Extrange Alliance 1.0

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I like the lineup, but I'm a little worried about Gimli's defense, with just three cards to bolster him, one of which needs the cards that Legolas tosses to work. Maybe Dúnedain Warning or Blood of Númenor, since he's the likely Steward of Gondor target?

Westfold Horse-breeder fetches mounts, but there's no mounts among the attachments. Armored Destrier is awesome on a dedicated defender like Gimli, but that's about the only mount that I think makes sense in this deck -- maybe a lone copy of Asfaloth since it's not restricted.

A Burning Brand requires Narvi's Belt to play on Gimli, and you have only one copy of both. Maybe Heed the Dream or Gather Information would work well to get those two or any of the other useful singletons?

The westfold horse-breeder are there only because they're cheap boost to questing. There are four cards to bolster Gimli's defense (Arwen, 2*Dwarven shields, Protector of Lorien). To get more cards to bolster Gimlí's defense you'll make some slot for Dunedain Warning or another Protector of Lorien, but i focus in get cards with elven-light, Unlikely friendship and Gleowine to draw fast the cards i need.

Using Steward of Gondor in Gimli is a big mistake. Shields and The Day's Rising bolster enough his resource generation. I use to put Steward on Legolas, with Glorfindel or Protector of Lorien i spend his resources to cast Elven-light constantly drawing a lot of cards.

Heed the dreams would fit, but first rounds you're resource hungry, and late you'll have enough card draw to move fast the deck to get the cards you need. Maybe one or two would fit.

Thanks for the response. I see your point on the Westfold horse-breeder, but for a cheap questing ally I think Envoy of Pelargir may work better for you -- it's neutral two, but returns a resource to Legolas or Gimli for net-one cost and smoothing, and it has a little attack as well. I assume you mulligan for Elven-light?

The reason I thought Steward would go best on Gimli is that his ability consumes resources and because Narvi's Belt is in the deck -- obviously if Narvi is on Gimli, he's a better candidate than Legolas. But you have only one copy of the belt and none of Blood of Numenor, so in the absence of the belt it makes more sense on Legolas. Shields/Rising will typically generate one resource per turn, which Gimli's ability (if used) would immediately consume -- and you have only one copy of Rising. On the other hand, you don't have much to spend Leadership resources on, besides the resource-generating cards themselves. Just Faramir and Ceorl.

I assume Ceorl is using those spirit resources to get double duty from him, even if that's just 1 wp and 2 attack. That's clever. You have a lot of two-cost allies, did you consider Herald of Anórien.

Do you find Gandalf gives you sufficient threat reduction in practice?

Uhm, yes envoy of pelargir would be a nive replacement for westfold horse-breeder, nice suggestion, i didn't remember you could give his resource to noble heroes and noy only Gondor.

And yes, i mulligan for elven-light, unless the initial hand has a nive combination that is better to start aggressive.

I considered Herald, but with Grima doomed in his skill, that you will use a lot to play aggresive it's too mooch doomed for me. Gandalf + sneak attack keep you in line of threat, considering Gimli+Legolas are going to clean some soft enemies easily even if you could not avoid to confront them. But you're on the edge and you have to manage your threat well.

Shield's if you manage to mantain a hard hitter enemiy and heal Gimli with wardens would generate 1 or 2 resources per turn (one per shield) at middle and late game, although if you have some low hit enemies and Gimli with an unexpected courage (first one i put to him), with The Day's rising you would get another.

Plus when you start to deploy unexpected courages you'll manage better the skills from Gimli and Legolas and his resource consumption.

This is a deck that evolves his play-style and resource managementthrough the game. At first you rely on Gimli+Legolas skills to push hard and Grima's reduction to keep deploying support cards to the table for a cheap (the reason for than much 2 cost cards is the capability of deploy them by 1 resource with Grima's reduction at the beggining of the game, managing the use or not of Gimli and Legolas skills).

Them you get less need for Grima's skill, and even Gimli or Legolas ones.