Rohan's Mighty Hunters 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is the first purely Rohan deck that I really love. It's also the first Elfhelm deck I really enjoy as well. This new contract is so much fun.

Like most Three Hunters decks, this aims to get all three heroes powered up with at least 2 Restricted attachments within the first couple turns. If you can get mounts down, you get immediate stat buffs from Elfhelm, then huge stat increases when the Three Hunters kicks in. Thanks to Golden Shield and Herugrim, all these willpower stats get turned into huge attack and defense numbers. These two attachments make Rohan uniquely powerful with this contract.

There are 27 Restricted attachments in this deck so it's not too hard to get two on each character within the first 2-3 turns in most cases.

Elfhelm

He is your defender. I look for a Armored Destrier in my opening hand just so I get his defense up to 3 right away. Thanks to the contract you can play it on turn 1. Add the Golden Shield and he's at 5 . You can put a Round Shield on him until you have the cash to pay for an Ancestral Armor. Once you flip the contract, he can add that extra willpower to his defense and defend for something like 11 in the late game. Once you pay for the Ancestral Armor you can put a Steed of the Mark (a card I thought I would never use again) and have him quest for 5 and still be ready to defend twice or defend and attack back.

Eowyn

You can go two directions with Eowyn. You can build her up as a dedicated quester with Silver Circlet, Windfola and Celebrían's Stone or Silver Harp (she can quest for up to 10 or 11 fairly easily), or you can put Snowmane, Silver Circlet and Herugrim on her and she becomes your beast mode attacker. Usually I put Snowmane on Theoden, but it's actually kind of nice to have that Restricted keyword count on Eowyn and her attack is insane with Herugrum.

Theoden

Theoden can either quest or attack, or do both once you get readying on him. All the Tactics weapons are meant for him. The Tactics resource needs are very low so you can put Steed of the Mark on him and it's not too punishing to pay for his readying if you don't have Unexpected Courage or Snowmane on him. Ideally I like to give him a War Axe, Warrior Sword and any one of the mounts or the Ancestral Armor. He can usually quest for 6 or 7 and then attack for 7 or 8 once he's set up with some readying. I put the Song of Travel on him as well since he gets the extra willpower buff from Elfhelm and he can then use his resources to pay for Elven-light and other Spirit cards.

Testing I've played Passage Through Mirkwood, Journey Up the Anduin, Lost in Mirkwood, The King's Quest, The River Running and Nin-in-Eilph solo with this deck without a loss so far along with some 2 and 4 player game where it pulled it's weight as well. Threat can be an issue so I put Well Warned in there for some free reduction, but by turn 3 or 4, you have so much willpower on the board that you will be winning most quests fairly quickly and you shouldn't threat out. The deck usually tops out at about 22-23 willpower once you're set up and you can still fairly handily deal with 2 enemies per turn if necessary.

Sometimes keeping track of stats can be a headache with this deck since you have both Elfhelm and the Contract modifying stats along with the on-and-off nature of the Golden Shield and Herugrim, but after a couple plays, you'll get used to it. I've been enjoying this deck immensely and I hope you'll give it a try! Contracts are awesome. This contract made me love a Rohan deck.