Gandalf Makes Everything Better: Rohan Edition 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

I've been on a Gandalf kick and this is part of my project to insert him into decks with many of the various factions and see how they play. I've already published the Silvan Edition which I think works really well.

Rohan has been weaker than Silvan for a long time but Gandalf provides some real help for the deck type, primarily in the form of card draw. This deck usually ends up with plenty of cards in hand by the end of a game along with a host of Rohirrim. The deck isn't strictly a "Rohan discard deck" but it does have a full 3x Gamling along with 13 other Rohan allies that have discard effects. Gamling can be triggered up to twice (even three times in strange circumstances) with Gandalf's use of Narya.

Willpower

Eowyn and the first Spirit ally you play provide your starting willpower and you can easily put more in with your other heroes if you need it. You can ramp your willpower pretty continuously throughout the game and then do a big boost at some point with Astonishing Speed.

Defense

Gandalf can be your fist defender until you get an ally, hopefully Deorwine, out. Deorwine with a Raiment of War is a pretty great defender. If you can get him set up with the readying and +1 and from Narya, he's pretty deadly in the combat phase. There's several options for defense. Háma is actually not a bad defense option if you don't have Deorwine out or he's been beat up a little. You can even put that second Raiment of War on Elfhelm if you like. He'll likely be ready at the beginning of the combat phase and with the Raiment he can defend for 3 with 5 HP which is bad at all!

Attack

Theoden will likely be your first attacker along with the 2 Tactics allies. This deck builds up attack power pretty fast.

Resources

Between Theoden's cost reduction and Gandalf's Staff, you can reliably play 5 resources of cards every turn if you like. I usually outpace my resources with card draw by the mid game but that just gives me plenty of options for customizing my army to the challenge of the quest.

Threat

The deck starts at a pretty high threat level so you can't dally too long while you build up your board but you'll draw into your The Galadhrim's Greeting so keep you in the game.

Card Draw

In most cases I would do a full 3x Horn of the Mark but with all the draw Gandalf provides, it's not necessary. I could honestly be cut down to 1 or 0. Using Gúthwinë to pull allies out of your discard pile is also another form of card draw. Gleowine is always good and while he has to be played off the top of the deck with Gandalf's resources, at 1 cost, he's too good to not include at least 1 copy.

Mounts

I cut Snowmane and Shadowfax down to 1 each and removed Windfola entirely because I found I like getting more allies out faster compared to getting fast readying and then drawing into dead cards.

Mulligan

Wizard Pipe is always really good to see right away. It's nice to have a decent quester in hand right away and getting a Tactics ally out quickly helps with killing stuff as well. I'm not overly picky about the opening hand. Main thing is start getting allies out and try hard to utilize that top card of your deck as it effectively increases your hand size and options.

I've long been dissatisfied with Rohan in this game but I continuously work on making mediocre Rohan decks. I would say this is one of the better Rohan decks I've built, for the simple reason that Gandalf makes everything better! Enjoy