Date Night 4: Aragorn and Arwen 1.0

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• 1.0

Time for the most obvious pair in my Date Night decks, Aragorn and Arwen!

Selection of Aragorn: With five Aragorn's to choose from, this was a decision I played around with for a bit before landing on Aragorn. The main reason for this is that I want to run these couple decks in MP games, and his ability to grab enemies from across the board is extremely useful when running next to a deck that is weak at combat. (Also, the art of Tactics Aragorn is the best art of Aragorn in the game, IMO)

Mulligan and Early Game: This deck is a well balanced deck. It can overcome questing easily enough as they quest together for 7 with no attachments, and if you can mulligan into Strider, they quest for 9 with a ready Aragorn. I tend to mulligan for either Estel or Strider. You do end up hurting Arwen to ready Aragorn through the contract if combat comes up fast in the first few rounds, but usually fairly easy to handle especially since Aragorn essentially starts with a 5 attack.

Resource Generation: At the End of All Things prevents resource generation through attachments, but this deck has two great work arounds. First up is Proud Hunters. This card is fantastic, particularly since Aragorn can steal enemies form around the table to maximize the money coming in. Secondly, Arwen Undómiel can discard a card to add a resource to Aragorn as well.

Card Draw: Once Estel is in play, card draw is not an issue, particularly if you have Estel and a Silver Harp down so you have a net gain in what you are drawing each turn.

Fun Rounds: This deck has a handful of events specifically designed to let this deck have a very good time during combat. With the resource generation in this deck, you usually can safely be sitting on a stash of resources, and they can be used in conjunction with Fair and Perilous, Hour of Wrath and Tale of Tinúviel to give Aragorn the boost he needs to bring down a big terrifying boss, or to clear the board entirely of all enemies in play. For 5 resources (sounds high, but this deck can get there very quickly, and will definitely be there round 4) This deck can have Aragorn attack every enemy in play (provided he kills them) for 8 with -1 to their armor asuming you have nothing else boosting his stats.

The Flip: Round four hits, you flip the contract, give both heroes lots of resources and grab any two cards from your deck. This deck is a case where there are lots of directions you could take with this choice depending on what you have and have not found so far, and based on how the quest is going. Most cards in this deck are fairly inexpensive, so usually the money from round four can last a long time and serve as the backbone of the Blood of Numenor or Fire of Gondor. Here are some turn four combos I have used to completely save a quest:

Strider, Light of Valinor, Silver Circlet if I'm low on questing.

Double Back or Thorongil if i'm high on threat.

Athelas, The Renewer, Lembas if I'm running high on damage.

Silver Harps, Estel if i'm struggling with cards in my hand.

Anduril, Unexpected Courage If I need readies for Aragorn.

Blood of Numenor and Gondorian Fire if I need a big hitter/defender in Aragorn.

Hour of Wrath and Tale of Tinuviel if you need to kill every enemy in play._

Pairs Well With: This deck really does cover all of the bases pretty well, and It is fairly solidly the most potent of the Date Night decks, so it pairs well with pretty much any of them. It probably runs the smoothest with decks that are a bit weaker in a specific direction such as the Rowen/Osbera deck or the Galadriel/Celeborn deck. It also works well with decks that don't require Strider, so Tom/Goldberry couple well with it as does Eomer/Lothiriel.