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Some Sort 3789
The Greenwood was long a peaceful place until the shadow fell over it and earned it a new name-- Mirkwood. Giant spiders, bats, and orcs gained a foothold, pushing the elves north from their ancestral home.
The forest of Ithilien was never quite as peaceful; the kingdom of Gondor had to defend against assaults from the Wainriders and Haradrim of the East, but they set up many outposts and held firm until the shadow descended on Mordor and added its Uruk-Hai to the efforts. Now the forest has largely been abandoned except for the last outpost of Gondor, Henneth Annûn.
Both the Elves and Men have erected a final bulwark against Sauron's encroachment, brave soldiers with a single goal. No matter how strong the shadow may become, they will not cede another foot. Come what may, the forest must not fall.
Vigilant Dúnadan is a super fun card. Once a sidequest is in the victory display, it no longer exhausts to defend-- much like Beorn except you can boost his defense and heal him.
Such an effect has the potential to be truly game-breaking, but the developers designed the Dunadan very intentionally to try to limit the impact; his sphere, type, and traits lock him out of most of the easy defensive boosts (such as Raiment of War, Ancestral Armor, Armor of Erebor, Dúnedain Warning, Hauberk of Mail, etc).
You can give him a few boosts (such as Arwen Undómiel-- who also gives him much-needed Sentinel-- and Keep Watch-- which also turns on his ability), giving him the equivalent of 3-5 points of defense; enough to handle all small-to-mid-sized attacks for the table. That's really powerful and cool.
Or you can use him to break the game, anyway. Narya; extra exhausts out of Arwen (say with two Spare Hoods and Cloaks); and Elf-friend / Cloak of Lórien can get all get another point of defense, bringing him to 6 (functionally 7 with Keep Watch). Horn's Cry can further increase the attack malus on engaged enemies.
Finally, there's the nuclear option-- with Galadriel or Círdan the Shipwright (who can conveniently hold Narya, too), you can use Tale of Tinúviel for a massive +4 defense boost for the round... and all of those cards are in the sphere with the easiest recursion in the game (Dwarven Tomb, Map of Earnil, Galadhrim Weaver, and Mirror of Galadriel to dig it back out of your deck again).
I love all versions of Vigilant Dunadan, broken or otherwise. But I've played it a lot, so I wanted to try something similar but different.
Greenwood Defender has the same ability as the Vigilant Dunadan (defending without exhausting), but he's in many ways easier to turn on-- you don't need to complete a side quest, he just needs to enter play that round, a fairly small ask for a Silvan.
But he's even harder to buff than the Dunadan; he has better traits, but you can't play attachments on him with all the bouncing he does. (Well, you could use Bard son of Brand, I suppose, but it gets fairly expensive to replay all of your attachments every round and that doesn't help if you sneak the Defender in during the combat phase.)
Because he's harder to break, most Silvan decks use him like the casual Dunadan-- bounce him in, let Celeborn boost his defense to 3, then let him handle all the small-to-medium attacks for you. And just like the Vigilant Dunadan, he's a really powerful card in that role!
But I'm not one to let a perfectly good card go unbroken like this, so let's break the game. To do so, we'll use two of the most game-breaking cards available; The Last Alliance and Host of Galadhrim. And then we add the secret sauce, a card that gets far too little love: Henneth Annûn Guard.
Trigger Last Alliance, have it target Host of the Galadhrim to bounce both Silvans and Gondorians, drop your Greenwood Defender into play so he doesn't exhaust to defend this round, then play and trigger all three Henneth Annun Guards to turn him into a 0/0/8/3 with sentinel. (1/1/9/3 if Celeborn is somewhere at the table.)
That should be enough to handle all defenses. If something happens to our Defender, Orophin can rescue him from the discard and Denethor and Thranduil can fill in until he's back. (The heroes are also great while getting set up, especially with a Henneth Annun Guard backing them up.)
You might think the presence of Steward of Gondor (thematic as it may be) means this deck is fairly greedy, but it's actually quite the opposite-- this deck is designed for multiplayer first and foremost, and Gondor is happy to send huge troves of wealth to its allies to support their own war efforts.
You see, when you trigger that dual-faction Host you also pick up all three Squires of the Citadel (who give a resource when they leave play) and Envoys of Pelargir (who give one when they enter). Those resources can go to any other Gondor or Noble heroes that happen to be at the table-- potentially six extra resources per round for the fellowship, enough for every deck in a four-player game to feel like they're running their own Steward.
