Editing Raider Culture

{{C|Raider}}s are the evil men who live in the domains under Sauron's shadow from the lands to the south and east of Gondor and Rohan. In this game, {{C|Raider}} culture is one of two [[Shadow Alignment|Shadow]] [[culture]]s of evil [[Man|man]] [[minion]]s, and is itself split into three [[subculture]]s: the ambushing, oliphaunt-riding archers of the [[Southron]] Haradrim, the disciplined, ferocious warriors of the [[Easterling]]s, and the larcenous piratical [[Corsair]]s of Umbar. Stereotypes of dark-skinned, vaguely Persian or Turkic invaders who subscribe to an evil foreign religion is not a concept that has aged terribly well, but, hey, playing them means sometimes you get to step on Legolas with a giant war elephant or send an unkempt Peter Jackson to single-handedly crush the entire Fellowship, so you take the good with the bad.

{{C|Raider}} culture as a whole was first introduced in [[The Two Towers]], alongside another, separate faction of evil men, {{C|Dunland}}. Initially, {{C|Raider}}s only included the first two subcultures, Southrons and Easterlings. Both subfactions received more cards and developed over the course of [[Tower Block]], but really came into their own with [[The Return of the King]]. Then [[Siege of Gondor]] introduced [[Corsairs]] and their boats, introducing what would remain a top-tier strategy in [[Movie Block]] to this day.

All three {{C|Raider}} subcultures were retired after [[King Block]]. The 11th set, [[Shadows]], reorganized and consolidated the Shadow cultures. All of {{C|Raider}} culture was combined with the other evil [[Man|men]] to make {{C|Men}} culture.

==Shared attributes and shared cards==
The entire culture is one culture, but the way it's split into three means that most decks pick a [[subculture]] and stick with it, only using cards from other subcultures to supplement their strategy. In this way, {{C|Raider}} culture resembles {{C|Isengard}}, although the [[Cultural Enforcement|subcultural enforcement]] isn't nearly so strong. Part of the looseness of this subcultural enforcement is that some cards are weakly aligned with one subfaction or another. A card like {{Card|Discovered}} meshes well with the Easterling plan of placing and [[spot]]ting [[burden]]s, but it's a useful tool for all three subcultures.

{{C|Raider}}s have powerful but generally expensive [[event]] cards. Case in point, {{Card|Discovered}} is a staple of {{Card|Raider}} decks. That isn't as memorable as the flashy, expensive, and risky cards to unexpectedly remove troublesome companions: {{Card|Whirling Strike}}, {{Card|Red Wrath}}, and {{Card|Fierce in Despair}}. In theory, these three cards are meant to enable a strategy where you use the Southron signature keyword [[Ambush]] to pay for these powerful events, but the most popular Ambush card isn't an Southron card anyway! In practice, they're mostly used to soak up extra twilight from an opponent who has [[flood]]ed, which is common in [[Movie Block]]. This predilection for expensive events also extends to many of their more mundane effects: non-Corsair subcultures have relatively overpriced [[pump]] events, {{Card|On the March}} and {{Card|New Strength Came Now}}. These are rarely played; instead, players tend to use the many {{C|Raider}} utility [[condition]]s like {{Card|Under Foot}}, {{Card|Small Hope}}, and {{Card|Field of the Fallen}} that have pump effects attached to their main effect.

Speaking of which, {{C|Raider}}s have powerful support area cards to enable [[cycling]]. {{Card|Under Foot}} is a keystone of [[swarm]]ing strategies (often multicultural or [[rainbow]] strategies like [[Moria Navy]] or [[Stupid Swarm]]). {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}} not only allows you to never have to worry about a [[Hand Clog|hand clogged]] with Shadow cards, but also lets you retrieve a situational card or play a particularly troublesome card over and over again. With the addition of {{Card|Corsair War Galley}}, this can also give you a near-continuous hold on [[Initiative]], needed to enable certain Southron and Corsair strategies.

