World Championship Winning Deck 2019 - Balrog

Post your decks, discuss strategy, ask for tips, etc.
Post Reply
Patric
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:57 am

Dear all,

I want to share my decklist from the Finals with you.

Starting Characters
1 Buthrakaur
1 Bolg
Foul Smelling Paste
1 Doeth
1 Azog
1 Umagaur
1 Shagrat
1 Troll-Chief
1 Ugluk
1 Ufthak
Orders from the Great Deamon
9

Characters
3 The Balrog

Resources
1 Ancient Black Axe
3 Burning Rick, Cot, and Tree
3 Dark Tryst
1 Foe Dismayed
1 Gangways over the Fire
2 Great Shadow
1 High Helm
3 I'll Report you
2 Makers Map +1 vs Heroes
1 Orcs of Moria
1 Regiment of Black Crows
1 Stinker
1 Tempest of Fire -1 vs Heroes
1 The Warg-king
2 Voices of Malice
2 War-warg
2 We have come to Kill
2 Weigh All Things to a Nicety
30

Hazards vs. Minions
1 Adunaphel
1 Altar the Hunter
2 An Unexpected Outpost
3 Chill them with Fear
1 Daelomin at Home
3 Dwarven Travelers
3 Elf-lord Revealed in Wrath
2 Foolish Words
1 Gandalf the White Rider
1 Mouth of Sauron
3 Nameless Thing
1 Pallando the Soul-keeper
1 Radagast the Tamer
2 Returned Beyond All Hope
3 River
1 Saruman the Wise
1 Uvatha the Horseman
30

Sideboard vs. FW
1 Ire of the East
2 Choking Shadows
1 Dror
2 Heart Grown Cold
1 Inner Root
1 Lobelia
1 Neither so Ancient Nor so Potent
1 Pilfer Anything Unwatched
10

Hazards vs. Heroes & FW
1 Adunaphel
3 Ambusher
2 An Unexpected Outpost
3 Assassin
3 Blind to the West
1 Cave-Drake
1 Daelomin at Home
3 Echoes of the Song
2 Foolish Words
1 Mouth of Sauron
3 River
1 Rolled down to the Sea
3 Sellswords Between Charters
1 Uvatha the Horseman
2 Whole Villages Roused
30

Sideboard vs. Minions
1 A Few Recruits
1 Crook-legged Orc
1 Foe Dismayed
1 Great Shadow
1 Heedless Revelry
3 Hill Troll
3 Ill-favoured Fellow
1 Long Grievous Siege
1 Mine or No One's
3 Mountain Maggot
1 Piercing All shadows
1 Prone to Violence
2 Seized by Terror
1 Stench of Mordor
1 Sudden Call
1 Tempest of Fire
1 The Way is Shut
1 Threats
1 Troll Purse
1 Voices of Malice
1 War-warg
1 Wild Fell Beast
1 Witch-king of Angmar
30

Sideboard vs. Heroes
1 A Few Recruits
1 Call of Home
1 Crook-legged Orc
1 Foe Dismayed
1 Great Shadow
1 Heedless Revelry
3 Hill Troll
3 Ill-favoured Fellow
1 In the Heart of his Realm
1 Long Grievous Siege
3 Mountain Maggot
1 People Diminished
1 Piercing All shadows
1 Scroll of Isildur
2 Seized by Terror
1 Sudden Call
1 Tempest of Fire
1 The Arkenstone
1 The Will of the Ring
1 Threats
1 Voices of Malice
1 War-warg
1 Wild Fell Beast
30

Playing Tips:
"The main idear is to move to Cameth Brin, Bree or Dunnish Clan-hold to play your Maker's Map or the High Helm followed by a Burning Rick, Cot and Tree. With I'll Report you and two Hill Trolls you should survive nearly everything. A Cave Worm could be nasty but then you after this movement you are quite safe. If you know that your opponent is playing Elf-Lords, or Snowstorm than you should move east to Dunharrow, Amon Hen and Isengard. Of course you can also use the sites Wose Pasage-hold and Druadan Forest it against Elf-Lord players, because it is only one wildernis. But for Snowstorm you have to wait until you get the Piercing all Shadows. Without the fear of Elf-Lords and Snowstorm stick to the Eriador area and play your Warg King, Regiment or Makers Map at Wheathertop. The good thing is, that you can play Makers Map on most of your sites so you should be able to play more than just one thing per turn.
Against Chilled Dwarves you should use your Voices of Malice and take care to kill the Dwarves, because they are needed to play the Majas. Then you will face a maximum of three Majas. I played this deck in the final because I thought that there will be no Snowstom or Elf-Lord/Maja player. The Balrog company concentrates on the Items and the faction. Normally I don't play Great Shadow before I have the items in play... once I lost a game in the Worlds final in Barcelona because my Balrog died against a Nameless Thing.
I played this deck for the first time and I found some room for improvement. One is to replace the three Bold Thrust with Gangways (your Balrog is much faster), Tempest of Fire (you can discard Orcs of Angmar and Orcs of Gundabad or semething similar) and Foe Dismayed (helping with the factions or fighting). I would also reduce the second Great Shadow for a third Whctk. Another really important change is to exchange the Pase with the Binding Ring. Against Heiner I was at the Under-Leas with Whctk, Aiglos and Axe but couldn't even play a single Mountain Maggot, because my GI was completely used. With the Binding Ring you have one point left for a Maggot. Even very important when you don't get the Balrog first. You can move with Doeth to the Under-leas and you get at least the Axe with the Maggot at the Site. The Foe Dismayed will help you with the Orcs of Moria when you don't have the Balrog, too. But maybe it is easier to wait until your opponent has played the Orcs and you influence it away. For Hero factions you have People Diminished in the Sideboard.
The Hazards where only designed against the three finalists...but the minion hazard deck you can use with small adjustments also in a general tournament.

Final Score:
Characters: 11-13 MP
Items: 6-9 MP
Factions: 1-4 MP
Miscellaneous: 10-16 MP
Allies: 5-8 MP
Total: 33-50 MP

If you have any suggestions or tips for more improvement, just let me know ;-)

Best regards,

Patric
Pemmin
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:08 am

Hi Patric, congratulations on the good result. I have a few questions about the deck list: you write in your report that you had Aiglos in your hand and couldn't play it. I can't find this card in the deck list. The same is true for Bolt Thrust which you said you would cut. But I can't find it in the list eather. What am I missing?

Thanks for your help!

Greetings Marc
Post Reply

Return to “Decks, Strategy, Tips, Ideas”