The Grey Wanderin' Grey Company (Thematic Dunedain GW Deck) 1.0

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• 1.0

"I have eighteen with me," said Bereavor. "That is all our kindred that could be gathered in haste; but some shirrifs of the Shire have ridden with us, desiring to learn from our ranks the skills necessary to protect their own borders."

INTRO

I'm no stranger to the "ally blitz" approach to building a The Grey Wanderer deck, for instance see my "inspired by" Galdor and the Knights of the Ring, for instance. This general approach to Grey Wanderin' exploits explosive card draw to fish out and find Timely Aid, and A Very Good Tale to spam an army of allies into play on the first turn (you can reliably get like 20-30 resources of allies into play on Turn 1).

That's fine and all, but it's quite unthematic to just chalk a deck full of all the 'best stuff' allies, and the game play tends to be more of an academic exercise than an interesting on-table experience.

So I wanted a Gray Wandering ally-spam deck that was more thematic and more fun to actually play on the table. And this deck has checked both of those boxes for me.

WHY THE DUNEDAIN

Dunedain felt like the best approach, because they've got an unusually high concentration of big expensive (cost 4+) allies, with four nonunique 4 Cost allies, three unique 4 Cost allies, and one non-unique 5 Cost ally. While these allies are certainly not the most efficient in the game (and aside from Northern Tracker rarely make it into "goodstuffs" decks), it's nice to have a pile of expensive semi-beefy allies to get with Timely Aid and A Very Good Tale. In particular, the otherwise lacklaster Dúnedain Wanderer is great here because his "5" cost nicely fuels A Very Good Tale while only costing 2 resources to play.

I opted to pair the dunedain with a few hobbits, because of the thematic relationship between the dunedain and the Shire. One could opt to replace the halfling allies with 2 or 3 cost Dunedain allies instead, if desired, but the hobbits do also provide some mechanical perks:

1. offer cheaper WP
2. fuel high-powered Drinking Songs
3. bring some cancellation protection in Halfling Bounder
4. allow for some exceptional combat trickery with Gaffer Gamgee, who can really take advantage of Grey Wanderer's low threat (especially in conjuction with Halbarad).

I've also included Arwen Undómiel because of her relationship to Aragorn and the dunedain, and she's especially helpful to Vigilant Dúnadan who can defend multiple timers per round. NOTE: the only way to get Arwen into play is to snag her with Timely Aid or A Very Good Tale (likely), but failing that she only takes two rounds to pay for with Thalion if you've happened to make him a hero.

THE HEROES

Beravor is one of the better Grey Wanderer heroes. She can exhaust to draw 2 cards in the Planning Phase, and then you can ready her her via the contract to gain 2 resources and still be available to quest. Most GW heroes have a hard time of taking advantage of the ready if they want the resources in the Planning Phase.

In fact, earlier versions of this deck included Daeron's Runes and Deep Knowledge, but I found that Beravor's draw and the Drinking Songs were typically enough to deliver a smooth and reliable board-state build throughout the quest so I ended up dropping those cards for more allies. This deck doesn't have as explosive of a first round as my other typical GW Cheese decks, but it does deliver a more interactive play experience throughout the entire quest, and has had no problems still beating the quests I've thrown at it.

GAME PLAY

This deck likes to deal with the snake while it's still in the egg, so to speak. The Northern Trackers can chip away Locations in staging without ever needing to travel, and the compliment of Ranger Bows can whittle away Enemies without needing to engage them. It definitely feels like you're sneaking around spoiling the plans of the enemy from the shadows, which I'll take as a thematic win for the Grey Company. For enemies that do end up engaged, there's Vigilant Dúnadan defenders, one of whom should also get the Wild Stallion steed. There's also the Gaffer Gamgee and Halbarad trick to keep the end distracted long enough to kill it before it attacks, and having the resourecs to replay the Gaffer each round is absolutely no struggle for this deck (which will quickly be generating 5-7 resources per turn).