Secret Paths Through the Drúadan Forest 1.0

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• 1.0

During the War of the Ring, a host of Orcs was found by scouts of the Rohirrim three miles west of Amon Dîn upon the Great West Road and moving toward Théoden's forces. A leader of the Woses, Ghân-buri-Ghân came forward and offered to lead the Rohirrim by secret paths through the forest so they could avoid the Orcs. Taking the forgotten road down Stonewain Valley the riders of Rohan were able to come to Pelennor Fields undetected.

This is another two hero, Strider, Secrecy deck. I tried to keep the deck list as thematic as possible, it captures the armies of Rohan trying to sneak past the host of Orcs until they were ready to join the Battle of the Pelennor fields. The strategy here is relatively straight forward. Ideally, we want to see Strider and Resourceful in our opening hand. With 18 starting threat, the hope is that we have a few rounds to find Resourceful before we leave Secrecy. Double Back provides another way to lower our threat, and Elfhelm is available from the sideboard for scenarios with consistent threat raising effects.

The attachment strategies are intuitive. Théoden rides his steed Snowmane and wields his sword Herugrim. Éowyn gets Strider and a Golden Shield, which makes her a fantastic defender. The first copy of Resourceful belongs on Théoden, and along with his ability it helps us to pay for our more expensive Spirit allies. Rider of Rohan, in particular, is a powerful ally in this deck. Once we have completed a side quest it can contribute to questing and combat.

Of the new player side quests introduced in the Haradrim cycle, Rally the West is often derided as a "win more" card, but it fits perfectly in this deck. We rely heavily on both of our heroes for quest progress so the permanent +2 willpower is valuable, especially while we are mustering our allies. Moreover, Rohan benefits from the willpower bonus in combat as well, both Herugrim and Golden Shield mean that our defense and attack capabilities benefit as well.

With only Foe-hammer, this deck is a bit lacking in card draw. A less thematic option would be to include Steed of Imladris and Elven-light, but I have forgone those choices in a favor of a more thematic approach. The alternative here is to use Gamling to keep allies in our hand. Rohan features multiple allies with discard effects: Riddermark Knight, Escort from Edoras, and Grimbold. By using Gamling to return these allies to our hand, then Théoden's reduction to play them again, we can keep the pressure on the encounter deck without traditional card draw effects.

An fun thematic option, suggested by Durin's Father, is to sub in The Storm Comes for some of the other side quests, which would then let you play Ghân-buri-Ghân without needing a hero.