If a partner deck lacks convenient Gondor or Noble target for this wealth, Gondor has an extensive logistics network and those resources can be shipped by sea (via the Pelargir Ship Captain) and over land (with the Errand-rider) to any hero in need. The Errand-rider can actually move two resources per round if it exhaust to move one before the Host is played. If needed, more captains and riders can be added.
Galadriel's Handmaiden helps offset the doomed from the Henneth Annun Guards, and if it's a problem, you can always play a Silvan-only Host before dropping your dual-faction Host. (You always want to make sure you drop the dual-faction Host last, though, or else the defensive boosts get wiped out.) And there are several other Silvan standards-- the Galadhrim Weaver and Galadhrim Minstrel to recur your Hosts, Galadhrim Healer to heal off damage, and Rúmil to add some direct damage-- with all allies in play, he pings for four whenever he enters.
There's a couple other tricks worth mentioning. For instance, you can trigger Henamarth Riversong before playing your Host. If you like what you see, you can keep it; if you don't, exhaust Denethor to get rid of it. Then when you play your Host, Henamarth will come back ready and the Greenwood Archer will ready Denethor. (If you do a Silvans-only host first, you can even do this twice.)
Before you have the pieces in place to start spamming Host every round there are a lot of other targets for the contract. O Lórien! can discount a Gondor ally, Ingold can trigger his draw off of a Silvan ally, Morwen Steelsheen can heal or reduce your threat after a Silvan bounces. (She's otherwise unfortunately a nonbo with the Host since it picks her up before she can respond.) Soldier of Gondor can fetch some Silvans, and both Orophin and Knight of Belfalas can rescue lost allies from the other faction.
Using the contract on Thranduil lets you play a Gondorian ally during combat without a sphere match, which is one of three ways to get those Henneth Annun Guards into play. The second way is playing Sneak Attack immediately before the Host, which wipes off the "return to hand" effect and lets them stick around permanently. With two Weavers and two Minstrels, you can recur both a Sneak Attack and a Host every round once you're set up and rolling.
The last way is probably the strongest use of the contract (outside of Host): The Tree People. The contract lets you pick up an ally from either faction and fetch an ally from either faction, making it much more consistent.
Finally, my favorite sneaky play is triggering the contract on The Elvenking so I can play it on Denethor. This lets me use his ability extra times per round until I find an encounter card I'm content to keep.
| 9 comments |
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Jul 25, 2024 |
Jul 25, 2024you tinker it out quite well and it is the 1. time i see a sense in the Henneth Annûn Guard but for real gameplay i think it is not worth it:
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Jul 26, 2024This is what I am here for. A massive defender for the entire table frees up all their characters/resources to ignore enemy management and focus on questing/killing/winning. All that resource gain is inspired. This is going in my cube of played decks for sure. |
Jul 26, 2024
Also, you can get all three Henneth Annun Guards out in a single round once you're set up. Sneak Attack, Silvan-only Host of the Galadhrim, have two weavers recur a Sneak and a Host, have two minstrels fetch them both back, repeat a second time, then sneak attack your last guard, trigger the contract, and end on a Last Alliance dual-faction host to make all three guards "permanent" (and turbo-boost a Greenwood Defender while you're at it). When playtesting, that was my usual approach unless I particularly needed an early Guard to boost defense on Denethor or Thranduil so they could handle a bigger enemy. In those cases, the ability to drop him in during the combat phase was huge since I had a lot more information on whether the extra defense was useful or not. (Chumping is always a strong defensive option too, though, since Orophin and the Knight of Belfalas will eventually pull that chump back for you. And between O Lorien and the contract, you can usually get a chump into play for free.) a Triple Sneak Attack / Triple Host planning phase might seem pricy (15 total resources, though "only" 9 net if you end on a Gondor/Silvan host), but if you're saving the Envoy/Squire resources for yourself rather than passing them across the table it's fairly trivial to set up a round where you're playing 3+ Hosts-- if you play nothing but a dual-faction Host in a given round and keep the extra resources for yourself, you gain 7 net resources that round which you can save up for a single massive host-spam turn. Heck, without any extra effort at all you can play 2 Hosts per round indefinitely and still have three extra resources that round to play with or pass. I'd recommend playing the deck like a traditional Silvan/Gondor swarm for the first few rounds or so with an eye toward switching over to your Hosts by round 4 or 5. Again, in a 3- or 4-player game (which is what this is designed for) and with all the other Last Alliance tricks you have going for you, that's no problem at all. Hell, even in true solo Henamarth + Lore Denethor + Elvenking and Greenwood Archer for extra uses is more than enough to carry your early game. |
