Defenders of the Deeping Wall 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Defenders of the Deeping Wall or "Warriors! Come out to plaaaaaayyy"

This is another themed deck based around the Warrior trait, more specifically those with the Sentinel ability, showcasing a couple of the new cards from the latest AP, The Thing in the Depths.

The secondary 'schtick' of the deck is action advantage and placing progress through combat using cards like Blade of Gondolin and Arod

We're building this deck around the Sentinel ability and more specifically, a hero I think doesn't see a great deal of play, Erkenbrand, especially when compared to perhaps more efficient choices like Beregond, and his Gondorian Shield. But the release of Raiment of War seems to compliment Erk perfectly and enhance his shadow cancellation ability with some extra hitpoints.

Opening Hand:

The most important card to look for in your opening hand is Raiment of War. This new card from Thing in the Depths, provides an alternative to the much used Gondorian Shield and/or Steward of Gondor combo for your defenders, and as we're going for a Rohan theme with this deck the stylish and affordable armour is a perfect fit for our signature hero Erkenbrand.

As we're also using the version of Théoden over his more popular incarnation, I've also included a couple of his spirit sphere support cards Herugrim and Snowmane, so one of those and a copy of A Good Harvest are going to help us get some use out of his ability to boost the of Tactics heroes, himself included.

So the perfect opening hand would include A Good Harvest, Snowmane and Raiment of War.

At the Table:

The deck is very ally-light, the defenders of Helm's Deep were vastly outnumbered and had to rely on their skill at arms and combat tricks to prevail, which is what we'll be doing with our attachments and Háma to replay our key combat events like Hold Your Ground!, Hour of Wrath and Foe-hammer.

Outside of A Good Harvest the only way we have to get Herugrim into play is the newly released Master Ironsmith. His ability, while a little situational, means that given the choice for spending our resources, you should spend the doorwarden Háma's first, so Theoden's are ready to receive his sword, for only the cost of the Ironsmith as well.

Háma will initially be our primary attacker, so should get first dibs on a Rohan Warhorse and a Blade of Gondolin, but once Théoden is set up with Herugrim he becomes quite a potent force in combat too.

Our primary combat tricks are Hold Your Ground! and Hour of Wrath to get some truly spectacular action advantage out of our heroes. Háma can recur them when he attacks, or both if he has a Rohan Warhorse, and once you hit the Valour threshold the efficiency of these events goes through the roof. While Hour of Wrath is quite expensive, Hope Rekindled can offset the cost, or dig for it in your hour of need, once you're in Valour range.

Getting extra action advantage out of Erkenbrand is key, he's our primary Sentinel defender so you'll want to use Cram or Hold Your Ground! on him alone outside of Valour. However if you don't see any of your action advantage cards early, and Théoden has Snowmane, you can use Erkenbrand's resources to transfer any Dúnedain Warning's he may be holding to his king so Theoden can be an able defender too in a pinch. The leadership cost-curve of the deck is quite low so doing this once or twice in a game shouldn't hinder your progress too much.

During testing, the deck's lack of Ranged proved to be an issue, having all these ready, able attackers but unable to reach their targets was a little frustrating, so we've added some Dúnedain Cache to give our primary attacker a way to reach their foes. Equally Dúnedain Signal on Háma allows him to take advantage of Hold Your Ground!, especially in Valour, even if he won't technically be defending for anyone.

Another alternative if you don't draw into the Cache's early is the Westfold Outrider. Getting at least 1 into play early allows you to drag a crucial target to your engagement area to experience the Charge of the Rohirrim.

Raiment of War is key to beefing up Erkenbrand so we've included 3 copies but your other 2 heroes will have more precious use of their restricted slots. However the Raiment can be played on Warrior allies also making Warden of Helm's Deep a primary target, bolstering an all ready solid defender respectably.

Sideboard:

The sideboard is relatively straight forward, essentially allowing you to tweak the quantities of a few cards you feel may be more important to a given quest. With Doom Hangs Still and Forth Eorlingas! being interesting events to sub in for Charge of the Rohirrim, however in most cases the Charge is probably the most useful of the 3.

Obviously the small amount of doesn't lend this to a solo deck, paired with a good questing deck, really allows this deck to pull it's weight in combat, with plenty of action advantage, shadow cancellation and board presence with sentinel/ranged. There's also a couple of interesting allies in the next pack that would fit right in.