Engagement Party

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The Purple Wizard 1151

There are multiple decks found here with this hero combo, all with the same basic idea: utterly abusing the engagement abilities on these heroes while building an army of allies. Mine is focused on getting off to as quick a start as possible, and in that it succeeds as well as any deck I've ever built. In one game recently, on turn one, I bought a Derndingle Warrior, then a DĂșnedain Hunter for free, with the enemy it brought readying the ent with Faramir's ability, earning Mablung a resource, and spending Mablung's new resource on a Ranger of Cardolan. A Very Good Tale exhausted the ranger and the ent and brought Legolas into play. All this in the planning phase...and I still could afford the Sneak Attack and Gandalf in my hand! (Sadly, we somehow STILL lost that game...it was the Battle of Carn Dum, what can you do?)

Now, obviously, that was a near perfect starting hand, but it's a good example of what this deck is capable of. It's not at all uncommon to have 4-5 very capable allies in play by round two. And thanks to Faramir's inspiration, any one of them can pull double-duty each round.

Your most important card, unsurprisingly, is Legolas. It's not an automatic mulligan for him, but you definitely want to see him, Gandalf, or A Very Good Tale in your first hand. Use Gandalf for card draw until you find Legolas. Once Legolas is in play he's my usual target for Faramir's readying in the combat phase when Aragorn brings a new enemy to you.

Of all the cards in the deck, The Wizards's Voice is possibly the most under-utilized in the current meta. I barely ever see it in any games I play. But I've seen it completely turn some games around. If you need it, you need it, and the doomed 3 cost will be better than whatever alternative you're facing.

This deck can quest! You won't do much of that in the early rounds but once you get Sword that was Broken in play you turn into a questing force to be reckoned with. I was questing for 20 by the fifth round of another recent quest where combat wasn't that demanding.

Lest this all sound too good to be true, there are definitely some quest-types that this deck has trouble with. Enemies with abilities that trigger when they engage you are tricky, like in Escape From Umbar. And Fog on the Barrow Downs gave it tons of trouble. Big bosses who can't leave the staging area and attack everyone are a pain too, but at least you'll have enough attack to take them down quickly when your chance finally comes.

All in all, this is a powerful deck that can make a mockery of the combat phase when it is going well, even in a four player game. Give a try and let me know how it runs for you!

5 comments

Jan 19, 2018 Darkling Door 6089

You picked the best possible name for this deck. Well done!

Jan 19, 2023 Copterman 1017

Thanks for sharing @The Purple Wizard!

Jan 19, 2023 doomguard 1923

playing solo, it is perhaps worth it to start with (MotK) Faramir and Thorongill him into Faramir then there is more questpotential from the start and with the sword even higher mid-endame willpower

Jan 19, 2023 NERD 789

Envoy of Pelargir would also help out with willpower and buying Sword that was Broken a turn earlier.

Jan 19, 2023 The Purple Wizard 1151

@Copterman You're welcome!

@doomguard``@NERD Possibly? I don't play solo and wouldn't really know, and this deck was never intended to be a solo deck. I'm sure there are many ways you could improve it for solo play, but I'd recommend just starting over with these heroes if you're going in that direction.

I took a look at this deck last year with a full card pool and was surprised to find there was almost nothing newer that clearly improved it. My current version has a few smaller changes from this version, but on the whole this holds up.

My changes I would make to this version: +2 Honour Guard +2 Westfold Outrider +2 Secret Vigil +1 Send for Aid

-1 Favor of the Valar -2 Rohan Warhorse -2 Hour of Wrath -1 The Wizards's Voice -1 Sword that was Broken

That's basically a swap for more early defense, tricks, better threat reduction, and a focus more on allies for cards that tended to be overkill. The Wizard's Voice is such a momentum shift that I rarely ever needed or wanted to play more than one in a game, so unless you really need to see one the first round, three is unnecessary. StwB tended to be a late game card too, so a third copy was a waste. And the deck didn't struggle to kill things in the least so cards that tried to kill everything in one round were often pointless to play.