Experimental Deckbuilding – Lord of a Fell People

In one of our last installments, we put together an Isengard-themed deck that was focused around the Orthanc Guard, trying to build a deck where that normally-maligned card (and with good reason) could actually shine.

It was a really fun project, and ended up being a hybrid Rohan/Isengard deck with a really interesting theme, hinting at the cooperation between the members of the White Council before the treason of Saruman bore its bitter fruit. Because I generally prefer to play 2-handed, and because I really enjoy fellowships which are thematically linked together, my objective in this next post is to build a second deck that plays well with Isengard.

Yes, that’s right, I’m building a multiplayer fellowship around Grima and the Doomed keyword.

This might be a little bit tricky, as we’ll have to balance our commitment to theme against much more severe mechanical constraints than any of our previous deckbuilding projects have faced.

The most obvious thematic pairing is a Rohan deck, and since I’m a huge fan of the horselords in both the lore and the card game, let’s run with it and see where we can get. To start with, let’s analyze the weaknesses of our Isengard deck and see just what we need to shore up.

The most glaring weakness is threat, of course. While we have included a number of exceptionally potent threat mitigation effects in our Isengard deck, the Doomed keyword is indiscriminate in its threat raising – the primary reason why Grima is generally shunned in multiplayer. Any deck we build will have to deal with constant threat raises every round without breaking down. This means either repeatable threat reduction or an incredible amount of deck space devoted to event-based reduction.

Interestingly enough, Rohan has an excellent solution to this dilemma. Fastred is a middling defensive hero with a powerful ability. Reducing our threat by 2 almost every round will definitely give us a headstart in countering the Doomed shenanigans the other deck will pull. Having a decent defensive hero is also a pretty good idea – our fellowship will end up with the Orthanc Guard as a powerful defender, but it doesn’t start out that way.

The second part of Fastred’s ability could be problematic, however. Returning an enemy to the staging area means having to deal with more threat in the staging area, and we are ill-equipped to do that in the early game. To make a deck that really revolves around his ability, we either need to have enough willpower to quest past every enemy we leave in the staging area, or have some way of killing enemies in the staging area. Luckily, the Rohan trait provides for both.

We have two in-theme options for attacking into the staging area. Dunhere is the stereotypical example, having provided this capability since the Core Set. He has a number of advantages – he’s low threat, his ability doesn’t require any additional triggers, and he’s another Spirit hero to pay for those Rohan questing allies. In addition, since his ability is inherent, he can attack multiple times per round, potentially defeating multiple enemies without ever engaging them.

Our other option is the Leadership version of Eomer. At first glance, he seems to be strictly inferior to Dunhere – higher threat, more wasted stats, and he requires you to spend a resource every time you attack into the staging area (and he can only do it in the quest phase, instead of any time you attack). On the other hand, though, Eomer brings some advantages to the table as well. Eomer is in-sphere for a number of attack boosts that can make him more able to kill enemies in a single swing, especially the sword Guthwine, which can bring a Rohan ally back from the discard pile after defeating an enemy. He and the weapons he brings access to are also better for attacking enemies engaged with you – Dunhere and his weapons very often end up attacking for significantly less against enemies not in the staging area. In addition, you gain the added benefit of having Eomer committed to the quest – a form of action advantage. For the cost of 1 resource, you have committed Eomer to the quest and killed (or at least attacked) an enemy in the staging area, thereby reducing the threat you are questing against. With a willpower of only 1, he’s certainly not extremely effective at questing, but the effective questing swing from committing him can be quite a bit higher than his willpower alone.

The last point in Eomer’s favor is that he works extremely well with the new Guarded player cards. If you reveal an extra enemy during planning, you can potentially kill it immediately and start using the attachment. Since I’m already starting to get excited about that possibility, I think that I’ve found my next hero. For a third hero, let’s go with Spirit Eowyn, for just about everything she brings to the table (including making it easier to get the Elven-light/Steward of Orthanc engine running for the other deck).

So, on to the deck itself!

The first order of business is to put together a decent suite of allies. First is supplemental willpower. Three copies of the West Road Traveller is a good start. Remaining strictly in-theme, there’s only one other 2-cost/2-willpower ally in sphere, and that’s the Escort from Edoras. Even with Guthwine, that constant discarding is going to be costly to manage and probably not worth the effort.

So, if we want more willpower, we’ll have to look at some slightly more expensive cards. Rider of Rohan will be excellent, of course, and deserves three copies. The next card to look at is Rider of the Mark. Three cost for 2 willpower is a bit steep, although the extra point of attack and the extra hit point can be useful. It’s the shadow control that really makes this card interesting. Without some way to look at shadow cards, it is a little bit of a gamble to spend the resource and discard the card, but for the peace of mind this gives when defending against boss-level enemies, I think that it’s definitely worth including 2 copies.

