Let’s Discuss Decks!

So we’ve got the website. We’re fairly caught up on a brief history of time with the game. You know I’m on the quest “The Bloof of Gondor.”

What’s my deck look like? It’s probably a silly question, and as it turns out I’m already very aware that I’m likely going to have to change it for Blood of Gondor. That being said this is a pretty fun deck and I really enjoy the concept and gameplay that it brings to the table.

First, let’s post the deck so you can see it for yourself! Follow this link to see it. I call the deck “Rohan Will Answer” and it uses the contract Forth the Three Hunters with Tactics Eowyn, Dunhere and Fastred.

It’s pretty straightforward. Eowyn is there for questing. Fastred blocks an enemy attack and pushes the enemy back into the staging area, reducing threat. Dunhere rides out and destroys them. Everything in the deck is built around this core idea.

What I like about the deck: It can be flexible. There are only a few items that absolutely need to be in play. Fastred needs Silver Circlet and Golden Shield, or he can just grab a round shield. Eowyn needs Windfola and whatever is available that the other heroes don’t need to get to 2 restricted attachments. If Steed of the Mark or Unexepcted Courage come out early, the first usually goes on Fastred so that he can either quest and block or double block if needed. Dunhere needs one spear of the mark and one Rohan Warhorse. From there he can either grab another spear of the mark to get his attack to 7, or he can grab the song of battle and a war axe and hit for 8 attack. Once the contract flips, we throw those Golden Belts on and just gear everyone up as efficiently as possible. It’s potent and powerful. When this deck fires it fires hard. Rohan’s Hunters didn’t journey down the Anduin, they galloped down the shore pulling the raft behind them! When Rohan assaulted Osgiliath last week, they hit the quest so hard the city was taken back in 3 turns.

What I dislike about the deck: For all the intended flexibility I think it’s slow. It struggles in siege questing and prolonged battle questing. The deck struggles to flip the contract. 27 cards in the deck are attachments, and 21 of those 27 are restricted. Yet more often than not I draw into a bad starting hand, or I get a good starting hand and don’t draw into more of what I need, even with cards like Foehammer available and usable. I feel like there are a ton of useful synergies here with the events but nothing ever seems to draw right. I’ve never even seen the card Tides of Fate despite having 3 copies of it in the deck. Power of Orthanc joined the deck after the treachery Local Trouble kept tripping me up in The Steward’s Fear. I never saw the card, and now that I’m far past that quest it seems to creep up into every opening hand. The number of opening hands I’ve drawn that don’t even have an attachment in them is surprising. I like the cards in the deck, I think they have the potential to work great together, but I think my biggest criticism of this deck may be that it relies too much on luck of the draw.

That’s a lot of negative, but don’t get me wrong I love playing this deck. I don’t think it is my best one ever (that would be my long lost Dunedain combat deck) but it is certainly one of my favorite ones to play. Rohan’s assistance to Gondor in this cycle has certainly been much appreciated.

So that’s where I stand deck-wise. It has undergone two revisions and I wish I could remember what some of the other cards were just for the fun history. More than likely it was cards that I thought were great for the deck only to realize the heroes didn’t actually qualify for them. I am starting to get a strong inkling that the deck will be modified again before I am finished with the Blood of Gondor. There’s a lot happening in that quest and I just don’t think it can cut it as is. We shall see what happens!