QOTW: The Mûmakil

His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword. It was Sam’s first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man’s name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace…
–The Two Towers

The Mûmakil Stats

Groups registered: 16
Total attempts: 25
Most attempts: 3
Average attempts per entry: 1.6

Total number of wins: 16
Win-rate: 64%

Average opinion on the quest: 4.2

Achievements

Here are the achievements we had for this quest:

Hey, It’s Like The Jungle Book

Setup: Search the encounter deck for a copy of a Strangling Python, Territorial Ape, and Harad Tiger, and them to the staging area.

Can’t See the Jungle Through the Gorillas

Setup: Search the encounter deck for Guardians in the Jungle and add it to the staging area.

These are some very hard achievements this week, so I’m not surprised there was only one person who got one!

Encounter Card Opinions

There were actually quite a few nominations for favorite encounter card this week. The second place option (Territorial Ape) just barely got beat out by–you guessed it–a beneficial location for the fourth week in a row! It’s the Mûmak Trail! This quest prevents you from moving on until there are Mûmak enemies in the staging area equal to the number of players in the game, so this location is actually beneficial for helping you meet that requirement. In any other quest, searching the deck and discard for a Mûmak would not be a great thing to do!

The two controversial cards that appeared on both lists this week are Stampeding Oliphaunt and Strangling Python. Stampeding Oliphaunt is an interesting one. If there are no Wild Mûmak enemies, it fetches you Mûmak Trail, which we’ve already discussed as being the favorite card for this quest. But if you do have a Wild Mûmak in staging, it attacks you with its beefy attack stat. Very much a feast or famine encounter card! The Strangling Python gives me similar vibes to the tentacles from Watcher in the Water, and it’s a highly thematic (but annoying) effect for something that wraps around you.

It came as no surprise to me (although the running was closer than I would have expected) that the least favorite encounter card this week was The Savage South. This is a card that can absolutely wreck your board state. If it hits you early game it’s not quite as bad (which is a mark of a more well-designed treachery in my eyes), but it can still really cripple your momentum and cause you to lose your deck’s key cards.

Things worth sharing from the games

The game I played with my mono-Lore Elrond deck was a comedy of errors. I needed Spirit access but couldn’t draw Vilya or Song of Travel to save my life. After using ALL the card draw tricks I finally got a Master of the Forge, Love of Tales and Song of Travel into play, only for Savage South to discard all three. Spent the next round trying to build back up before having it all happen again. Needless to say Elrond and Bilbo perished before conceding defeat and crying myself to sleep that night.

I only drew locations the first rounds leading to questing issues since my location control deck took some time setting up, and then came all the animals. I managed to get two gorillas in Entangling nets, so they got to stay with me. The Dunedain Hunter found the Tiger at a time that I could handle him- he gave me a sweet threat-decrease. From then it was smooth sailing.

Northern Tracker MVP. We had a turn one Guardians of the Jungle that turned what should have been a promising start into a location locked threat-fest. I was able to Vilya a Northern Tracker in after a few rounds, and it cleared out enough of the board to let us clear the side quest and start making progress with everyone in the mid-40s for threat.

Discarded a Mûmak with 4 HP left and Poisoned Spear attached, because I luckily discarded Jungle Trail

I was initially annoyed to pull Noose of Vines given my lack of a kitted-out defender, but figuring out how to get the Mumak to 0 HP and have someone survive a single swing in my otherwise chump-heavy deck ended up being a fun puzzle.

I played a Council of the Wise deck with no condition removal, and I immediately got struck with a fever. I put it on Celeborn, hoping to get either Silvan Tracker or Daughter of the Nimrodel out in time. The Savage South then discarded my only Daughter of the Nimrodel. I got a Silvan Tracker out, but I’d already put Light of Valinor on Celeborn on my first turn and I wasn’t revealing any enemies, so Celeborn wasn’t readying. I luckily drew into Orophin at the perfect time, grabbed my Daughter of the Nimrodel from my discard, and was able to get her out in time to save Celeborn. Beyond that, I had two lucky biting insects reveals where I discarded a card with 0 cost.

I revealed The Savage South on my first turn and it completely whiffed (I cancelled the second copy I saw). My decks were struggling for willpower again so I had trouble making much progress early. With the threat of location lock looming, I used Thorongil to pull out TorchAgorn instead of my usual play for LoreAgorn since my threat was fine. That turned the tide enough for me to take control. I also had a Defender of Rammas flanked by two Honor Guards and Elessar on Aragorn so I could safely defend Mumaks with the Defender of Rammas. Playing and sacrificing a few Descendants of Thorondor + fetching Gandalf with Gwaihir’s Debt allowed me to place damage on the Wild Mumak’s in staging. EotMM with 9 attack/defense plus a ready from Radagast’s Staff helped me keep the Mumak’s engaged.

Thicket of Spears blocked all the extra enemies that started in play from quest achievements. Last Alliance helped Merry and Theoden kill an Ape while Eowyn readied to kill the Tiger.

An opening round Resourceful meant that I could use Frodo’s ability consistently to keep my threat down. Tom Cotton w/Hobbit Cloak and assistance from his daughter (Rosie) was able to defend the Wild Mumak until I could catch it with the Pit Trap.

Decklists used

Gondorian Threat https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/611860 and Honeymoon in Umbar https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/612781

Caldara Mono-Spirit Deck

Played a few different decks. My favourite was a Grey Aragorn with Gilraen and Halbarad. Also tried a Bear Traps deck that didn’t really work (Last Alliance of Beorning and Gondor (Damrod)), a mono-Lore Elrond deck and a couple of others.

GW Aragorn and Isengard stuff: https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22938

LegolaSP, Beravor, Glorfindel + Amarthuil, GimLead, Thurindir https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22379

https://ringsdb.com/questlog/view/59597/themmakil-3players-2025-08-01

https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/615222, https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/615899

Gavin Lights the Lamps – https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/578627

The Elena, Thurindir, Motk SpBilbo One Ring Smol Deck Special: https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/617137

Early dwarfs, Gloin, GimliTac, Bifur + Ents with Folco, Mablung, Treebeard

Silvan Council of the Wise https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/57989/magicsilvancouncil-2.0

Aragorn Mounts + ATEoAT Eagles https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/17792

Ranger Traps https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/612969

Mono-Tactics Last Alliance of Hobbits and Rohan: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/60264/chargeoftherohobbits-1.0

“Rouse the Shire!” – Frodo (Ld), Tom Cotton & MotK Pippin lead a band of secretive, yet feisty hobbits (https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/587098)

Fastred, Dunhere, Tacowyn and Pippin, Arwen, Thranduil

This week our harad work pays off and we get to ride our newly tamed Mûmakil! Saddle up, and once you have completed Race Across Harad, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/DfkPDgCVURNBmzrX6

And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have: