Raiders and Burdens, part 2 | openCards

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Raiders and Burdens, part 2

    Gandalf icon Raider icon

    This Deck was build by Cynthia Hart and was published first on "Lord of the Rings Online (lotrtcg.decipher.com)".

    Raiders and Burdens, part 2

    Deck listing:

    Adventure path:

    Eastemnet Downs (4 U 324)
    Fangorn Forest (4 U 332)
    Golden Hall (4 U 338)
    Great Hall (4 U 353)
    Hornburg Parapet (4 U 351)
    Hornburg Wall (5 U 118)
    Palantír Chamber (4 U 363)
    White Rocks (4 U 346)
    Wizard's Vale (4 U 359)

    Starting fellowship:


    Draw deck - "free" cards (40):
    Gandalf Ally (4):
    Treebeard, Earthborn (4 R 103)
    Gandalf Artifact (1):
    Gandalf's Staff, Walking Stick (4 R 91)
    Gandalf Companion (9):
    Birchseed, Tall Statesman (5 U 15)
    Forest Guardian (5 C 17)
    Gandalf, Greyhame (4 R 89)
    Lindenroot, Elder Shepherd (5 R 19)
    Gandalf Event (12):
    Down From the Hills (5 R 16)
    Grown Suddenly Tall (4 R 92)
    Have Patience (4 C 93)
    Roll of Thunder (4 U 99)
    Under the Living Earth (4 C 105)
    Wizardry Indeed (4 U 108)
    Gandalf Possession (1):
    Shadowfax (4 R 100)
    Shire Companion (5):
    Merry, Learned Guide (4 C 310)
    Pippin, Woolly-footed Rascal (4 C 314)
    Sam, Samwise the Brave (4 C 316)
    Shire Event (8):
    Severed His Bonds (4 C 319)
    Swiftly and Softly (4 C 321)

    There are no "shadow" cards in this draw deck.

    Hints & strategie notes for this Deck

    The second in a series of three articles about Easterling Burden Strategies.

    "They strike only when their prey is haggard and tired."

    In our previous article on burdens; we talked of adding burdens to corrupt the Ring-bearer. But the Easterling burden adding mechanism works well combined with Raider minions that are made more powerful based on the number of burdens the Ring-Bearer has.

    Use any of several methods to add burdens, but instead of trying to add enough to corrupt the Ring-bearer, add them and play minions that are made more powerful by the burdens. Often, your opponent will do half the work for you, while bidding to go first.

    One of the best minions to take advantage of this strategy is Easterling Axeman. It only takes 2 burdens to make him a strength cost 9, fierce minion. And he only costs 2 twilight to play. Combine him with Easterling Infantry (cost 3, strength 8 with 3 burdens making him fierce and damage +1) and the Easterling Trooper (cost 4, strength 9 with 3 burdens making him fierce and damage +1) and you have the Raider version of the popular Isengard Trackers.

    A nice minion to use with the Easterling Axeman, Infantry and Trooper is the Easterling Skirmisher. Each time you play this 1 cost minion you can add 1 twilight for each burden (limit 4). Use him to get the extra twilight you need for a swarm, or to use the event cards (such as Men of Rhun) in your hand that support the minions already on the table.

    If you prefer big and beefy to small and fierce, there are minions like Desert Legion. Although not an Easterling, this Raider minion fits in well with the burden adding Easterling. Desert Legion works best when your deck is loaded with burden adding cards as he gets stronger and meaner the more burdens Frodo has. Its not always easy to do, but get 6 burdens on Frodo and for a cost of 6 you have a strength 18, fierce, damage +1 minion on the table.

    Not as big as the Desert Legion is the Easterling Captain. He only needs 2 burdens to key his initial text, but with a little extra twilight (think Easterling Skirmisher!) he can be used to pump up any Easterling on the table (including himself) to an awesome force.

    It's not just minions that key off the burdens either. The event card Fearless adds +1 to the strength of a Southron for each burden the Ring-bearer has (limit of 5). An even better card is Men of Rhun which changes from making a Raider strength +3 to +4 if you can spot 4 burdens.

    Combine all of these cards with your basic burden adding cards (such as Easterling Lieutenant, Easterling Guard, Gathering to the Summons and Vision from Afar) and your opponent won't know whether to worry about corruption or being killed.

    Just in case all of this is not enough to stop your opponent in his tracks, be sure to add Palantir Chamber as your site 9. If your opponent only has a few members of his fellowship left and you have Desert Legion and Easterling Captain in your hand; leave the burdens on Frodo for those extra pumpers. But if he has a lot of companions and Frodo has 6 - 8 burdens, spend those burdens to pull Easterling Axeman or Easterling Infantry leaving a few burdens behind to activate their text. The ideal scenario is to be facing Ring Bound Rangers with a couple of Gathering to the Summons in your hand. Use all the burdens to pull as many Easterling Axeman from the discard pile that you can and the play Gathering to the Summons during the first skirmish to activate their text.

    Our third and final article in this series will look at combining Raiders with other burden oriented cultures. Most notably, Sauron and Nazgul.

    The deck below is larger than my normal deck, but using Ent companions allows you to cycle through the cards faster than usual and search for the ones you really need. If your opponent is using Ring-bound Rangers, discard your Easterling Lieutenants and Easterling Guards to allow your Ents to participate in Skirmishes and archery fire.