Deck Tech: I Am No Man! 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 20 of Deck Tech! Last week we kicked around with a deck meant to ramp into four Hobbit heroes, all the better to take advantage of Pippin and Elevenses.

And this week, as promised, we're building around the new Éowyn and some of her toys.

If you'd asked me, before The Flame of the West was announced, I would have said Tactics was by far the worst Secrecy sphere in the game. Now, though, I'm not convinced it's so far behind the rest of the pack.

This deck features a ton of resource ramp, a lot of which works to help your combat abilities. Eowyn can ready with Heir of Mardil, and defend with Golden Shield. And you can always bleed a few resources into Winged Guardian early.

The action advantage continues in some of the ally selections. Gimli quests and then readies to fight if he needs to. And I know I don't need to explain how awesome Treebeard is!

Let's try some quests and see how we do!

Quest 1: Journey Along the Anduin

My opening hand has a Steward, Sneak Attack, and Celebrian Stone, so first planning is really easy: nothing. And Theodred gets the first resource to be sure we're ready for next round.

So I quest right into a Dol Guldur Orcs, and Theodred takes 2 damage right away. Fortunately, I have a Sneak Attack and Gandalf to take care of the orcs before I have to fight them.

Following this, I set up Eowyn with Celebrian Stone and the Golden Shield so she'll be able to defend for 7 when absolutely necessary. After this, and a bit more ramp, I play a Treebeard and Legolas to help actually kill enemies and draw a few cards.

Once I get an Heir of Mardil on Eowyn, I engage the Hill Troll and tank it with Eowyn's shield. I was thinking about using her ability to hulk out and kill it, but I don't need the attack strength.

It takes two rounds, bolstered by Faramir, to quest past stage 2, and the final ambush is no big deal because I've been keeping the enemy count low. Unfortunately, A Necromancer's Reach nearly kills Theodred. But nearly isn't a huge problem!

Final Score: 96. 8 full rounds, 17 threat, 3 damage on heroes, 4 vp.

Quest 2: The Stone of Erech

I start with Sneak Attack and Gandalf in hand again, and I can't throw that back. I've also got a Golden Shield and a Rivendell Scout to put into play for free.

In round three, I play Celebrian Stone on Theodred, unlike normal. This means he'll be able to ready when we travel to the Stone of Erech. I also play an Eagles of the Misty Mountains, so when our little eagles bite the dust I can keep some of their combat power in play.

I get Heir of Mardil on Eowyn in round six, just in time to travel to the Stone of Erech and deal with its annoying lockdown. Some eagles don't ready, but most everything else does.

Round nine, I make it to the final stage of the quest, and I'm glad my threat is still too low to have to engage the Lord of the Dead.

Round eleven, I use Eowyn's ability to battle quest for 10 with her alone! (Plus, obviously, a bunch of other allies.) and fall just one short of clearing the quest. The extra threat doesn't cause me to engage any more enemies than I would have, but Midnight forced me up above the Lord of the Dead threshold.

So I throw a poor Rivendell Scout under the bus, and the shadow cards start chaining... The end result is 10 shadow cards and one very, very dead Scout.

And in the next round I manage to quest out, thanks to the lower threat in the staging area.

Final score: 143. 11 full rounds, 36 threat, 3 damage on heroes, 6 vp.

Quest 3: Foundations of Stone

Setup in this quest starts me off with a Goblin Follower engaged, and nothing in the staging area. That could be rough, except I have Sneak Attack and Gandalf in my hand once again. The Eagles Are Coming gets me a couple of Winged Guardians.

I choose not to Sneak Gandalf in during questing just in case there's another enemy I need to deal with. And that almost bites me, big time. Fouled Well forces me to take a random discard, and I luckily miss the combo.

Theodred gets Steward in round two, because I have Erestor and Gimli in hand. His resource acceleration is going to go to Eowyn, so that makes that simple.

Early questing is pretty easy, since I also get Legolas into play pretty quickly. Legolas, Gimli, and a Winged Guardian is pretty much all you need for the early goblins.

And then we quest into stage 4 and I forget about the fact that I was going to lose Eowyn's Golden Shield. Oops. I also draw The Shivering Bank as my stage 4, which causes me to discard my hand. Just after I used Gandalf to draw up.

Next round I draw a single Sneak Attack, but that's a useless card in a one card hand. So Erestor swaps it out for Timely Aid. Timely Aid gives me the choice between Faramir and Treebeard, and since we're so close to the end, I pick Faramir. This'll prove to be a good idea very soon.

The two Elder Nameless Things in the staging area are a potential problem, so I pull out all the stops with my draws, digging for a Gandalf. I choose to engage the first one (who powers up with one of the two Gandalfs I have left), killing it with Eowyn's power up.

And then I luckily draw the second Gandalf just in time to bomb the second Elder Nameless Thing. Fortunately, a treachery had pulled another card from the top of my deck for it, giving it fewer hit points than normal! (Not that that really matters for Gandalf.)

Stage five has an obnoxious restriction, forcing you to not quest with more allies than you have heroes questing. Which is rough in a two hero deck, but Faramir basically acts as a fifth questing character with 4 Willpower. I'll take it!

After two Elder Nameless Things, nothing interesting comes out, and our heroes climb back out into the light. (Achieving the most round number score I've gotten yet.)

Final score: 100. 8 full rounds, 26 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 6 vp.

Play Tips:

1. Your early resource acceleration has to depend on what cards you have in hand. The deck's draw isn't great, so you have to take advantage of what you've got.
2. I like to save my Vassal of the Windlords and Winged Guardians until I have an Eagles of the Misty Mountains on the table, but their base stats are good enough if you have to burn the little eagles early.
3. Keep track of your eagles in the deck, in play, and in the discard pile when you draw The Eagles Are Coming!. It's not too bad even if you whiff, but I definitely played it just to pull the last copy out of the deck against Foundations of Stone.
4. Once Strider is released, this deck definitely wants it. It'll not be low ally count once you get past the early game, but Strider will give you more resource allocation freedom than Heir of Mardil does.
5. Try to find at least one of your draw sources in the opening hand. Including The Eagles Are Coming!. It really helps if you don't have to hope for the first one.

Next week: Spirit Beregond! Who wants to tank some enemies and lower threat?

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