Fangorn and Faramir 1.0

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• 1.0

Great use of those traited-lore event cards. Your deck looks well-constructed with no filler. A first-turn Treebeard could be accomplished with Wealth of Gondor and/or Captain's Wisdom. Not sure what you would cut though!

@DenisonYes, I considered that, thanks for the suggestion! I didn't because then you need to draw Treebeard AND one of those in initial draws to make it work losing out on opportunity costs of other good cards in the mix. Second round Treebeard isn't too bad especially since Faramir makes him ready once you engage.

Not sure where my last comment when so if this ends up appearing twice, I apologise.

I played this deck against Conflict at the Carrock and absolutely smashed the trolls in 1 combat phase! I managed to play two copies each of Take No Notice and In the Shadows to remove their and boosts (for no resource cost!). This meant Grimbeorn could take all of the trolls attacks and feel pretty safe (I did have an Ent Draught on him for added security) then could hit back alongside Merry and my Booming Ents, who incidentally were attacking for 10 because I managed to distribute damage from a Goblin Sniper to 8 of my ent allies. This deck seems a perfect match for this quest as you can commit less to the quest and boost up with Rosie Cotton if needs be to make sure your threat doesn't rise. This enables you to establish a decent board state before those pesky trolls arrive. With no threat reduction, it does mean that those trolls will likely all be engaging at once but it really doesn't matter once you have enough ents out. I had to make clever use of Merry's ability in order to make sure I distributed the damage to all of the trolls to finish them in one round but I never drew The Dam Bursts and tbh it wouldn't matter if you had to wait another round to finish them off!

I feel that the Daggers are a bit unnecessary in this deck. Have you thought about swapping them out for Rohan Warhorse to get even more use of Merry's ability. You could also include The Hammer-stroke. I think it would work well with The Dam Bursts. I also found that A Good Harvest wasn't really necessary. With Treebeard and the Errand-rider out, you can comfortably pay for 1 or 2 ents around. I would probably swap them out for 3 copies of A Burning Brand. I know it's not very thematic - ents wielding burning torches - but the couple of losses that I had with this deck were from untimely shadow effects.

@Aurion - Glad you liked the deck and it smashed those pesky trolls. Take no Notice and In the Shadows are ridiculous and timely sometimes with a ranger/hobbit deck. The Goblin Sniper is almost preferred with a Booming Ent and the potential of The Dam Bursts.

Daggers were in there from the decks origins with Sam Gamgee, Merry and Pippin necessitating Merry on offense and more than likely be under the engagement cost with three hobbits. I suppose with enough powerful ents you can switch it out, I just find it helpful to 1) ensure you get those kills with Merry allowing you to ready an Ally and rinse and repeat and 2) ensure you have some cheap offense early on allowing time for your ents to get hasty. With Rohan Warhorse, you'd need an additional card to give Merry the Rohan trait. And Fast Hitch is in the deck already for re-readying. The Hammer-stroke is an interesting thought though to reduce the threat from the staging area while questing engaging enemies you're going to engage anyway. That would be a great combo with The Dam Bursts, although maybe too expensive (4 total cost) to proc in a single round.

As it stands, you're right there usually is enough resources from Treebeard to bring an ent out every round. I use A Good Harvest for early game before you have amassed a wealth of resources and late game when Faramir has a mountain of resources on him to bring out 2 ents in a round.

I usually try to defend with my Derndingle Warriors so A Burning Brand wouldn't really work on them because they're not Lore.

Thanks for the feedback!

Dude...you need to look at Rohan Warhorse again! It is epic with Merry. I use him in a lot of my tactics decks for repeatable readying effects.

I see what your saying about the Derndingle Warriors. I really like defending with them as they can survive most attacks and help to boost the Booming Ents but they do leave you open to shadow effects in solo play. I tend to play A Burning Brand on either Wellinghall Preservers or Wandering Ents to give them some additional use.

I hasten to add these aren't criticisms. I really enjoyed playing with your deck. It even inspired me to try and take the idea of readying ents after they enter play even further... ringsdb.com

Not taken as criticism at all! Always good to get fresh perspectives.

Rohan Warhorse... reading is hard. "or" means a lot there. I usually just throw all my Fast Hitches on Merry because they aren't restricted nor unique.

I like burning brand though (however anti-thematic). Could get a little more use out of Wandering Ents. I usually just quest with Wellinghall Preservers because that 3 quest is too good.

Glad you liked the deck