Troll

Trolls are massive, strong, and dim creatures. In this game, they are a Shadow race, appearing first as Moria minions, and later as Sauron and Orc culture minions.

The first troll minion was Cave Troll of Moria, Scourge of the Black Pit (1R165) , a Moria minion which set the tone for most later troll cards. It's expensive but cheaper under certain conditions, both from its own Twilight cost reduction at Underground sites (sites 4 and 5 in Fellowship Block) as well as from Troll’s Keyward (1R199) . It's so strong that it threatens to overwhelm unprepared companions. And it's both Fierce and Damage +1, allowing to do four wounds if allowed to rampage unchecked. He wasn't always played, but he'd occasionally appear in Moria beatdown, a strategy that focused less on lots of cheap minions with Goblin Scimitar (1C180) and more on higher-strength minions supplemented with Moria Axe (1R190) , or simply to help keep the Free Peoples player honest.

For the next nine sets, all of the trolls were Sauron culture, starting in Ents of Fangorn. That set introduced Gate Troll (6R103) and Troll of Udûn (6R106) . These saw only occasional play, owing to their high cost. Trolls weren't a common sight until Siege of Gondor's Besieger trolls: Great Hill Troll (8C102) and Troll of Gorgoroth, Abomination of Sauron (8R108) . Those trolls were key parts of the Besieger deck of King Block and Movie Block, which played many Engine conditions and possessions to set up to overrun the Fellowship with discount-price trolls. (This set also had Olog-hai of Mordor (8R105) , but its much-more-difficult discount condition meant that it's generally skipped.) Sauron besiegers is a common Shadow side in Movie Block to this day. Mount Doom later introduced Troll of Cirith Gorgor (10R101) , a strong minion similar to the Cave-Troll, and it can be played in any Sauron deck that can afford its high Twilight cost.

After Mount Doom, Shadow cultures were reorganized, and all subsequent trolls are Orc culture. In Expanded, there are two main strategies featuring trolls: Troll Swarm and Mountain Troll Swarm.

Troll Swarm is a beatdown strategy that centers on Troll’s Keyward, Keeper of the Beast (12R105) . By including many (often 20+) troll minions in your deck and using a Free Peoples side with strong filtering, you can reveal a whole hand full of trolls, generating enough Twilight to play those trolls. Typically this deck plays Fierce, Damage +1 trolls like Ordnance Grunt (13R117) , Cave Troll of Moria, Savage Menace (12R85) , Porter Troll (11R135) , Beastly Olog-hai (11R108) , plus the very annoying Tower Troll (15R117) . It also runs Relentless Warg (17R89) to get extra uses out of the Keyward, and cards that can recur the Keyward and his warg like Goblin Hordes (11R123) , Orkish Warg-master (17R87) , and Half-troll of Far Harad (14R12) .

Mountain Troll Swarm is a swarm strategy, although not properly a deck of its own. It plays a swarm of cheap orcs, often with exertion abilities or abilities that activate when they come into play, then uses Mountain-troll (15R112) to discard and recur all of them. This strategy works with many other Orc culture strategies. Warg Super Swarm plays many cheap orcs, especially ones that generate more Twilight like Orkish Runner (17C83) , Orkish Scout (17R84) , and Scurrying Goblin (11U137) , then supplements them with Warg possessions and cards that replay wargs. Mountain-Troll also works well with decks featuring Demoralized (11U114) , which play and replay minions that exhaust companions (chiefly Pitiless Orc (12U99) , Rallying Orc (12R100) , and Orc Hammer (11S130) with Scavenging Goblins (12C102) ) to either supplement a direct wounding strategy, an archery strategy, or simply to set up a huge unbeatable swarm. Mountain-Troll is also a common addition to Lurker orc decks, which plays efficient swarms of Lurker orcs that all buff each other.

Note that trolls are considered to be a separate race from Half-Trolls in this game. Cards that apply to "trolls" do not also apply to half-trolls.