HAZARD STRATEGIES:

PATRIC LAXANDER’S MAIA/ELVES MIX

Maia and Elves and Dwarves, otherwise known as the “Free-Peoples” Mix, combine high-
playability with high-damage against Minions, especially against Dragon-country decks
and surface squatter Balrog (because of Dwarven Travellers). They are much weaker against
pure Underdeeps Balrog, however, as well as against Mordor decks that protect themselves
with Doors of Night. Patric’s pick of Searching Eye is a nasty surprise for Balrog squatters
relying on Hide in Dark Places for Maia protection—yikes! For many players, choosing this mix
is a no-brainer.

Alatar the Hunter

Gandalf the White Wizard
Pallando the Soul-keeper
Saruman the Wise
Lady of the Golden Wood
Master of the House
My Precious

Mouth of Sauron
Adunaphel
Uvatha the Horseman
Cave Drake
3-Dwarven Travellers
2-Elf-Lord Revealed in Wrath
2-Sellswords Between Charters
An Unexpected Outpost
3-Chill them with Fear
3-Heedless Revelry
Power Built by Waiting
2-Returned Beyond All Hope
Revealed to all Watchers
Searching Eye

TIMO LUTTER’S MAIA/ELVES

Timo’s mix of Maia and Elves is much the same as Patric’s, except it switches some of the
multiple hazard copies for the following, in order to fare better against a wider range of
opponents:

2-Nameless Things
2-Foolish Words
2-Twilights
2-Rivers

MARK ALFANO’S UNDEAD

Bored of Maia and Elves? Scare the pants off your oponent with just about every undead
creature there is! This deck is particularly strong against squatters. If using company-splitting
hazards isn’t your thing, add some Rivers instread, since Wisp of Pale Sheen can target and tap
out your opponent’s Rangers!
Mark writes: My hazards are intended to disrupt tight companies. You can send Ufthak away
with Faces of the Dead, capture Gorbag with Spells of the BW, and beat on the rest
with your company on the next turn. Problems ensue vs. decks that can either cancel
everything or are split up so much that you can’t hunt them all, or rely mostly on their
rw’s/hog’s company.

3-The Moon is Dead

2-Spells of the Barrow Wights
1-Seized by Terror
1-The Way is Shut
1-Faces of the Dead
2-An Unexpected Outpost
1-Revealed to All Watchers
1-Rolled Down to the Sea
2-Heedless Revelry
1-Adunaphel
1-Daelomin at Home
1-My Precious
1-Mouth of Sauron
1-Uvatha the Horseman
3-Wisp of Pale Sheen
3-Chill Douser
2-Barrow Wight
3-Stirring Bones

WANJA’S UNDEAD

Wanja breaks form from a pure Undead approach, adding more strong anti-minion staple
cards instead of Undeadenhancing combos. This deck also targets the Underdeeps,
opponent’s faction-getting characters, and border-holds.

3-An Unexpected Outpost

3-Foolish Words
3-Heedless Revelry
Revealed to All Watchers
2-Twilight
Doubled Vigilance
2-Siege
3-Chill Douser
3-Wisp of Pale Sheen
3-Stirring Bones
My Precious
2-Nameless Thing
Mouth of Sauron
Uvatha the Horseman
Adunaphel

BEN SORENSEN’S ORCS

Ben’s deck packs some nasty surprises, of note being the use of Buthrakaur/Umagaur to hit
shadow-holds (usually as detainment, where the opponent thinks he’s safe), but then
you can follow that up with orc creatures which are nonkeyed, and therefore kill. This trick is at
its best when a Balrog player is moving to his Moria haven, and you play
one of the troll bosses there (detainment), followed up by infinite orcs, kill! Since it’s a Doors
deck, you can also sideboard in some of the nasty, creative surprises Mark wrote
about in Issue #1 against his own infamous Red Hills deck. Of course, you would need a
resource strategy that doesn’t require you holding onto lots of cards, or you’ll never be able to
get the hazard combos going.

Ben writes: Use Two or Three Tribes to play LOTS of orcs. Put Lieutenants on-guard
beneath Doubled Vigilance. Your creatures are keyable to ruins and lairs as kill or can act as
some fairly good detainment.

