Machine Gun Enquea

My! Time flies fast during the holidays, it's already been over a month since the last post.

While it would be nice to do something holiday themed, I thought it would be more fun to share one of the most brutal strategies to have ever hit the lands of Middle Earth: Machine Gun Enquea.

This was a combo that was only possible in the Open environment, but still shocking nonetheless.

Using Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul

and cards that add burdens, the most popular being Morgul Brute,

you get your opponent to 5 burdens. You then begin to exert Enquea to wound companions.

Now, you're saying to yourself, "you can only would three times before Enquea's exhausted, no big deal."

That's when you realize you can use the Ring of Rancor to heal Enquea, adding on the number of wounds you can deal for the cost of removing a burden.

And now you're saying to yourself, "well as soon as you remove the 5th burden, you can't use Enquea's text anymore!". That's where the fun of playing in Open comes in. Using Site Path manipulation, you place your opponent's Fellowship at the Slag Mounds

Now, each time you kill a companion, you add a burden back in. Placing your wounds strategically, you can exhaust multiple companions before unleashing the full fury of the machine gun, killing a companion, adding a burden, then removing the burden to heal Enquea, and repeating the process, until only the Ring Bearer is left to face your minions, not the least of which is the Fierce, Strength 11, healable one with the smoking machine gun.

Prance on!

It's been a while since I've posted! But in the interim, several new players have received welcome packages from me and I hope they enjoy their new cards. Please feel free to submit deck lists or commentary on the game, and I'll throw it up on the blog!

I thought I'd write about a simple card today that I've been thinking a lot about lately, since it encompasses so many of the things I like about Lord of the Rings: The Prancing Pony.

There are two really brilliant things about this card. The first is that it allows you to automatically pull Aragorn from your draw deck. I've always been a fan of eliminating chance as much as possible from your game. If you're dependent on Aragorn for a strategy for your deck, stocking four of him in your draw deck and hoping that you draw him is sometimes just not good enough. For the cost of a decent starting bid, and then another burden, you can ensure that this key part of your strategy is always available.

The second thing I like about the Pony is that it's available to both players. This is something great about the Site Path in the Lord of the Rings. Both players share the pros and cons of each site. While this may benefit a certain player more (i.e. one player didn't stock Aragorn in his/her deck), it keeps the playing field more level.

The next time you're creating a site deck, think about how you can craft your path to minimize the luck of the draw from your deck, and how the text benefits both you and your opponent!

Free Black Rider Packs!

The first two people to comment on this post get a Black Rider pack free!

Free Packs!

I wanted to change things up a bit and give my readers some incentive to check back on the blog early and often, so I'm starting a contest of sorts.

Some time this week, I will be post a new entry titled "Free Black Rider Packs". The first two people who respond to the post with the comment "First" (and "Second" after the first has posted) will get a free Black Rider pack from me! I'll even pay for the shipping.

In order for me to contact you to get your shipping address, you have to be a Follower of the blog, so use the Followers gadget on the left side of this page if you're not a member already. I'll be able to contact you directly using the gadget.

Hopefully this will be fun for all, and if it is I've got plenty more stuff to give away!

Double Blades of Eowyn

Here's a quick and simple combo taking advantage of three powerful cards from Return of the King:




Play Merry and Eowyn in your Starting Fellowship. Stock 4 of Dernhelm's blade in your deck. Each skirmish, you can:

1. Play Dernhelm's Blade to wound a minion Eowyn is skirmishing.
2. Discard Dernhelm's Blade to make Eowyn strength +2.
3. Return Merry to hand to play Dernhelm's blade again. Wound the minion Eowyn is skirmishing again.

If Eowyn is riding a horse that can exert the minion she is skirmishing, this should be enough to kill most minions. Add on some archery, and there's few minions that Eowyn can't kill!

The combo has the added bonus that when you return Merry to hand, he loses all wounds that were on him, making him a great "pin-cushion" for archery damage himself.

