This is the deck I used to win 2004 World Championships:

The Red Hills vs. Minion:

Start:

Bolg
Buthrakaur *
Gorbag
Mauhur
Radbug
Shagrat *
Ugluk *
Ufthak
Ulkaur the Tongueless
Umagaur
2 Orders from the Great Demon

Deck:

3 The Balrog

Ancient Secrets
2 Awaiting the Call
3 Dark Tryst
2 Great Shadow
3 Hold Rebuilt and Repaired
3 I’ll Report You
3 Orc Quarrels
Weigh All Things to a Nicety
2 We Have Come to Kill
Blasting Fire
A Few Recruits
Orcs of Moria
Great Bats
Stinker
3 Maker’s Map
2 Tempest of Fire

2 An Unexpected Outpost
2 Heedless Revelry
Redoubled Force
Revealed to All Watchers
River
Rolled Down to the Sea
2 Unabated in Malice
3 Webs of Fear and Treachery

Lord of the Carrock
Adunaphel
Baduila
Daelomin at Home
Gandalf the White Rider
Itangast Ahunt
Lady of the Golden Wood
Mouth of Sauron
Smaug Ahunt
Smaug at Home

2 Cave-Drake
Cave Worm
Ice-Drake
2 Sellswords Between Charters
Wandering Eldar

Sideboard:

3 Hill-Troll
2 Orc-Tracker
3 Troll-Lout
Blasting Fire
Gifts as Given of Old
Sudden Call
Tempest of Fire
Threats
Angband Revisited
Darkness Wielded
Ancient Black Axe

Alone and Unadvised
Khamul the Easterling
Lost in Free-Domains
Lure of Power
Lure of the Senses
Lure of Expedience
Nameless Thing
River
Seized By Terror
The Balance of Things
The Roving Eye
The Way is Shut
Veils Flung Away
Troll-Purse
—————————————————-

This is yet another of my “trick” decks, so called because they take extreme advantage of some little-used card. In this case, the card is the Minion Worthy Hills site, which, interestingly enough, never taps. At first, I thought they only thing that could be gotten out of this was unlimited Secrets of their Forging + 2 big, impossible-to-influence factions. However, if you rebuild the site into a [S], you can play three copies each of Maker’s Map (2 MPs) and Tempest of Fire (3 MPs) for a total of 15 miscellaneous MPs out of one site. You can also pull a techno item or two, since they’re playable at [S]s, as well as some Great Bats and A Few Recruits. In the meantime, Big Red amasses a large contingent of fellas from the sideboard (Bolg as well, usually), and brings in the Orcs of Moria and Stinker. If you have time, head over to the Under-Leas with a Darkness Wielded as protection for the Ancient Black Cheeze. Interestingly enough, you can have both Shagrat and Ugluk Await the Call at the Worthy Hills, and even if you put an I’ll Report You on him, he can still controll Ugluk. Another nice thing is that Awaiting the Call does not reduce the character’s mind for the purposes of Heedless, and that Webs of Fear and Treachery actually cancels both Foolish Words and I’ll Report You, while hosing most minion influence schemes (since they don’t have wizards with 10 DI…). Unfortunately, you’ll need to buy 3 boxes of Balrog cards to get all three Tempests of Fire, so it’s a rather pricey deck to play IRL. C’est la vie….

MP breakdown:

Character: 16 usually,
Ally: 1-3 (depending on whether My Precious springs out before Stinker),
Item: 1-2-6 (depending on 2nd Blasting Fire and Axe),
Faction: 1-4 (depending on luck with Orcs of Moria),
Misc: 15

== 34-44

Burn, baby, burn…