Cirgonethor: Revenge of an Errand Rider 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

A deck designed for solo play but easily could be adapted for multiplayer. Rather than embrace the Eagles/Ents it focuses on using the offensive power of Sylvan allies and the the defensive/questing power of Gondor (and friends). It's built to spit out 1-2 tactics allies every turn and get the most out of those allies via Hirgons ability/kicker and Narya. This gives the deck lots of fun little decisions to get the most out of your allies: which ally do you hold back to play with Hirgon? When do you use Hirgon's kicker? When do you use Narya? Because of its plethora of powerful tactics allies it has combat fairly locked down. That being said, it also has a fair share of questing power, though you will need to be mindful of the staging area in location heavy quests. It's not too unusual to finish a game questing in the 20-30. With a bit of luck I've use it to take down Carn Dum (probably a lot of luck), and more consistently successful against a slew of more reasonable quests.

Hero's

Denethor main role is to plop Steward of Gondor on Hirgon and act as our early game defender if we don't have a defender to put out. He is also our prime source for leadership resources to play Visionary Leadership, Sneak Attack, and pay for Déorwine's kicker until we get Narya on Cirdan. Once that's all done he will just pass resources to Hirgon and shift to a questing role. He is also our most expendable hero if we need to take an undefended, fatal, attack.

Círdan the Shipwright is our key quester and his ability lets us dig for something useful. Once we have Light of Valinor on him he can defend/attack in a pinch but we obviously want to reserve him for using Narya. He will then act as our source for the leadership/spirit resource that we need.

Hirgon will spend most of the game questing and spitting out allies. The original idea of the deck was to turn him into a voltron style attacking hero, but more on that below. Steward of Gondor, Visionary Leadership, and The Red Arrow all go on him. Careful use of his kicker (ie threat raise), ideally combined with Narya, can be quite powerful; after staging we will have a good idea of how much attack/defence we will need come combat. Obviously this also gets the most out of our "enters play" allies.

Allies

Our key allies that we want to see ASAP are Legolas and Deorwine; both allies have no limit on their ability and are thus great targets for Narya. Legolas provides much needed card draw, while Déorwine gives us shadow cancellation and a use for our leadership resources (plus an absolute rock star in Carn Dum).

Rounding out our defenders is Boromir who is great no matter when we see him; early in the game he can act as a defender/attacker, late in the game he can act as a quester/attacker. We also have Defender of Cair Andros who is our most capable defender while also a capable quester/damage dealer via Visionary Leadership and its Valour effect. Honour Guard provide a safety net, archery soak, and work as fine chumps and sailors if we get desperate.

Marksman of Lórien and Galadhon Archer give us more than enough offence that I ultimately culled the Descendant of Thorondor, but if there are plenty of 2 health enemies I'll bring them in. Skinbark is partly in here for fun, but his base 4 attack and ability to rofl-stomp orcs with Narya is too good to pass up.

Our neutral allies act as relief valves for our non tactics resources, shift resources to Hirgon (Envoy of Pelargir), and are the front line questers. Steward of Gondor provides some card draw if we need it. Our Envoy of Pelargir are also great chumps/sailors, and even decent/cheap targets for Narya if worse comes to worse.

Gandalf plays an important role for getting us more card draw (if needed) and emergency power questing. Ideally we can use his stats twice via Narya which can be absolutely game saving. Often more than worth his weight in hard casting but if we cheat him into play via Red Arrow/sneak attack I can't complain.

Events

Nothing much to say here. I included Wait no Longer originally just for Carn Dum (where it is amazing for avoiding all the nasty Sorcery cards and engaging all the weenie orcs) but its just so good. Need precision questing? Bail yourself out of pending location lock? YOLO questing? Avoid boarding in Sailing quests? It will work wonders. Its a bit expensive for this deck but I've never had a problem finding the cash for it when I really need it. It is truly a thing of beauty to see that ship's "Boarding 3" go to waste.

Hasty Strokes have some dispensability given Deorwine but ultimately they are a necessary redundancy, especially on hard hitting shadow effect quests.

Pilot instructions

Mullligan for Steward of Gondor (#1 priority, the deck and your start will struggle without it), and ideally we also have Light of Valinor, Narya and Legolas to start. Place attachments on Hirgon, spit out allies, use Narya to strategically ready our allies so they can attack/defend twice using its bonus (or quest and participate in combat). Until Visionary Leadership or Narya is out keep a resource on Denethor so we can pay for it if we draw it. If we have Deorwine out keep a leadership resource or two around. Otherwise pay for things and crush things.

Keep an eye on threat in the staging area, especially locations. If it starts piling up use Wait no Longer or Gandalf to bail out.

Dont be afraid of Hirgons threat raising kicker if it will make a meaningful impact (especially killing something). We can always use Gandalf to drop our threat, though ideally we want to use him for card draw or even damage.

Be mindful of the risk of unsuccessfully questing; if you have a key ally in hand that you need to get out (Legolas or a defending ally) don't be afraid to hard cast a 4 cost ally (using steward + denethors passed resource).

Sideboard (the serious)

Most of the allies here are to respond to battle/siege quests. Battle questing, in particular, will give us a little more problems and to that end Vassal of the Windlord are important turn 1 allies. In Carn Dum they are also our chumps. In siege quests some Defender of Rammas or Winged Guardian can help out; in multiplayer the Winged Guardians can shore up the tables defence via sentinel, if needed.

Sideboard (the fun)

Originally, I wanted to use Cirdan to discard Herugrim and then use Master Ironsmith to drop it on Hirgon to quest for 6 and attack for 8 (readying via Unexpected Courage). I found it a little too unreliable and often when i finally pulled it off I was 1 turn away from winning. Consequently I dumped all of it to my sideboard for easier/fun quests.

Multiplayer

I haven't tried this deck in multiplayer but I can't see why it wouldn't work; it has plenty of ranged and sentinel to help out all over the table. A second Sylvan questing deck with Celeborn could form a natural partner; by tacking advantage of Hirgon's kicker, Narya, Celeborn, and multiple attack opportunities via ranged, our Marksman of Lórien could strike for potenetially 16 damage in one turn.

Something that brings staging area damage (Argalad) could also theoretically help out with our archers and thorindors. We can happily substitute Light of Valinor with unexpected courage (our need for spirit resources isn't that dire).

Being multiplayer we will inevitably fight for Steward of Gondor which is harder to part with; we can substitute Denethor with Mablung and Proud Hunters, or alternatively Théodred and Captain's Wisdom. If this is the case, I would add Ancient Mathom to provide some card draw to compensate for losing sneak attacks extra uses of Gandalfs card draw. I don't know how consistent either of these options would be, however; it may run into difficulties consistently putting out the 3-4 cost allies that this deck would ordinarily have no problems with.