Enduring Nazgul (Shadow Only)

[ket_the_jet]

I have never played Enduring Nazgul, but I wanted to build a deck for fun and to waste some time. So here's one, I guess.

The Witch-King, Black Captain x3
Ulaire Cantea, Thrall of the One x3
Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One x3
Ulaire Toldea, Thrall of the One x3
Ulaire Otsea, Lieutenant of Morgul x4
Morgul Brute x4
Morgul Destroyer x4

Ring of Rancor x2

Bent On Discovery x4

Relentless Charge x2
Between Nazgul and Prey x2

34 cards is pushing it for me. I like Morgul Gates in this deck and I like Winged Mount in this deck, I just would not know where to fit them in.
-wtk

Edit: Should have looked around more. Seems like The Jord did it better: http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,2125.0.html

[Calam]

Personally, I'd ditch all those Morgul Brute and 1 Morgul Destroyer to add at least 2 Morgul Gates, 1 Black Flail and 2 Fell Beast.  Morgul Brutes are nice with the burdens, but personally I think the Destroyer is more effective with enduring nazgul because an exhausted Witch-King, BC with Ring of Rancor and maybe Fell Beast has a high chance of taking out a companion, and if you have the threats out there it GREATLY deters players from double-moving that turn.  I've played enduring nazgul many times (although not with the best decks) and I can say that it is incredibly frustrating against choke, so I think Morgul Gates is important.  Cycling is sometimes a problem with enduring guls (at least is has been for me in the past) so Bent on Discovery should be nice.

Personally, I'd equip this with a fellowship that can move quickly, because you're probably not going to get a nice beatdown out until the later sites (again, not a rule, just my experience), and you want to force your opponent to double-move as much as possible so you can get at least 2-3 enduring Nazgul out at once, hopefully fierce with Ulaire Ostea, LoM or Fell Beast.  That's where the pain really starts.

[ket_the_jet]

I really like The Ring Draws Them too!
-wtk

[TheJord]

Cheers for the positive remark. I havent had a chance to try that Burden-gul deck, but you really need fierce ToTo.

[ket_the_jet]

No problem. I like to spread credit to where it was due and you had some really good ideas there that I would like.

Too bad Enduring Nazgul are a pain in the #$&*@! to get foiled. So...this will probably just remain one of those decks that I will imagine how it would play as opposed to ever playing.
-wtk

[TheJord]

As for a large deck, having Bent on Discovery and Winged Mount helps.

My other suggestion would be to get rid of the Witch-king as he A) not fierce B) not a good version of a versatile minion. Try Morgul King or Lord of Angmar

[Pepin The Breve]

The morcs would't help so much this deck in my point of view. Morgul Gates, Fell beast (Or maybe better Winged Mount), and Black Flail can be nice addings. Keep in mind that many decks can kill your guys before they ever got a chance to to what they do best so wound prevention is a nice feature.

Morgul Skulker can help you out to get the cards you need most back to the deck. Consider also Ferny, he is your man when you deal with Alternate RB against a deck that doesn't run direct wound.

[Alazzar]

I used to have an Enduring Nazgul deck that I positively loved, but I haven't played it in years and I don't recall what the exact decklist was.  I actually went the "Enduring Beatdown" route rather than ToTO corruption, though.  It was a BLAST to play.

If you're interested in going the beatdown route, lemme know -- I'd be happy to give advice that probably isn't actually as good as I think it is.  =P

[ket_the_jet]

Beatdown was the rout I was going...but I'm always open for any suggestions!


Edit:

My other suggestion would be to get rid of the Witch-king as he A) not fierce B) not a good version of a versatile minion. Try Morgul King or Lord of Angmar

On this note, hopefully Ulaire Otsea, Lieutenant of Morgul can help out. I agree that Black Captain is not as good as some of the others, but the Black Captain (P) just looks so cool. In real life (I'm not building this anyways, I just like the idea of it) I would probably run Morgul King.

-wtk

[Gil-Estel]

Woundprevention is key I guess. Nazzies don't come cheap, and it sucks when they die so easy due to heavy archery or such. Last week I played a game vs dunno who, but I played a deck with Nazguls, he tried to slap me dead with that card that makes you add 3 burdens to wound twice...I had 2 preventers in hand, so he died, mhuhahaha...

Well....point made

[Alazzar]

Ok, like I said, I played an Enduring beatdown deck that I LOVED, and I've gotta say, 4x Black Captain and 4x Fell Beast are key.  That's the type of thing that's really going to wreck your opponent, especially when you draw a Between Nazgul and Prey (I'd suggest adding another 1-2 of those, for sure).

