Starter - Minas Tirith

Format: King Standard

Author: Phallen

Ring-bearer:
Ring:

Adventure deck:

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

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

Notes

Gondor's Noble Leaders repelling the besieger invasion. I'd say this is the strongest FP of the lot with a very powerful Shadow, I suspect this deck has an edge on all the other ones.

Free Peoples: (Starting Boromir and Pippin. I recommend a low bid, 0-2)
FP is built tough, lots of healing from duplicate copies and damage bonuses galore. No sword for Frodo thanks to Boromir and no burden removal thanks to Boromir and Faramir, which has left more room for everything else anyway. Don't get too attached to any copy of Noble Leaders and you should almost always discard it when it has no tokens because you can't use Hidden Knowledge otherwise.

Pippin is here to take wounds and be returned to hand. While your opponents are roaming he'll also be able to kill things, but after that returning him to hand will clear his wounds and let you replay him. Note that he will take you up to 6 companions and leave you vulnerable to cards like Enquea and Greed. It comes out the same whether you choose to kill him or discard him from hand, so do whichever allows you to get the most out of him.

I wanted to use Aragorn, Driven by Need for some interaction with Hidden Knowledge, but Ranger of the North is among the best companions in the game and I'm concerned that Moria can put out a substantial swarm to overcome Boromir's +6 alone. Right now, healthy Boromir and Aragorn with Faramir and Denethor means a Shadow player will need 13 minions to put the necessary 5 (!!!) minions on Frodo. Every wound on Aragorn reduces the need for 1 minion, and every wound on Boromir reduces the need for 6 strength (either 1 or 2 minions depending on the remainder). Still, any threats you add will be fuel for site 9 and you have no way to discard Goblin Swarms and any minions stacked there. 13 minions is a massive swarm, make no mistake, but I think for a savvy Moria player it is well within reach. There's easy ways to increase or decrease that number as necessary, so we'll see what happens.

Shadow:
The only Shadow to control sites, and perhaps the most complicated one to play. Discarding minions carelessly can open the door to doubles, but no sites means no kills and potentially no stops anyway. Once it gets going, 3 twilight for fierce 14+ strength minions butchers anyone.

So, how do you get it going. To take a site, you've got to get Troop Tower and any besieger alive until regroup. Tower Walkway is very, very steep; unless you're in a bind or you're at the end of a double and didn't have anything better to do, that's rarely the best play. It's just in here for the strength boost. Troop Tower is your guy. Gorogoroth Soldier and Gorgoroth Troop are the two minions most capable of surviving on their own, but obviously you play what you can get.

A common mistake that I make is holding onto Gorgoroth Pillager or Ransacker until I have a site. But remember, you need to get one specific card (Troop Tower) out as soon as possible. Until that happens, everything else is a distraction. Don't clog your hand with stuff that will be great in a few turns! Doing so will just make "a few turns" take a few turns longer :P

Once you have a site, Gorgoroth Troop is a ruthless powerhouse. His stats are way too good to cost 6 and yet, there he is. I would prioritize stacking minions for most of the game unless you deem you need some key wounds. Even if your opponent leaves site 6 healthy, you are increasing the strength of all your minions and stowing away some big boosts in your Ransackers. Stack minions that are about to die in skirmishes, but otherwise you often want to wait to use his text until the fierce skirmishes so they can all deal a wound in the regular skirmishes too.

You should *always* stack minions on the lowest site you have controlled. Always, no exceptions. There's no interaction in the game that benefits spreading them out or putting minions on a higher controlled site, and if your opponent liberates a site you don't want to lose anything that you don't have to.

On that note, once you have one site you are not out of the woods yet! Get an extra or two as buffer (and for more strength out of Tower Walkway). If your opponent can liberate your only site with a few cards stacked on it, they have just cost you 2-3 turns' worth of progress. Odds are, you're not going to be able to make that back before the game ends.