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, (1)
Rating: .5
Premise
My take on a thematic Eagle deck. Building such a deck boxes you in quite a lot, with only one Eagle really at your disposal as a hero in Gwaihir. That being said however, Gwaihir is a hero lending himself perfectly for The Grey Wanderer, as his built-in readying drawback can be very nicely circumvented through the contract even if no Eagle enters/leaves play between combat and the next round. Additionally, this deck also runs Radagast as an ally, who is by far the worst of the Istari allies but still can do some decent work here, maybe entering play through A Very Good Tale or Timely Aid and enabling not only Radagast's Staff but also Gwaihir's Debt quite nicely.
How To Play
After putting Strider on Gwaihir via the contract, resource acceleration is the number one thing you need early on. Resourceful is therefor a card that is always very welcome to see, as is Timely Aid. From there on, try to steadily build up your eagle army until Eagles of the Misty Mountains and Support of the Eagles take over combat and you hopefully have a lid on questing through a high number of allies and the occasional Gandalf.
Considerations
Black Arrow and Unexpected Courage should probably included in higher player counts, where Gwaihir has a lot more enemies to go through with both his keywords. Song of Kings, Steward of Gondor and Horns! Horns! Horns! are all very useful in this deck and probably are at least as effective as Radagast/Radagast's Staff as a secondary resource engine, however I decided to not run them for thematic reasons.
Enjoy!!!