While we’re on the subject of Rohan allies, since we’ve already essentially committed to including Guthwine, let’s look at cards that could easily find themselves in the discard pile for one reason or another, and thus could be a target for returning to hand. We’ll start with 3 copies of the Snowbourne Scout. There’s really no reason not to drop him in – the repeatable chump blocking and location control is certainly worth it. In addition, 2 copies of the Riddermark’s Finest will help us with more location control, as well as some additional attack while we wait to use their ability. Finally, let’s toss in some emergency readying via the Westfold Horse-breaker. 2 copies should be fine there.

We’re now up to 15 allies – I think that I’ll want a few more who can help out with combat if need be. Towards that end, let’s drop in 2 copies of Ceorl, who is a really interesting card that I don’t really think about that often. He is 2 cost for 2 attack, however, and that’s definitely worth something. In addition, his ability is more useful than it looks like at first glance – being able to help out the companion deck with some attack is quite useful. With Guthwine in play, he can even be a chump blocker wherever on the table you need him to be. While we’re looking at leadership allies, we probably ought to drop in 3 copies of the Errand-rider. Eomer’s ability is resource intensive, and it will be useful to be able to smooth resources out exactly where they are needed.

Our final ally card will be a really vital one. So far, our only threat management card is Fastred. While powerful, he really isn’t enough to cover all of our needs, especially in quests where the encounter deck will be providing additional pressure on our threat dial. To ameliorate this issue, enter Elfhelm. He requires staying ready, but that’s not particularly an issue, since his combat statistics are much better than his questing anyways. Essentially, he adds 2 attack power in addition to a powerful counter to encounter cards that raise our threat.

For additional threat reduction, a single copy of Double Back will drop both decks by 5. Since both decks have a copy, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get one into the victory display.

Now, let’s go to events. Three copies of Mustering the Rohirrim will get us the allies we need when we need them, while 3 copies of Hasty Stroke provide insurance against game-ending shadow effects. Three copies of Valiant Sacrifice add additional card draw, and we should be seeing enough allies leave play to get consistent use out of them. This would be where we would add additional threat reduction cards, but I’m not sure we need them at the moment. Further testing will reveal that, I suppose. Our other deck has A Test of Will, so for the moment, I think we’re good. Let’s move on to attachments.

Since we are still struggling on the card draw front, let’s add 3 copies of Ancient Mathom. Three copies apiece of Dunedain Mark and Dunedain Warning will provide a decent start for getting Eomer and Fastred up and running. Three copies of Guthwine, to be sure – we’ve built the deck around the assumption that we could recur Rohan allies if needed. Two copies of Hauberk of Mail – the first one will go onto Fastred, as an effective 4th copy of Dunedain Warning. If we draw the second one, I’m not sure where it would go. The only other Warrior characters we have available are Eomer and Elfhelm, and neither one is a really good choice for a defender. It may end up being Eowyn fodder, and that’s alright.

We’re up to 46 cards now, and we haven’t addressed a fundamental part of the game – resource acceleration. The problem is that there isn’t a lot of thematic space for Rohan resource acceleration apart from Theodred. So we’re going to have to get a little bit creative.

We know that Orthanc became a great treasure-house under Saruman’s occupancy, and many wondrous artifacts from past ages were stored there. Many of these had come into his possession during his search for the remains of Isildur in hopes of finding the One Ring, of course, but it held a hoard of many precious gems and other things. It is entirely possible that, had Saruman not fallen into treachery, he could have lavished these gifts to his neighbors and allies in order to aid them against the Dark Lord. To represent this, I’m going to add 3 copies of the Necklace of Girion and 3 copies of Orcrist. Canonically, of course, we know what happened to both of those artifacts. The Necklace was given to the Elven-king, Thranduil by Dain in token of gratitude for his part in the Battle of Five Armies, while Orcrist lies on Thorin’s tomb in the heart of the Lonely Mountain. But it is not difficult to imagine that Saruman might also have found famous Elvish blades from the First Age, or to have dwarf-wrought jewels from the hoards of Moria that could rival Girion’s necklace.

Basically, these cards represent ancient artifacts that Saruman has collected and gifted to the Rohirrim in their time of need. I think that this is still a strong thematic fit, even if the exact cards we are using aren’t quite there. Orcrist, in particular, is a good fit for this deck, because it makes Eomer’s ability effectively free, as long as he kills an enemy with it. The Necklace will most likely go onto Eowyn, so that we can afford the expensive Rohan allies more easily.

And, with 52 cards in the deck, that should be a decent start. Take a look at the finished fellowship here, and be sure to watch this space for upcoming articles on testing these decks!

Until then, happy questing!