User:Tunadan/forestguls

Forestguls is a strategy appearing in all post-Shadows formats. It is usually restricted to the Ringwraith culture, though a splash from other cultures is occasionally used. It uses site manipulation extensively, and aims to win with strength via Lost in the Woods (11U212) , though it is not a clear-cut beatdown strategy.

The aim of the deck is to make as many sites on the adventure path forests. It usually does so by the Free Peoples side working in tandem with the Shadow, which is a a unique concept to post-Shadows decks. This usually means that you play Smeagol or Gandalf's bag of site tricks, then use Nazgûl that play around with sites, for example, Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders (11S222) , and sometimes Gollum with Led Astray (11U45) .

The Forestgul strategy has also iterated itself as a swarm tactic, using Dark Approach (12R162) and Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow (12U180) .

- Getting Forests -

The deck is usually paired with a Free Peoples side that can manipulate the site path, but it is good to have site manipulation on the Shadow side. There a quite a few ways to do this. Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders (11S222) is a staple of most Nazgûl decks. Úlairë Toldëa, Eighth of the Nine Riders (11S225) can work as well, but is unreliable and largely eclipsed by Úlairë Toldëa, Black Shadow (12U180) , who can recur Dark Approach (12R162) , All Life Flees (18U132) (a powerful hate card), or Too Great and Terrible (3R85) (a must in Expanded). A Gollum splash for threats and recursion via Evil-smelling Fens (5U22) can include Led Astray (11U45) to keep your sites out.