Theoden, Hunter, King 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

A potent Three Hunters deck that does it all. Quest, attack, defend, and even support other decks in multiplayer.

The Erestor factor: This deck should have the contract on line by round 1 or 2 at the latest. Because of the ability to draw a huge number of cards, the deck includes some cards that are free in order to get going quickly. Legacy Blades, Round Shields, Woodsman's Clearings, Double Back, and Elrond's Councel are all great cards...the latter options can help keep threat under control if running The One Ring (see below).

The endgame set up may change based on the needs for the quest, but feel free to slap down attachments like crazy on turn 1 and 2 to get the contract online. The free cards are not useless in the mid game either (in multiplayer). Playing side by side with another 3 hunters deck can be great since spare attachments can help them get their contract flipped. Any other deck would also not look poorly on having a spare Dagger of Westernesse or Round Shield played on their heroes. It is also basically risk free to include Golden Belts in the deck. Since you will have 10 cards on the first turn, you can be fairly confident that you will get the contract online rather than risking having belts but no restricted attachments in your opening hand.

Ideal set ups: Theoden: Theoden makes the deck truly special. Snowmane is great on him and can be free to play before the contract is flipped. When equipped with Snowmane, a Golden belt, Herugrim, Golden Shield, a War Axe, Firefoot (and an Unexpected Courage or two), Theoden can quest, for 7, defend for 9, and attack for 15....dealing extra damage from the attack to another enemy. (Note that if you are choosing to run The One Ring, one attachment must be left off...depending on what is needed, he can attack for 22 by triggering Strength and Courage...though he would not have the Golden Shield in that case).

Glorfindel: Glorfindel naturally fills a quest/attack role. Equip him with a Golden Belt, Light of Valinor, Elven Spear, Silver Circlet, and fill with what is needed. He can have Song of Battle, a War Axe and Dagger of Westernesse to be able to quest for 9 and attack for up to 12. Alternatively, he can have a Steed of Imladris to be able to add more progress.

Erestor: Erestor typically starts as a quester (for 5 -6 regardless of the quality of attachments on him), but is typically turned into an alternate defender. If Theoden gets Firefoot, there is not much of a need to stack Unexpected Courage on him, so a spare can go to Erestor. With a Gondorian Shield and a Round Sheild, he can take a hit for 6 attack without too much worry. (Note that Erestor can be given Light of Valinor in a deck where defending seems more optimal than questing/having a second attacker).

Questing: Questing is amazingly strong with this deck. It starts off questing for 8. Once the contract flips, it will quest for even more in a hurry. 14 willpower is very reasonable to expect on turn two. Late game, it does top out at 24 willpower (plus a potential 2 more progress from Steed of Imladris).

The weakness: There are two major areas of potential weakness in the deck. The first is that Theoden only gets his big defense (boosted from Golden Shield) one time per round. He can defend anything that one time, but any shadow that makes the big bad guy attack a second time can end up killing a hero. This is why building Erestor as a secondary defender is a good back up plan. Having The One Ring and the ability to take some undefended attacks also helps to shore up this weakness. Attack is typically straightforward. It is rare that an enemy survives if a hero is ready to swing back after defense.

The other weakness: Three Hunters decks seem to rely on action advantage to work. The deck has a few "guaranteed" ways of getting it with Light of Valinor and Snowmane; however, getting 1-2 copies of Unexpected Courage in play will go a long way to ensuring victory. If they are drawn too early, the deck may not have enough resources to play them, and they will have to be discarded due to Erestor's forced effect. To help shore up this weakness, an early copy of Song of Travel gets played on Erestor. If Song of Travel is drawn in the opening hand, any copies of Unexpected Courage drawn after the first turn are affordable.

Starting hand: If 1-2 Unexpected Courages show up in the opening draw, that is typically a mulligan. Look for a high number of zero cost attachments. Since you will draw 4 more cards on the first turn, it is likely that you will draw into an extra couple that cost 1-2 such as Gondorian Sheild, Blade of Gondolin, and Dagger of Westerneese. I will typically mulligan if I find less than 2 total copies of the following cards: Snowmane, Legacy Blade, Round Shield, War Axe, Light of Valinor, Golden Sheild, Elven Spear (and Song of Travel if not playing The One Ring). These cards make up 1/3 of the deck, so hoping to see 2 out of the first six drawn cards is quite reasonable.

To carry The One Ring or not to carry The One Ring: A lot of decks seem to be running The One Ring. This one is a great candidate, but it also works well without it, so I have it on the sideboard. It turns Theoden into even more of a monster than he already is. If you do use the ring, take Well Presrved (not listed) as the starting master card. That is the only card in the deck that uses a lore resource, so it is an automatic play round 1 using Erestor's resource (before having to discard). Starting this way means that you can take an undefended attack for 4 every round (since Theoden would have 5 hit points) at the cost of 1 threat. It also means that he could start the game defend a larger attack of 6 every round with his two defense...even if none of the defensive attachments are found on turn1. This can be very helpful to get going. Strength and Courage helps later in the game to make his ridiculous attacks even stronger. If running the one ring, remove 1 copy of each of the following cards: Woodmen's Clearing Snowmane Gondorian Sheild Song of Travel