Death from Above: Merry rides Gwaihir to Mt Doom 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

Eventually my intent is to see if the eagles could in fact have flown the ring to Mt Doom, and if a hobbit could just have chucked it in, thus saving all of Middle Earth the trouble of a protracted all out war. And, more importantly, avoiding yet another early demise for Sean Bean.

Please note, I haven’t played the campaign yet so, whilst I very much would like general feedback on the deck, please avoid spoilers. I’m assuming I’ll have to have a backup hero to feed to the Balrog though. This will likely be Hirgon or Eomer (in Eowyn’s slot).

Deck should be fairly self-explanatory but basically mulligan for Radagast's Staff or Word of Command (and use it to fetch Staff). If you still can’t find Staff, Drinking Song may give you yet another chance. You’re pretty much set for Resources once Radagast gets his favourite stick.

Draw is everywhere so that’s not usually a problem. Low threat makes for easy use of Deep Knowledge and generally means threating out isn’t something to worry about. If a quest really needs it, there’s Secret Vigil and Woodman’s Clearing in the sideboard.

Merry is really good, despite his 1 attack due to being a solo hobbit (I guess it’ll be 2 when Frodo’s around). What he’s really there for (apart from cheap solid questing) is his ability to ready a buffed up Eagles of the Misty Mountains - repeatedly, if he has a couple of Fast Hitch. Together they can mince through enemies with ease (Éowyn can be teamed with Merry instead if you need to kill 4 Nazgul on turn 4 or something absurd). Support of the Eagles allows for Misty plus Merry to go even more berserk, but can also enable Merry to pull of some defences in a pinch.

Defence-wise, Misty handles the big bad, with Radagast and A Burning Brand doing the day-to-day. Magic Ring gives an extra defense, or healing if Radagast actually gets hurt.

Wizard Pipe allows for stacking the top deck for Gwaihir's Debt and The Eagles Are Coming!. It can also be used for a cheeky switcharoo just before an effect that would shuffle the deck.

Loyal Hound and Landroval are your insurance policy, though Warden of Healing can also be included for Quests with lots of damage treacheries.

I ditched Glamdring and Sting for this update and put in some Gandalf goodness which can be stacked with Wizard Pipe and Gwaihir's debt.

I had Flight of the Eagles in originally for some bouncy Meneldor into Misty etc but ultimately decided the draw of Deep Knowledge was more valuable. Flight not having the Eagle trait was the deciding factor.

Final note - the reason there’s no Wilyador or Emissary is that procuring the final cycle in the UK is more difficult than actually flying to New Zealand and throwing a ring in a volcano.

Opinions, ideas, criticisms welcome.