Send for the Ents 1.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

You can see the newest, updated version here: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/6148/send-for-the-ents-2.0

Beneath the sands is finally here, and though I won't be getting my hands on the actual pack for another week, it won't stop me from trying out the new hero! Hirgon is rather different than most heroes, opting to quest and recruit allies instead of confronting enemies himself. As an emissary of Gondor, it makes sense. His ability to reduce the cost of allies and buff them for a threat bump means he can fit into a wide array of decks since there are many that may run a force of allies. I chose Ents, because I wanted to try out his ability in a fun, aggressive deck while exploiting a few hero abilities to make Ents faster. It turned into a decent deck that would likely play best in multiplayer games where it grows to become a formidable tank, quester, healer, and fighter.

The best start for this deck entails having at least one of the 2 cost allies in hand (Booming Ent, Derndingle Warrior, or Galadhon Archer), a Steward of Gondor or Errand-rider to get resources on Elrond, and it is also nice to have some way to draw more cards (Daeron's Runes, Entmoot, or Gléowine). We will use Hirgon's abilities whenever we can, both the cost reduction and the attack/defense buff. The Ents will be exhausted the round we play them, unless we engage an enemy to trigger Faramir's response. This means that the Ents could attack on the round they enter play with an added stat buff. Threat will soon approach 40, and the few valor cards in the deck will be very usable then, but watch out for a Favor of the Valar to keep you from threating out. As more allies pile up, this deck will become quite capable at both questing and combat thanks to its strong core of Ents. In case you were wondering about Ent Draught, it is good to play on Derndingle Warrior or Déorwine which are excellent sentinel allies that must be bolstered by healing. Boomed and Trumpeted is also amazing, since you can actually defend with a Booming Ent so that it takes damage and ready him for a massive counterattack.

I have played with this deck a bit in two player to test its capabilities, and it has generally delivered each time. Though it can be slower without an early Steward of Gondor, that is not necessarily crippling. This deck ends up doing a fair share of the questing, fighting, and healing while also being able to share resources and card draw with other players. The presence of ranged and sentinel allies ensure that it can help with combat around the table plus its Booming Ents can turn into boss-crushers. In one play-through of Into the Pit, it slightly outshone its / partner deck when it came to survivability, and carried the team on to victory. It is hard to stop a deck with abundant healing, allies with spacious hit pools, and multiple defenders in case one gets taken down. A deck that has the spirit sphere is still the ideal partner for this deck because of the cancellation and threat reduction spirit provides that covers for this deck's weaknesses.

I'm already pleased with this deck so far, yet time will tell if it needs more tuning. I doubt this will be the only Hirgon deck I will build, after all, I think he has opened up more options for the aggressive valor decks I've been waiting for.

If you want to see the decks that are the ancestors to this one, check out these two decks:

http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/362/hasten-the-ents-2.0 http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/2131/mender-of-decay-2.0