Eternal Love - Aragorn + Arwen 1.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

Ah, true love conquers all. When Aragorn has Arwen Undómiel at his side, he scarcely needs any help at all. Well, maybe just a few friends. But the Ranger from the North is in his element with his beloved in tow.

This two-hero deck is designed to make the best use -- both strategic and thematic -- of the attachment Strider, and also to let Aragorn and Arwen play off of each other.

Three copies of Light of Valinor let Arwen quest without exhausting as well, which is particularly handy since it allows you to quest with her and also play Tale of Tinúviel to ready Aragorn and give him +3 attack, defense and willpower. This can be used in the questing phase, though the optimal play is after you exhaust Aragorn to defend, since it can then ready him and let him attack.

The deck also includes the Arwen staple Elven-light for card-draw.

Arwen's built-in resource generation can be a big boon early on, especially to quickly get out effective allies like Quickbeam, Bilbo Baggins and Gléowine. And Henamarth Riversong is great because you can always play him the turn you draw him.

However, to consistently get out the more expensive allies like Northern Tracker, Gandalf and Ranger of Cardolan, you 'll want to get a Resourceful on her as soon as possible. Elrond's Counsel can help bring you down to Secrecy level, but even spending four resources will be worth it if need be.

Unexpected Courage and Lembas give your heroes yet more readying ability, and some healing as well.

A Burning Brand, Elf-stone, Asfaloth, O Elbereth! Gilthonial!, Double Back, Scout Ahead and Gandalf's Staff are nice one-shots if you draw them at a good time, but if you need a card-discard early on to fuel Arwen's resource-generation, they're all acceptable candidates.

Gandalf is a huge boon to this deck when he comes out, especially if you can get Narya on him. With Narya you can quest with Gandalf for four, then exhaust him to ready himself for a 5-Attack or 5-Defense. Oh, and you get to ready and buff another ally as well. Paying the extra 2 threat per round to keep him around is no big deal. This deck starts at low threat, and when you get into the mid 40s, you can just use Aragorn's ability to drop back down to 21 thread.

A Test of Will is a staple for any good spirit deck, and since this deck never really swarms you'll always need to be careful with your encounter-deck management.

Finally, you've got three copies of Daeron's Runes, which are there to help you find Strider as quickly as possible. You should pretty much always mulligan if you don't have Strider in your opening draw. The deck can operate well without it, but it gets a big boost in the early rounds if you can get Aragorn that free questing and +2 willpower.