Super Hasty Ents! 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Who says Ents aren't hasty? With this deck, you can have ally Treebeard in play and ready for combat in the first round and a veritable army of insanely powerful Tree Shepherds prepared for battle in a few short rounds!

How is it done? Mulligan for ancient Fangorn, then use Gríma to play him. Quest for 7 with your heroes and then use Faramir to ready him for defense if needed against a first round attack.

The Keys of Orthanc can go on Wormtongue (who will be delighted with such power) to help pump out Ents in the early rounds. Steward of Gondor is for hero Gandalf who uses his Pipe to put Tactics Ents back on top of the deck to use his ability. If you get too many Tactics or Spirit cards in your hand, A Good Harvest can smooth your resources for a round.

Your main questing Ents are the Wellinghall Preserver and Wandering Ent (hope he finds his Entwife!). Defense is handled primarily by the lovingly named Derndingle Warrior (see my blog post for what this name actually means). He can be even sturdier with a Ent Draught for refreshment. The Booming Ent "boom-haroom" is a mighty warrior, all the more so in Archery heavy encounters in which your Ent army can soak up arrows like pin-cushions!

Once a few Ents have been summoned into action and you have Narya on Gandalf, don't use the Istari to quest. Instead you can hold him back, then (after defending with Derndingle Warrior), ready both the Warrior and Preserver to heal your defender for another round. Using the Preserver in the attack means you will heal another point of damage when you ready him at the end of the round.

While this deck can be ridiculously powerful in solo play, it does have a couple weaknesses. First, it's dangerous business rousing the Ents so quickly and your threat will soar! Be sure to get the Favor of the Valar out to bless you as soon as you can and, of course, remember that The Galadhrim's Greeting is always waiting for Gandalf. Secondly, this deck just takes treacheries and shadows on the chin. Gandalf's Staff can be used to drive away some shadow effects but otherwise you need to brace yourself for the worst.

Overall, however, this deck can be extremely powerful and even can make mincemeat out of one of the most brutal quests in the game -- Helm's Deep. If a solo win has been eluding you, give this deck a try. Take the Poisoned Councils without fear knowing that Gandalf will alert you when it is coming. Then drop a free Ent into play during the first round. Then watch and laugh as Saruman's forces break upon your fortress like water upon rock, or rather trees!