Lesser Men 1.0

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• 1.0

‘I am no captain. Neither office nor rank nor lordship have I, being but a plain man of arms of the Third Company of the Citadel. Yet, Master Peregrin, to be only a man of arms of the Guard of the Tower of Gondor is held worthy in the City, and such men have honour in the land.’ - Beregond, The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings is full of characters whose pedigree defines them. People may not agree with Tolkien's views on divine rights and whatnot, but there's an undeniable theme in the books that some people, due to their ascendancy and family history, are destined for greatness. Even the hobbits in their simplicity feel strange and otherworldly to the folk of Gondor and Rohan. But what about those regular humans who were not predestined to do great deeds? This deck explores such a question. These men may not have the longevity of the heirs of Valandil or the gift of foresight of the heirs of Mardil, they may not even be men at all, yet the books are clear that no matter your nobility or lack of thereof, you can still prove worthy of great honour and valour, by which the forces of evil may be overcome.

Disclaimer: This is meant to be a medium-to-high-tier generalist solo deck. For a more optimized version of the deck, I'd suggest swapping Éowyn and Elven-light for Círdan with Light of Valinor. I wanted to keep to the theme of "men" so I only chose human heroes.

The strategy is as simple as any straight up Spirit Tactics deck. Éowyn quests, aided by our weenie allies. Beregond defends, obviously, and he'll need all the Unexpected Courage he can get. Hirgon will be our messenger seeking for aid, and his ability will let us get our attackers for a discount. For card draw, Ancient Mathom is an old classic, and I've also found that with Éowyn, Steward of Orthanc and Elven-light provide a pretty reliable draw engine, letting us draw 2 cards for 1 resource and 1 threat. An ideal start will include Elven-light, as well as 1 or 2 2-cost-2-attack allies. Ideally you'll be playing 1 of these allies for 1 cost every turn, but by the time you have 2 or 3 of these allies, you should have combat under control. In the meantime, Beregond will keep the enemies at bay.

So far this has proven to be a reliable and powerful build. It has beaten a variety of hard-ish quests without too much trouble, such as Deadman's Dike, Helm's Deep, Race Across Harad, and Storm on Cobas Haven (it did beat Morgul Vale but it took many attempts). As I said in the disclaimer, the deck could be better with Círdan and Narya for some more attack power (though the current starting threat of 28 really helps in some quests), but I wanted to build a deck centered around human characters. While playing it you can really feel the urgency of the Men of the West for the incoming war as Hirgon rides desperately to gather allies and Beregond defends the walls with all his courage.

I hope you like the deck, and as always I'd love to hear your comments and criticism.