Knights of Gondor and of the Mark 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a flexible combat deck intended for multiplayer alongside a Gondor ally swarm deck. In addition to providing a number of options for dealing with combat, it can offer substantial support in the quest phase. A small Valour sub-theme is also included that enables some interesting possibilities.

The heroes are designed around improving the utility of the Knight of Minas Tirith. Engaging an enemy and immediately attacking it is an excellent ability, but 3 is not generally enough to kill the enemies you want out of the staging area. However, with a few improvements, it becomes a much more powerful option.

Aragorn's debuff, and the boosts from Boromir (in the other deck) and Hirgon give the Knight the option of attacking for 5 against an enemy with -1 , which is enough to destroy even middling strength enemies.

Building on a theme, this deck offers a number of ways to trivialize combat. With Gondorian Fire and Roheryn from the other deck, Aragorn can engage and immediately destroy an enemy - like the Knight, except with potentially much greater attack.

If you end up with an enemy engaged at the start of the round, Battle-fury will help you dispatch it before it can attack again, and also grants a form of activation advantage.

If there are too many enemies for a single attack to be worthwhile, Oath of Eorl allows you to unload the entire potency of your combat potential against engaged enemies before they can respond, and Aragorn's response can pull further enemies from other players or the staging area so you can eliminate them as well.

Finally, Spear of the Citadel on Gondorian Spearman or Defender of Cair Andros can destroy an enemy with low remaining health, a strategy that is particularly useful when combined with pre-emptive attacks by Aragorn or the Knight of Minas Tirith.

Théoden is included to provide the fellowship strong questing power out of the gate, as the companion deck has almost no starting . His high starting threat helps push the deck towards valour to start with, and the threat increases from Hirgon and the Steward of Orthanc should be enough to hit 40 threat in short order.

One of the most unorthodox cards in the deck is the Defender of Cair Andros. At 40 threat or higher, it provides exceptional value for it's cost - 4 backed up by 3 and a direct damage effect when declared as a defender is incredible, even for 4 cost. At lower threat levels, though, the card is much harder to justify. However, Hirgon's cost reduction makes the cost/benefit analysis much more favorable, and the option to increase threat for the stat boost helps push the deck towards valour territory. As such, they seem a natural pairing. With the benefits offered by valour, Secret Vigil is a natural choice, to help control threat on both sides of the board. The Red Arrow is also a natural choice for a deck intending to make significant contributions in the quest phase, and has an optional valour ally muster ability for emergencies.

Déorwine is another powerful defender that benefits significantly from Hirgon's cost reduction. His built-in shadow cancellation is an excellent ability for emergencies, and the companion deck will have resources to spare.

Against quests where there are cancel-or-lose shadow effects, Sterner than Steel can be substituted in for one of the other events - the Spear of the Citadel is an excellent exhaust target for it.

The remainder of the cards are standard fare. Grimbold and Guthlaf provide good return on resources for quest support, and the Riddermark Knight is a good, cheap attacker. Legolas, Foe-hammer (and the Dagger of Westernesse to trigger it) and Honour Guard shore up traditional weaknesses of the sphere, and Proud Hunters makes sure that any resource issues that Hirgon can't cover are taken care of.

In the early game, you should send all of your heroes questing, and prioritize playing allies that can provide either , to free up your heroes for combat, or to help eliminate enemies. Beregond and Denethor from the other deck can cover early defense. Late in the game, the other deck should be providing game-winning , freeing up your heroes to handle combat with much less difficulty.

This fellowship should be just fine against battle quests, and the sideboard includes Defender of Rammas to replace Gondorian Spearman for siege quests.

A final note on costs - the cost curve of this deck is weighted significantly towards 3-cost and 4-cost cards. However, the vast majority of these expensive cards are allies, which can benefit from Hirgon's cost reduction. As long as you can quest successfully, the cost reduction in these allies makes the cost curve look much more reasonable.