This deck is part of Mormegil’s Deckbox, an effort to create an extensive catalogue of decks for the different archetypes, themes and playing styles available to players. Click here to check out the whole project.
Preferred Player Count: 1, (2-4)
Rating: .5
Premise
This is my preferred solo deck for the Beorning trait. It utilizes their chieftain Grimbeorn the Old for his amazing combat abilities, setting him up with The One Ring (and usually Inner Strength from the get go, even if I also like Strength and Courage from time to time depending on the quest) and and a few other attachments to make him a a defensive and offensive powerhouse both at the same time.
Additionally, you gain further power in the combat phase by running Beorning Skin-changer together with allies like Giant Bear or Beorn himself. You can even recycle the Skin-changer with Stand and Fight, further fueling your cuddly army. The big weakness of Beornings is of course their non-existent questing power, which means that the other heroes (Arwen Undómiel and Halfast Gamgee as a Messenger of the King) are there to contribute in that regard. You also run some useful questing allies (chief among them Ethir Swordsman) to ensure that you do not fall behind on threat, something that is probably the biggest issue for this deck.
How To Play
There is no specific card to mulligan for here, options I always like to see however are Steward of Gondor, Ethir Swordsman, Steward of Orthanc or the tools to set up A Very Good Tale. Seeing the Skin-changers and some of your bomb allies is usually not as crucial early on, since Grimbeorn can deal with most thing coming your way and since you have a very low starting threat of 25. Later on, they are pretty awesome of course, but I usually prefer building up my willpower base before building up the true combat potential of the deck.
Considerations
Galadriel's Handmaiden is a great include if you struggle with willpower, which can happen especially in location-heavy quests. Hauberk of Mail is a straight replacement for the One Ring and the corresponding attachments if you cannot play it (or do not want to play it, which I also hear often). Dwarven Tomb is a very nice tool card to recycle whatever you need, I most like to use it on Stand and Fight.
Enjoy!!!
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