The Windlord’s Retinue

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Saviours of the Wilderland 2 0 0 1.0
Eighteen Decks, No Proxies: Radagast Eagles (3/18) 7 6 0 1.0
Creature #1 Flight of the Eagle Army! 0 0 0 1.0
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Razumikhin 305

This deck is built around the newly arrived Gwaihir. Radagast and Hirgon are natural pairings for a few reasons:

  • Both give resource acceleration (at least once Radagast has Radagast's Staff), which is key with so many high-cost allies.
  • Hirgon lets you play allies after the questing phase, which gives you a ready on Gwaihir.
  • Radagast can use his resources for Eagles, so you can keep the deck nearly mono-tactics and still use his resources.
  • Having lore access with Radagast lets you play Word of Command to fetch the staff, and Daeron's Runes because it is awesome in every deck.

From there, the strategy is relatively straightforward - use the staff to get an Eagle into play cheaply and ready Gwaihir at the beginning of the turn, and then bring in another ally after questing to ready Gwaihir and to respond to what pops up out of the encounter deck.

Unsurprisingly, Meneldor is often the top target for Meneldor's Flight and Flight of the Eagles, which can also be used to get Gwaihir more readies during combat. Additionally, the evergreen combo of Eagles of the Misty Mountains and Support of the Eagles remains key to the deck, especially once you get a beefed up Gwaihir, who has Sentinel and Ranged, and can be readied between attacks when needed.

The deck works best when paired with a stronger questing partner, but can hold its own thanks to some new cards like Eagle Emissary. Threat is perhaps its biggest weakness, since getting Gandalf in with Gwaihir's Debt is not particularly reliable (you could add the Wizard Pipe to help make it work more reliably, which is in my side-board at the moment), and Secret Vigil is useful but not game-changing.

7 comments

Aug 18, 2020 Onetthero 1

Why Meneldors Flight over Borne Aloft? That way you can hit Gandalf with it and get double duty if you need to. My deck was very similar to yours otherwise . I went with one less support of the eagles and added a copy of Red Arrow for Hirgon.

Aug 18, 2020 Razumikhin 305

Thanks for the suggestion! I decided to go with Meneldor's Flight instead of Born Aloft because the latter is an attachment and so can only be put into play during the planning phase. Using Meneldor's Flight does give up the option of using it on Gandalf, but I wanted the flexibility in deciding which Eagle to pull up in the combat phase to get an extra ready out of Gwaihir.

Aug 19, 2020 Onetthero 1

Secret Vigil has always been hit or miss for me. I’m thinking of pulling it out and replacing it with wizards pipe or maybe just some Feint

Aug 19, 2020 Razumikhin 305

I might try out that replacement too. I worried a lot about threat with this deck, but making Gandalf more reliable might be enough to solve the problem. Thanks for the feedback! (I also am going to try out Red Arrow too).

Aug 31, 2020 sionnach19 41

I've been having a blast with a similar deck I cooked up. I was worried about Gwaihir's ability being a liability, but I've never had trouble readying him at least once per round. For threat management, I'm a big fan of Woodmen's Clearing. 0 cost, 3 threat reduction, you're clearing out locations anyways (Meneldor can help with timing the trigger)... it's a pretty good fit.

Aug 31, 2020 dubcity566 34

I don't think you need 3 Words of Command, you have a decent amount of card draw already and hopefully will find the staff soon. You probably don't need any and certainly not 3 Winged Guardians, it's just by far the weakest eagle, it's mostly just useful for support of the eagles. I agree with Feint, and Woodmen's Clearing. Secret Vigil is tough to use in a 33 threat deck. I always include Red Arrow in Hirgon decks and it seems better than average here with your high ally costs. Black Arrow is obviously not that thematic but it does go well on G-dog. I might add a little more card draw with 1-3 Expert Treasure Hunters as well.

Aug 31, 2020 Razumikhin 305

Thanks for the feedback! I'll give Woodmen's Clearing a look - it certainly looks more reliable than Secret Vigil.

I do find the Winged Guardian quite useful though. In addition to boosting up Support of the Eagles, he comes in cheaply enough in the combat phase (1 cost with Hirgon's ability) to get a ready out of Gwaihir, chump a hit, and then leave, boosting Eagles of the Misty Mountains and readying Gwaihir again (since Hirgon triggers his ability in the questing phase, it does not use up Gwaihir's ready for the combat phase) to attack or defend another hit. Cheap eagles (1/2 cost) are particularly useful for this, since I can use Radagast's Staff to pay for the more expensive allies in the planning phase, and then drop an ally for 1 cost in time for combat.