The Green Wanderer 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Disclaimer: I don't have full cardpool, but also not RCO - I bought all officially released packs besides Harad Cycle (I have only Sands of Harad deluxe) and Vengeance of Mordor (full cycle). However, I frequently proxy player contracts, therefore here is the deck built with Grey Wanderer, but without any other VoM cards. Also, I've only 1 copy of old Core Set.

For a long time I was wondering, how to effectively build a deck with Treebeard. He has high threat, repeatable healing is a MUST for him, and even for thematic Ent decks his ally version seems often superior (maintaining e.g. Hobbit hero line-up). And last week, when I was trying some experiments with contracts, I finally found both a perfect match for him AND Grey Wanderer contract (which I've tested with both Gandalf and Sam Gamgee, but was never quite happy).

The Grey Wanderer works especially good since at the beginning of the game readying my hero isn't that necessary (rarely I need more action advantage than Strider already provides), but healing actually is crucial. Between this and Treebeard's innate ability I can overquest most challenges t1 (both in standard and Battle quests!) and survive the first 2-3 turns, which are most often crucial for the game, especially when trying to setup ents. This decks also makes a good use of most secrecy cards, even though in certain quests I'm totally ok to leave secrecy zone after 2-3 turns (because of failed questing, which always can happen with just 1 hero + added +1 threat per round from contract). There is a lot of scrying, which allows me to plan my first turns accordingly. If I manage to stabilize the board and start playing ents, most often I'm already in a good spot to finish the scenario.

As for strategy: cards that I really want to see after mulligan are:

• Risk Some Light (important - play it during Resource Phase! Otherwise you either lose out-of-sphere effect from contract in Planning phase or you have to play first card "blindly")
• Entmoot, for obvious reasons, it's crazy good
• 1 or 2 secrecy cards, especially Resourceful, but at least 1 Celduin Traveler/Ithilien Lookout are also great

If I accidentally draw Strider, I'd probably mulligan to fetch it with a contract, but otherwise I just play it normally and grab Song of Battle to be able to play Boomed and Trumpeted.

Cards that I'm not sure about:Rivendell Scout (free at the beginning of the game, but otherwise just a disposable body for chump blocking or some nasty treachery); Needful to Know (I wanted to have threat reduction, but either I use it to scry and it's very random in that case or check already scried card for -2-3 threat at best. Probably not worth it); Gaffer Gamgee (but I know his power and I have a feeling that it's only because I haven't recently played any quests that involve big enemy boss not immune to player cards). I'd happily hear any suggestions.

As for now, I've tested it mostly in Heirs of Numenor quests (Peril in Pelargir, Into Ithilien and Siege of Cair Andros) and while all 3 of them aren't exactly the easiest, I was able to grab some wins and most of the time at least put a good fight against them. This decks quite easily switches between Battle and normal quests, having more trouble with Siege, but isn't hopeless in that case. And obviously it is a little bit more resilient to encounter cards punishing multisphere decks. Biggest problems are deinitely lack of options to deal with game-breaking treacheries (other than putting it on the bottom of the deck with Risk Some Light) or shadow cards. Also, there is a plethora of quests where Grey Wanderer decks are simply not an option (e.g. "capture" quests such as Dol Guldur). Still, I have a feeling that this deck is one of the most interesting and strongest (barring typical power decks like Vilya or BoF) that I've played in a long time.