In theory, {{C|Raider}}s also have strong shared possessions that you play on minions, like {{Card|Raider Bow}} and {{Card|Raider Polearm}}. In practice, both of these cards are only common in one single subculture, and neither one is popular in the culture it's styled after! Both of them appear below along with the corresponding decks.

Most {{C|Raider}} minions are too tightly integrated into their subculture to really work in any deck that isn't devoting significant space to {{C|Raider}} cards. There's one exception: {{Card|Desert Lord}}. He's great for [[exhaust]]ing annoying characters that need to [[exert]] to use their abilities, like {{Card|Legolas, Greenleaf}}, {{Card|Cirdan, the Shipwright}}, and {{Card|Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien}}. You can just slam him down, get two [[direct wound]]s out of him, and maybe even get a third one when he goes to [[skirmish]]. He's just a really great value card that fits into a variety of decks.

==Southrons==
''See also:  [[Southron]]''

Southrons have turbans and bows and they're sneaky ambushing desert warriors but also they have oliphaunts. I guess they're sneaky giant war elephants. Southrons want to have lots of [[twilight]] sloshing around after the [[Shadow Phase]] to pay for expensive events and minion abilities. They also want to have [[initiative]], they like to generate and spot and consume [[threat]]s, and occasionally they [[Site Control|control sites]]. They also [[hate]] overly large or [[rainbow|multicultural]] [[Fellowship]]s. Their subcultural enforcement is sometimes tricky: if a card mentions "a {{CultureIcon|Raider}} archer" or "a mounted {{CultureIcon|Raider}} Man" then it's a card for Southrons, since they have (almost) all of the {{C|Raider}} archers and all of the {{C|Raider}} mounts. Southrons are all over the place, but in practice they have about three-ish common decks, depending on how you count.

Those decks have a shared toolbox. Southrons love to have a bunch of [[threat]]s sloshing around, and {{Card|Rallying Call}} or {{Card|War Towers}} can generate those threats cheaply. These threats can be turned into wounds by killing a companion, or used to fund cards like {{Card|Southron Marksmen}} or {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}}. {{Card|High Vantage}} can efficiently stymie many wounding strategies. They also have some above-average [[hate]] cards for [[Rule of 6|overly large]] or [[rainbow]] Fellowships, such as {{Card|Southron Leader}}, {{Card|Southron Commander}}, and {{Card|Southron Veterans}}. All of these cards are fairly situational, but that's fine! As long as you have {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}}, you can pitch them into discard easily, or retrieve them later at your convenience.

The least important part of Southrons is their signature keyword: '''[[Ambush]]'''. '''Ambush''' generates twilight when minions are assigned. In theory, you'd use it to fund the expensive {{C|Raider}} events, or conditions like {{Card|Howl of Harad}} or {{Card|Harsh Tongues}}. In practice, the Ambush numbers are too small to pay for very much, and the minions with Ambush are largely too weak to be worth bothering with. Insofar as Ambush is used in Southron decks at all, it's largely a little extra on a card that's good enough to use anyway.

Southrons also dabble in [[site control]], but their cards for actually controlling sites are so inefficient that they're rarely worth bothering with. The only card of note is {{Card|Southron Archer}}. Southron Archer can be [[splash]]ed into other cultures' site control decks, or [[Movie Block]] decks focusing on Southron archers can use {{Card|City Gates}} as a win-win option.

===Southron direct wounding===

The Southron direct wounding deck is two decks, both using very similar strategies. Cards like {{Card|Desert Warrior}} and {{Card|Desert Sneak}} trigger at the beginning of a skirmish, either consuming twilight or looking for [[initiative]] to cause a wound. These two styles of cards form the basis for two different decks.

