Deck Tech: Hoofbeats in the Forest 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week fourteen of Deck Tech! Last week we built a high-threat ally flood fueled by Denethor, Elrond, and Gandalf.

And this week, we're going to turn the power level down a little bit and have some fun combining two traits that might not typically go together. This week's chocolate and peanut butter combo is Silvan and Rohan. (And if you don't know why I say chocolate and peanut butter, you haven't ever been friends with someone who loves the Reese's commercials as much as one of mine...)

We start the deck off with three staple Rohan heroes, giving us good questing and resource generation right off the bat. Add in Feigned Voices to stop an attack and power up Éomer, plus a decent number of chump blocks, and combat is reasonably handled.

The deck also doesn't use any uniques that are likely to be too contested, so it'd make a reasonable multiplayer deck. Though there aren't a lot of multiplayer staple abilities, like ranged, sentinel, or serious location control.

So let's take on some quests!

Quest 1: Road to Rivendell

I have to mulligan my first hand, but the second one contains Elven-light, O Lórien!, and plenty of events. So I start with O Lorien! to help generate some resources, and a Silvan Refugee for early questing. And Theodred gives Eowyn a resource to use on Elven-light. Unfortunately, an Undisturbed Bones in staging means the Refugee sails into the west.

Round two sees a Firefoot for Eomer, a Galadriel's Handmaiden played for 1, and another cycle of Elven-light. I make enough progress to clear the active location, and a Feigned Voices powers up Eomer to take out the only enemy in play.

Next round I play the Handmaiden again, and add a Westfold Outrider. Another Feigned Voices lets us kill a Mountain Warg without having to deal with its shadow card nonsense.

Sneak Attack Naith Guide is also a fun way to boost up attack for the deck. You get to use Théodreds two attack as well as giving Eomer his boost.

I close out the quest failing to get Herugrim and Heir of Mardil onto Eowyn, thanks to a Black Uruks. But that's alright. The elves bouncing in and out, plus Firefoot, means we've got plenty of attack to go around.

I do have to commit to the quest slightly carefully, after a Sleeping Sentry put the first point of damage on Arwen, but I manage it with exactly the right amount of progress in round 9.

Final Score: 107. 8 full rounds, 27 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 0 vp.

Quest 2: Into the Pit

I start this one off with a Lightless Passage in play, so first turn Snowbourn Scout comes to the rescue. His one progress, plus three for the Cave Torch, removes that location and luckily doesn't add another enemy to the staging area.

Round two I play a Weaver, shuffling nothing into my deck, just to get a bit of willpower and to turn on Silvan shenanigans. I don't need much, though, and we quest to stage two somewhat slowly.

Once stage two hits and spawns a Patrol Leader, I use Sneak Attack and Gandalf to put on the four points of damage we need (luckily avoiding his defensive ability). So we immediately move to stage three.

The next round, I don't have any leadership resources to spare, so we don't get another Sneak Attack. But I do have enough resources built up on Eomer to play Gandalf the hard way, and the deck finally quests into the pit.

Final Score: 85. 5 full rounds, 39 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 4 vp.

Quest 3: Trouble in Tharbad

No draw in the opening hand this time, but O Lorien! and a decent number of Silvan characters is a good start. The first two rounds are just questing and clearing locations slowly.

Round three is when something amazing happens. The Horse-whifferer actually finds a copy of Firefoot! With that on the board, Eomer and Nalir can kill most of the enemies in the deck without too much other help.

And in round four, I use a copy of Feint to do just that with a Spy From Mordor without pulling off an extra time counter. Progress is pretty steady from here on out, until round nine.

Round nine, I've got a Sneak Attack Gandalf lined up to kill a copy of Bellach's Marauder that's stuck in the staging area. But we move on to stage two, and I reveal a second Marauder. Oops. Good thing the deck can chump block one this round, and stop the other attack with Feigned Voices.

It takes another full round to clear out both Marauders, and I quest out in round eleven, before my threat rises too high. (Don't forget, this quest is the one that messes with the threat elimination level based on time counters.)

Final score: 110. 10 full rounds, 14 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 4 vp.

Play Tips:

1. Mulligan aggressively for Elven-light. The draw is a huge accelerant for this style of heavy event driven deck.
2. Sneak Attack your Silvans if you don't have a Gandalf. They still get full benefit when they pop into play this way, and Eomer still gets his boost.
3. In a non-combat heavy quest, this deck definitely has enough Feint effects to keep you from ever having to defend. It's just a question of how quickly you can draw them.
4. Chump block with the Rohan allies if you can. The Silvans have more value on the table thanks to the Silvan events.
5. Don't play out more than one Silvan Refugee unless you really need the willpower early. Chump blocking that costs you four willpower is rough, and a Silvan event is only going to return one to your hand.
6. If you get Herugrim, play it and Heir of Mardil on Eowyn. If you don't see it, you can consider playing Heir of Mardil on Theodred to give you extra attack. It does cost you a resource that you could be using with Elven-light, though.

Next Week: I've still got a few decks on the backburner, but I'm going to be on vacation in Europe and can't guarantee that the decks are going to go up on time. (Or at all, if I don't manage to find a good mobile connection or wifi.) Worst case, you can check the blog on Tuesdays/Wednesdays for updates, and I'll be back to posting at a reasonable time after the week of the 12th.

Blog: As always, you can follow the deck posts on the blog or via the RSS feed.