Deck Tech: Ride to Ruin 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 32 of Deck Tech! Last week I shared an Imrahil and Gandalf deck designed to ignore the randomness inherent in the top 5 cards of the deck.

This week, I was planning on getting a jump start on The Sands of Harad, but since the cards aren't on ringsdb we're going to fall back to a bit of an older deck archetype I never got around to covering. So we're doing an Elfhelm mount swarm!

And I'm a bit inspired to try and make an old event work. The progression series just panned it in a card review, which is enough reason for me to put it in this deck. Plus I get to test my Westfold Horse-whifferer luck! (Spoiler alert: it's not great luck.)

We're going to give Eowyn and Elfhelm stat boosts in a very Rohan themed way, and we've got awesome attachments to ready them up and make good use of these stats.

Quest 1: Journey Along the Anduin

More or less the highest threat start you can get in this quest, The Brown Lands and the Hill Troll, is 100% negated by having a Snowbourn Scout in my opening hand.

I've also got Heir of Mardil to play on Elfhelm right away for a bit more willpower and readying.

In the following round, I completely fail to find a mount with the Westfold Horse-breeder. And I use Sneak Attack with Gandalf to draw me cards and fight a Misty Mountain Goblins.

Those cards include a Song of Travel and an Armored Destrier for Elfhelm, and we're off to the races. At this point he can quest for 3, ready with Theodred's resource, and then defend twice for 3.

I draw a Snowmane in the following round, and the team no longer really has to exhaust to quest. Wargs almost destroys Elfhelm in one shot, thanks to a shadow that removes his defense. But I sneak in another Gandalf to lower my threat (so we don't have to fight the troll next round), and kill the Wargs before their bounciness can annoy me.

With a few extra rounds, I use Elven-light to dig for Herugrim and some healing. I get both, and save up for Gandalf in the round we want to engage the troll. Six attack Eowyn is a huge help here, as is the Warden of Helm's Deep I sacrifice to the troll.

After this, there's basically nothing that's going to stop us. I do use Ride to Ruin during the quest phase that would push me to stage 3 to clear Gladden Fields and get the victory points for it. And the ambush is Necromancer's Reach and a Dol Guldur Orcs. Fortunately, that doesn't kill any of my heroes, though it does remove all the allies.

So I spend as many resources as I can healing my heroes up, defend the Orcs with Elfhelm, and let Eowyn slice it into little pieces.

Final Score: 108. 8 full rounds, 33 threat, 2 damage on heroes, 7 vp.

Quest 2: The Steward's Fear

This one's here for anyone who thinks I somehow always win. :) And it's an unfortunate example of what happens when your combo deck doesn't draw its combo pieces.

My start is pretty great, actually. Armored Destrier for Elfhelm and Snowmane for Eowyn means we're off to a good start. And I have an Elven-light to filter through my deck a bit.

I clear two Underworld locations in the first two rounds, revealing both clues and one enemy I need to fight. Elfhelm tanks them really well, but I don't have much offense yet.

By round four, I've got three enemies engaged with me, and I need to bomb one of them with Gandalf (the hard way) to get out from under this problem. Which does work, and Eowyn's 1 attack is actually contributing by helping slowly whittle enemies down.

But a shadow card forces me to discard a pretty big hand, including all my Ride to Ruins. I can rebuild some with Elven-light, but it's costly. I do find a Herugrim right after that, though.

And our Plot is Up In Flames, which burns off the top of our deck every round.

I can pop the clues I have to move into stage three early, which I do. But Local Trouble makes my threat way higher than I want. And Daughter of Beruthiel, though she's easy to kill, really doesn't help.

Up In Flames also burned every remaining Leadership card in the deck, plus my Songs of Travel and Gandalf.

So I made it about halfway through the final stage before threating out. Up In Flames would have burned my deck to the ground that round, too. Another Gandalf would have clinched it for me. Or a Song of Travel when my hand was entirely full of spirit cards. Oh well, sometimes that's what you get.

Play Tips:

1. The ideal setup for this deck is: Heir of Mardil, Song of Travel, and two Armored Destrier on Elfhelm. Herugrim and Snowmane on Eowyn. Quest with all three heroes, giving Elfhelm the resource. Then both Eowyn and Elfhelm should be ready for combat.
2. Steed of Imladris is there for if you can get a Song of Travel on Theodred, so you can cycle more Elven-light and have a bit more willpower.
3. Treebeard and Warden of Helm's Deep are there to defend against things that Elfhelm really can't. But you can also just toss your cheap Rohan allies to that.
4. Ride to Ruin and Snowbourn Scout can really clear out locations fast. Same with the Westfold Horse-breeder.
5. Gamling and Háma are meant to be a late game setup, once you've got the key attachments in play. At that point, you can just replay Hama instead of endlessly cycling Elven-light.

Next week: We're off to the desert, I hope! Going to start with a Starter Deck, and then follow that up with a souped up version of the same thing. (I promise Theodred isn't going to be in either of them.)

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