Super-Bears 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck is an attempt to abuse Birna as much as I possibly can, leaning heavily into discarding bears as quickly as possible and grabbing them with Birna, hopefully multiple times a round.

Warning: This deck is not powerful, and it cannot quest. However, it's one of the funnest decks I've ever created, and it features a really neat new play-style, reminiscent of Seastan's Bouncy Bears.

The idea is to discard bears as quickly as you can via our Elven friends, then use Birna to grab them out of the discard pile for attack and defense, trigger their abilities, and then shuffle them back into your deck.

Now, you're guaranteed to get 1 bear per round from Birna's ability (as long as you've discarded some bears, which is possible even round 1 due to Círdan the Shipwright and Beorning Pony). However, one temporary ally per round isn't going to keep up with the encounter deck, so we have Beorn's Welcome, Miruvor, Steward of Gondor, and Descendants of Beorn to give Birna as much resources as she can handle; Miruvor and Unexpected Courage to ready her as many times as we can (as well as Reforged to get them once they've disappeared), Beorning Ponies to discard extra bears, and plenty of card draw to get all of these out as fast as possible.

We're also featuring Círdan the Shipwright to handle a little questing via Light of Valinor, discard even more bears, and ready them once they're in play with Narya. Narya gives you , which can be used to pay for Steward of Gondor if you don't happen to draw it and A Good Harvest in the same round.

This deck churns through cards faster than twelve greedy dwarves, so don't be afraid to use Will of the West and Reforged when you need them. I like to save them for when your discard pile's already empty, however; it's a real shame to put a bunch of useful bears back into your deck.

Galadhrim Weaver might not seem flashy, but she gives some much-needed recursion, and helps with questing in solo games. Henamarth Riversong is also mostly for solo play, so I put both of them in the sideboard, for the sake of a 50 card deck. Really, having an over-50 card deck is not bad at all with the amount of cards we churn through here, so you're absolutely justified in adding them back in without removing anything. Ioreth gives some important healing, and since you don't use Erestor's resources much, he'll be happy to help.

As far as resource-generating attachments - they're for Birna first and foremost, but Círdan the Shipwright actually needs them more than she does. You just have to balance how important Birna is at the moment, compared to all those cards. I often end up giving Círdan the Shipwright Steward of Gondor. However, I would always make sure you have at least 1 resource left over for Birna at all times, as she's a very useful emergency safety button.

I think that's about it! Let me end this write-up with a best case scenario.

You draw your opening hand, which includes lots of bears, A Good Harvest, Narya, and Steward of Gondor, and you discard Beorn with Círdan the Shipwright's ability. Let your companion deck quest, and when it comes to combat, use Birna to grab Beorn. Due to Narya, you can defend an enemy with up to 8 safely, and attack back for 8 . Now, this is just the first round! It gets even better when Birna can pull out a Beorning Skin-changer, who can discard himself for the Big Bears, which do not go back into your deck, since you used Birna on the Beorning Skin-changer. In all, you essentially paid 1 resource for a 5 or 6 cost permanent ally, which you can ready frequently with Narya, and still use their abilities for almost no cost!

Overall, this is a really fun deck, and the new Beorning play-style is just so enjoyable to play. I recommend pairing this with a heavy questing deck that can handle itself in combat (i.e. dwarves), and then if you've done that, you're set. Have fun sneak-attacking your enemies with resurrected super-bears!

Happy questing!