The Isengard Culture

This Strategy-Note article was written by a anonymous person and was published first on "Lord of the Rings Online (lotrtcg.decipher.com)".

Saruman and the hordes of Isengard are the most visible villains for both the first and second Lord of the Rings movies. Their reach is wide and deep, with Orcs, Uruk-Hai, and Men all aiding the Wizard in harrying his enemy across the lands of the West, and Saruman himself scheming to seize the Ring any chance he gets.

This variety of troops and tactics is reflected in the sheer range of Isengard culture cards that The Lord of the Rings TCG offers. With five distinct subcultures, many of which can work together, it's not only the most varied culture in the game, but can be one of the most dangerous.

The Uruk-Hai are the backbone of the Isengard threat. The damage +1 capability of the standard Uruks makes them difficult to skirmish against, and a large volume of skirmish enhancers - both to strength and damage - has made them the subculture of choice for those who prefer beating their opponents up from the beginning to the end of the site path.

Uruk Trackers take this same skirmishing ability in a different direction, doing their two wounds with built-in fierceness instead of the damage +1 of most other Uruks. This fierceness, and the resulting number of skirmishes, can lead to some potentially damaging effects when combined with effects that key off winning skirmishes, such as Worry, or site control capabilities.

Uruk Archers make up Isengard's third major subculture. Lacking the damage +1 or fierceness of other Uruks, they gain their second wound, obviously, from their archery abilities, though they're not so tough in skirmishes as their kin, and so sometimes they're archery wound is all they can cause.

A component subculture - not large enough, as yet, to form a subculture of its own, but fitting in with a number of other subcultures - are the berserkers, damage +1 minions that grow in power as both they and their opponents take damage. They work well both with Uruk Archers, and the standard Uruks, having aspects of both subcultures.

The standard Isengard Orcs work in a different way, focusing primarily on wounding in the regroup phase, though they have enough tricks to be useful in other contexts as well (such as the currently popular Moria/Isengard Orc deck that uses the Isengard Warrior to reduce the threat of archery).

The Isengard Orcs also have a Warg-rider subculture, which can produce large, fierce minions regularly, as well as wound during the regroup phase.

Add to this variety more tricks than you can shake a Wizard's staff at, and it's no wonder Isengard is the culture of choice for many players.