The first deck was mainly known as the "Ambush" or "Howl of Harad" deck. Using mainly [[Tower Block]] cards, it turns a twilight [[flood]] into [[direct wound]]s. {{Card|Desert Warrior}}, {{Card|Desert Spearman}}, and {{Card|Desert Soldier}} turn the twilight from cheap Ambush minions like {{Card|Southron Runner}} or {{Card|Southron Scout}} into direct wounds. {{Card|Southron Assassin}}, {{Card|Howl of Harad}}, and {{Card|Whirling Strike}}. While this is the basis of the Legolas starter deck in [[Battle of Helm's Deep]], it was never a strong or competitive deck. [[King Block]] adds some cards clearly aimed at this strategy, like {{Card|Raider Bow}}, {{Card|Red Wrath}}, and {{Card|Cast Unto the Winds}}, but it never quite comes together.

Instead, the successful version of this deck is [[Southron Initiative]], using mainly [[King Block]] cards. {{Card|Desert Sneak}}, {{Card|Desert Runner}}, and sometimes {{Card|Desert Scout}} all wound companions for free when you have [[initiative]], plus they themselves have Ambush to fund the expensive support cards above like {{Card|Howl of Harad}} or {{Card|Whirling Strike}}. {{Card|Southron Invaders}} recycles these super-cheap minions. To get initiative, you can either use {{Card|Corsair War Galley}}. ({{Card|Harsh Tongues}} is too expensive and {{Card|Southron Chieftain}} is too unreliable.) If you're using the Galley, you can just trigger it with {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}}, or run the deck as a hybrid with [[Corsair]]s. Since you have initiative, cheap [[splash]]able cards that exploit initiative like {{Card|Gollum, Plotting Deceiver}} or {{Card|Morgul Lurker}} can be useful.

''Example deck: [https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,9060.0.html Echo of Luthien/Initiative Southrons], a Movie Block deck by sgtdraino on The Last Homely House forums. This version of the deck is a hybrid with Corsairs, and also runs a bunch of other [[splash]]able minions.''

===Southron Archery===
''See also:  [[Southron Archery]]''

Southron [[archer]]s aren't quite as dirt-cheap as {{Card|Moria}}'s: the cheapest ones are {{Card|Southron Bowman}} and {{Card|Southron Archer}}, followed by {{Card|Elite Archer}}. But, similar to [[Uruk Archery]], they also have archer minions with enough strength to skirmish decently well, with {{Card|Desert Lord}}, {{Card|Haradrim Marksman}}, and {{Card|Southron Marksmen}}. (There are some more-expensive archers that can exploit a heavily flooded twilight pool, but they are overpriced and not popular.) {{Card|Southron Bow}} is fairly expensive, but it's worth at least one extra archery wound, and two if you play it on a non-archer. The deck usually runs {{Card|Rallying Call}} and/or {{Card|War Towers}}, both to fund Southron Marksmen and {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}} but also to push even more wounds every time a companion dies. {{Card|Seasoned Leader}} lets minions like {{Card|Desert Lord}} get an extra use of their abilities, and that lends itself naturally to hybridizing this deck with the Southron Mumaks deck below. Alternately, you can just combine this with cheap efficient archers from other cultures, like {{Card|Goblin Bowman}} and {{Card|Morgul Ambusher}}, or use the low-cost Southron archers in an archery deck focused on another culture, or just a [[rainbow]] archery deck.

''Example deck: [https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=12034.msg98602#msg98602 Southron archers with boats], a Movie Block deck by Cease on The Last Homely House forums. This is an example of a hybrid using {{Card|Mumak Chieftain}}.''

