Bears, Beets, Battle of Helm's Deep! (Post-Con Updates 2024) 4.0

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• 4.0
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• 1.0

I made some final updates to this deck for multiplayer at Con of the Rings 2024, and after crushing several nightmare quests and getting all finishing the hobbits saga with all 13 boons, have decided to retire this deck. It is a little too good to still be a challenge. If you want a deck to handle extremely hard quests, however, I would recommend it.

Update:

I removed the Beorn's Welcome as you really don't need more resources (and don't really need the Grimbeorn the Old punch back. I also removed the Riddermark Knight for Westfold Outrider to help out team members. Feel free to keep on in for solo or use Westfold Horse-breaker. Hasty Stroke also removes any fear when blocking with Grimbeorn the Old.

Overview:

This deck is designed to abuse Thengel to flip your cheap Beorning and Rohan into Giant Bears and other warriors. The Last Alliance lets you use your Rohan recursion card, like Gamling and Squire of the Mark, on your Beorning allies. This also applies to the Rohan sacrifice cards.

Beorning Skin-changer is probably the best card in this deck. You can use it to get two allies for the price of one with Thengel and can be used to sneak expensive Rohan allies in with The Last Alliance. I would hold off sacrificing him until after you have some recursion available.

Need Brooks No Delay is good enough to risk a few misses from Thengel (Thank you NERD for the suggestion), as it pulls Birna, Gamling, and Beorning Skin-changer for 1 resource when you use The Last Alliance. I would select Birna early, if you don't absolutely need to Beorning Skin-changer imminently, as she lets you double up on your Skin-changers, and shuffle in your previously used Beorning Guardian and The Riddermark's Finest (with The Last Alliance) later in the game.

Elfhelm pulls double duty in this deck. He is a early threat with a build in sacrifice at end of phase, and a decent ally to flip into with Thengel. Don't feel bad about dropping him end of turn for a cheap flip if you don't need him for anything thing else. Note that it's worth sacrificing your disposable unique allies earlier so you can flip into new ones.

The mix of cheaper self-sacrificing Rohan allies can be changed to fit the scenario, but remember that there is only one hero, so try to use the cost reduction from The Last Alliance to make double allies cheaper early on. I leaned towards more The Riddermark's Finest, as it matches Giant Bear and Beorning Pony in addition to all of the Rohan. Its also good to note that Beorn is a warrior, so it can be pulled by several of the Rohan. If you are going up against a siege or battle scenario, Éowyn can be replaced for Éomer.

Finally, the deck requires a critical mass of allies of both traits, so the number of events and attachments this deck can support is limited (13 might be too many as is). If you find yourself missing to many flips, you could replace the Beorn's Welcome with cheap allies, but I think the extra resources for Grimbeorn the Old, Birna, and Beorning Pony make it worth it.