Four is the loneliest number 1.0

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• 1.0

There aren't that many heroes in the game that start off with a 4 for their stats (besides hitpoints, obviously). As such, I set out to create a deck where each hero has a 4 in their stat line, which led me to this mono- deck. Having heroes with 4 in their stat line is great, as they can start doing their thing immediately in the first round, only getting better in the following rounds as you get your board state set up. So today I bring you this deck, which is yet untested but should cover most bases that a mono- deck can cover.

Questing

Willpower has always been an issue with Tactics, and while a lot has changed over the years, the willpower issue is still a thing in most mono- decks. For this deck, Éowyn is your obvious quester, but Quickbeam can help a little in the early game as well. This should help you carry the weight of the team before you get everything up and going. In the later stages, Meneldor, Beorning Skin-changer, Grimbold, and Treebeard can help you out, but it would be best to play with a teammate who carries the willpower a little. Some pseudo-questing tricks are also in this deck that can help you out. Followed can help an enemy to quest for you, which you can trigger as soon as you play it if you can also get a Knight of Minas Tirith down in the same turn, as that forces the enemy to engage you. What also helps with questing is that Quickbeam can make excellent use out of Grappling Hook to boost his questing potential without making the quest a Battle quest. Once you get Necklace of Girion out, you can also quest a little harder than usual. It is best to get this on Éowyn, as she will be the main quester of the deck.

Attacking

This should be a no-brainer, as a mono- deck that can't attack would be very odd indeed. Quickbeam starts with 4 attack, making it easy to dispose of small enemies like those that start engaged during Escape from Umbar. To help with your attack, the other Ents and Beornings in this deck can help you out. Between Bears, Knights, and Trees, you should find yourself having enough attack to kill some enemies outright. To further help your attacking power, you can use the Spear of the Citadel on Beregond to soften enemies up a little. If an enemy happens to be attached to a card like Secret Vigil, Followed, Necklace of Girion or Outmatched, you can also play Valour of the North to get a massive boost of 3 on an attacker.

Defending

It wasn't difficult to find a defender in Tactics with 4 defense, as Beregond is quite the staple when it comes to that. Have him equip his toys and he can hold most enemies at bay for a long time. It also helps if an enemy is trapped in Outmatched, as that readies Beregond to defend again. You can also use Feint and Grimbold to cancel an attack if needed. Other defenders include the 4 Defender of Rammas who fulfil more of a chump-defender role. Don't rule out Giant Bear either as a defender, he can hold his own in combat as well. Valour of the North can also be extremely useful when defending against an enemy with a card attached to it.

Healing

Yeah, this was a bit more difficult, as Tactics has no dedicated healing cards. While Raven-winged Helm and Honour Guard can cancel a lot of incoming damage, this does not heal any existing damage. This is a problem to Quickbeam, whose damage cannot be cancelled for his attack. This is why Magic Ring is in the deck, as that at least can heal off some damage at the cost of a point of threat. You can also use the ring to ready Quickbeam if you are at your limit of taking damage but need the extra 4 attack.

Readying

There is plenty of action advantage in this deck through effects. Outmatched will keep readying your defender. Giant Bear, Éowyn, Treebeard and Quickbeam have built-in readying effects. And if you get Magic Ring on Quickbeam, you'll have an even easier time to use him. This all should help in getting you that extra advantage against multiple enemies.

Threat reduction

This is another problem in Tactics, though I have tried to keep the threat as low as possible. Éowyn will start to keep your threat low, but with the use of Secret Vigil on the right enemies, you can stabilize your threat for a while. Still, it would be nice to have some more threat reduction in the deck, which is why a Gandalf or 2 wouldn't be a bad decision to play.

Resource Generation

This is no problem for the deck, which has some expensive cards you can pay for with the resources you get by using Magic Ring, Horn of Gondor, and Necklace of Girion. This should help you to overcome the lack of cheaper allies or heroes like Hirgon and Prince Imrahil.

Card draw

I wanted to use Foe-hammer in this deck, but couldn't quite get enough weapons in the deck to get it going. You will have to rely on top decking and using Gandalf for this.

I hope you enjoy the deck and that you have some good playthroughs with it. I will be trying it out myself, and will keep an open mind for any edits. Feel free to log any playthroughs you have with it. I mainly wanted to build the deck to use the 4-stat heroes and the tactics attachments for enemies, which was a fun deckbuilding experience!