===Southron Mumaks===

{{Card|Mumak Chieftain}} is just a really strong card. As long as you have a {{Card|Mumak}} in the discard pile to retrieve, the Chieftain is a 14 [[strength]], 3 [[vitality]] minion with '''[[Fierce]]''' that also generates some twilight. {{Card|Seasoned Leader}} combined with {{Card|Field of the Fallen}} can push that strength up, too. There's even a very dirty [[combo]] where you use Seasoned Leader to recycle {{Card|Ithilien Wilderness}} (or a slightly more-expensive, more-useful card like {{Card|Under Foot}}) in your discard pile over and over, each time turning 1 threat into +2 strength to set up an overwhelm. Once you're sure you'll get it, spend a threat to play {{Card|Bold Men and Grim}}, which immediately replaces the threat and lets you discard an extra companion. {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}} will help pitch these cards into the discard pile for you to set up the combos.

The issue with this deck is what you do until you get those cards into discard. {{Card|Desert Lord}} and {{Card|Southron Marksmen}} tend to exert themselves, making them very good {{Card|Seasoned Leader}} users, but there really isn't an efficient Southron skirmisher for about 4-6 twilight besides the Chieftain. As a result, Southron Mumaks are largely a secondary strategy, added onto one of the other two main Southron strategies.

==Easterlings==
''See also:  [[Easterling]]''

Easterlings are disciplined, ferocious warriors of the, uh, East. Unlike the Southrons, they have a very straightforward game plan: they want to put at least two [[burden]]s on the [[ring-bearer]], then [[Beatdown|beat the Fellowship down]] with efficient '''[[Fierce]]''' minions. The subculture had the efficient minions from day one, but it didn't really come into its own until [[Return of the King]] added some key cards to easily place the necessary burdens, as well as some [[possession]]s to round things out.

The main Easterling deck is a [[King Standard]]/[[Movie Block]] deck: [[Beasterlings]]. The deck uses {{Card|Small Hope}} (and sometimes {{Card|Easterling Footman}}) to place two [[burden]]s quickly and efficiently. Once that's done, the ideal setup is {{Card|Easterling Captain}} [[Bear|bearing]] {{Card|Raider Bow}} to generate twilight for his ability and {{Card|Easterling Polearm}} to protect him from being killed. This can [[overwhelm]] many companions, or generate enough twilight to use {{Card|Red Wrath}} to deal with the ones you can't. {{Card|Easterling Army}} is somewhat less efficient but can serve the same role or [[pump]] the Captain. {{Card|Easterling Axeman}} is very efficient when you can spot two burdens, but is unlikely to score any [[overwhelm]]s like the other two. {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}} helps set up the combo, {{Card|Easterling Lieutenant}}, {{Card|Vision From Afar}}, and {{Card|New Fear}} can set even more burdens, and {{Card|Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul}} harshly punishes too-large Fellowships or anyone who lets the burden count stack too high. 

''Example decks: [https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=11370 You Must Be Under 5ft to ride this Fellowship/Easterling Burden Beasts] by RJH777 and [https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=11370.msg94828#msg94828 an untitled Beasterling deck] by mathes further down in the same thread. Both decks are Movie Block decks, originally posted on The Last Homely House forums. RJH777's deck goes wider, focusing more on corruption, while mathes's deck focuses more on scoring overwhelms.''

Easterlings are also sometimes used as part of a [[Rainbow|multicultural]] [[Corruption]] deck. {{Card|Small Hope}}, {{Card|Easterling Lieutenant}}, {{Card|Vision From Afar}}, and {{Card|New Fear}} all have fairly weak [[cultural enforcement]], only requiring that you spot one Easterling. It's possible to add more corruption tools to an Easterling deck, or add an Easterling contingent to a broader corruption deck to quickly set up a few burdens.

==Corsairs==
''See also:  [[Corsair]]''

Corsairs were the third and last {{C|Raider}} subculture. Rather than being somewhat worrying racial stereotypes like the other two, they're instead all cameos from the crew of the ''Lord of the Rings'' films. If you've felt that Peter Jackson should be as terrifying as the [[Balrog]], then Corsairs have you covered.

