Mustering the Rohirrim 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a thematic deck built for an ongoing series on my blog, Darkling Door.

Theme: Rohan before the war

Played Against: Nightmare The Drúadan Forest

"Later in the morning most of Théodred's Riders that had been driven south down the river by a battalion of black Uruks came back battle-worn but in good order. They had a like tale to tell. They came to a stand on a low hill and prepared to defend it."

—The Battles of the Fords of Isen, Unfinished Tales

Strategy

This deck can muster a large number of multipurpose Rohan Allies surprisingly quickly.

Each of the deck's Heroes has a different way of paying for cards, effectively doubling the number of resources it gains each round. This helps it to hit the ground running, enabling it to play at least one Ally per round—and usually two or three. If I manage to find a copy of Keys of Orthanc early enough in the game, I generally put it on Théoden, since the deck leans a little blue. Théodred makes a good target too, though, if I happen to have a slightly more purple hand at the time I play it.

Early in the game, I'm pretty aggressive with triggering Gríma's Doomed ability to help me play down cards, but once I hit about 38 threat I start to ease off the gas a little. The deck has a little threat reduction in the form of Double Back (if I can manage to draw or fetch it) and Well Warned, provided that I'm able to find and play a copy of Ceorl first so that I can activate it.

Finding whatever card I need at any given moment is actually pretty easy. Gather Information obviously lets me fetch whatever I happen to be missing, but I also have access to Mustering the Rohirrim, which lets me fetch a Rohan Ally of my choice from the top 10 cards of the deck—especially handy since many of the key cards in the deck are Allies. Heed the Dream is great for fetching threat reduction cards or key attachments if I haven't found them yet. And nothing beats good old-fashioned Gléowine for pure card draw.

My favorite combo in the deck is Gúthwinë + Snowbourn Scout. The Scout is free with Théoden's discount, so once my deck gets up and running it ends up in a tight loop of 1) Play Snowbourn Scout, netting me +1 progress on a Location. 2) Use the Scout to chump block the next Enemy that shows up. 3) Use Théoden and Gúthwinë to kill said Enemy, returning the Scout to my hand. 4) Repeat forever!

Sideboard

I tuned this deck against Nightmare The Drúadan Forest, which has pretty specific requirements. Against more traditional quests, I'd substitute the sideboard in place of these cards:

• Warden of Healing
• The Riddermark's Finest
• Captain's Wisdom
• Well Warned
• 2x Ceorl

► For more analysis, check out my blog post on this deck.