Almost Thematic Gondor (RCO) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a juiced-up Gondor deck for all the RCO players out there.

The difficulty in making a good Gondor deck is that leadership lacks good card draw options. Rod of the Steward exists, but turning all your resources from Steward of Gondor into a single card each round isn't exactly great. Gandalf (often in conjunction with Sneak Attack) can draw you cards, but that's not super reliable, and sometimes you want to trigger the other enters play effects. Valiant Sacrifice is all right, but it's non-repeatable and depends on an ally leaving play. That's why I've resorted to Erestor, the king of card draw.

This deck aims to pump out allies as quickly as possible to overload the encounter deck. Steward of Gondor is your mulligan target. This deck gets turbocharged by A Very Good Tale, being told by ye olde Citadel Custodians, so we'll try to get them out swiftly. Ioreth is great for getting a free Gondor ally out, and Envoy of Pelargir, Errand-rider, and Squire of the Citadel are all effectively one-cost allies that I'm happy to see in the first round so we can get the Custodian-Tale engine going.

Defense is handled a couple different ways. Ancestral Armor and Armored Destrier on Denethor makes him a formidable defender, but it's an expensive, late-game solution. Soldier of Gondor, Pelargir Ship Captain, and Citadel Custodian are all top-tier chumps to sacrifice. I prefer them over Squire of the Citadel because if the Squire takes a shadow that deals one damage to the defending character, the attack is now undefended, so be very careful with him.

Lothíriel is included for her willpower and sphere-access to Will of the West. Pass her resources to Denethor with an Errand-rider. She's also great with Erestor, because anytime a great ally like a Knight of the White Tower comes in your hand and you don't have resources to play it yet, you can quest with Lothíriel and that ally, then shuffle that ally back into your deck at the end of the phase to play it in a later round.

Pillars of the Kings is a fun card to play at the right time. Often it's not needed, but if you have a couple Veterans of Osgiliath and Angbor the Fearless out and you need to juice up your board state now to destroy some enemy, play it. The abundant availability of Elrond's Counsel means you won't be in danger of threating out.

Anyway, have fun with this deck RCO players! I've tested its non-RCO version quite a bit, and this version beat Wastes of Eriador handily, so it'll work for many of the RCO quests.