Barliman the Wise 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck originated in a playthrough of the Angmar Awakened and Lost Realm campaign. I ran through the first three quests with my Nob Steals the Arkenstone Bree deck, and wanted to switch up the lineup for the remaining 6 quests (as granted by the campaign card for Wastes of Eriador). I thought it would be a lot of fun to play with Neutragorn and it also seemed a good and thematic opportunity to dust off Spirfindel. I wanted to keep Barliman Butterbur since he had earned the Resolute boon.

With this lineup, I imagined that, against all sound counsel (or perhaps in a fit of irony), Aragorn had decided to recruit the good barkeeper into the active defense of the realm. Hence was promoted Barliman to the Council of the Wise!

Notes on Game Play

It took a while to figure out how the contract would function with this hero lineup, and I settled on using it to accelerate getting Aragorn's many toys and titles on the table as quickly as possible. He starts with Elessar for access, which also provides the defensive backbone for the deck once you have Grey Companion on the table (or at least Thalion, White Tower Watchman, or Ranger of Cardolan). Barliman helps you with defense in the early game while helping with card draw, and is still useful mid-to-late game once you've got healing online.

After that, it depends on what you draw. Generally you're looking to get any of your key attachments into play as quickly as possible: Light of Valinor, Estel, The Renewer, Andúril, and Bree Pony. You also want to grab one of the aforementioned defensive allies, plus Arwen Undómiel.

Use the contract primarily to draw and generate resources, depending on priority. Late game, the recurring combination of Elven-light+Estel, Salvaged Supplies, and Rumour from the Earth will let you trigger every ability on the contract every round.

There are various combos to discover in the deck. Roving Herbmaster works nicely with the contract, for instance, and Bob let's you grab Roheryn or Bree Pony while giving an extra card for Drinking Song. One of my favorites is to quest with Arwen Undómiel, use The Renewer to ready her, then exhaust her again to return Salvaged Supplies to hand -- netting +2 in the process.

Overall, this is not a super-powered deck, but it is a lot of fun to play!

Notes on the Sideboard

Apart from the heroes to use with Thorongil (usually Loragorn) and a few attachment options to grab with Without My Hat (usually Rivendell Blade), the list includes various cards I tried in earlier iterations of the deck. Some of these may be useful still depending on the quest.