User:Cease/Corruption

Corruption is a Shadow strategy of corrupting the Ring-bearer, usually by adding burdens until the Ring-bearer's resistance drops to 0. Several cultures can add burdens, but only a few are regularly used in corruption strategies: Ringwraith, Raider (specifically Easterlings), Moria (using Lost to the Goblins (1R189) ), Sauron and Orc.

Almost every burden-placing Shadow card comes with a choice: "Place a burden or do [x]." Outside of the rare bomb combo deck, corruption decks generally confront the Free Peoples player with a choice, to either accept the burden or accept the other cost, despite the fact that the other cost may result in other setbacks. Because the One Ring can always be used to convert wounds to burdens, undirected wounding (such as Archery or the wounds caused by threats after you kill a character) can also be thought of as a burden effect: your opponent has to either eat the wounds as burdens, or eat them as actual wounds. If you want to be successful with a corruption deck, don't think strictly in terms of how many burdens you can stack, but rather how you can use burdens to create pressure. Each burden-placing Shadow culture creates pressure in different ways.

While corruption or forcing your opponent to make bad choices are the main benefits of burdens, they're not the only benefit. A number of Shadow cards spot burdens to generate some benefit. Many of these cards are very strong in their own right: Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul (1U231) ("Shotgun Enquea") can shoot an opposing companion right off the table if you can spot enough burdens, possible triggering a cascade of threat wounds. The big man himself, Sauron, The Lord of the Rings (9R+48) , gets a Twilight discount from spotting burdens. Several cultures specialize in spotting burdens like this, especially Ringwraiths and Easterling Raiders. Similarly, some post-Shadows cards harm companions with reduced resistance, particularly Neekerbreekers’ Bog (11S249) and Horribly Strong (11R43) .

There are a small handful of cards that lower all companions' resistance, allowing you to score a surprise corruption kill in your own Shadow Phase. The most useful and culture-agnostic of these is Throne of the Dark Lord (17R105) .

Ultimately, you may find that you're not going to manage to corrupt the ring-bearer. That's not the end of the world. Cards that spot burdens still work, and a number of the cultures that place burdens can also consume them for benefits. Gollum, Dark as Darkness (9R+28) and Morgul Brute (7R188) , in particular, fit into many corruption decks as alternate or supplementary ways to make use of burdens. Consuming the burdens is obviously anti-synergistic with a corruption strategy or cards that spot burdens, but it does allow your deck some more flexibility.

sites

Site

fellowship: 4 - eregion hills

king 4 - pelennor prairie 5 - stewards tomb 7 - pelennor flat 8 - northern ithilien 9 - slag mounds

shadows 0 - Courtyard Parapet (13U188) also weaker alts: pelennor flat (1) 1 - slag mounds 1 - stewards tomb 3 - caves of aglarond, also weaker abandoned mine shaft. underground but game text is v limited

Sauron culture

Sauron culture had the first viable corruption strategy. It remains one of the best corruption cultures in Fellowship Block, and many of the same corruption strategies remain relevant later formats. Using cards like Desperate Defense of the Ring (1R244) and Thin and Stretched (1R279) , Sauron adds burdens slowly to wear down a Ring-bearer's resistance. Even if you aren't close to securing a corruption win, Enduring Evil (1R246) is a very strong pump when enough burdens are stacked.

From early on, Sauron corruption had fairly strong synergy with Sauron Discard: not only does Desperate Defense of the Ring allow discards in lieu of burdens, but The Irresistible Shadow (1R252) is a way to turn mill and discard, combined with some corruption, into a victory condition. (The similar Despair (1R243) is largely useless.) Irresistible Shadow does have some downsides, however: firstly, if your opponent's deck is depleted, you've probably defanged their Shadow side, so your Free Peoples can just run down the site path unimpeded. Secondly, while Frodo can have 10 or more base resistance, alternate ring-bearers are almost corrupted at 5 burdens. This last obviously isn't a factor until Movie Block when alternate ring-bearers are introduced, however.

In later sets, Grishnákh, Orc Captain (5R100) is a solid, efficient minion, although it's rare that your opponent will eat the burdens. Wisp of Pale Sheen (6C108) is a weak minion that can stack on a burden if it survives a skirmish phase.

Orc Officer (7U302) can stack on burdens, if you can set up overwhelms. To trigger it, you can use Enduring Evil (1R246) , high-strength orcs like Orc Slaughterer (10R95) , or combos that set up unexpectedly high-strength orcs, like Mordor Guard (7C287) / Mordor Veteran (7U292) / Fires Raged Unchecked (7R269) in Sauron Threats, or Advance Scout (10U78) / Advance Marauder (10C76) / Flames Within (10C85) in Sauron Roaming. Even if you can't overwhelm a key character, the mere presence of Orc Officer makes chump blocking with a weak or exhausted companion unattractive.

