Noble Eagle Parade 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is an aggressive solo-able eagle deck that is reliable at setting up the eagle dance : eagles coming and going, inflicting direct damage in the staging area and/or feeding into Eagles of the Misty Mountains and Support of the Eagles. Once Eagles of the Misty Mountains is buffed (easily +4 facedown cards on it), Aragorn can ready from questing and instantly kill almost any engaging enemy with a combination of Steed of the North + Roheryn + Support of the Eagles. Thanks to the card draw of the sphere, combos reliably take place (that’s actually the reason why I put in Aragorn in the first place).

The deck has the following features :

• Resource-wise, it feels like mono-. After Éowyn gets Steward of Gondor, Denethor can move one resource to her every turn. In addition, Aragorn gains the icon from Roheryn. In the mid-game, there shouldn’t be any problem buying the costly eagles turn after turn.
• It loves Radagast :) Thanks to Denethor, he is an easy first turn purchase. He can quest, and very importantly, he has Word of Command. I have used Word of Command for about everything, to fetch Steward of Gondor, Roheryn, Support of the Eagles, or even Ioreth. Word of Command is a clutch card.
• Despite its strong inclination, the deck can quest, thanks to Éowyn (without her, I don’t think this deck can be effective in solo play), Radagast, Gwaihir and the Eagles of the Misty Mountains (it tops off at about 17 ). That makes the deck very solo-friendly. In fact, I only played it solo.
• It is reliable thanks to the low threat and the card draw. Thanks to Éowyn, the threat starts low enough that you can usually find room to build up. Between Peace, and Thought, Daeron's Runes, Word of Command and The Eagles Are Coming!, there is no shortage of card draw. There was only 1 game out of 20+ games where I couldn’t get going because I couldn’t afford the eagles (no Steward of Gondor, no draw). By the way, I learned to love The Eagles Are Coming!. This card can combo with itself (since it has the Eagle trait), and it “purifies” the deck.

The heroes : Denethor allows a tri-sphere deck to play Steward of Gondor or Radagast on turn 1. After that, he’s mostly there to occasionally defend (not very good, but serviceable), move resources to the Steward of Gondor, and help pay for the cheap cards such as Sneak Attack. Since he doesn’t do a lot outside economy, he’s a pretty good target for bad condition attachments too :P Aragorn brings the card draw from the sphere. With Roheryn, he can also help purchase eagles. Obviously, his built-in ability is amazing. Éowyn is the hero who almost single-handedly makes this deck solo-friendly, thanks to her high , low starting threat and ability. If you’re playing a multi-player game opposite questing decks, you could replace her with a hero such as Hirgon, who’s a convenient target for Denethor’s ability, and whose ability has the perfect timing for Descendant of Thorondor.

How to play : The deck essentially wants to do 3 things : play out many eagles to feed into Eagles of the Misty Mountains, buff up Aragorn with the mounts and Support of the Eagles, and put the Descendant of Thorondor to work.

To do this, you need a lot of economy. Steward of Gondor on Éowyn is a priority. Once she has it, Denethor can move resources to her. Combine this with Radagast and Aragorn when he has Roheryn, and you can afford the most costly eagle every turn.

To jump-start all this, Peace, and Thought is usually played by exhausting Aragorn and Denethor. Steed of the North is the one card that makes this less painful. Also, if you’re truly in a tight spot because of an enemy, there’s always Éowyn to bail you out.

Ideally, the first eagles you get out are Eagles of the Misty Mountains and a chump-blocker such as Vassal of the Windlord. The chump-blockers feed into Eagles of the Misty Mountains, except Descendant of Thorondor which you want to see in your discard pile in order to combo with Gwaihir. Daeron's Runes is also used to seed Gwaihir’s ability. I usually hold back buying Gwaihir until I can use him to bring back a Descendant of Thorondor or until I need the “ally advantage”, unless I need its now. Sneak Attack is used on him or Descendant of Thorondor. Ultimately you want to play Gwaihir repeatedly, hence Sneak Attack, Meneldor's Flight and Defender of the West to kill him off while he’s exhausted from questing. To help set up Descendant of Thorondor, you also get Fresh Tracks and Terrible to Behold.

Testing : With this deck, I was able to defeat in solo play the quests from The Voice of Isengard, The Dunland Trap (very difficult but feasible), The Three Trials (you need to select the stage quests carefully -- if you do, you can crush the quest even solo). However, it is most effective against quests with many enemies vulnerable to direct damage and attracted to the staging area. Journey Down the Anduin, The Seventh Level, or The Steward’s Fear are very good quests for it. My games against The Seventh Level Nightmare in particular were among the most comfortable wins I ever had.