3-An Unexpected Outpost

3-Doubled Vigilance
3-Hobgoblins
3-Orc-lieutenant
3-Orc-warriors
3-Uruk-lieutenant
3-Minions Stir
3-Two or Three Tribes Present
1-Redoubled Force
3-Doors of Night
Revealed to All Watchers
Mouth of Sauron
Many Sorrows Befall
Little Snuffler (nice efficient creature to stop cancellers)
Buthrakaur the Green
Umagaur the Pale

Individual Hazards Necessary Against ALL Minion Decks

In my personal opinion, these are hazards that simply must go in the hazard portion of your
deck (unless you have an unusual strategy!), given the state of the playing field at the
moment. As Galadriel reads this over my shoulder, she tells me that there is a chance things
might get bettter in the future, and not to lose hope...

Power Built By Waiting (too many hazard-limit reducing minion decks)

Unabated in Malice (strong against dragon-country and hazard-limit-reducer decks)
Baduila

Individual Hazards Against Minions:

Other Favorites to Mix-and-match

Gandalf the White Rider
Lady of the Golden Wood
Master of the House
The Witch King (annoying if they play Ancient Black Axe)
My Precious
Golodhros (can really irritate Mordor decks) (at least for sideboard)
Itangast Ahunt (at least for sideboard)
Balrog of Moria (good instant sideboard card vs. Balrog)
Monstrosity of Diverse Shape (if using Landroval; add one Wargs too)
Landroval (probably the most efficient high prowess creature)
Sellswords Between Charters
Ice-Drake
Arthadan Rangers (hits squatter site Hollin) (at least for sideboard)
Covetous Thoughts (even one is nice. With Balance of Things, it can cause CCs of at least eight
once someone plays a greater item!)
Doubled Vigilance (at least for sideboard)
Redoubled Force (at least for sideboard)
Tiding of Bold Spies (lovely with Unabated, or Redoubled)
Seized by Terror (at least for sideboard)
Webs of Fear and Treachery (if you don’t use faction-helper cards like Muster, this card is
amazing)
Darkness Made by Malice (if you play a Spawn deck—very strong against solo Balrog company)
Many Sorrows Befall (at least for sideboard)
Waiting Shadow (at least for sideboard)
Darkness Under Tree (sideboard ONLY)
Unhappy Blows (sideboard ONLY)
Fled into Darkness (sideboard ONLY)
--Also, use CREATURES that hit the areas your deck travels in, in case opponent chases you!--

That’s it for hazard suggestions. Keep in mind that Maias/Elves aren't going to hurt Red Hills or
Mordor Shuffle, but Orcs/Undead will. Mark recommends considerin “split hazard strategies”
which can be extremely effective “as long as they're paired with a FAST resource strategy,
so that you can always draw just the hazards you need (for instance, 9 huge drakes + 3
redoubled force/3 troll purse/3 heedless is surprisingly effective).”

Good luck stomping out your minion opponent’s flame!

Hazard strategies (by Nigel Buckle):

http://www.guildcompanion.com/scrolls/2002/jun/decks.html

When building a deck you have to consider the meta-game, your grasp of this will colour the
type of decks you build. By meta-game, I mean the game environment you play in, and this is
applicable to casual play and local tournaments as well as the bigger events (Nationals &
Worlds). This environment is the decks you end up playing against. How well a player can
predict this meta-game can often affect the position they end up with after the
game/tournament. If you are good at second-guessing what your opponents are playing, then
you can build a deck that exploits the weaknesses of those deck types.

If you've read my previous articles, you'll know I favour winning the game with my resources,
rather than my hazards. I believe I have more control over the resource part of the game,
whereas hazards need a much more skilful play of the meta-game as a specialist hazard deck
can be devastating against the right types of deck, but ineffectual against others. I try to build
a resource deck that can cope with most hazard strategies, and those that cause particular
problems I rely on support from the sideboard. However to build the resource deck I consider
the likely hazards I'm going to face – then when the deck is finished, I usually build a test-deck
that has a hazard strategy tailored to stop my resource deck. If my deck can still perform
against such an opposing deck, I'm usually confident it will do well in a tournament.

This article lists the hazard prototype decks I usually consider. In the interests of space, I
haven't listed every card for each, nor given a full description of why each card is included – in
any case these are prototype decks, I'd expect to face tuned variations of these in a
tournament. You could also use these decks as ideas for building the hazard part of your decks
- just modify them to suit your collection, resources and local play environment.

