The Brown Wizard

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None.
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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Fate of Wilderland 14 7 0 1.0
Banjo Kazooie (Con of the Rings) 1 1 0 1.0
Radagast's Eagles 2020 0 0 0 1.0
The Brown Wizard 0 0 0 1.0
The Brown Wizard 0 0 0 1.0
RoVe RadaGrimbEow Brown Wizard w eagles 0 0 0 1.0
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MDuckworth83 3506

MDuckworth83 has a newer deck inspired by this one: Fate of Wilderland

I've pretty much been playing Radagast non-stop since the hero came out in Fate of Wilderland, and this is the deck I have landed on after lots and lots of playtesting. It's performed quite well, being able to beat several nightmare quests and all 3 scenarios in the new Shadows of the East expansion in solo. I think that is a satisfactory resume.

This is a very fast deck that can hit the ground running on turn 1, as Radagast and Éowyn can quest for 6 and then Radagast and Grimbeorn the Old can defend two solid enemies and potentially kill one.

Radagast's Staff is very important to this deck as it becomes the primary resource engine by playing creature allies for cheap or free, which means you will want to mulligan for it. The "card advantage" engine primarily consists of Word of Command, which you can conveniently use Radagast for after he quests without exhausting to grab whatever tool you need at the moment. This capability allows me to include a lot of 1x copies of situational useful cards without having to stack the deck with them. Messenger Raven and Wizard Pipe combo with each other to ensure you effectively draw two cards a turn, plus have a consistent cheap ally to play and trigger Radagast. Once you get setup and catch a break from the encounter deck, you can play Glamdring for further card draw. I can't stress enough how important Word of Command is for finding that Gwaihir's Debt, Glamdring, or Song of Wisdom or whatever odd situational card you need at the moment. It can also be used to find an essential card that bad luck has buried, like the staff. Daeron's Runes and The Eagles Are Coming! thin your deck out and get essential allies in your hand as well. Just don't play "Eagles" until your hand is empty of them or you have a high risk of whiffing.

Grimbeorn and Radagast can almost single handedly deal with early combat until you start putting eagle allies on the table. Once you get Eagles of the Misty Mountains built up to +3-4 and ; and play one or more copies of Support of the Eagles on Grimbeorn, you can essentially deal with any enemy the game throws at you and then some. Don't forget that Radagast's staff can also be used to ready your 2/6/6 Misty Mountain Eagles!

The one potential weakness of this deck is that it can stall a bit on mid to late game questing. This is usually not a problem if you try to keep your 2 willpower allies in play. Of course you have the Meneldor and Flight of the Eagles combo to avoid staging threat lock. This also has the side benefit of potentially netting you a powerful Eagle of the North as an encounter draw, but that is a less reliable ancillary benefit.

This deck has been immensely fun to play, which is why I've spent a month playing and tweaking it. I think Radagast is the most interesting hero to build decks around that has been introduced in several cycles, and the power of his ability to use Word of Command easily has an enormous potential for lots of janky combo decks. If you want to get your first taste of Radagast before trying a less intuitive build with him, this is the deck to play.

10 comments

Aug 26, 2019 Rimogard 282

Awesome deck! I run a very similar one that has Beorn in it instead of Grimbeorn. It’s also very fun to play. I’m pretty sure this one rocks as well :)

Aug 27, 2019 Christian_Medic 973

Great deck! I too have been really enjoying playing The Brown Wizard but pairing him up with Boromir and Legolas (with support of the Eagles and a couple of Rohan Warhorses for battle questing) instead.

Aug 27, 2019 MDuckworth83 3506

@RimogardI swap in Beorn (and swap out a few attachments) for some quests that require immediate combat. I have found that Beorn is better in the early game pretty much handling combat without having to worry about building up or spending resources. He becomes weaker in the late game when he gets battered down and can only function as a dedicated attacker (unless you chump him and bring him back with Landroval, which is a solid play).

Grimbeorn, on the other hand, can slow you down a bit at the start. Using his resource can hamstring getting your early board state set up a bit. Once you get set up though, Grimbeorn can quickly turn into a monster that essentially murders everything that he even defends.

Both are great heroes that are similar, but I think Beorn is optimal in aggro quests and Grimbeorn in longer, turtling quests. It's why I also published my Fate variant at the same time.

Aug 27, 2019 MDuckworth83 3506

@Christian_Medicone of the things I love about this archetype is you can pretty much plug and play any of the tactics combat heroes in for Grimbeorn and still have an awesome, functional deck. Grimbeorn was chosen simply because he's current and the ability to get him up to meteoric attack and defense with eagle support really maximizes his ability by killing everything with a defense action.

Your deck sounds cool but I'd be a bit hesitant making a solo deck with less than 6 starting willpower. I assume the concept is that Legolas gets multiple buffed attacks and makes up for lack of questing by killing things and putting lots of progress on the board?

Aug 27, 2019 Christian_Medic 973

Exactly right, Legolas with two Rohan warhorses can drop 6 progress by himself each round as long as there are enemies to stay. I really try to make sure I have EotMM, Meneldor, and or some Gandalf in my opening hand.

Aug 27, 2019 RascaL 1

Thank you for this! Can't wait to try it.

Sep 15, 2019 Oldoly 1

@MDuckworth83thanks so much for posting this. I am really enjoying playing it!

Sep 17, 2019 MDuckworth83 3506

@OldolyI spent a long time on this deck so glad that you are enjoying it! Let me know how it performs and if you have ways to improve it.

Apr 14, 2020 Oldoly 1

@MDuckworth83its preformed so well for me! I need to see if there are cards worth adding in the latest packs!

Feb 02, 2021 Oldoly 1

Over a year later and I still am loving this deck! @MDuckworth83Thank you!