Maxine Newman's Cirion’s Promise 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck shares many of the same sensibilities as the “Bulwark of the West” deck; only it has been revisited and makes good use of many of the cards from the Against the Shadow cycle. I’ve also included many cards meant to be paired with the Rohan deck, creating a powerful team.

Aragorn has been swapped for Prince Imrahil to better take advantage of characters leaving play, which is something that will surely be happening quite often, especially with our Rohan partner occasionally discarding allies to use special abilities. This way, anytime a character leaves play, both Imrahil and Éomer can benefit. As a result, I’ve also swapped out Aragorn’s personal attachments, Celebrían's Stone and Sword that was Broken, in favor of some more Gondor -focused attachments, such as Visionary Leadership and Gondorian Fire.

Pelargir Ship Captain and Squire of the Citadel are added to the deck’s robust roster of Gondor allies, providing some useful resource moving and generating effects. Squire of the Citadel in particular is a useful card for some of the deck’s more advanced combos and tricks. As for events, we’ve added For Gondor! and Gondorian Discipline for more Gondor synergy, and Rear Guard, which can help tremendously in questing. Finally, Mutual Accord provides the linchpin for the entire alliance.

Playing the Deck

While a bit more straightforward than its Rohan counterpart, this “Cirion’s Promise” Gondor deck is truly the enabler of the two decks. Like the “Bulwark of the West” version of this deck, it excels at defense and can support other players by moving resources around the table, providing resources wherever they are needed most. With Gondorian Fire, a stockpile of resources on Imrahil or Boromir is extremely useful, rather than a waste. Gondorian Shield and Spear of the Citadel can be passed around the deck’s heroes as needed, and since all three heroes have great combat abilities, with enough time they can form a veritable wall of defense and attack power, while Rohan handles much of the questing.

Squire of the Citadel is a great card in and of itself, but combined with Rear Guard and Valiant Sacrifice, can provide a great willpower boost and card draw, as well as serving to ready Imrahil and increase Éomer’s attack. Gondorian Discipline can save almost any character’s life in a pinch, or if you like to take risks, you can take an attack undefended and negate some of the resulting damage. Overall, this deck can handle enemies very well, and with enough time to muster its forces, can go toe-to-toe with the encounter deck during the quest phase.

Light the Beacons!

Pairing this deck with a dedicated Rohan deck is like pairing peanut butter with jelly. Many of the Rohan player’s attachments can be played on the Gondor player’s heroes, along with Nor am I a Stranger, making Imrahil and Boromir powerful forces with which to be reckoned. The mere existence of the Gondor deck gives Guthlaf a useful boost, and both players have abilities that discard allies to good effect, along with heroes that benefit from allies leaving play. If the Rohan deck is struggling with resources, the Horn of Gondor can give a lot of resource acceleration.

What really ties the entire strategy together is Mutual Accord. By coordinating with your teammate, you can make extraordinary use of this card. Here are just a few:

When the Rohan player plays Astonishing Speed or We Do Not Sleep, every character on the table can reap the benefits of incredible speed and questing power. When the Gondor player plays For Gondor!, it will increase the attack power and defense power of all characters. If drawn early enough, the Rohan player can play Forth Eorlingas! and allow every hero to attack enemies in the staging area, instead of just his. Visionary Leadership and Boromir’s ability will both apply to all Rohan allies anytime Mutual Accord is played. There are many more advanced tricks these two decks can pull, and finding them at just the right moment can be incredibly satisfying. In fact, Mutual Accord is so important that you may even consider including a Tome of Atanatar just to retrieve it.

-Maxine Newman, Developer. Posted to the FFG Website 3/20/14