1. Dump & Run

This hazard deck is not really designed to hinder the opposing deck, rather it is designed for
pure speed – the idea is to be able to play hazards to the hazard limit every turn (and raise the
hazard limit), so increasing the speed of the deck. This sort of hazard deck is sometimes paired
up with a slow resource deck (to make it competitive, an example of this are fallen wizard
decks) or even a speed resource deck to reduce even further the number of turns in a game.

12 Minimum Creatures made up of:

• 9 Ahunt Dragons(4.5 creatures),

• 9 Nazgul (4.5 creatures)
• Badulia (0.5 creatures)
• Dealomin at Home (0.5 creatures)
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creatures)
• My Precious (0.5 creatures)
• Saruman the Wise (0.5 creatures)
• Spider of the Morlat (0.5 creatures)
The remaining 6 cards are:

• 3x Power Built by Waiting

• 3x Foolish Words

My precious and Saruman the Wise are token anti-one ring hazards. Also, Khamul can be used
late in the game to disrupt a one-ring deck by forcing the discard of the player's hand.
Normally you wouldn't want to use Khamul as the idea of the hazard deck is to be faster than
your opponent – forcing them to discard their hand just helps your opponent cycle their deck.

2. Orcs and more Orcs

This deck is usually played against minions, as that alignment will not get any MPs from
eliminating the weaker creatures. The idea of the deck is to hit your opponent's companies
with multiple Orcs, hopefully slowing them down enough for your resources to win the game –
a few lucky rolls or the right combination of Orcs can make this deck quite deadly. Doubled
Vigilance is an under-appreciated card and fits right in this deck, and with Doors of Night in
play is very playable and effective. 2 or 3 Tribes Present can help to beat companies with a low
hazard limit. The little snufflers are hard to kill (unless the party has numerous rangers) and
their ability to stop the play of scout cards is not to be overlooked – but this deck needs
Searching Eye in the sideboard to cancel the effects of Stealth/Sneakin

12 Minimum Creatures made up of:

• 2x Little Snuffler
• 3x Hobgoblins
• 3x Orc Lieutenant
• 3x Uruk Lieutenant
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Uvatha (0.5 creature)

Remaining 17 cards:

• 2x Twilight
• 3x Two or Three Tribes Present
• 3x An Unexpected Outpost
• 3x Doors of Night
• 3x Doubled Vigilance
• 3x Minions Stir

3. Auto attack Enhancers

The idea of this deck is to boost the auto-attacks at sites and also make your opponent face
these attacks during the movement/hazard phase with Tidings of Bold Spies. Unabated in
Malice is the card that really lifts this deck type to make it one of the most competitive, and it
is surprisingly effective against most alignment types. You have to build your resource deck
with care, so that you avoid visiting sites where the auto attack enhancers will affect your
companies. The creatures are chosen to hit the blind spots (those sites with small or no
automatic attacks) – the Mumak are only used against hero decks, swap them for Beorning Toll
or other suitable creatures. Cards like Awaken Defenders and Incite Denizens should be
included in the sideboard to bring in against particular deck types and The Rank Upon Rank are
there to boost your man hazard creatures.

12 Minimum Creatures made up of:

• 2x Mumak
• 3x Ambusher
• 3x Corsairs of Umbar
• 3x Sellswords between Charters
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Uvatha (0.5 creature)

Remaining cards (17):

• 1x Nature's Revenge
• 1x Redoubled Force
• 1x The Moon is Dead
• 2x Rank Upon Rank
• 3x An Unexpected Outpost
• 3x Tidings of Bold Spies
• 3x Unabated in Malice
• 3x Whole Villages Roused

4. Corruption

Some players discount corruption as it doesn't actually slow your opponent down. However,
most players will tap characters to try to remove the threat a corruption card has, and Balance
followed by an Alone & Unadvised or a Lure of Nature is often very effective (especially if you
have Traitor in play). Many players avoid corruption against minions (as they have the bonus
against it) but often minion players do not prepare for a corruption strategy for this reason –
just include Covetous Thoughts which is probably the best corruption card in the game. Also
your Corpse Candles are likely to survive against minions as you can play them as detainment
and still force the corruption check. Watch for the At Home Itangast being killed by a wizard
playing Sacrifice of Form – you probably want to play a deck light in items (and no greater
items) if using this deck. Include additional corruption cards in the sideboard (to either bring in
on the second deck cycle or with the Unexpected Outposts). This deck appears to break my
rules of deck consistency (3 of each card where possible, etc), but you cannot duplicate
corruption cards on a single character and often you need a couple of corruption cards to get
the corruption total high enough for the character to fail a check – hence you want a variety of
corruption cards in the deck and where possible you stack them up on a particular character.

