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: 2-4
Rating: .5
Premise
This is a deck built around the recursion of Háma in combination with the very expensive (but very powerful) event Charge into Battle. Being able to play it here will lead to a very satisfactory scenario in which you often kill 2+ enemies post-staging but pre quest-resolution, therefore significantly contributing not only in a combat sense but also helping with questing quite a bit (even before you flip your contract). If things go right, this is really a busted 5/5 deck, I just bumped it down to 4.5 since you can miss out on the needed pieces (especially the first few rounds).
Apart from events, the deck is otherwise mostly filled with Weapons to boost you attack, readying to maximize the amount of enemies you can kill and draw/resources to make the whole thing as sustainable as possible. In general, give the readying to Merry who can use his ability in turn to ready Háma (whose attack you should boost, starting with The One Ring and Strength and Courage).
How To Play
The gameplan here is to look for Charge into Battle plus some resource acceleration early on (such as Steward of Gondor, Legacy of Númenor or Good Meal). I almost never mulligan away a hand with Charge into Battle. Steward makes Charge into Battle even affordable round 1 by itself (with the resource moving of Denethor. Having those will most often lead to a very comfortable first few rounds for the whole table. If you miss out on either Charge into Battle or the resources to play it, you can still contribute quite a bit however, using Háma's ability for other events (such as Feint, Foe-hammer or The Wizards's Voice). You can thereby stall a bit, still contributing majorly in regards to combat until you then see all your pieces.
Considerations
Blade of Gondolin and Bilbo's Plan are both very useful here if you want to further contribute in regards to questing. Gondorian Shield is good if you have for instance unique enemies that still need to be defended, in which case it turns Denethor into quite the powerhouse. Quick Strike and Swift and Strong are both good, however just missed the cut.
Enjoy!!!