ALeP Rohan deck guide by JazVM

Welcome everyone to my deck guide!. I got the ALeP expansion from MB print (which I can highly recommend) in November and was finally starting to make decks with the new cards. I always liked Rohan but never thought the archetype offered enough power before. This absolutely changed with the coming of Thengel. I tested various iterations of the deck and I am finally satisfied with it.

Deck Idea

In an ideal world you will have Gamling and Morwen Steelsheen on the table already. Now, the first discarded ally every round will do the following:

• will trigger a useful discard effect
• will replace itself with Thengel for free
• will go back to your hand with Gamling
• draws you a card with Horn of the Mark
• reduces your threat by 1 or heals a character for 2 with Morwen Steelsheen

As you can see, by discarding one ally you are essentially drawing 3 cards (play an ally for free (1), Horn of the Mark (2) and Gamling (3) because you return the ally to your hand) and play one of them for free. That is rediculous.

Card Run-Down

Heroes

Éowyn:

I wanted access to the tactics sphere for Riddermark Knight, Need Brooks No Delay and Worthy of Remembrance. Éowyn is a thematic and powerful choice in that regard. She is an extremely good quester on steroids and blows various horns (ehem..) to draw cards and gain resources. She will wield:

• Horn of Gondor
• Horn of the Mark
• potentially Magic Ring

Théoden:

He is the number resource acceleration of the deck. If you find Snowmane, Herugrim and Necklace of Girion he will quest for 4 and attack for 7 which is pretty awesome. His pretty big pool of HP and alright defense of 2 make him a viable back-up blocker if need be.

• Herugrim
• Necklace of Girion
• Snowmane
• potentially Magic Ring

Thengel:

The main engine and the main blocker of the deck. Decent quester as well. You will want to discard an ally every turn to use his AMAZING ability. Questing for 4 points with Escort from Edoras and turning that into any other ally in the deck sound good to you? It's awesome and borderline overpowered.

• Golden Shield

Allies

Arwen Undómiel: is the only card that can not be played with Thengel or be sacced to Worthy of Remembrance. Her ability is so useful that I wanted to include her anyway. Questing for 2 additional willpower on turn 1 is good as well. If you are looking for a flex-spot you found it right in the beginning of the list.

Elfhelm: His case is a bit like Arwen's. He can't be played with Worthy of Remembrance but his ability compensates for it. If you hit him with Thengel a smile should be on your face.

Éomund: solid ally and potential combo piece for Worthy of Remembrance.

Escort from Edoras: I love this card. In quests where willpower is usefull for questing you will want to cycle her every round with Gamling. 4 willpower for 1 resource is just too awesome. Only a 2 of because she is pretty useless in siege or battle quests.

Gamling: see above why he is such a central piece to this decks strategy. You will want him on the board round 2 the latest which requires 3 copies in the deck.

Grimbold: Feint on a stick that can be recycled with Gamling? Yes, please! The only downside is his 3 costs which means that vanilla Éowyn can't provide enough resources to play him every turn. If the scenario let's him shine try to put Magic Ring or Necklace of Girion onto Éowyn to play him every turn.

Háma: has proven to be very useful. As long as enemies can be engaged his trigger is reliable and can save damage from your heroes.

Morwen Steelsheen: integral piece for the deck. Initially I had her as a 2-of but then I changed my mind. You can use her to chump an enemies attack and then use her action ability to put a second copy from your hand into play at "instant speed". This upside is really what made her a 3-of for me and opposed to Gamling I don't mind drawing additional copies of her. Her response is very good but don't make the mistake to just let her sit there every turn. She is an respectable quester and blocker and you should make use of that in situation where -1 threat or healing 2 damage is not critical.

Riddermark Knight: when the scenario throws enemies at you, try to play him every round, he is that good. 4 attack is awesome and with Théoden you have enough resources for him at the beginning of every round.

Rohirrim Scout: Flex spot if you need something else in your ally pool. If questing was only about willpower I would cut him and add other allies but he proves to be usefull for battle questing and attacks. Two HP is also a considerable upside in some quests.

