The Birds and the Trees 1.0

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• 1.0

This is a slight update of a deck I originally posted over on boardgamegeek.com. Here is the deck description for that original deck:

Inspired by Hall of Beorn's Eagles and Ents deck, I decided to not only try combining eagles and ents into the same deck, but to utilize both neutral allies who gather resources to play these two types of allies, Radagast and Treebeard. And so I give you, "The Birds and the Trees":

Strategy

This deck is a pretty straight-forward ally swarm deck. As it turns out, eagles can be quite effective in covering for the slow-to-rise ents. You'll use your eagles early to allow you to build up your army of ents, who will help you steamroll the quest.

The heroes in this deck will primarily be questing, though if you get Support of the Eagles out, you can make Mablung or Merry quite powerful in combat. If you play Support and are planning to use it for defense, I recommend putting it on Mablung because he's less fragile than Merry. However, if you plan to use the hero for attack, Merry is your man as his ability will allow him to team up with a Booming Ent to kill something and then ready the Booming Ent afterwards.

Radagast and Treebeard are used for resource acceleration as they can help you get your eagles and ents into play, respectively. They are expensive, however, so the deck relies on Elf-stone to get them into play for free. Once in play, Radagast is used primarily for questing, while Treebeard is better for combat (though he can quest in a pinch). Radagast's resources are to be used primarily for playing eagles, though if you really want to keep your Landroval or Gwaihir alive, his healing ability is useful. Treebeard's resources, on the other hand, are better to be saved unless you really need another ent and your heroes can't afford it. Using Treebeard's readying ability is very handy and can sometimes be more useful than playing another ent, so keep that in mind when deciding whether to spend his resources.

Erebor Hammersmith is in the deck primarily for recycling Elf-stone. The deck has numerous expensive allies, so the more use you can get out of Elf-stone, the better. If you don't have an Elf-stone in your discard pile, hold off on playing the Hammersmith unless you really need a body.

Gléowine provides added card draw, in case Pippin's ability is not enough to keep your hand stocked.

You'll want to get an Eagles of the Misty Mountains into play pretty early so you can absorb those eagles that fly away. They are a good target for Elf-stone if you don't have/need to play Radagast or Treebeard.

Gwaihir and Landroval are one-ofs for late game play. Landroval can rescue one of your squishy heroes if direct damage manages to surprise you, and Gwaihir can recycle an eagle that you had to use early game before you had your Eagles of the Misty Mountains in play. Keep in mind that the eagle you put into play with Gwaihir can, if you have an EotMM in play, be placed under the EotMM when it leaves play to return to your hand, in case you don't want to pay to bring it back.

Gandalf is in here for added flexibility. In longer games, he can be used for threat reduction, and if you empty your hand, his card draw ability is the way to go. His damage ability is probably the one you'll need least as this deck is heavily combat oriented, though it can be useful against those enemies that get stuck in the staging area.

The Eagles Are Coming! and Daeron's Runes are for card draw, and the extra copies of Radagast and Treebeard are good options for discarding with the Runes. Feint is primarily for early game enemies, before you're able to get your board set up.

Opening Hand

There aren't really any critical cards for your opening hand, so it will really be quest-dependent. If you're facing an early enemy, a Feint or Winged Guardian is very good to have. Elf-stone is great to see early, especially in combination with Radagast or Treebeard, but you don't need to mulligan for it. Probably the only hand I would mulligan would be one filled with high-cost allies, particularly if there are duplicates. Otherwise, you can make most any opening draw work.

Quest Type and Player Count

This deck is combat-oriented, but can quest pretty well for a primarily Tactics deck. I think it will play well against most any quest, with perhaps the exception of very location-heavy quests. This deck holds its own in solo and works well in multiplayer since it doesn't use many unique cards that could clash with other players' decks.

Alternate Heroes

If you're playing multiplayer and need to swap out a hero, here are some alternatives:

Mablung - His resource acceleration is pretty important, but if you have to trade him out, Théoden can be a workable replacement. Your starting threat will be a bit higher, but you'll get better willpower out of your Tactics heroes, who do a lot of questing for this deck. Bard the Bowman and Brand son of Bain are other good options.

Merry - Merry is used primarily for his low threat and willpower, plus the additional engagement cost point he adds to enemies thanks to Pippin. I've played with Théoden in his place, which can put a lot more pressure on the deck early and makes Pippin less effective, but is workable. Thalin might be your best alternative since he'll be primarily questing and so making use of his special ability.

Pippin - Pippin's main purpose in the deck is card draw, so an alternative might be Bilbo Baggins or Beravor. Bilbo will be less effective in multiplayer games. If neither of those is available (and the Beravor player promises to share some card draw with you), Bifur is a decent replacement. He won't help with card draw but will help with resource smoothing.