Life In The Fast Lane 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Summary
The inspiration for the deck was me wanting to play an Erestor/Denethor deck other than Outlands because I think the archetype is fun and wanted to try something different with it, and also that I have a soft-spot for eagle decks. The goal is to get the Eagles of the Misty Mountains/Support of the Eagles combo up and running as quickly as possible and, hopefully, regularly. It will primarily be a combat deck, though I've only been testing it one-handed solo so far. It should pair well with a questing deck that doesn't rely on Steward of Gondor. I'm thinking of trying it with a post-errata Caldara deck.

This deck will not be a top-tier power deck, but maybe it'll be enough to surely make you lose your mind. Mostly I just like playing Eagles again in a different way.

I also won't say that the list as presented is my best version of it. I feel like it's so hard to pin down an optimal list for a deck that is kinda like pulling the lever on a slot machine every turn, that perhaps just showing where I'm at today and what else I've tried before is the best idea for this site.

Heroes
Denethor and Erestor - Given
Mablung - I chose him for his resource acceleration and 2 because this deck's weakness is questing. I have built in lots of readying, however, so on my to-do list is try out Boromir in this slot, even post-errata.

Cards to highlight
Eagles of the Misty Mountains
Support of the Eagles
Vassal of the Windlord
Winged Guardian
The main strategy of the deck. I played through the entire Mirkwood cycle back in the day with a Boromir eagles deck, and while it was awesome when it worked, it generally took a long time to get going and sometimes wouldn't happen at all. The point here is to set up in only a few rounds.

Henamarth Riversong
I've included him here because I've mainly been playing pure solo against quests that are heavier on combat and don't require hard questing. Obviously, he's fantastic in solo, but I feel he has a place even in multiplayer to make sure you can use Wingfoot successfully every time.

Ioreth
Dúnedain Remedy
Lembas
The healing suite. At some point, Erestor may begin to pile up resources, so having Ioreth as a sink for those is great, not to mention any 0-cost card is welcome in an Erestor deck, hence the remedy. Lembas also fulfills the needs of cheap cards, healing, and readying.

Wingfoot
Cram
Rohan Warhorse
More free/cheap cards and more readying. Another reason I picked Mablung is the ability to put Wingfoot on him. This deck needs every bit of help questing it can get, so even when Mablung is in full-on eagle-rider mode, he can still contribute to the quest and (hopefully) ready.

Dúnedain Warning
Gondorian Shield
Protector of Lórien
The goal here is to turn Denethor into your primary defender since he can't contribute much else anyway. Protector is also a good choice for Mablung as he can quest or defend, possibly both in one round.

Steward of Gondor
Gaining Strength
Wealth of Gondor
Resource generation, all of which is targeted at Mablung. I don't usually use Gaining Strength, but with Denethor able to send his resource over to Mablung, you can generally always play this card.

Cards I'm less sure about
Dúnedain Hunter - Here because he's 0-cost.

Grappling Hook - This could theoretically get you out of a jam by targeting an Eagle-supported Mablung, but I haven't used it yet in testing. However, a grapple-hook-wielding, eagle-riding, Ranger of Gondor sounds too cool not to try.

Second Breakfast - Getting more uses out of the one-time readying attachments, recycling Support of the Eagles that were drawn too early, and using up resources is the thought here. Not sure yet if worth the slot.

Sideboard
This sideboard is mainly other ideas I've tried or want to try, not necessarily cards you might need to swap in for specific situations.

A Burning Brand
In Service of the Steward
3rd Gondorian Shield
At one point, I also wanted to turn Erestor into a defender, so the Gondor title gets him extra value out of the shield and also allows Denethor to target him with his ability to smooth resources. Kinda clunky to set up, however, when Denethor is already a good defender and Mablung can get there, too. If a scenario had really worrisome shadow effects I'd probably put this back in.

Gwaihir
Great if you can draw it late and missed an Eagle, but with so much depending on the order of the draw and the steep cost, I've never actually tried it out.

Erebor Hammersmith
Imladris Caregiver
Both are here for the same reason: I don't like the odds of having 2 resources at the right time to play these in this deck. So Hammersmith came out for Second Breakfast and the Caregiver came out for Ioreth and Dúnedain Remedy.

Daeron's Runes
Technically, it's probably better to drop a few cards from this deck and include a full 3x of these to increase speed and consistency. However, I haven't figured out what I want to drop yet.