Uneasy Neighbors 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

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

Theme: Saruman and the Ents

Played Against: Nightmare The Nîn-in-Eilph

"I wonder now if even then Saruman was not turning to evil ways. But at any rate he used to give no trouble to his neighbours. I used to talk to him. There was a time when he was always walking about my woods. He was polite in those days, always asking my leave (at least when he met me); and always eager to listen."

—Treebeard, The Two Towers

Strategy

This is an Ent deck that uses Gríma to give it a super-charged start.

Mulligan for: Treebeard

Tips

• It's generally okay to lean all-in on Doomed effects in the early game. You want to get as many Ents down as quickly as possible.
• If your threat gets too high early on and you engage an Enemy that's too big, use Feint, The Wizards's Voice, or Elfhelm to deal with its attack and Éowyn to kill it.
• By the time you need to use Aragorn to reset your threat (around the time it reaches 45-47) you should be able to let the Ents take over combat for the rest of the game.
• I like to save my first Ent Draught for a Derndingle Warrior when it appears.
• When I only have one Wellinghall Preserver in play, I usually use it to heal up a Derndingle Warrior.
• Don't be afraid to use Boomed and Trumpeted to ready a Derndingle Warrior after it uses its ability if you need a little extra attack power.

This deck is super powerful; it can get down a turn 1 Treebeard and then pump out about 2 Ents per turn after that. I suspect it would be capable of taking on a lot of different Nightmare quests without too much trouble.

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