Deck Tech: Wheel of Gondor 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 30 of Deck Tech! Last week I posted my third starter deck, focusing on Dain Ironfoot and his army of dwarves. (I don't play Dain very often, so it's a fun archetype for me to go back to.)

This week, we're doing a bit of a generic Prince Imrahil deck. We've got great utility allies to bounce into and out of play, and three copies of Elf-friend to allow us to pull in Galadhrim Weaver and recycle our utility allies if we want.

Glorfindel brings three attack with him to help Imrahil kill enemies when you defend with your bounced in ally, and Gríma helps us save resources and still play some tactics cards permanently.

So let's try some quests.

Quest 1: Journey Along the Anduin

Sometimes you just draw incredibly well. This hand starts off with Light of Valinor and Asfaloth for Glorfindel, and there aren't any huge threats out. I reveal a Goblin Sniper during the quest phase. At least the deck packs heals.

From here on out, I save one resource on Imrahil every round. And if we're going to fight anything, I summon up some help. If I were all in on the Silvan plan, I think I'd use it every round regardless. But here it's okay to only use it when I need it.

I choose to engage the troll on round six, using Grima to bump me up to 30 threat by playing Gandalf for 4. And after the troll engages, Imrahil summons up Beorn to help us fight. Goodbye, troll.

I do get hit by an Evil Storm at the end, which is unusual for me. But to make up for it, the final ambush is two locations. This deck is pretty well suited for clearing out an enemy every round.

Final Score: 125. 9 full rounds, 40 threat, 3 damage on heroes, 8 vp.

The Dread Realm:

I've got less full notes here, but this quest is a lot of fun with a deck like this that can be surprisingly combat capable right away. Definitely better than the last time I tried with a combat light deck.

Nearly all of Imrahil's resources were used in the first few rounds to clear out a swarm of undead, including two of the Cursed Dead, twice.

I built up a pretty good questing swarm of Silvans, and played Gandalf (for cards) on the round I expected to engage Daechanar. We'd made quick progress at this point, so there was only one sorcery in play. And Imrahil summoned Beorn next round to lay the smack down on Daechanar.

After that, things could have been a bit shady. There were enemies in the staging area I didn't want to deal with, but Asfaloth cleared out the first location added by stage 3 immediately. And in the next round, I made just enough progress to have 5 on the Altar of Midwinter. Which let me put 2 progress on with Asfaloth in questing, and 2 more in the refresh phase. Just before everything went entirely to shit as characters started to die.

Final Score: 93. 7 full rounds, 30 threat, 8 damage on heroes, 15 vp

Play Tips:

1. Save Galadhrim Weaver to shuffle Imrahil's allies back into the deck. Utility cards are also reasonable choices, like Gandalf.
2. Mablung can be summoned to pull an enemy down after all the other attacks have been completed, or to push an enemy back into the staging area. Not knowing you're going to find him makes this tougher, but if you're summoning in easy rounds, hoping for some utility, he's a good choice.
3. Daeron's Runes combos with the Galadhrim Weaver to shuffle allies from your hand back into the deck. Same with Guardian of Rivendell.
4. This is probably pretty well known by now, but Beorn is an easy 8 attack if you pull him in with Prince Imrahil. If you do save up enough resources to play him normally, shuffling him back in to "heal" is a good idea.
5. Galadriel's Handmaiden with Gríma is one resource for two willpower. Always a good choice if you don't have anything else to use the discount on.

Next week: I'm not done with Prince Imrahil yet. I'm still working on a Gondor themed version that I think will do quite well.

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