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redandgray 124
Steps for driving this deck:
- Play Birna
- Discard your deck
- Bears!
This is hardly the first deck to capitalize on the synergy between mining and Beornings introduced by ALeP, but it's the first one I've seen that uses the Faramir + Mablung combo to get you bonus activations from Birna. You could use her 2 WP during the quest phase, use her for AVGT (or even use her to fetch a burly ally like Beorn for an even gooder tale), or (with Tireless Hunters) trigger her twice in one phase, getting up to three uses from a single Skin-changer during combat.
All those Birna activations require lots of Beornings in the discard pile, though - hence the mining effects. You may find yourself discarding seemingly useful non-Beorning cards along the way, but don't be discouraged: the point of this deck is bears. Everything else is immaterial.
With a handful of 2-WP allies, it's not totally helpless in solo, but probably better in multiplayer where other people can do the heavy lifting during questing.
Getting started
The ideal starting hand has Skin-changer and some sort of discard effects (like AVGT, Well-Equipped, etc.) to get your early board state established. If you see Birna in your starting hand, all the better, but you'll want to make sure she has something to target in the discard pile. There's no real defender here, so the goal is to get Giant Bear or Beorn into play fairly early.
Given the cost curve, you may not play much of anything during the first round. That can be frustrating to your friends in MP and devastating for certain quests in solo, so be warned.
Possible variations
- Swap Tactics Aragorn for Thorin - This is the obvious one, as the popular Faramir/Mablung/Scorpagorn combo can get you 2 Birna activations almost every turn in multiplayer. I prefer Thorin for his ability to seed the discard pile, though - this deck can quickly stall out if you empty your discard pile to Birna's effect too early.
- Swap Hama for Thorin - If you find yourself using other tactics events in this deck, Hama can be useful for fetching them when they're inevitably discarded, but you still run the same risk of not seeding the discard pile enough.
- Spirit access - Dain's the obvious candidate here, both for quicker mining and in-sphere access to things like Reforged, Stand and Fight, and Dwarf Pipe. In practice, though, I found that those spirit cards diluted the deck too much and I was left with a bunch of unused resources. You could probably build an awesome version of this deck with Dain, but it'd basically be a different deck at that point.
| 14 comments |
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Jul 18, 2024 |
Jul 18, 2024what about Stand and Fight to get Beorning Skin-changer back. together with either Narvi's Belt or Song of Travel |
Jul 18, 2024
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Jul 19, 2024you mentioned to change a hero to spirit, my suggestion is, keep the heros and add a few cards. you are right, there is to few carddraw, but thats is an overallproblem. the mentioned King Under the Mountain is a very god solution (it supports mining too) and, with the king, i can imagine add Stand and Fight + Song of Travel could work. so, my trial would be: out:
put in:
perhaps think about Proud Hunters if you need early defense use Gondorian Shield it increase def of both gondorheroes by 2 and is cheap. |
Jul 19, 2024It feels like you're missing the point of this deck a bit, which is to consistently get as much as possible into discard. The lack of card draw isn't a problem, it's the whole point: this deck plays its most effective cards (the Beorning allies) almost entirely from discard. Will of the West would completely destroy the deck's effectiveness, and frankly even Nori isn't all that useful - I'm half-inclined to just swap him out for a generic 2-cost ally like Pippin for extra WP. And dropping Longbeard Sentry, as mediocre as that card might normally be, would mean fewer discard effects, which gives Birna fewer targets. The Sentry is also an exceptionally good defender if you get Relic of Nargothrond and/or Hauberk of Mail on him, so he's a solid target for those copies of Well-Equipped. I'd invite you to try this deck out - you might be surprised by how well it works without all of the normal mining tools at your disposal. |
Jul 19, 2024This is a really great deck idea! Awesome. Can't wait to see it at the Con! |
Jul 19, 2024Birna can put out of the discard, i overlooked that, then u are totally right u need no spirit. but perhaps more readying for her could be helpfull. what about the good old Ever Vigilant ? |
Jul 19, 2024Good call, could be fun to get some use out of an old school core set card like that. |
Jul 19, 2024Thanks And Ever Vigilant’s a fun idea! Would be satisfying to get some use out of an old-school card like that. |
Jul 19, 2024What about replacing Steed of the North with Rohan Warhorse? To give to Thorin so he can ping more and discard more. |
Jul 19, 2024I give this deck two paws, way up! |
Jul 19, 2024
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Sep 17, 2024Just in case anyone stumbles across this down the road: this deck might be one of the only situations where Rallying Cry is actually worth considering. Extra leadership resources and the ability to keep Skin-changer from getting shuffled into your deck would be really useful here. |
Sep 17, 2024I really like your deck as it is. I would not change anything, great and fun idea ! |
Don't want to republish for a single card change, but after looking at a similar deck by @alinktothezack I'm thinking a copy or two of King Under the Mountain might be good here. I'd probably swap it for Well-Equipped or Steed of the North.