Jul 26, 2024playing black gate unlimited defense do make sense, specially in multiplayer, but i think the efford this way is to much. you need all the allies AND a Host of Galadhrim to make it 1 round (and a Host of Galadhrim for every round after) if it stands, nice, but it can be achieved much more easier. just play Hour of Wrath on Beregond + shield or if really needed + Inner Strength and Hauberk of Mail and if thats not enough Arwen Undómiel can help to raise over the top. and that even is much more easier to recycle (Book of Eldacar or Háma or Council of the Wise or few more things) combine with a hobbit and some Good Meal make it more easy to play. so, IF you need unlimited sentineldefenses for 6+ then i would make it faster safer and easier to achieve. btw i do not understand what you mean with: "Also, you can get all three Henneth Annun Guards out in a single round once you're set up. Sneak Attack, Silvan-only Host of the Galadhrim, have two weavers recur a Sneak and a Host, have two minstrels fetch them both back, repeat a second time, then sneak attack your last guard, trigger the contract, and end on a Last Alliance dual-faction host to make all three guards "permanent" (and turbo-boost a Greenwood Defender while you're at it)." seems to me it is not legal or i do not understand it at all. |
Jul 26, 2024Sure, you could do a Beregond / Hour of Wrath deck. Or you could do a Vigilant Dunadan / Tale of Tinuviel deck. You could do a Tower of Erkenbrand deck. You could do a Hammer Stroke / Thicket of Spears deck. You could do a Hobbit-Sense / Out of Sight deck. You could do an Advance Warning / Arrows from the Trees deck. There’s lots of things you can do. Pretty sure no one claimed this was the only way to handle lots of defenses. Why would you run this deck instead of those ones? Because you want to. I’ve played all of those other ones. They were fun. I hadn’t played this one before. I have now, and it was also fun. I think you overestimate how long it takes to get set up, and overlook all of the other stuff it does in the meantime— lots of the same Silvan Swarm / Gondor Swarm / Host Abuse stuff that makes those decks so fun. A Beregond / Hour of Wrath deck doesn’t pass its allies 6 extra resources every round. This one does. A Hama / Thicket deck can’t also deal 20 points of direct damage in a single round. This one can. What don’t you understand about the Sneak Attack play? If you Sneak in an ally, it creates a lasting effect that will return it to hand at the end of the phase. If you pick that ally up with Host and replay it, it wipes the lasting effect away so the ally remains in play at the end of the phase. Use sneak attack to get your guards into play, use a regular Silvan-only Host to recur the Sneak Attacks, then finish with a Last Alliance Silvan/Gondor Host to bounce your Henneth Annun Guards back and wipe away the lasting effect so they stay in play. It’s the same play you’re trying to make in this deck, just with Sneak Attack instead of Muster of the Rohirrim. |
Jul 26, 2024Also, nothing is easier to recycle than Host. Host is the only card that recycles itself. Let’s say the last card I played was a Host, so it’s sitting on top of my discard. I play a new Host. I pick up all of my Silvans. I play down a Galadhrim Weaver and shuffle that last Host back into my deck. I play down a Galadhrim Minstrel and grab an event from the first five cards of my deck. If my deck was empty to start, the only event in the top five cards was… the last Host of the Galadhrim. Even if my deck wasn’t empty to start, with three Minstrels I get three chances to find it in my Top 5 cards. If there are 20 cards left in my deck and all of my Hosts have already been drawn (something of a worst-case scenario), there’s still a 60% chance I find it immediately. Now I play that new Host. Suddenly the first Host I played this round goes into my deck and I get to search for it with my Minstrels. I can repeat this as many times as I have resources— very easily three, four, five times per round. With three Weavers and three Minstrels, I can recur two other events while I’m at it. It’s way, way easier to recur Host of the Galadhrim than it is to recur Hour of Wrath. (I know I don’t have three Minstrels in this deck— with the amount of draw I have, I don’t need them for Host to be self-recurring.) |
Jul 26, 2024"If you pick that ally up with Host and replay it, it wipes the lasting effect away so the ally remains in play at the end of the phase." no it does not. ally goes no matter if you played him meanwhile again with host. only way to make a sneaked in ally permanent is with Sword-thain |
Jul 27, 2024I dont know how to find the actual ruling itself but I found a quote referring to it with a google search about Sneak Attack and Host of the Galadhrim "To continue discussion on this ruling, wherein Caleb ruled that an ally Sneak Attack'ed in, then recalled and replayed via Host of Galadhrim, is still subject to the return to hand clause of Sneak Attack…" You are free to ignore this of course for purposes of fun. |
The Squire and Envoy money-back-guarantee when Host is played is inspired. Love that! Also great to be seeing Henneth Annûn Guard getting some use. Lots of fun stuff here. I'll have to give this a try sometime.