My daughter, you look... different... 1.0

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• 1.0

This deck is one of the first that I made, one of my all time favourites... and also one of the most fiddly to play. As soon as I discovered the abilities of Lothiriel and Imrahil I immediately thought of the Eagle allies, and how amazing it would be to be able to make use of the enter and leave play effects consistently, every turn by bouncing them with this Gondorian Father and Daughter combo.

This deck has a lot of moving parts, and a lot of stuff to remember. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it can be amazing.

Only, how does one do that? The Last Alliance doesn't change traits, right? Only card text. Well that is where Steward of Gondor, which goes on Imrahil, and Elessar, which goes on Lothiriel, come in. Both cards give the Gondor trait, so you simply target those cards with TLA, and then you can get either Lothiriel to bring an eagle in from hand, or Imrahil to pull one from the deck each round. This enables shenanigans such as: 4 damage from Descendant of Thorondor during the quest phase, two of which occurs after staging. 4 progress on any location, either active or in staging due to Meneldor. Using Gwaihir to find an eagle you previously chump blocked with, get two procs of their ability, then two more due to Lothiriel.

Then when the eagles leave play you can either send them back to the deck or you can tuck them underneath Eagles of the Misty Mountains, to start growing it to obscene numbers very quickly. I usually stop when it's at +6 +6 . Support of the Eagles of course goes on Imrahil, as does an Unexpected Courage, meaning when you have two Support of the Eagles on him you can get +8 +8 , and that's assuming you stopped at 6 cards underneath EotMM. It's worth getting at least one copy of EotMM out as early as you can, as you'll need the power spike of this ally

In general, you are looking for Steward and Elessar as a matter of priority. Hard mulligan for at least one of these, though you do have a reasonable chance of finding either early. Other good things to find on the mulligan are EotMM and Rod of the Steward, which, once you're all set up serves very nicely as card draw as you'll find resources build up a lot with this list (If someone across the table has Eomer, it would be worth switching this for Horn of the Mark).

The Last Alliance has a number of different synergies in this deck. Here are some combos worth looking out for beyond using it on Elessar/Steward to get eagles out:

• Alagos can give you a resource for a Gondor ally entering play.
• You can tuck a Gondor ally leaving play behind EotMM.
• Morwen Steelsheen can get her effect from an eagle leaving play.
• Knight of Belfalas can bring back a dead eagle to hand. It can be effective to chump with, and then you play one to get another dead knight back into hand. Your resources tend to build up, so you can easily play multiple a turn.
• Elessar can target eagles if you brought one in during the quest phase - otherwise, it is usually strong to target Defender of Rammas.
• Visionary Leadership can spike your willpower across the board. Put it on Imrahil as he will usually have a resource during questing.
• The Eagles Are Coming! pulling Gondor and Eagle cards means drawing 3-5 cards for 0 cost is pretty common. You have 37 cards with either trait. It's also a good way to find Steward.

Other useful things: This is by no means a one deck. It gets absolutely demolished by any late game discard all attachments effect, but A Test of Willand Hasty Stroke can help with those. This is generic though, and I'd suggest having the sideboard to hand to make changes based on what is more likely to come up.

In a multiplayer game, protect your Errand-riders and distribute resources to the other players as much as possible. Playing solo, they usually end up chumping something at some point.

Enjoy!