What are some stellar tank minion sets?

[The Dewk]

I recently made a tanky free peoples deck, and I would like a tank shadow side to go with it. But I've never really had any experience with it.

What kind of minions are best for tanking? Or what individual minions are good tanks when you look at their power/twilight cost ratio?

Any advice..?

[hrcho]

What do you mean by tank minions? Tanks are not famous for winning many skirmishes, but surviving. That's their ultimate goal. You want your minions to kill, not just survive. Except when you're running a stopping shadow, but you still have to put some killers on the table.

I guess Shelob is a minion that can be considered a tank. You better define what you mean by tank and I'll try to help out.

[The Dewk]

Oh, my bad. I suppose by "tank", I mean minions who are almost guaranteed to *not* be swatted aside (like some trolls I've seen and such). If tank is more of a term for those like shelob, what is the term for the minions I have in mind..?

[TheJord]

What formats are we talking here?

Troll Swarm in Standard, Castamir, Desert Lord with Seasoned Leader in Movie would be the first "tanks" that come to mind.

[The Dewk]

I'm talking movie format. But yeah- those types of cards you listed are the types I'm referring to. Just big, bad, usually expensive fellows.

[TheJord]

Then Sauron, tLotR and The Balrog would also get in there.

[jcb213]

Castamir with Raider Halberd
Cave Troll of Moria with Hammer (and maybe chain)
Lurtz with Broad-bladed sword (or Lurtz's sword if you aren't worried about archery)
Troll of Cirith Gorgor (even better if he's roaming and Advance Captain is in play)
Desert Lord with Seasoned Leader and a Mumak
The Witch-King, Lord of the Nazgul with a Fell Beast
Any Witch-King with The Pale Blade
Multiple copies of Great Hill Troll with lots of engines on the table

[macheteman]

honestly, i think the best shadow that fits what you seem to be looking for would be a troll swarm deck.

gate troll
troll of udun
troll of cirith gorgor
troll of gorgoroth, aos
cave troll
great hill troll, as previously stated

etc...

you don't need all of them, but pick a strategy and tune your deck to it. gate troll and troll of udun are essential because of the -4 twilight cost. one option is keyward to play cave troll and then the gate troll and troll of udun.

probably a better option is the engine/swarm, but i think both have their pros and cons.

hope this helped,

-mm

[jdizzy001]

The only "problem" with tank minions, aside from troll swarm from standard, is twilight. In my experience tanks usually come out alone (due to twilight) so unless you can get lots of twilight with which to play lots of tanks, they're only going to damage a few comps then get sent to the discard pile. Then again, the title of this thread isn't "the logistical problems of tank minions" you just wanted a list of tough minions which has already been supplied. Oh, goblin runner + balrog, terror of flame and shadow is a good combo.