Longshanks

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Beorn 13324

'With your leave, Frodo, I'd say no! This Strider here, he warns and he says take care; and I say yes to that, and let's begin with him. He comes out of the Wild, and I never heard no good of such folk. He knows something, that's plain, and more than I like; but it's no reason why we should let him go leading us out into some dark place far from help, as he puts it.'
–Sam Gamgee, The Fellowship of the Ring

Continuing in my latest series of thematic decks, I've finally had a chance to put Strider to good use, and it should come as no surprise that Aragorn is the intended target. This is not only a two hero deck, but it is designed to have few if any allies in play as well. Unlike most of my other Secrecy designs, it eschews Timely Aid, A Very Good Tale and the other ally-mustering techniques which are so powerful for leadership.

Instead, Aragorn gets loaded with Roheryn, Gondorian Fire and Blood of Númenor. Power decks built around Blood and Fire are nothing new, but this is the first time I've ever played with that strategy in a Secrecy deck and it works surprisingly well. With all of the resource acceleration available to Leadership, having one fewer hero is much less of any issue. Action advantage is a concern, obviously, but this is where the abilities of Aragorn and Sam help, along with cards like Strider, Cram and Heir of Mardil. One nice combo, in cases where you can't find Steward of Gondor in your opening hand, is to attach Heir of Mardil to Aragorn and then exhaust him to pay for Captain's Wisdom, only to ready him immediately.

Ideally, you can get at least one Resourceful in your opening hand, otherwise you can use Sneak Attack and Gandalf to lower your threat back to Secrecy range if you draw one later. Resourceful is not strictly a necessity, particularly if you can find your Steward of Gondor early. In any case, the plan is to get Celebrían's Stone and Roheryn attached to Aragorn to give him access to Tactics (for Gondorian Fire) and Spirit (for Blood of Númenor).

As I've learned in my Aggro Three Hunters deck, Gondorian Fire and Roheryn are a potent combination - allowing you to often kill enemies immediately after you engage them. Card draw can be an issue, but We Are Not Idle is included to make the deck smaller and Erestor allows us to discard any duplicate uniques we might draw. Everything is here to get Blood and Fire attached to Aragorn, along with some resource acceleration. Remember that Galadriel can be used to attach Blood or Fire to Aragorn even without the resource match, so this is another way to get the deck setup if you can't find Celebrían's Stone or Roheryn. Once you have the key attachments in place, it is quite powerful for a two-hero Secrecy deck. Good luck!

1 comments

Jan 18, 2017 Seastan 41852

Just a reminder to readers about the Heir of Mardil / Captian's Wisdom combo - it works, but you have to wait a turn after playing Heir of Mardil since Captain's Wisdom is a resource action.