12 Minimum Creatures made up of:

• 1x Knights of the Prince

 • 3x Assassin
• 3x Corpse Candle
• 3x Sellswords Between Charters
• Itangast At Home (0.5 creature)
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Ren (0.5 creature)
• Saruman the Wise (0.5 creature)

Remaining Cards (16):

• 2x Alone and Unadvised

• 2x An Unexpected Outpost
• 2x Echoes of the Song
• 2x Greed
• 2x Lure of Expedience
• 2x Lure of Nature
• 3x Lure of the Senses
• The Balance of Things
• Traitor

5. Roadblock

I loathe roadblock – it is such an annoying hazard strategy to play against, but you need to
prepare your deck to cope with it. If you can avoid being returned to your site of origin, then
there is little else a dedicated roadblock deck can do to slow your companies down. Obviously
if you are playing this hazard strategy you will want to choose a resource strategy that avoids
the roadblock effect of your hazard cards! Roadblock is usually less effective against minions as
often those decks avoid moving out of shadow lands (or don't move at all). Creatures are
either roadblock or give coverage to areas not affected by the roadblock cards.

12 Minimum Creatures made up of:

• 3x Ambusher
• 3x Beorning Skin Changers (1.5 creatures)
• 3x Corsairs of Umbar
• 3x Sellswords Between Charters
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Knights of the Prince (0.5 creature)

Remaining Cards (16):

• 3x Doors of Night
• 3x Snowstorm
• 3x Long Winter
• 3x An Unexpected Outpost
• 2x Twilight
• 2x Withered Lands
6. Dragons & Drakes

This is a fairly straightforward deck – using dragons and drakes to pound your opponent. It can
work against both hero and minion, although you'd probably want to change a few cards vs.
minion (such as bring in marsh drakes and winged fire drakes for some shadow land coverage).
For those players who want some defence against faction decks include 3 foolish words, if you
want to try to kill more characters include Dragon's Blood. It's worth including Prowess of Age
in the sideboard against heavy avoidance decks.

Creatures (15)

• 2x Rain Drake
• 3x Cave Drake
• 3x Cave Worm
• Agburanar (0.5 creature)
• Badulia (0.5 creature)
• Bairanax (0.5 creature)
• Itangast (0.5 creature)
• Leucaruth (0.5 creature)
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Scatha (0.5 creature)
• Smaug (0.5 creature)

Remaining cards (14):

• 2x An Unexpected Outpost
• 3x Dragon's Desolation
• 3x Summons from Long Sleep
• 3x Long Dark Reach
• 3x Searching Eye

7. Corrupting Undead

This deck is very effective against minions, although some players would swap the corruption
cards for an alternative hazard strategy. In essence it is two half strategies, undead and
corruption, with undead being the main focus and corruption supporting. Against hero decks,
you might want to swap the Wisps for other undead (such as Barrow Wight) or possibly
Assassins for border/free hold coverage, the Wisp is most useful against minions, its attack is
likely to be detainment, but its special ability will still tap a character. Also swap the Covetous
Thoughts for Lure of Nature (or maybe a Longing for the West and Lure of Creation to try to
corrupt a wizard).

Creatures (14):

• 2x Barrow Wight
• 3x Chill Douser
 • 3x Corpse Candle
• 3x Stirring Bones
• 3x Wisp of Pale Sheen

Remaining Hazards (16):

• 2x Lure of Expedience
• 2x Covetous Thoughts
• 2x Lure of the Senses
• 2x The Moon is Dead
• 2x Alone and Unadvised
• 3x Foolish Words
• 3x Spells of the Barrow Wight

8. Free Peoples

This is either an annoying detainment deck against heroes or a beat-down deck against
minions. When playing minions swap in Elves Upon Errantry (and take out the Ents) and Lady
of the Golden Wood.

