Making Strides 1.0

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• 1.0

This is a Strider deck. Strider decks sometimes struggle because they lack the resources and stats that come with a third hero. This deck attempts to make up for those factors by quickly getting Steward of Gondor into play and some select allies with hero-level stats.

Mulligan

Mulligan for Steward of Gondor to help recover from the loss of resources generated by an additional hero. Attach Steward to Erestor (ironically).

Early Strategy

Priority 1 is getting out Gandalf. This way when Erestor draws into his toys you are able to play them. Timely Aid can help get him on the table for cheap, but don't hesitate to pay full price for him.

Strider can go on either hero. If you are needing early willpower then it can go on Denethor and you can commit both to the quest and have Denethor ready to defend. On the other hand you can put it on Erestor and quest with him only so that you have Denethor to defend and Erestor to help out with attack.

You might have noticed there are more than 5 characters in this deck. I find by the late game I care more about the healing from the Wardens than the 2 from Strider's Path. The wardens are nice because they can make use of excess resources on Erestor (as can Song of Hope).

Vanish from Sight and O Elbereth! Gilthonial!

Getting out Gandalf early has its drawback - namely your threat is going to increase quickly. To combat this, I've included Vanish from Sight and O Elbereth! Gilthonial!. This is a card combo that has been making it into a lot of my recent decks. Basically, you play Vanish from sight and defend an attack from an enemy with >20 threat. You then play O Elbereth! Gilthonial!, put that enemy to the bottom of the encounter deck, and set your threat at that enemy's engagement cost. You can go right from 49 to 21 in a blink, and there's no limit to how often you can do it, unlike the similar sort of effect from Aragorn.

The tricky part of this strategy is you have to time it well. If you get stuck without an enemy to use it on you can be out of luck. I advise doing it well before getting into the high 40s. You can also refrain from killing a ~25 threat enemy for a few turns just to feed him to the combo later.

As this is an Erestor deck, be midful of the forced discards. Silver Harp is here to help you hold on to the combo pieces (and/or Will of the West) until they're needed.