Moira Shadow Culture

The Lord of the Rings Trading Card game started with the release of the Fellowship of the Ring in November 2001. This set, along with the two following expansion sets, Mines of Moira and Reams of the Elf Lords, make up the Fellowship Block. The block introduced four different shadow cultures: Isengard, Moira, Ringwraith, and Sauron. During 2002, when the block was playable, the first three cultures were well represented at a tournament level, though Sauron was not altogether absent. Over this next week, I will be covering the major builds of those shadow cultures in 2002.

SO, without further ado.....

MOIRA

The Moira shadow culture was a mainly block contained culture with only three cards produced in the next seven sets. While its production was shortlived, it spot in players' hearts burned on. It may be arguable that it is the most dominant shadow culture in the Fellowship Block but it is clearly the one that aged the best. Moira remains a viable option to play throughout the movie block despite a lack of new tricks. It is fun to play as well as relatively easy. Though it sees domiance through rare conditions, it may be the most effective non-rare shadow.

Goal: Swarm

The goal of a swarm deck is to play as many minions as possible as cheaply as possible. While one swarm minion might not be very powerful by itself, each minion is very cheap which allows many to be played, easily outnumbering the companions and assigning themselves to the Ring-bearer. Moria swarms better than any other shadow culture in the game. The reasons for this is because the culture provides many aspects that are needed for an effective swarm.

• Cheap Minions: Moira is consisted of goblins who have low strength and and low vitality. However, they have low twilight, usually only 2 or 3. Goblin Runner is the cheapest minion in the game, not only does he add one twilight, but he also adds 2!
  
• Card Drawing: Goblin Scimitar allows for you to draw a card when played. As I will explain below, you will be doing this a lot
  
• Wound Prevention: Moira had the most effective wound prevention in the game in their rare Goblin Armory. As a condition, it doesn't clog up your hand and can be left until the exact moment when you need wound prevention. Fill with Fear also can skip the Archery phase with the Balrog and Pinned Down can be used for archery decks.
  
• Recyclability: Host Of Thousands can bring back any Moira orc. This is incredibly useful as it is essentially a plus four copy of any orc in your discard pile. You can choose to bring back Goblin Warrior against Dwarves, Moira Scout against elves, but it is mainly used for Goblin Scavengers.

Strategy: The strategy of Moira swarm is to get as many orcs on the table at once. So you need a lot of orcs and a good amount of twilight. It can be accomplished by simply stacking orcs in your hand during the game and waiting to release them all at the same time. Much more effective is to use the strength of your power conditions Goblin Armory and Goblin Swarms. Goblin Armory adds 1 twilight every time you play a weapon. Because it is non-unique you can keep up to four copies in your support area at a time. So when you play a 0 cost Goblin Scimitar to draw a card you can also draw a card. If it is an orc, you most likely will be able to play it with the twilight you added. This combo is enhanced to the point of abuse in the additions of Goblin Scavenger, which allows you to play a Moira weapon from the discard, allowing you to draw and hopefully add twilight, and Relics of Moira, which allows you to remove two to play a scimitar fro your discard. Relics makes for this potential site nine scenario: you remove two twilight to play a scimitar and draw a card, subsequently adding four twilight. You then do this three more times, drawing a total of four cards, adding a total of eight twilight (-2x4 for Relics+ 4x4 for Armories=8).

Forgotten in this is the fact that a Scimitar adds 2 strength to your orc. This may come in helpful as winning fights, while not exacty common in Moira, is rewarded with Goblin Swarms. This condition allows you to stack minions on the condition after winning a skirmish and then allowing you to play them as if from hand in a future shadow phase. This is an extremely effective form of minion retrieval, as it essentially allows you to stack orcs n your hand without clogging your hand. Since twilight isnt exactly hard to come by between their low cost and Armory, Moira Shadow wins often come down to finding enough minions on one turn. Swarms is a big part of making that happen.

How to Play:Moira is relatively simple to play, but you need to remember that you do not need to, and cannot effectively swarm every site. You will have to wait to at least site five or six usually. Use the early sites to put Orcs and scimitars in the discard pile that you can pull later in the game, as well as getting out your conditions. Moira can swarm once to twice a game so if you are going to try and swarm make sure that you are confident you will be able to inflict major damage if not win. Do not discard your Armorys unless you are fairly confident that it is worth it. And as always, READ THE CARDS. Knowing your deck like the back of your hand and what your own cards do is very important

Archetype card list:

With Moira you can play minions with ease becuase of their low cost so you will cycle well. This is the one deck that you can have up to 40 cards with and get away with it.(I know a lot of you have big decks, cough, Tyler, cough, so cut them down!)

Minions:
Goblin Runnerx4
Goblin Scavengerx4
Goblin Backstabberx3
Goblin Wallcrawlerx2
Moira Scoutx4
Goblin Scrabbler
Goblin Warrior
Cave Troll of Moira, Scourge of the Black Pit or Ancient Cheiftain (personal preference)
The Balrog, Flame of Udun
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
Ulaire Nertea, Messenger of Dol Guldurx2

Possesions
Goblin Scimitarx4

Conditions
Goblin Armoyx4
Goblin Swarmsx2
Relics of Moirax2


Events
Hosts of Thousandsx4
Such a Little Thingx2

If you are not playing in a Fellowship block only setting, make these changes:
-Balrog
-Such a Little Thingx2
+ Host of Moira, Legion of Underdeeps
+ Goblin Swarm
+Ancient Chieftain

The Pro's Versions:

Dominic Gaudreault Worlds Day 2 2002:http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=26225
Kenneth Ellingsen Archery Worlds Day 2 2003:http://decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=29846
A Matthieu Brochu Moira: http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=21553
Michael Dalton Moira: http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=21903
Patrick Malbeouf Moira:http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=28558
Alex Tennent "Snowbomb":http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=21552
Brian Fred Moira:http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=31796
Brad Eier Moira:http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=29492
Brad Eier Balrog deck:http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=32005
Mike French Moira:http://www.decktech.net/lotr/decks/decks.php?deck=29843

Meta calls:
A meta-shift is a countering move against what you suspect other players will play. For instance, if you think that you will see a lot of archery decks, you might shift your deck to counter against that. That can be as drastic as deciding not to play Moira or as subtle as adding in an extra Wallcrawler to take down the archery total. Remember that you should always live two or three card slots that can be "tech" cards or meta calls. In the deck design I created for a Fellowship block tour, I added in 2 Such a Little Things. This is because one of the few major archetypes in FOTR block is Horn of Boromir decks. By the time of the next World Championship, the Horn had been banned and Such a Little Thing was no longer necessary. So remember that you are the best decision maker for your deck because you probably have the best idea of what you will face. Think you will see elven archery? Maybe switch to moira archery and add in Pinned Down and Bitter Hatred. Think you will see a couple dwarven Decks? Add more Goblin Warriors.

The world is changed.

I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. Or at least, not many people who are willing to archive it during the quick rise and fall of a beloved card game, the Lord of the Rings TCG.

This blog is for my extended family who have shown an interest in the game and want to know more about the mechanics of the game during the "movie" block. Any outside input is more than welcome.

I'll be going through archetype strategies the game has produced, in a somewhat chronological order.