As far as wound prevention goes, yes, it's important.  The idea is that you're going to be injuring your own guys, so you need a little something to make sure the Free Peoples player doesn't finish the job.  I ran All Blades Perish in my deck -- two copies, I believe.  A single copy of Wreathed in Shadow isn't a bad idea, either.

Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur is always a good choice for beatdown, even if he's not Enduring.  He's just way too good.

Ulaire Toldea, Thrall of the One is probably going to be your second-best Enduring Nazgul (after the Witch-king).  Assigning him with BNaP and then healing him twice for damage +2 is enough to kill most companions.

I don't think that Enquea, ToTO is really necessary in this deck.  Yeah, he gets bigger with exertions, but not as big as a Witch-king, and he doesn't get the damage +1 of Toldea.  I'd consider going with Lieutenant of Morgul instead, just for the sake of taking out big fellowships.

I remember in my deck I had a few copies of Black Dart, but that was just because Rohan was pretty heavy and Eomer could often keep from being overwhelmed if he had a mount.  After all, if both the companion and the minion get strength +2 for each wound on the minion, the companion is coming out ahead in terms of overwhelm possibility.  Unless you see yourself fighting a ton of Rohan, I wouldn't worry about the Black Darts.

I actually found an old decklist that's very close to what I used in my state's TOC in 2004, but it's not quite the same; there are definitely a few things I remember being my deck that aren't showing up in this list, though I'm not sure what was taken out/added/whatever.  For starters, the list shows that I only have two Between Nazgul and Prey -- maybe I only owned that many, but always wanted more, 'cause it's so good.  =P

One thing I noticed from my list is that I had a ton of stuff for the Witch-king -- 4 Witch-kings, 4 Fell Beasts, 2 Pale Blades and a Black Flail.  I know it seems kinda combo-intensive, but if you get a mounted, armed Witch-king, there's a good chance two companions are dying.  And Fell Beasts allow you to cycle his weapons out if you're getting jammed up and can't draw a copy of him.  I love Fell Beast in pretty much ANY Nazgul deck.  It's just a perfect card.

[ket_the_jet]

Well, originally I went with Black Captain (P) and Ulaire Otsea, Lieutenant of Morgul because you definitely want any Nazgul fierce. I really do like Fell Beast and my brother plays it quite successfully in his Twilight Nazgul deck, but I am always afraid of playing possessions on my Shadow side. With the exception of Moria, which cycles maniacally, I am always afraid of having four possessions and no minions.

I brought up the issue when people asked why I do not play Mumak with my Southron side...and the answer is simply, "I really fear having four Mumak in my hand and no Southrons." I already have to deal with the occasional hand of a pair of Southron Cheiftain, Harsh Tongues, and Rout (or something like that) where I can't play anything because of the spotting requirements of Southron Cheiftain.

I always thought that Battle of Helms Deep warg decks seemed cool (although I never saw them really played well). I personally would never build a warg deck because of the possibility of having three Warg and three War Warg in my hand and nothing else!

Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur is one of my favorite Nazgul ever. And I always thought that Relentless Charge would be awesome in an enduring Nazgul deck...work on killing the archers and make yourself stronger in the meantime.

Thanks for the suggestions! Of course, as I mentioned, I will probably not ever build this but I have introduced some friends to the game and wanted to figure out what are some of the best builds for Shadow sides that I personally have not ever played.
-wtk

[Alazzar]

You're welcome for the suggestions, even if you never end up building the deck.  =P  It's fun just to discuss strategy anyway, right? 

On the note of Fell Beast, I understand your concern with drawing too many possessions and no minions.  The nice thing about Enduring Nazgul, however, is that you can actually do some pretty significant damage with only a single minion.  The chances of you drawing all four Fell Beasts and NO minions are pretty slim (unless your number of minions in the deck is too low, but that's another problem entirely), and if you draw even ONE Nazgul and don't want a bunch of Fell Beasts in your hand, you can play one Fell Beast and use it to discard the others.  That's why I love the card so much.  It's also nice for ditching some Between Nazgul and Prey if you've got too many or if you can't play 'em 'cause you're facing Dauntless Hunter or something.

[ket_the_jet]

You're welcome for the suggestions, even if you never end up building the deck.  =P  It's fun just to discuss strategy anyway, right?

Basically, this is discussing strategy. My two friends that I recently introduced to the game have okay fellowships ( and Rangers) but both have pretty lacking Shadow sides. Now, Nazgul in general are very-rare intensive...but I guess if I convince one of them to start getting into these hard-core rare intensive decks, well...that means that I did a good job of getting them into the game!

On the Shadow possession root, you could do much, much worse than Fell Beast!
-wtk

[Ringbearer]

Where is the Black Marshal?