Creatures (12):

• 3x Dwarven Travellers
• 3x Elf Lord Revealed in Wrath
• 3x Wandering Eldar
• 2x Ent in Search of the Entwives
• My Precious (0.5 creature)
• Master of the House (0.5 creature)

Remaining Cards (16):

• 2x Enchanted Stream
• 3x An Unexpected Outpost
• 3x Chill them with Fear
• 3x Foolish Words
• 3x River
• No Escape from My Magic
• Trouble on all Borders

9. Men

This deck is another brutal beat-down deck. With the enhancers in play, even the weaker man
hazards are to be feared and the bigger creatures are horrible. Against minions, you should
probably remove the Corsairs of Umbar. The creature count is high, but you need lots of man
hazard creatures to keep Thrice Outnumbered in play (and use that to recycle the most
effective man hazards against the particular deck you are facing).
Creatures (15.5):

• 3x Ambusher
• 3x Assassin
• 3x Corsairs of Umbar
• 3x Lawless Men
• 3x Sellswords Between Charters
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)

Remaining Cards (14):

• 2x Thrice Outnumbered
• 3x An Unexpected Outpost
• 3x Power Built By Waiting
• 3x Rank Upon Rank
• 3x Two or Three Tribes Present

10. Agent Roadblock

This deck is only effective against heroes, as you cannot play the key roadblock card Seek
Without Success against minions. This deck is harder to play than some of the others, but very
effective. The idea is to move your ranger agents close to where your opponents companies
are, and then use Seek without Success to return them to their site of origin. Very little can
stop the Seek (as you discard the ranger agent rather than reveal it), then sideboard in
corruption against any opposing rangers that get promptings of wisdom (and target those
characters with the Cave Drakes and Assassins).

Creatures (12):

• Badulia (0.5 creature)

• Dasakun (0.5 creature)
• Gisulf (0.5 creature)
• Herion (0.5 creature)
• Juoma (0.5 creature)
• Nimloth (0.5 creature)
• Om-Buri-Om (0.5 creature)
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Dealomin At Home (0.5 creature)
• 3x Beorning Skin Changers (0.5 creature)
• 3x Cave Drake
• 3x Assassin

Remaining Cards (12):

• 3x Seek Without Success

• 3x Nobody's Friend
• 3x River
 • 3x An Unexpected Outpost

11. Cloaked in Darkness

This is the hazard part of a minion deck that actively creates shadow-lands (using Morgul
Night) for both turns. The resource deck is designed to make use of the change in the
environment, and the hazard deck utilises the fact that Foul Fumes & Bane of the Ithil Stone
only affects hero players not minions. I include this as a test deck because it is a non-roadblock
heavy environment deck that is ideal to test against resource environment decks utilising
Gates of Morning (etc). Also Shadow of Mordor is very effective against hero speed decks
utilising A Short Rest. The resource half of the deck should have a copy of twilight.

Creatures (12):

• 2x Orc-guard
• 3x Olog Warlords
• 3x Sellswords Between Charters
• 3x Winged Fire-Drake
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Uvatha (0.5 creature)

Remaining Cards (17):

• 2x An Unexpected Outpost
• 2x Fell Winter
• 2x Twilight
• 3x Doors of Night
• 3x Foul Fumes
• 3x Morgul Night
• Bane of the Ithil Stone
• Shadow of Mordor

12. Spiders

This deck is effective against both heroes and minions (and also the Balrog). Black Vapour is a
great way to prevent your spider attacks being cancelled – if you have one in hand, try to play
spiders before reaching the hazard limit so you can use this card, not only is the canceller
cancelled but the spider attack gains an additional prowess.

Creatures (12):

• 3x Giant Spiders
• 3x Lesser Spiders
• 3x Sellswords Between Charters
• Badulia (0.5 creature)
• Mouth of Sauron (0.5 creature)
• Spider of the Morlat (0.5 creature)
 • Ungoliant's Foul Issue (0.5 creature)
• Ungoliant's Progeny (0.5 creature)
• Uvatha (0.5 creature)

Remaining Cards (15):

• 2x Black Vapour
• 2x Flies & Spiders
• 2x Full of Froth & Rage
• 3x An Unexpected Outpost
• 3x Foolish Words
• 3x River