The Door-Wardens of Isengard 1.0

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THE DOOR-WARDENS OF ISENGARD

"And now they turned their eyes toward the archway and the ruined gates. There they saw close beside them a great rubble-heap; and suddenly they were aware of two small figures lying on it at their ease, grey-clad, hardly to be seen among the stones. There were bottles and bowls and platters laid beside them, as if they had just eaten well, and so rested from their labour. One seemed asleep; the other, with crossed legs and arms behind his head, leaned back against the broken rock and sent from his mouth long wisps and little rings of thin blue smoke. He sprang to his feet [and] bowed very low, putting his hand upon his breast.

'Welcome, my lords, to Isengard!' he said. 'We are the door-wardens. Meriadoc, son of Saradoc is my name; and my companion, who, alas! is overcome with weariness'--here he gave the other a dig with his foot--'is Peregrin, son of Paladin, of the house of Took.'"

--LotR III, p.205-206

DECK OVERVIEW

This thematic solo deck continues my current fascination with Ents and is based of the siege of Isengard and the classic comic scene of Merry & Pippin greeting Gandalf and company amid the debris of the gatehouse and their recent meal. Practically speaking, it is a Doomed deck with an Ent theme that uses Doomed cards to get off to a quick start, and a low starting threat plus engagement control to compensate for the threat increases.

HEROES & ATTACHMENTS

Faramir 4 2(7) 2 7
Faramir is the hobbits' bodyguard and, until some good defensive allies are in play, will usually remain ready to defend. Later, once he's acquired Celebrían's Stone, he will join the quest. Ent Draught can make him an even stouter defender and, when needed, Black Arrow can help take down a big enemy.

Merry 2(4) 2(4) 1(3) 3
Pippin 2(4) 1(3) 1(3) 3
Merry & Pippin will pretty much quest exclusively, using Halfling Determination to boost their . Though, when needed, Merry can attack for 4 with Halfling Determination, potentially triggering his readying effect. All copies of Good Meal go on Pippin to play Needful to Know at 0-cost. [Ah, food-coma; that explains his sleepiness.] Bill the Pony raises each hobbit's to 3, for a little extra protection.

The Keys of Orthanc may be given to any hero, since they each have about the same number of cards to pay for.

ALLIES & EVENTS

The Doomed cards Legacy of Númenor, Deep Knowledge & The Seeing-stone help get this deck off to a quick start. Mulligan for any two of them, using The Seeing-stone to fetch the third. Deep Knowledge helps get allies into your hand, if needed, while Legacy of Númenor helps pay for them. The allies are split evenly among the heroes' three spheres, so with one Legacy of Númenor, it's not uncommon to play three allies on the first turn, or even four if one of them is Herald of Anórien. Sure, it comes with a threat increase of anywhere between 4 and 9 points. But that's where the threat control & engagement control cards come in.

Sneak Attack+Gandalf and Good Meal+Needful to Know lower your threat, while the engagement control of Pippin, Mablung, and Take No Notice effectively do the same thing by raising enemies' engagement costs by 7. Take No Notice is especially effective, as it affects all enemies and can be played at 0-cost.

True to the theme, one-third of the allies are Ents. Since the only real drawback of Ents is that they enter play exhausted, Faramir's effect helps ready them. Tireless Hunters lets you engage an additional enemy in the Combat Phase, and thus ready another Ent, and also provides some shadow effect control. Additionally, Treebeard can use his resources to ready Ents, including himself, and Quickbeam comes with his own readying effect.

Generally, the Ents will handle combat, with Derndingle Warrior typically defending at 5 , and Booming Ent attacking for up to 10 with their respective effects. If the hobbits are in good shape, give the additional copies of Ent Draught to Derndingle Warrior so he can use his effect repeatedly. Then, when his damage gets too high, selectively heal all characters with The Long Defeat, leaving 1 point of damage on each Ent to continue boosting Booming Ent. Optionally, you could add Boomed and Trumpeted to ready and further boost the Ents.

Questing will be handled by the heroes and most of the non-Ent allies. Isengard Messenger is especially good when boosted to 3 by Doomed cards. When played after characters are committed to the quest, one of the same Doomed events can also ready Orthanc Guard so he can defend during the Combat Phase, if needed.

VARIATIONS

I had originally built this deck with Aragorn for his thematic appropriateness, but found that a slightly lower-threat hero actually made a significant difference, especially on the first turn, by allowing the play of several Doomed cards while still keeping the threat below 30. With Aragorn, I would replace Black Arrow & Tireless Hunters with some readying for the Ents, like Ever Vigilant or Hold Your Ground! (which also works on Aragorn) and/or Secret Vigil for some more threat reduction. Before settling on Faramir--possibly the least thematic choice of those I considered--I looked at a few other options:

At 10 threat, Halbarad--the poor man's Aragorn--has a similar ability to Aragorn and is also a Ranger to enable play of Take No Notice at 0-cost. If using him, replace Black Arrow & Tireless Hunters with 2x Ever Vigilant & 1x Hold Your Ground! for some Ent-readying.

Also at 10 threat, Erkenbrand is a better defender than Halbarad or Faramir and has a built-in shadow control effect, but his lower , means he will usually remain a defender. He is also not a Ranger, so Take No Notice can't be played for free. If using him, replace Black Arrow, Celebrían's Stone & 2x Tireless Hunters with 2x Ever Vigilant & 2x Hold Your Ground!. The latter can also ready Erkenbrand.

As is usual for me, cards in the Sideboard are merely other cards I considered when building this deck.

CARDS BY FUNCTION

8 Resource Acceleration/Cost Discount: Treebeard, Good Meal, Keys of Orthanc, Legacy of Númenor

9 Card Drawing: Pippin, Gandalf, Gléowine, Deep Knowledge, The Long Defeat

3 Player Deck Control: The Seeing-stone

5 Threat Reduction: Gandalf, Needful to Know

5 Mustering: Herald of Anórien, Sneak Attack

7 Willpower Boost: Isengard Messenger, Celebrían's Stone, Halfling Determination

7 Attack Boost: Booming Ent, Black Arrow, Halfling Determination

6 Defense Boost: Derndingle Warrior, Halfling Determination

4 Hit Point Boost: Bill the Pony, Ent Draught

3 Encounter Scrying: Needful to Know, Henamarth Riversong (optional)

5 Engagement Control: Pippin, Mablung, Take No Notice

0 Treachery Control:

2 Shadow Control: Tireless Hunters; Erkenbrand (optional)

6 Readying: Faramir, Merry, Orthanc Guard, Quickbeam, Treebeard; Ever Vigilant (optional), Hold Your Ground! (optional)

2 Healing/Damage Cancellation: The Long Defeat

0 Condition Control:

TOTAL COSTS

16
17
18
5