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| The '''Witch-King''' is the chief of the [[Nazgul]], and one of the main antagonists of ''The Lord of the Rings''. In this game, he's the most expensive and most fearsome [[minion]] in the {{C|Ringwraith}} [[culture]]. That high [[twilight cost]] has always limited his use, pushing players towards strategies to get the most out of the few times he can be played, strategies that focus on him as the main threat in your deck, or decks that find a way to reduce his cost. | | The '''Witch-King''' is the chief of the [[Nazgul]], and one of the main antagonists of ''The Lord of the Rings''. In this game, he's the most expensive and most fearsome [[minion]] in the {{C|Ringwraith}} [[culture]]. That high cost has always limited his use, pushing players towards strategies to get the most out of the few times he can be played, or to find a way to reduce his cost. |
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| There are three chief versions of the Witch-King that see common play.
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| == Lord of the Nazgûl ==
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| {{Card|The Witch-King, Lord of the Nazgul}} is the main [[Twilight Keyword|Twilight]] Nazgûl. He makes up for his relatively high cost with his gametext: you can definitely afford an eight twilight minion if you get three [[wound]]s out of him! The fact that he's not [[Fierce]] is a significant weakness, but it's also a strength: you can potentially get six wounds from him in one turn if you use cards like {{Card|Weathertop}}, {{Card|Ulaire Otsea, Lieutenant of Morgul}}, or {{Card|Fell Beast}}. His main limitation is the fact that he needs to exert to wound the ring-bearer, so the Free Peoples player will generally focus any [[direct wounding]] or exertion cards on him if possible.
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| Most Twilight Nazgûl decks focus on winning skirmishes with him and {{Card|Ulaire Enquea, Ringwraith in Twilight}} to pressure and kill or [[corrupt]] the [[ring-bearer]]. He also occasionally appears in other {{C|Ringwraith}} decks, particularly ones that focus on pressuring the ring-bearer like [[Morgul Orcs]] or [[Corruption]] decks.
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| In addition to the cards to make him Fierce, he's often played with the rest of the Twilight Nazgûl corruption tools, like {{Card|It Wants to Be Found}}, {{Card|Resistance Becomes Unbearable}}, and {{Card|Wraith-world}}, all of which help stack burdens and wounds on the ring-bearer. {{Card|His Terrible Servants}} and {{Card|Ring of Rancor}} can help keep him alive and healthy, since [[direct wounding]] is one of the main ways to counter him. Because Twilight Nazgûl decks are so focused on replaying a handful of cards including him, they also often use {{Card|Morgul Skulker}} to [[recur]] them.
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| == Morgul King ==
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| {{Card|The Witch-King, Morgul King}} helps offset his cost by replacing himself with a card of your choice from discard. If you just want to get the most out of the Witch-King himself, {{Card|The Pale Blade}}, {{Card|Ring of Ire}}, or {{Card|Ring of Asperity}} are ideal targets to [[recur]]. He can also grab another copy of himself or a card like {{Card|Out of Sight and Shot}} that can be used to retrieve himself next turn. While he's not quite as efficient as {{Card|Castamir of Umbar}}, he fills a similar role as a threat that can simply keep coming back turn after turn, if your opponent is ill-equipped to deal with a high-strength Fierce minion. If your opponent is ready to handle a large minion, he loses some of his efficiency, but he can offset his cost somewhat by grabbing a card like {{Card|Morgul Gates}} or {{Card|Dark Approach}}, or simply another troubleshooting card like {{Card|Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul}} or {{Card|Stricken Dumb}}.
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| To get any use out of his gametext, however, you need at least a trickle of [[threat]]s. {{Card|Ulaire Cantea, Faster than Winds}}, {{Card|Morgul Destroyer}}, {{Card|A Shadow Fell Over Them}}, and {{Card|Ulaire Lemenya, Eternally Threatening}} are some of the best options. {{Card|Captured By The Ring}} is another popular option, if you're using a {{C|Gollum}} splash. He's also popular in (very large, often 100+ cards) decks that self-[[mill]] using {{C|Dwarven}} cards like {{Card|Ever My Heart Rises}} and {{Card|Realm of Dwarrowdelf}} to put most of your deck in the discard pile, giving him a wide selection of useful tools to retrieve.
