Starter - Osgiliath

Format: King Standard

Author: Phallen

Ring-bearer:
Ring:

Adventure deck:

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x
2x
1x
2x
1x
1x
1x
1x
2x
3x
1x
2x
1x
1x
1x
1x
2x
1x
1x
4x
3x
1x
1x

Shadow Draw Deck:
4x
2x
2x
4x
3x
1x
3x
2x
3x
2x
2x
1x
2x
3x
1x

Notes

Knights of Gondor defending Osgiliath from Morgul's Orcs.

Free Peoples: (starting Alcarin and Turgon. I recommend a low bid, 0-2)
Not quite a Knight setup I've done before, but I don't think they'll struggle much against Isenorcs and that's the only deck with Saruman's Power. With everyone else they'll be basically executing the strategy as intended. I'm always pleasantly surprised by City Wall. Alcarin is 10 strength with bow and sword and will heal himself to assign to a minion bearing First Level (or City Wall for a fierce skirmish). Note that the assignment happens before the healing, so against Edge of Fangorn you can effectively dodge an exertion from Weary by doing this.

Turgon is mainly here to kill a minion bearing First Level, or at least wound it so that it may be killed by another companion's Gondor Bow. In this kind of deck, I tend to use him and lose him since there's not the setup to rely on him. Against corruption and swarm decks, however, you will benefit from using him and First Level more strategically. There is a lot of healing around; you'll get at least one of Aragorn, Athelas, or Might of Numenor before long to get some extra use out of him when you need it.

Most of your companions are 6 strength knights, largely interchangeable. No need to get attached. They will often make good bearers for I Will Go to die as spectacularly as possible. Aragorn or Alcarin could survive being assigned to two big minions, but for how long? Ingold is a great bearer for the bow, but remember that you've got 9 conditions plus two Take Cover. You can spend a fort to heal him and a fort to allow Gondor Bow to start wounding, but this deck is not built to rely on that. Also remember that you need 3 knights to transfer most conditions for free. Don't recklessly lose your third knight, or the other two (and Frodo!) will be close behind. Against the Moria shadow, you want to keep all of your companions alive for as long as possible. This deck's main answers to more minions than companions is to have a ton of companions.

Shadow:
Building a deck around Morgul Orcs ("Morcs") beyond Whelp, Brute, and Destroyer is tricky. Even with just those, there's so much temptation to clog the hand with Orcs that need to spot a Nazgul and then never find a Nazgul because of it. I want to tinker with this build before going to the more conventional.

Spearman is worse than Brute and Destroyer except that he will "work" in a double. The hope is that an opponent will beat Spearman with some second-string fighter without a damage bonus while the main skirmishers are tied up with more important minions. If his exertion doesn't land on the Ring-bearer, then it lands on someone who might be in danger from being killed by one of your Orcs. If it does land on the Ring-bearer, you get the benefits for your other cards.

I don't know that I can really do a Morc strategy overview justice. You need to play an expensive Nagul to get wounds from Destroyer and Spearman which feed Hound and Whelp, but you definitely *don't* want to hold onto an "almost" killer hand turn after turn hoping to get the missing piece you need to turn it into a killer hand. Maybe you'd be able to get that Lemenya you need for a nice 6 minion play in 2-3 turns, but more likely your Frodo can only survive 1-2 without getting rid of some minions to draw more FP cards!

A hand full of Orcs is the start of a nice swarm, especially when Frodo's got a few wounds and there are a few threats on board. You may not even need the extra bump from a Nazgul. Similarly, if you don't have any Orcs but can play 3 Nazgul, you probably should (unless one will just die a meaningless death. Looking at you, Otsea). The power of Morcs comes from their flexibility, their ability to swarm OR beatdown OR something in between, depending on the opponent. A deck can be designed to primarily do one thing or the other, or even corrupt with some different minions, without losing too much of that flexibility.