Roots & Rhymes 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Middle-Earth's weirdest dream team, this deck is a whole lot of fun capable of more than I imagined. It's far from being a One Deck and has plenty of limitations, but it's quirky and surprisingly powerful in the right quests.

The general idea is to load Tom up with songs, get Let Us Sing Together on Treebeard, and get some instruments and ents out to fill what holes you have.

It's important to get Let Us Sing Togetherand Hey Dol! Merry Dol! out early, and cards like Peace, and Thought (it's surprisingly easy to have two heroes available to exhaust when they don't exhaust to quest, and you don't want to use them for attack/defense), Drinking Song, Gléowine, An Unexpected Party can help you get through your deck to find them.

Threat Management: Hey Dol! Merry Dol! can be played every round, which can really stall your threat.

Willpower: Silver Circlet on Goldberry, songs on Tom, and Let Us Sing Together on Treebeard can have the three of them questing for a ton without exhausting.

Damage: This is one of the weaknesses of the deck. Direct damage from Tom can be strong, but it requires being engaged and limited to once per phase. Staggering out events in the action windows of different phases can certainly chip away at tough enemies. Otherwise, that's that the ents are for.

Defense/Healing: Getting instruments out means being able to increase your defense or decrease the enemy's, allowing yourself to get through another round. A couple Self Preservation and Wellinghall Preserver makes Treebeard a wall...so long as no shadow effect is "enemy makes another attack."

Overall, not a perfect deck but very fun.