[DESCRIPTION]

The Kingly version of Théoden is coming to my hands and I decided to build a deck with his (adopted) daughter and his son.

Initially I tried a tri-sphere with Éomer, but he simply wasn't adding much. Éowyn came much later, after I finished the first draft and realized he wasn't doing much. I might come to realize I was wrong after playing, though...

All of Rohan, from the Westmarch to the fords of the Anduin, will answer to the call of their King and Prince! Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

[MECHANICS]

Heroes

Questing is performed by the three Heroes, as good Rohirrim are meant to do, but the King, even in his old age, is still a warrior of the greatest quality and his agility will be put to test in this deck. Mostly, Théoden is the main attacker of this deck as Herugrim will help with the attack boost, specially with a Celebrían's Stone attached.

While he will be doing some defending as well, it'll mostly be against weaker enemies in order to gain resources from The Day's Rising - maybe even activating a late Heir of Mardil, if the situation arises.

Éowyn and Théodred are there for one purpose only: Questing. The Prince will increase the speed from which reinforcements come from all Riddermark.

First turn

Probably one of the most important aspects of the game, the first turn (and therefore, the first hand) will have a great impact on what develops there onward. Having two Spirit Heroes would already grant you the ability to play a 2-Cost Ally on turn 1, but Théoden's ability grant you the capability to play a 3-Cost Ally, or the same 2-Cost ally and an additional Spirit card. That might not sound much, but you could easily rush a first stage with Escort from Edoras or increasing your questing power to 9 with an early Éomund, or even killing a nasty enemy with a well placed Ride Them Down.

Surely, the possibilities are quite vast.

Yet, the combo you'll want the most after your starting hand would be Heir of Mardil and Herugrim. After that, Celebrían's Stone is the icing on the cake.

And Next?

After the first turn, you'll likely be well on your journey already, but enemies might be starting to pile up, specially because you don't have that low of a starting threat nor the ability to kill many enemies. This is not a major problem, though. Rohirrim adore to get discarded from play, so chump blocking is a main cog on your combat machine.

I'm still unsure if Steward of Gondor is all that needed in this deck, specially because I wanted to keep this as lore-friendly as possible. The resource smoothing by the Royal duo seem, at first glance, enough even with both We Do Not Sleep and Light the Beacons present.

While it might seem the odd one's out, Dúnedain Warning is that extra point of Defense because of much maligned Shadow effects and pesky enemies with 3+. The same as for Arwen Undómiel, which is both a great quest and have a nice ability.

[SIDEBOARD]

Here lies the overkill. Cram is more readying effects for the King, but I believe Unexpected Courage and Heir of Mardil are enough. If they aren't, might include the King's faithful steed Snowmane before Cram.

Astonishing Speed might be used both for questing or attacking with Herugrim, but while the attack boost is mostly unseen in this deck, this event seems to be doing something the deck does well enough, be either questing or helping Théoden single attack each round. The same goes for Helm! Helm!, while it could help in situations like large enemies with low engagement cost, I don't feel it justifies it's place in the deck proper, hence the reason it's in the sideboard.

Gaining Strength and Mustering the Rohirrim are accelerators, either to look for allies or to help them coming into play. They might see play if I feel I'm not being quick enough in those departments, but only time will tell.

Lastly, Rider of the Mark is there in case I play in a Fellowship with this deck's brother-in-arms, a Gondor focused / starring Denethor, Lothíriel and Beregond - this won't happen for a while because I lack many of the cards in that deck.

Anyway. Tips? Ideas? Critiques? Forth Eorlingas?