Corsairs were introduced with [[Siege of Gondor]], and focus on some of the new [[King Block]] mechanics. They stack [[culture token]]s on their ship [[possession]]s in the [[support area]]. They want to spot those tokens with {{Card|Corsair War Galley}} to seize [[initiative]] to activate many of their cards, but they also want to consume those tokens to [[recur]] cards from the discard pile. Corsair decks have lots of moving parts, but despite the complexity, it's one of the strongest Shadow sides of [[Movie Block]].

There's one main, eponymous Corsair deck, and it's a [[Movie Block]] [[meta]] staple. It plays {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}} and {{Card|Corsair War Galley}}, often fishing them out of the deck with {{Card|Corsair Boatswain}}. It then stacks tokens on them with a variety of middling-cost minions like {{Card|Corsair Plunderer}}, {{Card|Corsair Marauder}}, and sometimes {{Card|Corsair Lookout}}, discarding all of the opponent's [[possession]]s and [[Ally|allies]] in the process, while [[cycling]] any unwanted cards out of the hand very easily. {{Card|Black Sails of Umbar}} helps make sure none of the tokens go to waste. Many of these cards are fairly situational, but that's fine; any unneeded cards can simply be discarded to {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}} instead.  Likewise, if anyone starts popping the ships, they can simply be recycled with another copy of {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}}.

Once it starts to set up, the Corsair deck has two basic gameplans. The main plan is to play {{Card|Castamir of Umbar}} over and over, possibly supported by {{Card|Raider Halberd}} to exert him and {{Card|Wind That Sped Ships}} to make absolutely sure he never loses a skirmish. If the opposing Free Peoples deck can comfortably handle a 28 strength '''fierce''' skirmisher, then Corsairs can instead go wide, [[swarm]]ing all of their utility minions onto the table with the help of many copies of {{Card|Black Sails of Umbar}} and possibly {{Card|Under Foot}}.

The dual game plans, combined with the strong cycling and resilience to [[hate]] makes Corsairs one of the top Shadow sides of [[Movie Block]], and even keeps it in the running in later formats like [[Expanded]], despite no new cards coming out for {{C|Raider}} culture after [[Mount Doom]].

''Example deck: [https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,7884.0.html Elven Telepathy - Corsairs], a deck by Murphdaddy on The Last Homely House forums. While this deck is technically for [[Expanded]], the Shadow side is completely legal for [[Movie Block]], and well-suited to that format.''

===Variants===

It's very easy to graft Corsairs onto any {{C|Raider}} deck. {{Card|Ships of Great Draught}} is just a very powerful card in any {{C|Raider}} deck. And while you could run four copies of it, {{Card|Corsair Boatswain}} will download it for you, and maybe absorb some archery while he's there. And since you're running boats now anyway, maybe you could run {{Card|Corsair War Galley}} to seize [[initiative]]. All of these can help set up your other {{C|Raider}} strategy, albeit at the cost of diluting it.

It doesn't even have to be a {{C|Raider}} deck! [[Moria Navy]] is a [[swarm]] deck that combines the Corsair ships with {{Card|Under Foot}} and [[Moria Culture#The Moria Swarm Engine|the Moria Swarm]] [[Value Engine|engine]] to pump out huge swarms of both Corsairs and {{C|Moria}} [[Orc|goblin]]s. It's not quite as reliable as either non-hybrid deck because of [[cultural enforcement]], but when it goes off, it produces many, many more minions than either.

''Example deck: [https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=9378.5 Hobbit/ent and Moria's Navy], a Movie Block deck by Not a Zombie on The Last Homely House forums.''

Similarly, since you're seizing initiative anyway, you might look at [[splash]]able cards in other cultures that benefit from initiative in your own Corsair deck. A common addition is a {{C|Gollum}} splash: {{Card|Gollum, Plotting Deceiver}} can [[recur]] himself, and set up cards like {{Card|Let Her Deal With Them}}, generate threats with {{Card|Fat One Wants It}}, or simply serve as another [[body]] for a [[swarm]].

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{{Culture Table}}

[[Category:Cultures]]