When you do apply a burden, one or more copies of The Ring is Mine! (10U97) can stack on even more. It's never a bad play to just use this opportunistically to score a burden here and there, but it's especially satisfying when your opponent takes a calculated risk to go down to low resistance, then gets blown away by an unexpected 2-3 extra burdens.

If you do manage to stack up some burdens but don't manage enough to corrupt the Ring-bearer, you can always play Sauron, The Lord of the Rings (9R+48) instead.

Ringwraith culture

While the earliest Ringwraith corruption cards were, charitably, a big old mess, Nazgul have always been good at maximizing the damage once you get the ball rolling. Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul (1U231) and Úlairë Toldëa, Messenger of Morgul (1R236) can pick off companions if the burdens stack up, Gates of the Dead City (3R81) can grind down the Fellowship to open up a regular win through murder, Úlairë Nelya, Ringwraith in Twilight (2R84) is cheap and cheerful if you've got enough pressure on the Ring-bearer, Blade Tip (1U209) and Black Breath (1U207) can compound pressure and prevent some types of healing, and Return to Its Master (1R224) can score a surprise win if the Ring-bearer is in dire straits. The only problem was actually winning skirmishes to generate any pressure in the first place, since a couple strong skirmishers could hold off the Nazgûl nearly indefinitely.

In Fellowship Block, this was difficult. Drawn to Its Power (1U211) is strong but generally won't apply many burdens over the course of a game unless you're winning anyway, and It Wants to be Found (2U78) is strong but requires using Twilight Nazgûl, which are mostly lousy. Twilight Nazgûl have lots of temping-looking tools to stack burdens and pressure the Ring-bearer, like Resistance Becomes Unbearable (2U79) , Wraith-world (2R86) , The Twilight World (1R228) , Úlairë Enquëa, Ringwraith in Twilight (2U83) , and Úlairë Otsëa, Ringwraith in Twilight (3U86) but they tend to clog up your hand as you wait for a perfect setup that never happens. Twilight Nazgûl are too expensive and too bad at actually winning skirmishes to ever really get going.

Ringwraith corruption slowly improved in later sets. Two Nazgûl in particular, Úlairë Attëa, Wraith on Wings (7R210) and Úlairë Toldëa, Winged Sentry (6R88) fit snugly into traditional Nazgul Beatdown. Toldea's game text was a little unreliable -- Wraith culture mostly lacks good initiative tools -- but unlike the Twilight Nazgûl, you weren't paying too much for a minion that wasn't particularly fearsome in a skirmish.

Wraith corruption decks finally fully came together in Movie Block, first with Morgul Orcs. Morgul Brute (7R188) (often in conjunction with Morgul Destroyer (7U190) ) forces the ring-bearer to eat a wound or a burden, and the latter is an attractive prospect when faced with the threat of minions like Morgul Whelp (7U202) or Morgul Hound (7C192) . While feeding the burdens to the Brute obviously won't get you any closer to corrupting the ring-bearer, the mere threat of doing so makes it difficult for your opponent to make optimal assignments, and gives you the option to close out the game with violence instead of corruption. The Morgul Orcs deck is also often a swarm deck, which also results in more pressure on the ring-bearer, especially when it's an alternate ring-bearer like Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms (9R+33) .

Those alternate ring-bearers were another boon to Wraith culture. While Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow (2R75) was nothing new, but previously he was no threat to the ring-bearer as soon as Frodo had a hand weapon. Many of the most popular alternate ring-bearers stack burdens or wounds on themselves every time they get into a skirmish, meaning that Bill showing up to frown at them actually does some significant damage.

Nazgûl got their day in the, uh, shadows as well. Úlairë Enquëa, Thrall of the One (10R68) , can stack as many as three burdens every time he comes out (which can be repeatedly, with the help of Out of Sight and Shot (7R204) , Flung Into the Fray (8U71) , Morgul Squealer (8R77) , Ring of Ire (9R+43) , or Ring of Asperity (9R42) ). All you need to do is pair him with cards that will exert him, like Bent on Discovery (1R206) , The Ring Draws Them (3U83) , and Between Nazgûl and Prey (8R67) . If you're running a whole deck of Enduring Nazgûl like him, Dark Swooping Shadows (10R58) is an option on the others. In Expanded, Keening Wail (11R211) and The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders (11R226) are strong additions.