The Riddermark's Finest: great location control ally that can both quest and attack and has the very usefull two HP.

Théodwyn: it's pretty funny when you pick her with Thengels ability and get another card or another resource on top. Two willpower is nice too.

Westfold Horse-breaker: he is so good because he basically guarantees that you can discard an ally as long he is in play. Really nice turn 1 card.

Westfold Outrider: you can't always trigger his action ability but the two attack and two hitpoints make up for it.

Attachments

You might be suprised by Horn of Gondor, Magic Ring and Necklace of Girion but resource generation is what this deck really needs. When you play without those cards you will find that your hand grows every turn and you can't generate enough resources to play all of your allies. Those cards counteract this problem but they come at a price. I would start fishing for Magic Ring first because the threat can be mititgated with Morwen Steelsheen. More often than not you will find yourself in situation where you will have to chump block with an ally. Horn of Gondor turns this situation into something useful. Necklace of Girion is a bit of a stretch but when you don't play the super hard scenarios you will have enough firepower to overcome another enemy or location. The reward, especially on Théoden is quite worth it.

Golden Shield: turns Thengel into our main blocker. Together with Arwen Undómiel he gets 7 defense against one enemy attack which should be enough to block most things and survive.

Herugrim: turns Théoden into a good attacker. Together with Necklace of Girion and Snowmane Théoden becomes a powerhouse. Fish it out with Need Brooks No Delay if you really need it.

Horn of Gondor: turning chump blocks into resources? Hell yeah! Keep in mind that "discarding" allies does not trigger the horn unfortunetely.

Horn of the Mark: it's a really serious card drawing engine which should be triggered every round in our deck. It is one of my main mulligan targets together with Need Brooks No Delay.

Magic Ring: if I could I would play it as a 3 of. The threat is mitigated by Morwen Steelsheen and the upside is really big. Early game the healing or the ready effect can be crucial, as soons as the midgame starts you want the extra resource every round.

Necklace of Girion: the downside is huge but the combo with Herugrim and Snowmane is pretty nice. If there was an alternative to resource generation I would play it. Swop this card for something else in scenarios which are too demanding for the necklace to be played.

Snowmane: really solid on Théoden. I rarely fish for it but whenever I draw it I am a happy man.

Events

A Test of Will: plain old essential card for true solo

Feint: multiple enemies are a problem for this deck and this card can counteract this problem.

Need Brooks No Delay: this card is BONKERS. It costs 1 resource and and get to chose for 10 cards which one you like best? Hell yeah! I would include 6 copies if I could. I love to have this card in my opening hand.

The Galadhrim's Greeting: threat reduction is necessary in true solo sometimes and this card just does it.

Worthy of Remembrance: in enemy heavy scenarios you would want to have 3 of them. It's really nice that is "discards" allies as well. We have enough unique targets to reliably trigger the 4 damage effect. Combining it with Éomund is a real combo. Keep in mind that the action window is restricted by "combat action".

Mulligans

A good starting hand looks something like this:

• (triggerable) 2 cost ally e.g. Escort from Edoras
• Horn of the Mark
• Need Brooks No Delay
• Morwen Steelsheen (in this case you just need an ally with a cost of 2, it doesnt matter if you can trigger the discard)

Opening sequences w/ Morwen Steelsheen:

• play a 2 cost spirit ally for 1 resource
• play Horn of the Mark
• play Need Brooks No Delay for Gamling if possible
• use Morwen Steelsheens trigger to discard the ally
• draw a card from Horn of the Mark and search the top 5 cards for an ally, and send the discard ally back to your hand with Gamling

Opening seqeuences without Morwen Steelsheen:

• play a 2 cost spirit ally for 1 resource
• play Horn of the Mark
• play Need Brooks No Delay for Gamling if possible
• trigger the discard effect
• profit with Thengel, Gamling and Horn of the Mark

Closing words

I hope you enjoyed my guide and you enjoy the deck as well. For me it's a really fun deck and a nice challenge with a lot of tactics to think about.

All the best!