Vales of the Anduin 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a Woodmen/Beorning deck built for the Wilderland United fellowship. In concert with a pair of Silvan decks, this deck is built to be well-rounded, offering early game defense, excellent questing, and enough bear-focused combat power to completely overpower late-game boss fights.

Haldan is the core of this deck, and the location attachments scattered throughout the fellowship support his abilities. Grimbeorn the Old is an extremely powerful combatant. In the early game, he can offer defense for the whole table, while Thranduil is getting powered up, while also helping to kill the enemies, preventing them from building up critical mass. His ability is resource-intensive, however, which could pose a problem in the early game.

Thurindir is the glue that holds the whole fellowship together, in many ways. Gather Information pulls out the most important cards in the fellowship, ready to be played on the second turn of the game. For this deck, that card is The Storm Comes, which provides useful benefits for both of the Silvan decks, smoothing out their resources. It is probably most useful in this deck, however, as it allows Grimbeorn to save his resources for his ability, and lets us use resources from our other two heroes to play allies.

The ally suite in this deck is a little bit eclectic. Honour Guard is a powerful shield against most direct damage, while Beorning Skin-changer and the expensive Beorning allies are a combo that need no explanation.

The remaining allies are an odd bunch. There are a few Woodmen cards, extra Silvan Trackers, and the Erebor Hammersmith, who is not strictly thematic (although he's far from being a bad fit for the theme) but is so valuable to a Haldan deck that he demanded inclusion.

The remaining attachments (after accounting for Haldan's toys) are also an interesting jumble. Elven Mail is obviously meant to be played across the table on Thranduil (although the thought of using it on a Silvan Tracker and just taking loads of damage and healing it off every round is hilarious), and the Cloak of Lórien likewise (although the Defender of the Naith, Haldir of Lórien, and/or a Silvan Tracker can all derive value out of it). Elf-friend is used in this deck as a healing card, to be played first on Grimbeorn, allowing him to benefit from the Silvan Trackers.

Necklace of Girion is for Thurindir - who will be questing full-time. The extra resource acceleration is more than welcome. Glamdring, on the other hand, is for Argalad, to boost his defense and offer card draw to that deck, which is at the greatest risk of stalling out. Finally, Nenya is included in this deck jus tto save deckspace in the traditional Silvan deck - we have more card draw here, so we are more likely to see it, and it left space to put in more location attachments in other decks.

The only card in the sideboard is Miner of the Iron Hills, who is a condition management card. Bring him in to replace the Forest Road Traveler if the quest threatens Condition attachments.

Mulligan for a location attachment or two and a good ally for turn 1 or 2.