Eagle shenanigans - revised 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

Notes on 2.0: After some more testing I've made slight tweaks to this deck (I've moved some of the cards to sideboard). I have decided to improve card draw with 3x Valiant Sacrifice (it fits this deck perfectly) instead of using Rohan Warhorse. I also swapped a few copies of Captain's Wisdom for Wealth of Gondor. One copy of Captain's Wisdom should be enough, you don't want to keep Éowyn exhausted for too long and Wealth of Gondor should give you sufficient resource boost for those expensive allies anyway. I'm really happy with how this deck plays now. One more thing - I don't own the last three cycles so I didn't use some of the cards that would otherwise be perfect for this deck.

There's a surpising amount of willpower in this deck for such a -heavy composition of allies. But think it's versatile enough to handle siege & battle questing as well.

Eagle decks require massive influx of resources and Mablung and Amarthiúl should give you just that. Try to keep one or two weaker enemies engaged to improve the versatility and economy of Amarthiúl. Rembember to play Support of the Eagles on him once he gets - even temporary - access to .

"Cheating" into play Ranger of Cardolan, Elfhelm or any high-cost ally with Sneak Attack will allow you to use A Very Good Tale effectively. You can also use those put-into-play abilities during combat phase to defend an unexpected enemy attack (given the choice, try to save resources on Éowyn to have access to Elfhelm's action).

Remember that you can also use A Very Good Tale in the refresh phase, after Gandalf readies, but before you discard him from play.

I like to mulligan for Dúnedain Hunter as he will (hopefully) give Mablung an instant extra resource during the planning phase and at the same time unlock Amarthiúl's icon. This will allow you to play e.g. Eagles of the Misty Mountains on turn one. Captain's Wisdom should also greatly increase your economy.

As always, your goal is to pump the stats of Eagles of the Misty Mountains and get that Support of the Eagles machine rolling. Armored Destrier and Rohan Warhorse will give you multiple defence / attack options with those boosted stats. But even without Eagles of the Misty Mountains, you can still get that stat boost with just e.g. Vassal of the Windlord or Winged Guardian on table.

The Eagles Are Coming! and Valiant Sacrifice should give you enough cards to get the engine going. If not, use Sneak Attack + Gandalf for extra card draw, but it's probably better to use him for threat reduction.

It's a minor thing, but remember that Gwaihir's ability works with Sneak Attack (you don't have to play him from hand to trigger it), so sometimes it can be life-saving to get two allies on the table in one move. They can also be used to fuel A Very Good Tale, but of course you need an eagle ally on your discard pile in the first place.

I still can't decide how the proportions between Grimbold / Feint / Hour of Wrath should look like. Hour of Wrath can be absolutely crazy with Éowyn's ability or with Support of the Eagles, but Feint is really easy to use effectively (especially since you get that much needed resource to play it from Mablung's response) and Grimbold contributes to your willpower. Experiment and pick the combination that works best for you.

And yes, I purposefully did not include Steward of Gondor ;). Let your friend use this card in his deck.