Expanded added a bunch of different strong corruption tools, which can be used on their own or in conjunction with Enquea TOTO. Woody-End (11S266) eats a burden, but it's both an alternate win condition and burden-positive

expanded:

• Úlairë Attëa, Second of the Nine Riders (11R219) exerts to burden once some are stacked
• Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders (11S222) for site abuse
• Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow (12U180) to recycle events
• Úlairë Otsëa, Duplicitous Specter (17R141)  ???
• Woody-end eats a burden, but worth for enquea toto
• gates of the dark city + dark fell about him + lingering shadow (+ dark temptation)
• sense of obligation
• The Witch-king, Black Lord lol exerts, prob too bad to mention
• Shapes Slowly Advancing is technically corruption but a different thing (and Morannon Plains btw), and also Put Forth His Strength (not exp) sucks

raiders

Easterling corruption often instead goes for a beatdown strategy with Small Hope (7R159) , Easterling Captain (4R225) , Easterling Polearm (6U79) , and Raider Bow (7C155) . However, with cards like Easterling Lieutenant (4C228) , Easterling Guard (4C226) , and Vision From Afar (4R259) , corrupting the Ring-bearer is also possible.

Moria corruption is the rarest of these, with only the occasional Lost to the Goblins (1R189) bomb deck. This archetype is rare, but piling up 12 burdens in one Shadow Phase can be quite an unpleasant shock for your opponent!

orc

retribution (usually with Orc Spear or mordor scimitar), porter troll, mocking goblin

Orc corruption is potentially the strangest corruption strategy, recyling Isengard Underling (11C125) with Goblin Hordes (11R123) , which recurs Bound to its Fate (11U110) , and also playing Orc Miscreant (11C131) with Relentless Warg (17R89) for extra burdening power.

gollum

heavy burden, not yet vanquished

stinker

dark as darkness

threat strategies in general

Notable cards in other cultures

Saruman, Master of the White Hand (17R116)

Orthanc Berserker (3R66) ? Traitor's Voice (1U142) ?

Free Peoples counterplay

As strong as these strategies may seem, the Free Peoples player has some counterplay. Shire and Gandalf cultures in particular specialize in burden removal.

The biggest problem in Shire culture is Sam. The most notorious version of him, albeit one banned in Expanded, is Sam, Son of Hamfast (1C311) , with his ability to remove up to 3 burdens at once. Then, he can linger in play and turn any excess healing into more burden removal (and Hobbit Hospital decks have plenty of healing), or just die to the largest minion. Even when it's not Son of Hamfast, most versions of Sam can take over as ring-bearer if Frodo dies. While Sam's resistance is much lower, all of the existing burdens get wiped when Frodo dies. Helpless (2U76) can help Wraith decks be a little less vulnerable to Sam shenanigans, but it can't stop Son of Hamfast from coming down and wiping three burdens immediately.

Sam isn't the only strong Shire burden removal tool. There are a few standout reusable tools that remove burdens, like A Light in His Mind (10U108) , Bilbo, Aged Ring-bearer (13R142) , and Golden Perch Ale (18U108) (and the last will often be protected with Scouring of the Shire (18R112) ). All this burden removal would be excessive, if it weren't for The Shire Countryside (3R113) . Multiple copies of the Countryside can turn any burdens and burden removal into quite a lot of healing, which can make a corruption deck's gameplan counterproductive. It's wickedly difficult to do anything about Shire Countryside engines, unless you can pack very strong condition removal. Even then, it's almost always a bad matchup.

Gandalf culture also has some very strong burden removal tools. Narya (3R34) will slowly erode any progress you've made, albeit at high cost. Gandalf’s Pipe (1U74) can remove quite a few burdens repeatedly, but only appears in Pipeweed decks, which are rare and not especially strong. After Shadows, in Expanded, Gandalf gets one of the strongest reusable burden removal tools in the game: Shadowfax, Greatest of the Mearas (17R24) (usually combined with Citadel to Gate (7R33) to wipe the threats). Too Great and Terrible (3R85) is one option to remove him, and possession hate like Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds (7R211) or Grond, Hammer of the Underworld (8R103) can deal with the horse. Those aren't the only problem cards: Watch and Wait (12R35) is popular in any deck with strong skirmishers (notably Ents), and Járnsmid, Barding Emissary (12R30) is strong, reusable burden removal as well. Just be ready to focus down problematic companions when facing a Gandalf deck in Expanded.

not listening, elf-song but many core cards, including One Good Turns Deserves Another , Déagol, Fateful Finder (13R46) , and even Smeagol himself, add burdens

gondor dwarf rohan rely on a splash

scroll of isildur, gimli rb, galadriel rb

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