Spheres of Gondor 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the deck that I created in response to the Deck of the Month! I devised the Deck of the Month to try to promote more creative deck building, laying down a challenge to include some not-as-often seen cards in a Gondor deck. The challenge was to make it tri-sphere, yet with Gondor most easily following Lore/Tactics/Leadership contours, I thought that I would try adding Spirit and see how that went!

The search for a Spirit hero was tough, since Eleanor is good yet not amazing solo (my normal mode) and Caldara being very powerful but pretty much blank tri-sphere. I decided to go for a Gondor-by-marriage heroine, Eowyn. She also covers early game questing, another difficulty that many 3-sphere decks have.

Since it was an unusual deck, I thought I'd also like to include an unusual (for me) hero in Faramir, and since willpower and resources can be an issue, I went with Mablung to round it out. The deck would be almost assuredly more powerful with either issue of Boromir, but perhaps this list is more fun.

Boromir did find a home, as you can see, in his ally incarnation, and the suite of allies shouldn't surprise too badly. 3x Lampwrights are certainly on the chopping block (I'd love 3x Sneak/Gandalf, for sure) but in Nightmare Black Riders, there's enough surge that I left them in. Knights of the White Tower and Veterans of Osgiliath are great to quest and attack with, double-errand-rider isn't bad, but generally Gandalf's the one you will pick to activate with Faramir's ability. The utility has been moderate--not bad, but not great.

The attachments are pretty fun. Visionary Leadership is a must in Gondor, and if you get it out you're happy questing. I play more 2x as you can see for the variety instead of the strict consistency of 3x, but it's fun to decide how to allocate the restricted attachments (do you put an early Steed and Fire on Faramir with Steward, or do you wait for a Shield/Destrier combo?) I liked Steed a lot, but I found that the deck really lacked attack power in a lot of games. There are certain quests where you might want Rod of the Steward and/or Dunedain Remedy, but this base is pretty decent. Faramir usually takes Steward and gets the defensive attachments; Mablung takes Steed and Fire. Courage goes as needed; Eowyn quests.

The events are basically predictable, with draw, cancel, mustering, and feint being the very best in their spheres IMO. I can see moving a third Tale to either Sneak or Feint, but that's quibbling. 90% of rounds you're using Eowyn's resource to recall Elven-Light. Don't forget you can ditch to her in Planning if you're desperate.

All in all I enjoyed constructing and playing this! I was able to beat all three quests in NM Black Riders (with difficulty, to be sure), lots of Ring-Maker quests, and Journey Up the Anduin. I lost several times to Lost in Mirkwood, but I have since realized I was playing the "advance" rules wrong. I gave up and went back to my Silvans (I love Silvans). I think this is a "Tier 2" deck but is a lot of fun and makes some good use of cards not much seen and helps de-power some cards oft seen.

Let me know if you decide to try it out!