Hobbit Hospital

I've been taking another trip down memory lane, to the Fellowship Block, where a deck existed that was quite powerful, but never got much attention. Called 'Hobbit Hospital', the deck used the following cards to essentially ensure that your Fellowship of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin were fully healed every turn:





Coupled with the Merry that was able to bump his fellow Hobbits' strength



and a few Hobbit Swords and Skirmish events, the four Hobbits became quite powerful with their ability to free themselves of all wounds each turn. Despite it's power, the deck was probably not as strong as the Beastagorn decks of the day, which is probably what lead to its being over-looked, but if you ever feel like representing the Shire, don't forget about the healing powers of the Hobbits!

Virtual Cards from Spain!

Since the Lord of the RIngs TCG began, players have been creating 'Dream Cards'. After Decipher officially stopped production of the game, players continued to develop these dream cards so that they had new material to play with.

One of my loyal followers from Spain, Darkpadawan, provided me with the following 10 cards from a virtual expansion he called 'The Animals'. He apologizes in advance for any spelling and grammatical errors he may have made. I applaud and thank him for his stellar job on creating the look and feel of new Lord of the Rings TCG cards. Enjoy!

Site 9

I thought I'd take a look at the cards that are often over-looked: Sites!

Although the site path became much more interesting after the Return of the King block, many players could not bring themselves to move past the first three block of the game (affectionately called 'the movie block').

For those who remained true to the game as it was in its glory, the only option was to use sites that were limited to a specific site number.

Here are two of the most powerful site 9s from the Return of the King block, each if used in conjunction with a burden deck would easily result in a corrupted ring-bearer!

Solo Gandalf?

Before Reflections came out, there was a popular option (a popular, but very, very risky option) of trying Solo Frodo: playing just Frodo in your deck (with possibly one or two starting companions that you intended to kill early). The purpose was to deprive your opponent of twilight so that they couldn't play enough minions to overwhelm Frodo, if at all.

After Reflections and the introduction of alternate ring-bearers, numerous candidates became available for this technique, perhaps the most interesting being Gandalf:



Of course, with such a powerful companion as your Ring-Bearer, there must be a draw-back, and with the Solo method, the only option here is to add three burdens, so you'll need to pack



and other burden removing cards.

With so many cards to make Gandalf a beast, you're obligated to try out Solo Gandalf!

PATHS

I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane, way back to the Fellowship of the Ring set. This card was a staple in most decks, and for a long time considered the most powerful card in the game.



As alternate ring-bearers who had the ability to win skirmishes became more popular, this card saw less use; but there was never anything quite as satisfying as throwing Frodo up against an un-wounded Witch King and playing four of these to kill him!

Dark Followers

Following up on the theme of Followers, I wanted to showcase a Follower for the Shadow side, Saruman. Just like Followers for the Free Peoples side, these cards can be added on to minions during the Maneuver phase. Saruman gives a strength bonus in addition to an exertion to the defending companion. Add him on to a fierce or damage +1 minion and you can easily kill most companions!

Follow You to Whatever End

I decided to add the "Followers" gadget to the right side of the blog so that any readers can add themselves to show their support of the blog.

In conjunction, I thought it would be fun to show off some Followers from the Lord of the Rings TCG.

This new mechanic was added in the Bloodlines expansion and essentially replaced Allies. Instead of being actual characters that could be targeted by spells, Followers were just played to the support area, and called upon during the Maneuver Phase to perform some bonus.



While seemingly un-powerful, Daddy Twofoot provided a nice update to the Unheeded Deck I previously blogged about.

Follow me and check back often to see what other characters became followers of the Fellowship.

My Old Sword, Sting!

It's been a while since I last posted, and I see that two commenters have been trying to reach me! Please try my contact email again, there was an issue with GoDaddy routing the emails.

And of course I couldn't make a post without showing off a great card, so I give you Sting, Elven Long Knife!

One of the few cards to give a bump to strength, vitality and resistance, Sting is a must for any deck that has Frodo or Bilbo as the Ring-Bearer. Paired with the right cards that add threats during the Regroup phase, this card can also provide some killer combos!