[Fallen Saruman Resource] Cheezuman

[Bandobras Took]

I played this thing during Ringbearer's online tourney; the fact that it lost I ascribe to my generally weak hazard play and my particularly weak hazards vs hero/FW I was trying.  I mean, it even won once, which should tell you how good it is.

Starting Pool:
Dagger of Westernesse (TW)
Shield of Iron-bound Ash (TW)
Bad Company (WH)
Thrall of the Voice (WH)

Asternak (LE)
Lugdush (WH)
2 x Old Troll (LE)
Perchen (AS)
Radbug (LE)
Shagrat (LE)
Snaga (LE)
Ufthak (LE)
Uglúk (WH)

The ideal starting company is Asternak, Shagrat controlling Radbug, and Ugluk.  Asternak has the items.

3 x Saruman [F] (WH) (Yes it actually plays Saruman!)
Bûrat (AS)
Tûma (AS)
Wûluag (AS)

Echo of All Joy (TD)
Elf-song (TW)
2 x Hall of Fire (DM)
2 x Token of Goodwill (DM)

2 x Dark Tryst (AS)
2 x Great Army of the North (BA)

A Strident Spawn (WH)
Fortress of the Towers (WH)
Great Patron (WH)
2 x Greater Half-orcs (WH)
3 x Guarded Haven (WH)
3 x Half-orcs (WH)
3 x Hidden Haven (WH)
Keys to the White Towers (WH)
Saruman's Machinery (WH)
The Forge-master (WH)
2 x War-forges (WH)
Wizard's Myrmidon (WH)

Sideboard:
Lindion the Oronín (DM)
Wizard's River-horses (TW)
Wizard's Voice (TW)
Doeth (Durthak) (WH)
Euog (Ulzog) (WH)
2 x Ill-favoured Fellow (WH)
2 x Blazon of the Eye (LE)
Govern the Storms (WH)
Regiment of Black Crows (AS)
2 x Strange Rations (LE)
2 x Thrall-ring (AS)
Voices of Malice (LE)
2 x Whip (LE)
White Light Broken (WH)
Greater Half-orcs (WH)
The White Hand (WH)
War-forges (WH)

The basic idea for this deck occured to me when I thought -- why haven't I seen anybody Hidden Haven the Barrow Downs?

Ugluk squats at the White Towers all game.  Bert, Tom, and William should be played before Saruman if possible, preferably to Hidden Haven the site they come in at.  Since Asternak's company is overt, send it to Isengard the first turn and try to draw a Corsair attack for Token.  The order of search priority for Token is:

1) Strident Spawn
2) Keys to the White Towers
3) Whatever seems good at the time.

After they pick up Saruman, send them to the Barrow-Downs if needed, Stone-Circle if you have things well in hand, or a nice man auto-attack site if you're in desperate need of Token.

Use War-forges to play a Blazon and then Strange Rations from the sideboard.  Ugluk's the prime target, while Shagrat when controlled by Saruman is also good.  Don't waste Saruman's DI on anything but character control; the orcs should do the job.  Sideboard in Lindion for your ally point when you've Hidden Havened the Stone-Circle (thanks to marcos for that trick )

Elf-Song/Echo counter Fallen Saruman's GI of crap, and in one of the more twisted bits of Middle Earth logic, they work for orcs and trolls.

Use Strident Spawn to play characters at whatever Haven seems most in need of help.

At the end of the game, you should have a buttload of character points, 2 item points, 1 ally point, fairly good (6-9) faction points, and 9 miscellaneous points.  This White Hands in very good time; the Blazon+Strange Rations+Hall of Fire makes it fairly hard to not get the factions out.

Interestingly enough, this is a deck that cannot be easily duplicated by another Fallen Wizard.  Fallen Pallando is the only one that comes close, but:

1) He can't get the MP for Saruman's Machinery; and
2) Prophet of Doom has a much stiffer faction requirement.

Pallando's advantage comes in making the basic half-orc factions worth 2 MPs each.

More adventurous souls might try a Mischief In a Mean Way at the Old Forest for Tom, but I elected not to for fear of bouncing.  It's certainly conceivable to do Mischief/Goldberry, though -- send the Half-Orcs/Asternak there.  Hmm . . .

[Pikachu]

I definitely approve of this use of Fallen Saruman. Good someone puts him to use, and a good point that this deck is not easily duplicated by another fallen wizard.

[asphalt]

Interesting deck, I think I'll give it a try.
This deck is the nightmare of fallen Pallando: once Saruman has the Keys of the White Towers in guarded Barrow Downs the doors of the WT are shut once and forever for the poor Pallando...  :)

[Bandobras Took]

Fallen Saruman vs Fallen Pallando is a race for two Uniques: Keys and Strident Spawn.

[Marcos]

while i think this is the best fallen saruman deck that ben has come up with, i still think that a pallando version of this will do much better because he has some advantage by using eyes of mandos to fetch the uniques, or wichever card he needs at the moment. Also, he doesn't have GI troubles

[Bandobras Took]

I actually didn't run into many GI troubles, mainly because of prudent use of Elf-Song.  Pallando's safer, but the overall MP yield isn't likely to be that good; as I've said elsewhere, Pallando's better off just Hidden Havening the Worthy Hills.

[Marcos]

i forgot to mention the extra handsize as another pro for pallando

[Bandobras Took]

Actually, if you start with Perchen, you might be able to pull of Thorough Search+Sapling+White Tree at the Barrow-Downs, but that's a long shot and will be vulnerable to Blind.

[Bandobras Took]

Actually, stick some tech items in the sideboard and Saruman has an alternative for item MPs if Keys doesn't work out for whatever reason.

[Bandobras Took]

i forgot to mention the extra handsize as another pro for pallando

As a con, though, you'd need a Sage character to play Pallando's Apprentice, which means you have to trade Asternak for a lower-prowess Man if you still want to use Token.

[Bandobras Took]

Pallando's advantage comes in making the basic half-orc factions worth 2 MPs each.

I recently learned that this is incorrect.  The White Hand rules state "Marshalling points for stage resource cards are handled normally (i.e. as printed on the card)."

Therefore Pallando's ability does not increase the MPs for Stage Resource Factions, which further means that he has far fewer potential MPs than Saruman for this deck.

[Old Tuk]

I recently learned that this is incorrect.  The White Hand rules state "Marshalling points for stage resource cards are handled normally (i.e. as printed on the card)."

I discussed that with Brian a while ago. IMHO this is a case of card (Pallando) is over-ruling the rule. Therefore Half-Orcs count 2 MP for Pallando. Hmmm....  :?

[Bandobras Took]

Normally considers only the card itself, and not other card's effects.  Without Pallando specifically mentioning stage resources, I'm inclined to say the rule would take priority.

Especially since there are no hazards which modify the MPs of stage resources.

[Marcos]

Doesn't cards take priority over rules?

[Wacho]

This is the full quote from the WH rules:

MARSHALLING POINTS - Marshalling points for stage resource cards are handled normally (i.e. as printed on the card). However, all other marshalling point cards are only worth 1 marshalling point each to a Fallen-wizard (regardless of their printed value). These MPs can not be modified by a hero or minion resource event (e.g. Rumor of the One, Tribute Garnered, Sentinels of Númenor, etc.). However, Fallen-wizard abilities and stage resource cards can modify the number of marshalling points certain cards give.

The last sentence allows FW abilities to modify the marshalling points for cards, but it is a little unclear if that applies to any card type or just non-stage resources.  I'm inclined to think it means only non-stage cards considering the first sentence.