There Was a Time....

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There Was a Time.... 1 1 2 6.0
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AtomicDuckie 263

"There was a time, when Sarumon would walk in my woods, but now, he has a mind of metal and wheels." -Treebeard

I've always found this to be such a tragic line from the Two Towers. We all know that Sarumon was not always evil and this deck seeks to remember a time when he did used to walk through Fangorn Forest.

I've been thinking for a while now on how to do a doomed deck, an Ent deck, and a Grey Wanderer deck, when it hit me...just do them all together. I like building thematic decks and the opening quote has always been one that has stuck with me since the movie first came out. No, Sarumon was not the Grey Wanderer, but I had to make a thematic sacrifice or two to really make this deck work for me.

I attach Strider to Sarumon using the contract since I will always have fewer than 3 heroes, and often may have less than 5 characters. Treebeard and Sarumon's Staff are important cards to get out. Treebeard helps pay for Ents and the Staff helps to cancel out the doom cost of cards. Glamdring is a one off card meant to pump Sarumon up to a 6 attack and to add some more draw power to the deck. Since Saruman doesn't have to rest to quest, this opens up some really solid attack options for this fallen wizard.

7 comments

Apr 21, 2020 Anf 31

@AtomicDuckieI like this very much - it oozes theme with every card. Imo building a theme upon just a snippet from the original works makes it much more interesting than just making another "thematic Rohan deck" by just slapping cards with the Rohan trait and calling it a day.

This deck is like a snapshot, an embodiment of that line from the Two Towers, and it feels great. The contracts started allowing for very interesting and fun things to happen to this game.

Great job!

Apr 24, 2020 AtomicDuckie 263

@Anf Thank you so much, your words mean a lot to me. I typically try to build around a theme even if it is around specific keywords at times. If you enjoyed this deck, please check out some of my others. All of my fellowships are built around themes as well

Nov 20, 2020 TrueLolzor 6

I find the Legacy of Numenor questionable in this deck. You get just 1 resource for 4 threat. Yes, you can ready Saruman with it, but you'll doubtfully play it outside of planning (and if you would, there are better doomed events for that). Gaining Strength seems like a logical replacement, because you can always trigger it thanks to contract and save the staff and 2-4 threat at the same time.

Nov 20, 2020 doomguard 1969

even if its saruman,you will have 1-2 ronds in secrecy. that is enough to put in some timely aid. think it does fit the theme, in times of need treebeard aid the good saruman. makes the deck something quicker, and word of command helps to catch them.

@glamdring, specially in grey wandererdecks, its hard to quest enough at the start. every bit more in the staging can be cruicial. it would take a long time to make it unguarded, a dagger would most times be better. i can imagine the time it is free to take you will have enough ents to do the job.

Nov 20, 2020 AtomicDuckie 263

@TrueLolzor If this deck were meant for solo play and not fellowship play I would agree. Since this is meant for fellowship play as the third deck in the fellowship, you are gaining 7 resources instead of 1 for the team, and even more if played with the 4th player.

Nov 20, 2020 AtomicDuckie 263

@doomguard Thank you for the advice! I will definitely try to work in the timely aid cards and am looking at replacing Glamdring for a dagger. This deck isn't really meant for solo play so I haven't had any issues with it yet (it's part of a specific fellowship I have and is the third deck added). I can definitely see the advantage to the dagger though and will try it out with that and see how it feels.

Nov 20, 2020 TrueLolzor 6

Sorry, I always look at things from strictly solo perspective since I never play anything else. Yes, it makes much more sense in multiplayer to have Legacy of Numenor.

As for Timely Aid, I'd recommend against it, I had same exact thot about it and just played a Saruman ent deck with it. It's not great, because ents still enter play exhausted. I found that including and tutoring Resourceful is much more effective in the long run.