May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.

ALeP - Fire on the Eastemnet - Eagles

INTRODUCTION

With the release of Fire on the Eastemnet, A Long-extended Party has greatly increased the potential and power of the eagle archetype. Not only are there now more awesome player cards to support this archetype, but also two powerful and exciting heroes, Alagos and Faunith. AleP has given players the ability to make a solely eagle-focused deck, something that I am extremely excited about. Below I will give a description of each new card. Enjoy!

CARDS

HEROES

Alagos

Card Rating: 8/10

Alagos is an extremely helpful hero for full-out eagle decks, with a strong stat line and useful effect. His effect helps buy eagles at a faster rate, which helps Gwaihir ready more often, plus it makes it easier to get off to a strong start by buying more eagles in the first round. It is also helps keep in eagles such as Winged Guardian and Vassal of the Windlord who leave play after attacking or defending. His three makes him the eagle hero with the highest , which means he will probably be questing a lot early in the game. But once your allies can do the questing and he is able to sit back, then his three , makes him a strong attacker, and if you want even more attack an ideal candidate for Dúnedain Mark. While Gwaihir still boasts the most power for an eagle with four, Alagos' low makes it so that Gwaihir may have to defend quite a bit, or at least until you are able to get a bunch of allies out. Finally, his four is tied for the most for an eagle, and due to his low you probable won't be defending with him too often, so you shouldn't have to worry about him dying too often. In my opinion the best way to play with Alagos is as you would Thorin Oakenshield. They have the exact same stats and threat, plus both have effects that are somewhat similar. One final word, Alagos cannot have Support of the Eagles played on him.

Faunith

Card Rating 6/10

Faunith's low threat makes it possible to have a three-hero eagle deck. Thanks Faunith! Her low statline yet awesome effect makes her one of my favorite AleP heroes. Firstly, there isn't a limit to her effect, making it possible to destroy pesky enemies is the staging area such as Goblin Sniper and Goblin Archer, and ready Gwaihir if you want to quest with him. Another reason I like her effect is how well it works with Descendant of Thorondor. You can deal 3 damage to an enemy in the staging area, which will destroy more than around 50% of the enemies in the game. While her effect is great, her stats are those of a 8-threat hero, which means they aren't great. You could switch around questing and attacking with her 2 in both those categories, but try to refrain from defending unless she has an attachment like Support of the Eagles, because one bad shadow card can take her out, with only 1 and 3 . As a final thought, just try not to get her damaged, as the one thing eagles lack is healing.

ALLIES

Chieftain of the Skies

I really like Chieftain of the Skies, his Devoted keyword is nice and his ability to ready allies is very helpful in multiplayer with Golden Crown, although one of the only ways you can use it in solo is with Faunith's effect or certain events such as Sneak Attack, which by the way is an awesome card for eagle decks. kjeld pointed out that "Chieftain of the Skies combos really nicely with A Very Good Tale, as you can ready up one of the allies you exhausted to play the event", which is a great point. He can also be a helpful card in Ent decks if you have resources, to ready Ent allies that come into play. Then his 3 is great as well.

Messenger of Manwë

Messenger of Manwë is a really good card, his ability to consistently give players extra is very nice, and he also is able to work well in a non-eagle deck. He is very cheap, and while a very good multiplayer ally his strength in solo play is lessened considerably.

Veteran Eagle

I really like this card. He's low-cost, has decent stats, and an effect that makes those stats even better. Since he has the warrior trait he can have attachments such as Vigilant Guard. After you have all three in play, he becomes kind of worthless, but you can start the process all over again with cards like Meneldor's Flight, or now, even better, Breath of Arda.

ATTACHMENTS

Golden Crown

Golden Crown is a very fun card, firstly it gives your hero the Noble trait, and then helps with resource production or helps your fellow players, which works well with the new allies. The thing I love about the Noble trait is you can then attach Heir of Mardil to your hero and then ready him with the effect of this card, an it also can take advantage of cards such as Captain's Wisdom, Captains of the West and Terrible to Behold. Plus, it's an eagle attachment. Who doesn't like that?

EVENTS

Breath of Arda

This card is awesome, it works so well with the new allies AleP has introduced, and with some of the old allies FFG created, Veteran Eagle, Messenger of Manwë, Descendant of Thorondor, Meneldor, and to a lesser extent Chieftain of the Skies all benefit from this amazing card, in fact any eagle ally can, for when they leave play they lose all damage tokens. This card is a must-have in every eagle deck.

Hidden Roosts

This card is a must-have in any three-hero eagle deck, the starting threat for this deck is 33, which is a lot. Luckily this card can help reduce the threat, Landroval comes to mind as an ideal candidate, especially if he can save a hero and then reduce your threat by five. I also like the second part of this effect, but my favorite part is the 0 cost, allowing you to play this card whenever an ally dies, no matter the circumstances.

DECK

Here's a runthrough of how to use this deck:

Mulligan for as many cheap eagles as possible. Get a copy of The Eagles Are Coming! if possible, but what you really want to do is get two eagles in round one. At the beginning of the game, Alagos will be your primary quester, Gwaihir will defend and Faunith can attack with your allies. Once you get going and have multiple eagles out, it's all fair weather from that point forward. Eagles of the Misty Mountains should get really strong, and they will be your primary defenders and attackers, while questing will still be Alagos' job with the help of your allies. At this point use Gwaihir as you please, give him Golden Crown and the first copy of Support of the Eagles you get. Once you can quest a lot without Alagos, use him to attack, an give him your second copy of Support of the Eagles. Do whatever you want with Faunith, just keep her alive. This deck is extremely powerful and fun and I hope you enjoy it and enjoyed my review!