Survey: Stopping Baduila (and other agents)

[CDavis7M]

I talked with a friend about stopping Baduila recently and the other discussion on agents jogged my memory. Maybe people are interested in learning strategies from the best players? Unfortunately they can't be bothered. But I can.

---===BADUILA===---

BADUILA
Unique. Agent. Agent only: if Baduila is discarded at target company’s new site, company must return to its site of origin. (Clarification: Read “If Baduila is discarded” as “If you choose to discard Baduila.”)

SEEK WITHOUT SUCCESS
Discard a ranger agent at target company’s new site. Company must immediately return to its site of origin.

This card works similarly to Baduila.

CRF / The Wizards Companion
Annotation 6: If an action requires an entity to be discarded as a condition for the action’s main effect, that entity must be discarded when the action is declared; this is considered synonymous with the action’s declaration, i.e., it is not a separate action.

The trouble with Baduila comes from the fact that discarding his card is the cost of declaring the "return to origin" effect. This means that Baduila is already discarded before any anti-agent resources can be played in response. And if the anti-agent resource is played first, this means that Baduila was already revealed somehow, and Baduila can still use his effect in response. Most of the resource effects just don't work against him anyway. I'll be restating the obvious but maybe some things aren't so obvious in the aggregate. Let's start with what doesn't work.

---===ANTI-AGENT RESOURCES===---

FACE OUT OF SIGHT
All on-guard cards are returned to owner’s hands. At the end of any turn, all wounded agents and tapped agents are returned to their owner’s hand. Cannot be duplicated.

This doesn't work because the effect only works at the end of the turn after Baduila would have already been moved and used. And it can't be used to return Baduila to the opponent's hand because it is a long-event and so the opponent can just not move him (which taps him). The best that Face out of Sight does is prevent Baduila from moving closer to your site.
Secondary Effect: prevent on-guard cards from being revealed at the site. This is a nice effect but the card is still a long-event. Only better than Withdrawn to Mordor's secondary effect if you have multiple companies at dangerous sites.

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HIDDEN KNIFE
Playable on any face up agent during your site phase. You may play a hazard creature from your hand keyed to a face up agent’s current site which immediately attacks the agent as if the agent were a character. You do not receive marshalling points if the agent is eliminated.

This card is played in the site phase and it is played on a face-up agent. This isn't helping against Baduila at all.
Secondary Effect: Another big drawback is that this card lacks the secondary effects found on many Dark Minions cards.

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I KNOW MUCH ABOUT YOU
Cancels any agent attack or any hazard effect that requires tapping an agent declared earlier in the same chain of effects or one attack from a hazard creature with multiple attacks (e.g., Slayer, Nameless Thing).

Unfortunately, this card's effect does not work against Baduila.
Secondary Effect: This card at least can cancel an attack from assassin making it a good candidate for Gondor area decks, which require have strong agents and which are further from Baduila.

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ORDERED TO KILL
Each face up agent must attack if a company enters a site where he is located.
 Additionally, any unrevealed on-guard cards are discarded instead of being returned to their owner’s hand. Discard when any play deck is exhausted. Cannot be duplicated.

This card requires the agent to be faceup and it just makes them attack you. It doesn't help against Baduila.
Secondary Effect: The secondary effect is good and can catch some players off-guard (vs on-guard) but the primary effect doesn't make up for it.

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WITHDRAWN TO MORDOR
Playable on a face-up agent. If the agent has a mind of 5 or less, it is discarded. If its mind is 6 or greater, return the agent to its owner’s hand.
 Alternatively, an on-guard card is discarded.

This card also requires a face-up agent and Baduila will likely be discarded for his effect immediately when he is revealed. Even if Baduila was faceup, all this card is going to do is return him to the opponent's hand. That's something but not great.
Secondary Effect: The secondary effect is nice enough to have this card in your main play deck. (I'm still deciding whether to repeat the off-guard joke). But still doesn't help against baduila.

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HERE IS A SNAKE
Playable on a company during its movement/hazard phase after cards have been drawn. Opponent may reveal to you any number of hazards from his hand. He may only play hazards he revealed to you (including on-guard cards) for the remainder of target company’s movement/hazard phase.
 Alternatively, a face-down agent is tapped and revealed.

Here is a snake doesn't stop Baduila, revealing him might neutralize him. If your opponent is not playing a full agent hazard strategy then there are only so many agents they might be using face-down. If Baduila is faceup then you know how far he can reach, even if the opponent gets out agent-helping hazards. And it's going to slow them down to flip him back over and then continue moving.
Secondary Effect: Maybe this is more the primary effect but it can stop Mouth of Sauron and Uvatha as well as let you know what is coming on a crucial turn.

---===SPECIAL MVPs===---

GOLDBERRY
Unique. Playable at Old Forest.
 May not be attacked.
 Tap Goldberry to cancel a hazard effect that causes her company to return to its site of origin. Alternatively, tap Goldberry to cancel an attack against her company keyed to Wilderness.

Not really an anti-agent hazard but Goldberry is great for many companies with her attack cancellation effect.

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PROMPTINGS OF WISDOM / PIERCING ALL SHADOWS
Light Enchantment. Playable during the organization phase on a ranger. Target ranger may tap to cancel all hazard effects for the rest of the turn that: force his company to return to its site of origin or that tap his company’s current or new site. If so tapped, target ranger makes a corruption check. Cannot be duplicated in a given company.

Works against returning to origin and also prevents tapping of the site. Govern the Storms is a neat card also.

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---===CONCLUSION===---

Unrealistically, you could use Here is a Snake to reveal Baduila and then combine that with Withdrawn to Mordor (returning him to their hand) or Hidden Knife. But I think this is a bit too much to hope for.

My opinion is that HERE IS A SNAKE is the best resource for stopping Baduila. It is not the best anti-agent resource in all cases of course. And it is not even that great. But Mount Gundabad and Carn Dum end up being so easy for greater items sometimes that having a strong defender like Baduila is reasonable in the scope of the game.

For many decks it's probably worth putting Withdrawn to Mordor or Here is a Snake straight in the deck, but at least in the sideboard. If you are going to Gundabad and Carn Dum or hanging out within 1 region of Baduila's homesites, better to just put Baduila in your own deck (why is he not there anyway?) and use Inner Cunning to get him faster. You might also put a return to origin stopper straight in the deck, but I'd probably put in more ways to sideboard instead of doing it directly.

[Konrad Klar]

Play your own Baduila and reveal him.

EDIT: "his own" > "your own"

[CDavis7M]

Play your own Baduila and reveal him.

Right yes. I mentioned Inner Cunning as a way to get him faster. It's nice to have hazards that support your resource plan.

[Konrad Klar]

And to protect him (and your resource plan) from Face out of Sight, Ordered to Kill, Withdrawn to Mordor, use Hidden Knife against him.

[Lake Town Geezer]

I am now thinking just avoid Baduila's home sites, include Goldberry in the deck (very common ally anyway for obvious reasons - only 1MP but unkillable and just very useful ally generally), put a 'Promptings of Wisdom' in the sideboard (and play with Sam or Radagast) is the way I would go. Only include Baduila as an agent in the hazard deck as well if this synergises well with the general hazard strategy - I must admit a few agents in the deck looks like a lot of fun.