The Wood, The Bad, and The Halfy 1.0

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• 1.0

When the whistle blows and the wind howls across Middle Earth, three unlikely heroes step into the ring...

Heroes

Saruman

• Saruman's Staff + Keys of Orthanc
• Voice of Isengard: Our main quester and event specialist, fueling doomed combos and resource acceleration.

Treebeard

• Ent Draught
• Ent Shepherd: Can become a powerhouse quester, attacker, or defender. Multiple times in a round with the appropriate tools.

(MotK) Pippin

• Messenger of the King
• Red-Handed Took: Surprises tougher enemies with a burst of attack, turning the tables with classic Hobbit cunning.

Mulligan & Setup

Mulligan for Saruman's Staff, as it’s our only form of threat reduction and a key engine piece.
Mithrandir's Advice helps us find the Staff if the mulligan doesn’t work out.

The Keys of Orthanc are a great bonus for Doomed cards, so it’s also worth having them in our opening hand.

Strategy & Card Interactions

Early Game Scrying:
The Seeing-stone is a great early-game card. It not only lets us find powerful cards like Far-sighted or The Wizards's Voice, but also thins our deck.

If those key cards are still in our deck, Entmoot is another excellent deck-thinner at our service.

Orthanc Deployment:
Stewards of Orthanc are another nice option for card draw and can be played as soon as they show up. However, if the Staff hasn’t appeared, we should try to be cautious with their ability to avoid raising our threat too quickly.

Soldier of Isengard isn’t affected by the Staff, but their stats are solid. We usually should wait to play them until the Staff is under our control.

Fangorn Synergies:
Wellinghall Preservers are the best companions for Treebeard's abilities. After Quickbeam, they’re the next priority.

The second Ent Draught usually goes on a Derndingle Warrior.

Boomed and Trumpeted suits perfectly as Treebeard's own Unexpected Courage. We just need to save 1 resource to trigger it.

Encounter Control:
Wait no Longer is used to get rid of unwanted cards at the top of the encounter deck, thanks to Far-sighted. Avoiding a reveal in the quest phase is powerful, but a secondary bonus for this deck.

Shadow of the Past is another option for keeping the quest phase under control. Its cost-benefit is a real bargain, and it’s often the card that clinches a win in the final questing attempt.

Safety Waters:
Waters of Nimrodel is here as a safety net. We rarely use it, but it’s comforting to know it’s there. If we ever need it, we can easily find our single copy with The Seeing-stone.

It could be swapped for a third Wait no Longer if you prefer more encounter control.

Sideboard

• Merry is probably a better hero than Pippin in terms of ability, but starting with 30 initial threat is a much better advantage for this deck.
• Isengard Messenger was originally in the deck. They’re cheap and have some utility, but didn’t provide anything new compared to other allies. They ended up as chump-blockers most of the time.
• Legacy of Númenor's Doomed 4 is dangerous to play with.
  • As a general rule, I prefer to manipulate the encounter deck for “free” rounds and accumulate resources rather than play this card.

In summary: This deck is all about doomed events, Ent power, and Hobbit trickery. Mulligan for Saruman’s Staff, use scrying and encounter control to stay ahead, and let Treebeard and his Ents support Saruman’s wild plans all the way to victory!