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| In [[King Block]] and [[Movie Block]], the main deck that uses him is [[Nazgul Beatdown]], although he also occasionally appears in [[Morgul Orcs]] due to his ability to [[recur]] {{Card|Morgul Brute}} and {{Card|Morgul Destroyer}}. He's still useful in later [[format]]s, but he's largely overshadowed in most decks by his first incarnation in the next block.
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| == Captain of the Nine Riders ==
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| {{Card|The Witch-King, Captain of the Nine Riders}} is a staple of all post-[[Shadows]] Nazgûl decks. His [[toil]] ability is ridiculously strong, often allowing you to play him for close to free. It does mean [[exert]]ing your other minions, but that's a relatively negligible cost except when faced with [[direct wounding]], and it can even be an advantage in the case of [[Enduring]] minions. The bit of extra cycling you get if he survives the [[skirmish phase]] is a nice little bonus.
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| Compared to the other versions of the Witch-King, he's easy to simply toss into any deck that has plenty of {{C|Wraith}} minions with two or more [[vitality]]. He shows up in [[Forestguls]] and [[Morgul Orcs]] as a cheap threat to go with their other cheap threats, and in [[Corruption]] decks as a way to put wounds on {{Card|Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One}} or other [[Enduring]] Nazgûl to use {{Card|Dark Swooping Shadows}}. The only noteworthy deckbuilding consideration is that Morgul Orc decks tend to use {{Card|Morgul Hound}} and/or {{Card|Morgul Spearman}} over {{Card|Morgul Whelp}} in post-Shadows formats, because the Whelp can't be exerted to help play Captain of the Nine Riders.
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| == Other versions of the Witch-King ==
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| Most other versions of the Witch-King are only rarely played, appearing only in one single block or not at all.
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| * {{Card|The Witch-King, Lord of Angmar}} is too expensive to ever get much use out of his gametext. He's only ever played in [[Fellowship Block]] [[Nazgul Beatdown]], just for his 14 [[strength]] Fierce [[body]], and even then that deck occasionally uses Lord of the Nazgûl instead. [[Forestguls]] in [[Expanded]] could arguably afford him with {{Card|Dark Approach}}, but they'd generally rather have Captain of the Nine Riders.
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| * {{Card|The Witch-King, Deathless Lord}} has weaker gametext than Lord of Angmar. He's mainly notable because of a rule quirk that makes him even weaker. Because "do this or that" cards force you to pick the choice you can do most fully, he can't kill an [[ally]] with one [[vitality]] unless the entire [[Fellowship]] is [[exhausted]] and there's no ally with two or more vitality to wound instead. He's worse than any other version of the Witch-King from other blocks, and there isn't a popular {{C|Ringwraith}} deck in [[Towers Block]].
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| * {{Card|The Witch-King, Black Captain}} goes all-in on attempting to [[overwhelm]] [[companion]]s, usually with the help of {{Card|Between Nazgul and Prey}}. The problem is the high twilight cost of both of those cards. He requires too much help from [[exertion]] cards to get his strength up, and if you don't use BNAP, he will probably only do one wound without another card to make him Fierce. He's too finicky and unreliable for such an expensive minion, and mostly serves as a scapegoat for complaints about (the far superior) {{Card|Castamir of Umbar}}.
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| * {{Card|The Witch-King, Black Lord}} is fun and has some neat synergy with {{Card|Shapes Slowly Advancing}}, but outside of that single, very gimmicky deck, he probably won't get to exert the ring-bearer unless you start with him in hand. That won't happen often unless you play the full four copies of him and [[Mulligan|mulligan]] aggressively for him. Few decks want to do that, because the twilight cost discount of Captain of the Nine Riders is more reliable and generally larger.
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| * {{Card|The Witch-King, Conqueror of Arthedain}} was created in the [[Hunters Design-a-Card Contest]]. That's where his notoriety stops. Possibly inflicting an extra wound or two after winning a fierce skirmish is an unreliable effect and his 14 strength doesn't go far against [[Hunters Block]]'s many [[hunter]] companions, so this card is almost never played.
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| * {{Card|The Witch-King, Dark Lord}} is far behind the power curve for a minion of its cost. It's highly debatable whether he's even better than Lord of Angmar; his only real merit is the unpredictability of his gametext.
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| == Versions of the Witch-King == | | == Versions of the Witch-King == |
