Éomer's Promise 3.0

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An origin story

This deck is based loosely on a short conversation between Gimli and Éomer, just before they set out to ride for Helm's Deep:

'I will forget my wrath for a while, Éomer son of Éomund,' said Gimli; 'but if ever you chance to see the Lady Galadriel with your eyes, then you shall acknowledge her the fairest of ladies, or our friendship will end.'

'So be it!' said Éomer.

This conversation was a follow-up to the first encounter between Gimli and Éomer, where Éomer paid insult to Lady Galadriel, much to Gimli's dismay:

'Then there is a Lady in the Golden Wood, as old tales tell!' he said. 'Few escape her nets, they say. These are strange days! But if you have her favour, then you also are net-weavers and sorcerers, maybe.'

[...]

'Then Éomer son of Éomund, Third Marshal of Riddermark, let Gimli the Dwarf Glóin's son warn you against foolish words. You speak evil of that which is fair beyond the reach of your thoughts and only little wit can excuse you.'

Éomer does eventually meet Galadriel at the crowning ceremony of Aragorn, but this deck plays with the idea of Éomer seeking out Galadriel before then. What if Éomer set out to visit Lothlórien himself to meet with the Lady Galadriel and see with his own eyes if Gimli spoke true? What if great friendships and alliances were forged between the Riders of Rohan and the Lady as a result?

Introduction

Rohan has been around since the very beginning of the LotR LCG, going as far back as the first cycle. As such they have a tremendous amount of support cards, but despite that the archetype never really took off. While there are certainly some gems among the Rohan support cards, most of their cards are either too mediocre or too expensive. Add to that the fact that Rohan offers very little in-theme effects for resource acceleration, card draw or threat reduction and it shouldn't be hard to see that there are a number of challenges to building a Rohan deck that can successfully tackle a wide variety of quests.

The Galadriel factor

Enter Galadriel. I strongly believe Galadriel is a perfect fit for the Rohan strategy, as she helps with so many of Rohan's common weaknesses while simultaneously reinforcing its strengths. Not only does she provide crucial card draw (both through her own effect and her Mirror of Galadriel), but she also helps greatly with threat management (again through her own effect, but also by enabling us to run Elrond's Counsel).

If all of that wasn't enough, Galadriel's passive ability of allowing characters to quest for free the turn they enter play is perfect for Éomer. This allows all your cheap Rohan allies to enter play, quest for free and then chump block later on to not only defend an attack but also trigger Éomer's ability! Of course you don't have to sacrifice your characters the very same turn you play them, but sometimes there's no other choice and in those scenarios, Galadriel in a sense doubles the value of all your allies.

The complete hero line-up

With the basic concept in place, let's flesh out the rest of the deck. We already know we want to play both Galadriel and Éomer, both of which are absolutely amazing at questing and combat, respectively. Our third and final hero will be Théoden, not just because it makes perfect thematic sense, but also because he contributes things that the deck still lacked: resource acceleration, resource smoothing, a defensive hero and another decent quester (because Galadriel alone isn't going to cut it against most quests).

Our heroes' toys

Our hero line-up looks pretty solid and well-rounded now. Before we continue on with the rest of the deck, we make sure to include some must-have support cards for each of our heroes:

• For Éomer: Firefoot and Rohan Warhorse
• For Théoden: Herugrim, Snowmane and Golden Shield
• For Galadriel: Nenya, Mirror of Galadriel, Elrond's Counsel and Unexpected Courage

This deck needs Nenya on Galadriel as fast as possible so make sure to mulligan for that one aggressively. Once you get an Unexpected Courage on her as well, she'll be able to both quest for 4 and provide you with an additional card every single round while lowering your threat at the same time! Another incredibly important support card for Galadriel and this deck as a whole is Mirror of Galadriel. You'll notice that we run quite a few unique cards in multiples, so the Mirror of Galadriel is perfect for basically trading excess copies of those for more useful cards. On top of that it provides this deck with some additional card draw on top of Galadriel's effect, which it desperately needs. Together, they make the deck so much more consistent as you'll be able to pick up the support cards you need the most at just the right times.

