

Great minds think alike.~CarpeGuitarrem
Rangers will rule the World!! (CC's Official Ranger Lover)
My Haves/Wants Please look!!

...much debate much hard feelings. ~SOP
TheJord
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:12 pm
Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 486 Location: UK
Will the Orc stacked on Flung into the Fray counts towards Streaming to the Field? Very violent deck, Morgul Orcs are a nightmare to face.
sickofpalantirs
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:36 pm
Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 7750 Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
nice article, I just skimmed it, but you have definitely claimed a 4.
ArrowSop's haves/ top wantsExclamation
(mm)"SoP: you will always be the Official CC Spammer in my heart"
"DáinIronfoot"
Spammers really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you. Razz
macheteman
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 6:56 pm
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 1200 Location: The Jungle
TheJord wrote:
Will the Orc stacked on Flung into the Fray counts towards Streaming to the Field? Very violent deck, Morgul Orcs are a nightmare to face.


no, because a stacked card isn’t in play, to spot something, it must be in play.
Check out my best article The Utterly Corrupt Corruption,
If at first you don't succeed...Sky-diving isn't for you.
"Combat is dangerous. It tends to interupt your breathing process."
ROLF!!!
bobtheorc
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 7:36 pm
Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 1218 Location: Wow, its hot in Iowa
Looks pretty good, but the deck isn’t very new.

Nicely written though.
3 or 4
Exclamation Ban the Overpowered OrcsExclamation
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Glamdring
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:46 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 575 Location:
bobtheorc wrote:
Looks pretty good, but the deck isn’t very new.

Nicely written though.
3 or 4


Isn’t the content of the article a 4? What could I change to make it better?
Great minds think alike.~CarpeGuitarrem
Rangers will rule the World!! (CC's Official Ranger Lover)
My Haves/Wants Please look!!

...much debate much hard feelings. ~SOP
Glamdring
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:21 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 575 Location:
macheteman wrote:

no, because a stacked card isn’t in play, to spot something, it must be in play.


What do you think of this Article mm?
Great minds think alike.~CarpeGuitarrem
Rangers will rule the World!! (CC's Official Ranger Lover)
My Haves/Wants Please look!!

...much debate much hard feelings. ~SOP
macheteman
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:42 pm
Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 1200 Location: The Jungle
i havn’t had time to review any articles, but i will definitly try to read it as soon as possible.
Check out my best article The Utterly Corrupt Corruption,
If at first you don't succeed...Sky-diving isn't for you.
"Combat is dangerous. It tends to interupt your breathing process."
ROLF!!!
Glamdring
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:17 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 575 Location:
TheJord wrote:
Very violent deck, Morgul Orcs are a nightmare to face.


I agree! Mr. Green I have played this Shadow Side a lot, and it is so fun to play.....
Great minds think alike.~CarpeGuitarrem
Rangers will rule the World!! (CC's Official Ranger Lover)
My Haves/Wants Please look!!

...much debate much hard feelings. ~SOP
Glamdring
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:17 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 575 Location:
macheteman wrote:
i havn’t had time to review any articles, but i will definitly try to read it as soon as possible.


I can’t wait for your input!
Great minds think alike.~CarpeGuitarrem
Rangers will rule the World!! (CC's Official Ranger Lover)
My Haves/Wants Please look!!

...much debate much hard feelings. ~SOP

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