Dúnedain Vacuum Cleaner

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tigormiti 901

This is an Hour of Wrath deck that is potentially devastating even outside Valour (by devastating, I mean unlimited board-cleaning, including the boards of fellow players). It offers potent targets for Hour of Wrath, including a capable hero lineup (which, curiously, is a first on ringsdb) and unlimited responses to destroying enemies. Depending on the targets of Hour of Wrath, you get :

  • The Hasty : This is the get-out-of-jail free card. Éowyn stands and destroys all enemies engaged with you. Not too shabby, but not the best.
  • The Unlikely : Starring Merry. In addition to enabling Good Meal to halve the cost of Hour of Wrath, Merry combines with Legolas to kill engaged enemies. Each time an enemy is destroyed, Legolas stands and draws you a card. If Merry has Blade of Gondolin, each destroyed enemy produces progress tokens. This becomes significant quite quickly: 3 enemies killed with 2 Blade of Gondolin will yield 6 progress tokens. decks don’t refuse that.
  • The Vacuum Cleaner : Aragorn, buffed up by Support of the Eagles and/or Blade of Gondolin, enters killing spree mode : kill, engage, kill, engage, etc. With just 1 Support of the Eagles and 1 Vassal of the Windlord, Aragorn essentially hits for 7 (taking his defense reducer into account) which is 1 shy of the magic 8 number. The number keeps mounting from the moment Eagles of the Misty Mountains comes into play. My personal record in solo play was against Nightmare Into the Pit when an Aragorn with 2 Support of the Eagles defended and killed 2 Patrol Leaders (4 , 3 , 4 HP) and 4 Patrol Sentries (4 , 3 , 5 HP) in one phase, all by himself. I think that was the first time I saw the encounter deck raise the white flag.
  • The Closer : Valour time ! Aragorn and Merry team up to engage and kill all enemies on the table with the help of Legolas. Each time an enemy is destroyed, Merry stands Legolas who draws you a card, and Blade of Gondolin produces progress tokens. Bonus style points if you get into valour by triggering Éowyn, who also gets to join in on the fun.

The strategy is all about setting up the moment when you push the atomic bomb button. Optimally, you start an Aragorn loop with only 1 engaged enemy in order to limit defensive duties. The low starting threat (24 with Éowyn setup ability) helps, but the deck wouldn’t mind some help from a Dúnedain-type engagement deck that can distract enemies, although it can still defend itself pretty well thanks to Defender of Rammas and Winged Guardian. To get the one enemy that gets Aragorn going, you may use Wait no Longer.

Starting hand: Look for card draw, i.e., Foe-hammer and a weapon, or Legolas, then economy (Hope Rekindled, Good Meal, Proud Hunters), then chump allies (try to keep cheap eagles in play to feed Eagles of the Misty Mountains later).

Soloability: The deck gets better with the number of players, but it can also hold its own in solo play. Thanks to Éowyn and a balanced mix of allies, the deck can quest reasonably well, and Wait no Longer can help close out a game by avoiding adding threat to the staging area. To give an idea, I am currently 4 out of 6 against Into the Pit Nightmare (location-locked in both defeats), and 4 out of 4 against 7th Level Nightmare.

Sideboarding: Depending on the scenario, you might want to swap out Support of the Eagles and/or Blade of Gondolin for other weapons. I like Support of the Eagles because it is not restricted and is an easy +3 or +4 .

9 comments

Oct 06, 2018 brian@lotrlcg.d6pack.com 96

Have you considered using Gondorian Fire on Aragorn? My understanding of the card is that if Aragorn has 4 resource tokens, you spend one to give him +3 attack for the phase.

Oct 06, 2018 tigormiti 901

@bdavis96 It would work pretty nicely ! It is a bit less versatile than Support of the Eagles, which can allow you to defend everything with just Aragorn + Hour of Wrath (this actually got me out of trouble a few times), but less difficult to set up. Best choice depends on the situation. Thanks for the suggestion !

Oct 07, 2018 doomguard 1923

had made the same strategy in 3-4 player with aragorn mablung and hirgon. that have the benefit u can play more of the expensive eagles or legolas in 1. round. in addition with "wait no longer" its possible to gain 6-7 res the first round.

its best tactic u can get at the moment (for multiplayer) i think, worked well in carn dum. not sure if it will make it solo.

Oct 07, 2018 Yepesnopes 1241

I was wondering if Book of Eldacar will fit in the deck to be able to replay Hour of Wrath?

Oct 07, 2018 tigormiti 901

@doomguard I also hesitated with Hirgon and Mablung, but they wouldn’t cut it for solo play, IMO, because of lack of willpower. I also wanted low threat (to exploit Aragorn’s engagement ability to drag enemies from the staging area), Good Meal, and Merry’s synergy with Legolas.

Oct 07, 2018 tigormiti 901

@Yepesnopes I haven’t needed it so far, but YMMV. In solo play, 2 Hour of Wrath are enough to tame the encounter decks of the Khazad Dum quests. I’ve had success fishing for it with Hope Rekindled when needed in valour. You may need to play it more in multiplayer. Feel free to add Book of Eldacar !

Oct 07, 2018 doomguard 1923

i have only used it in multiplayer, and there are enough player with a high thread, so it doesn't matter if the aragorndeck has 25 or about 30 startingthread. in solo i agree to the low thread, but i wonder if it can do hard szenarios solo. (and these dwarfen-cycle nightmare are not really hard like carn dum, return to mirkwood nm, 3 trials nm, dunlandtrap, fear of the steward nm,....)

Oct 07, 2018 tigormiti 901

@doomguard Can’t tell for the NM quests you cited, as I don’t have them. I’d bet that The Steward’s Fear (even non-NM) could easily cause location lock. Return to Mirkwood solo (even non-NM) looks like a long shot, just because it sucks solo.

Oct 08, 2018 doomguard 1923

kk, just metioning ;) in multiplayer aragorn-merry or other good taktik-aragorndecks (e.g. with brand in another deck) are the best fighting-options there are. in most cases they can kill about 3 enemies even in the 1. round. that helped specially in scenaries that start with enemies per player.