As for Éomer, he becomes an absolute monster once he has Firefoot and a copy of Rohan Warhorse attached, being able to swing for 7 twice a round. Finally, Théoden with Snowmane makes questing even easier for this deck, while Golden Shield allows him to defend for 4 afterwards. In case you need it, Herugrim is also there to turn him into a very solid secondary attacker alongside Éomer. Together they'll be able to kill off even the most fearsome enemy bosses!

The allies

But what would any Rohan deck be without its allies? Out of all the factions currently available in this card game, I think Rohan has some of the coolest characters to play with. For the early game we need some cheap characters with decent willpower. Envoy of Pelargir, West Road Traveller and Westfold Horse-breeder are absolutely perfect for this. The Westfold Horse-breeder especially is just amazing: she's completely free to play thanks to Théoden, adds 1 Willpower to the quest and provides you with a crucial mount early on. Usually this will be Snowmane so that you could ideally quest for 7 on your first round while only having to exhaust Galadriel so you could still easily defend and kill an enemy later that same turn.

A little later in the game you'll generally want to try and get Háma and Gamling out. These two combined make defending enemy attacks almost trivial as Háma is able to defend two attacks with 5 Defense after which you can return him to your hand thanks to Gamling. Afterwards you can just repeat the same thing over and over again, as Háma only costs 2 resources thanks to Théoden meaning you could theoretically play him every single turn. Note that thanks to Galadriel this means he would also be able to quest for free every turn as well; just a small bonus, but still important.

Grimbold and Westfold Outrider are your Tactics allies and assist in questing and attacking respectfully. Westfold Outrider especially is just amazing in this deck as you get his 2 Attack for just 1 resource. On top of that, his effect allows you to pull all kinds of neat tricks, after which Gamling can simply return him to your hand again. My favourite use for him is to engage an enemy after already having resolved enemy attacks so I don't need to defend them anymore and then destroy them with Éomer whose effect will have triggered because Westfold Outrider just left play. #Grimbold is equally impressive, but slightly more expensive. He contributes greatly to your quests and also serves as an emergency button if you somehow end up engaged with more enemies than you planned.

Finally there's Gandalf. At first he may seem really out of place here; you don't often see him in a Rohan deck. He actually fits in extremely well, and not just because of thematic reasons. (The idea of having Gandalf help you in exchange for a threat penalty is just perfect for a Rohan deck!) It's best to hold off playing him until you have a well established board. That way you won't have to pay a ton of threat early in the game, plus it's more important to get your key support cards and allies in play first. Once Galadriel has all her attachments, this deck should have no problem with paying for the threat cost and even then, there's always Elrond's Counsel to reduce your threat even further.

Tips & Tricks

• Mulligan for Nenya. Other cards to aim for in your opening hand are Unexpected Courage, Westfold Horse-breeder, Snowmane and Mirror of Galadriel.
• Use Westfold Outrider during the Quest Phase to engage an enemy so that it does not contribute its threat when resolving the quest.
• Use Westfold Outrider to engage an enemy after you've finished defending attacks to attack that enemy without having to defend it.
• Use Elrond's Counsel during the Combat Phase to give Théoden +1 Willpower. If he has Herugrim or Golden Shield attached, you could indirectly boost his Attack or Defense this way, respectively.
• Grimbold does not have to be ready to use his effect, so you could defend a weak attacker or quest with him first and then discard him to prevent an enemy from attacking. Just beware of potential shadow cards if you defend with him first.
• When defending an attack with Háma you can first reveal the shadow card of the attacking enemy before deciding to use his effect or not.
• You can use Gamling's effect on a Rohan ally that you were forced to discard because of an encounter effect.
• Put any direct damage or archergy damage on Galadriel first.
• You can still use Nenya after the staging step is complete, so you'll know exactly how much Willpower you need to pass the quest before you have to decide whether or not to use it.

Conclusion

This deck is incredibly fun and original to play. I love it when two distinct strategies come together to form a coherent deck that is more than just the sum of its parts, and this is definitely such a deck in my opinion. The best part is that there's a really fun explanation in the source material to justify this union, so even though it has no place in the actual Lord of the Rings universe, it still feels strangely thematic.

Having said all that, this deck is by no means one of the strongest out there. Despite all its strengths, it still struggles a bit with maintaining board control and it can't pump out cards as quickly as some other decks out there. So if you're looking for a deck to beat the toughest quests out there, this may not be the deck for you. Still, the deck manages to hold its own really well if played correctly, both in solo and in multiplayer games.