Fear No Darkness! 1.0

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• 1.0

'To me! To me!', cried Théoden. 'Up Eorlingas! Fear no darkness!' But Snowmane wild with terror stood up on high, flighting with the air
-The Return of the King

Continuing in my series of thematic two-hero decks, this symbolizes the dramatic moment during the Battle of Pelennor Fields when Éowyn defends her king, Théoden, against the onslaught of the Witch-king. The ally choices here are constrained by theme, so Háma is not present because he fell at the Battle of the Hornburg. Théoden's cost reduction makes it easier to muster our allies, but it is still critical to get Resourceful attached to him while we are in Secrecy. Fortunately, Éowyn's low starting threat gives us a few turns to find it.

Strider is incredibly powerful in this deck. Not only does it free up Théoden to participate in combat, but the bonus willpower works perfectly with Herugrim. At first, Snowmane might seem unnecessary, given the ability granted by Strider. However, Battle-fury will exhaust Théoden as part of its cost. After spending a Spirit resource on the kicker (to commit him to the quest), we can then ready him after questing successfully. We always want to have Théoden ready to participate in combat.

As far as attachment strategy, each hero gets their own Mount and Théoden gets his sword. The other restricted slot for Théoden depends on what you draw. An early game Foe-hammer might necessitate attaching Dagger of Westernesse to Théoden, since unfortunately Herugrim requires being exhausted to provide a bonus. Alternatively, Golden Shield shield can be attached to Théoden to allow him to defend.

Unexpected Courage and Rohan Warhorse are for Éowyn, to allow here to maximize the enemies killed when you use her once-per-game ability. Forth Eorlingas! and Charge of the Rohirrim are included, not only for theme, but to allow for a huge late-game turn. If we are fortunate enough to get at least one copy of Resourceful attached, we can muster a steady stream of allies to help defend our king. It's not a problem if we end up with more than five characters in play and Strider loses the +2 willpower bonus. By the time we have an army, we should not need the questing help. With so many Rohan allies that we can discard for effect (and Gamling to return them to our hand), we can easily limit ourselves to five characters if we want to keep the Strider bonus.

These two-hero decks built around Strider have been a welcome departure from my typical deck-building style. It's a nice bonus that I was able to make this particular deck so thematic.