‘So it came to pass in the days of Cirion the Twelfth Steward (and my father is the six and twentieth) that they rode to our aid and at the great Field of Celebrant they destroyed our enemies that had seized our northern provinces. These are the Rohirrim, as we name them, masters of horses, and we ceded to them the fields of Calenard- hon that are since called Rohan; for that province had long been sparsely peopled. And they became our allies, and have ever proved true to us, aiding us at need, and guarding our northern marches and the Gap of Rohan. --Faramir, The Two Towers

An Alternate Art Starter Deck

Inspired by AutumnRose's work on her two incredible alt-art starter decks (Flight to the Ford and Where the Stars are Strange), I am releasing my eight alternate art starter deck, The White Mountains. This deck is inspired by the long standing alliance between the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan and the prominent feature separating them, the White Mountains. This deck includes a selection of Gondor and Rohan cards (ally, attachment, and event) as well as some cards to help your party find its way through Ered Nimrais.

For those keeping track, this deck features six repeat cards. Elfhelm was included in Autumn's Flight to the Ford deck, Knight of Belfalas was included in my Hope is Born deck, Snowbourn Scout and Steward of Gondor are repeats from the Core Set, Dúnedain Remedy was included in the Dream-chaser Hero Expansion, and Errand-rider was included in the Defenders of Gondor starter deck. All repeated cards feature new artwork.

Heroes and Messenger of the King

There weren't many Rohan/Gondor heroes left out of the revised content, especially in or . That opens the door for a new feature that RCO players have missed out on: the Messenger of the King contract. MotK allows you to choose a unique non-neutral ally to use as a third hero, with their starting threat equal to the sum of their stats. The only "drawback" is that this MotK Hero can only be readied once per phase, regardless of any abilities or card effects.

Caldara is best in a mono- deck built around triggering her ability to bring some big allies into play quick, for cheap. That is a tough deck to build with non-revised cards, so in this deck you shouldn't expect to trigger her ability. Instead, she is a decent questing option. Erkenbrand is a great defender who can cancel any nasty shadow effects that may surprise him at the cost of one damage. With Dúnedain Remedy you'll have a reliable source of healing, meaning you can continue to cancel shadow effects with little worry. Elfhelm's ability will help keep your threat low while you slowly build up your board with supporting allies. He should be kept ready and away from questing, used as an attacker. Starting at only 27 threat combined with Elfhelm's ability should buy you enough time to get allies into play to contribute to questing and attacking alongside the good but not great heroes.

Gondor and Rohan

Both Gondor and Rohan had the majority of their cards, especially their best ones, included in the revised content thanks to the Defenders of Gondor and Riders of Rohan starter decks. The main cards that were left out were Gondor allies and Rohan events, along with a few other miscellaneous cards.

Denethor is expensive but does bring 3 to the table (assuming your heroes are healthy), so he can be a helpful contributor to questing. Minas Tirith Lampwright can be discarded to gamble on canceling out a nasty Surge, and can be brought back with Knight of Belfalas. Errand-rider provides some resource smoothing, while Steward of Gondor is a thematically appropriate source of resource acceleration. Wealth of Gondor is a free resource on a Gondor hero, something that is always welcome.

Rider of the Mark's ability only triggers in multiplayer, so in this deck he is a 2 questing ally with an extra hit point to survive any nasty encounter deck surprises. Rohirrim Scout allows you to avoid engaging a nasty enemy for a turn, continuing to buy you time to build your board. Warden of Helm's Deep is a solid secondary blocker with his 3 , while Snowbourn Scout is a fast source of location progress before serving as a chump blocker.

Mustering the Rohirrim helps you dig into your deck to find a Rohan card you are looking for. Ride to Ruin lets you trade a Rohan ally for a good chunk of location progress, letting you turn a Snowbourn Scout from 1 progress into 4 if you do not need him as a blocker.

Nor am I a Stranger can give a hero the Rohan trait, allowing them to get in on We Do Not Sleep if Mutual Accord isn't available.

Hazards of Ered Nimrais

When traversing the White Mountains, location control is important. Backtrack allows you the choice to trade main quest progress for location progress, giving you the opportunity to wipe out a location without triggering a nasty travel effect. A Watchful Peace gives you a chance to double-dip on a location that has a helpful travel effect or even control what card will be revealed next from the encounter deck.

Managing your party of allies is also important in the White Mountains. Bulwark of the West is a good sideboard card that can be brought in for any quests that feature nasty condition attachments that you want to get rid of ASAP. Grave Cairn lets you get some value from a departing ally in the form of an boost. Horns! Horns! Horns! can get you an ally into play for no resources in a moment of desperation. Light the Beacons provides a boost to ALL characters, making it more effective the more allies you have in play.

Quest manipulation is also key to make it through without being buried in the snow. Free to Choose is a free way to negate a threat increase from an encounter card. Late Adventurer lets you get one extra character into a quest just in case you had been holding them back for some reason. Ride Them Down can converting questing progress to damage, something helpful in this deck that lacks any true standout attackers.

Print this deck

I have set up a Make Playing Cards project with ALeP backs that can be found here. If you wish to use official backs, a PDF of the deck that can be sent to MBPrint can be found here. A photo album with high-res versions of each individual card is available here.