Witch-King

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 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.

There are three chief versions of the Witch-King that see common play.

Lord of the Nazgûl

The Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgul (2R85) is the main 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 wounds 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 Weathertop (1U336) , Úlairë Otsëa, Lieutenant of Morgul (1U235) , or Fell Beast (6U83) . 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.

Most Twilight Nazgûl decks focus on winning skirmishes with him and Úlairë Enquëa, Ringwraith in Twilight (2U83) to pressure and kill or corrupt the ring-bearer. He also occasionally appears in other Ringwraith decks, particularly ones that focus on pressuring the ring-bearer like Morgul Orcs or Corruption decks.

In addition to the cards to make him Fierce, he's often played with the rest of the Twilight Nazgûl corruption tools, like It Wants to be Found (2U78) , Resistance Becomes Unbearable (2U79) , and Wraith-world (2R86) , all of which help stack burdens and wounds on the ring-bearer. His Terrible Servants (2R77) and Ring of Rancor (9R44) 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 Morgul Skulker (1U258) to recur them.

Morgul King

The Witch-king, Morgul King (7R221) 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, The Pale Blade (1R221) , Ring of Ire (9R+43) , or Ring of Asperity (9R42) are ideal targets to recur. He can also grab another copy of himself or a card like Out of Sight and Shot (7R204) that can be used to retrieve himself next turn. While he's not quite as efficient as Castamir of Umbar (8R51) , 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 Morgul Gates (1R217) or Dark Approach (12R162) , or simply another troubleshooting card like Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul (1U231) or Stricken Dumb (2R80) .

To get any use out of his gametext, however, you need at least a trickle of threats. Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds (7R211) , Morgul Destroyer (7U190) , A Shadow Fell Over Them (15R182) , and Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening (15R185) are some of the best options. Captured by the Ring (7C53) is another popular option, if you're using a Gollum splash. He's also popular in (very large, often 100+ cards) decks that self-mill using Dwarven cards like Ever My Heart Rises (4R46) and Realm of Dwarrowdelf (2R12) to put most of your deck in the discard pile, giving him a wide selection of useful tools to retrieve.

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 Morgul Brute (7R188) and Morgul Destroyer (7U190) . He's still useful in later formats, but he's largely overshadowed in most decks by his first incarnation in the next block.

Captain of the Nine Riders

The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders (11R226) 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 exerting 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.

Compared to the other versions of the Witch-King, he's easy to simply toss into any deck that has plenty of 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 Úlairë Enquëa, Thrall of the One (10R68) or other Enduring Nazgûl to use Dark Swooping Shadows (10R58) . The only noteworthy deckbuilding consideration is that Morgul Orc decks tend to use Morgul Hound (7C192) and/or Morgul Spearman (7C201) over Morgul Whelp (7U202) in post-Shadows formats, because the Whelp can't be exerted to help play Captain of the Nine Riders.

Other versions of the Witch-King

Most other versions of the Witch-King are only rarely played, appearing only in one single block or not at all.

• The Witch-king, Lord of Angmar (1R237) 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 Dark Approach (12R162) , but they'd generally rather have Captain of the Nine Riders.
• The Witch-king, Deathless Lord (6P122) 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 Ringwraith deck in Towers Block.
• The Witch-king, Black Captain (8R84) goes all-in on attempting to overwhelm companions, usually with the help of Between Nazgûl and Prey (8R67) . 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) Castamir of Umbar (8R51) .
• The Witch-king, Black Lord (12R183) is fun and has some neat synergy with Shapes Slowly Advancing (11R217) , 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 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.
• The Witch-king, Conqueror of Arthedain (17R144) 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.
• The Witch-king, Dark Lord (19P40) 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.

Versions of the Witch-King

Portrait	Name	Game Text
	The Witch-king, Lord of Angmar (1R237)	Fierce. For each other Nazgûl you can spot, The Witch-king is strength +2.
	The Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgul (2R85)	Twilight. Return to Its Master may not be played. Each time The Witch-king wins a skirmish, you may exert him to wound the Ring-bearer twice.
	The Witch-king, Deathless Lord (6P122)	Fierce. Each time a companion is killed in a skirmish involving a Nazgûl, wound an ally twice or exert a companion.
	The Witch-king, Morgul King (7R221)	Fierce. When you play The Witch-king, you may remove a threat to take a card into hand from your discard pile. The Ring-bearer cannot take threat wounds.
	The Witch-king, Black Captain (8R84)	Enduring. Each Man skirmishing The Witch-king loses all strength bonuses from weapons.
	The Witch-king, Captain of the Nine Riders (11R226)	Fierce. Toil 2. (For each character you exert when playing this, its twilight cost is –2.) Muster. (At the start of the regroup phase, you may discard a card from hand to draw a card.)
	The Witch-king, Black Lord (12R183)	Fierce. The Witch-king is twilight cost –1 for each wound on the Ring-bearer. Each time a companion is played, you may reveal this card from hand to exert the Ring-bearer.
	The Witch-king, Conqueror of Arthedain (17R144)	Fierce. Each time the Witch-king wins a fierce skirmish, you may exert a companion for each companion you can spot over 4.
	The Witch-king, Dark Lord (19P40)	Fierce. Skirmish: Discard a Nazgûl from hand to make The Witch-king strength +1 (or strength +2 if you can spot that discarded Nazgûl). ​

Cards which mention the Witch-King by name

Portrait	Card Name	Culture	Card Type	Game Text
	The Pale Blade (1R221)	Ringwraith	Possession • Hand Weapon	Bearer must be The Witch-king. He is damage +1. Response: If The Witch-king wins a skirmish, exert him to discard a Free Peoples condition.
	Stricken Dumb (2R80)	Ringwraith	Event	Maneuver: Exert The Witch-king to discard a tale or weapon.
	Black Flail (8R70)	Ringwraith	Possession • Hand Weapon	Bearer must be a Nazgûl. Skirmish: If bearer is The Witch-king, exert him and spot a possession borne by a character he is skirmishing to discard that possession.
	Ring of Ire (9R+43)	Ringwraith	Artifact • Ring	Bearer must be The Witch-king. Skirmish: Exert bearer twice to make a minion damage +1. Response: If a player reconciles, return bearer to his owner’s hand.
	The Pale Blade, Sword of Flame (11R214)	Ringwraith	Possession • Hand Weapon	Bearer must be a Nazgûl. If bearer is The Witch-king, each time he wins a skirmish, you may exert him to add a burden.
	The Witch-king’s Beast, Fell Creature (12U184)	Ringwraith	Possession • Mount	Bearer must be a Nazgûl. If bearer is The Witch-king, after all skirmishes and fierce skirmishes have been resolved, you may exert him twice to make him participate in one additional assignment and skirmish phase.
	White Faces Burned (V1_43)	Ringwraith	Event • Skirmish	Make a skirmishing twilight Nazgul strength +1 for each wound on the Ring- bearer (and damage +1 if that Nazgul is The Witch-king). ​