A Thunder of Hooves 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a thematic Rohan generalist deck, focusing on providing questing support but also contributing a fair amount of combat utility to the fellowship. It is designed to be paired with a mono- combat deck that uses Háma to recycle Forth Eorlingas!, repeatedly attacking into the staging area over multiple rounds.

This deck starts at a remarkably high threat for a fellowship that wants to be attacking into the staging area, but has a great deal of one-time threat reduction to lower it quickly, along with Fastred's repeatable reduction to keep it low once lowered. With a Well Warned in hand and a 2- enemy in the staging area, you can reduce your threat by 4 on the first turn, and keep reducing it further on later turns. An early Gandalf is also exceptionally useful for dropping that turn one threat to a manageable level, but he should primarily be used to draw additional cards.

The core of the deck is Elfhelm's passive ability boosting the stats of heroes everywhere on the table. 11 of the cards in the deck are Mount attachments, giving the Westfold Horse-breeder a very high chance to find one of them with her response. Most of the mounts are meant for the obvious targets. Snowmane for Théoden, Firefoot for Éomer, Windfola for Éowyn, and so on. Armored Destrier is meant for both Théoden and Fastred, but the priority will be dependent on the board state when you get your first. Note that Fastred cannot receive one until he has a Song of Kings attached from the other deck.

A secondary focus of the deck is to build up Fastred into a powerful defender. Hauberk of Mail, Armored Destrier (which provides a boost to his as well, since he requires a Song of Kings to receive it), and Golden Shield from across the table are all meant for him. Fully equipped, he can defend once with 7 , ready - discarding a shadow card - and then defend against that less dangerous attack with 5. However, both the Hauberk of Mail and the Armored Destrier can be attached to Théoden as well, providing a sentinel defender with 4 that can block across the board.

The most dangerous threat to these decks are high- enemies with low-to-moderate engagement costs that show up early, before the threat reduction has come online or the defensive boosts have come out. Against these, Terrible to Behold can give you an extra turn to draw more cards or lower your threat below their engagement costs. Incidentally, returning the enemy to the staging area will also render it vulnerable to attacks through Forth Eorlingas!. Alternatively, Snowbourn Scouts can provide chump blockers to keep you afloat while you try to equip your heroes sufficiently to deal with the threat.

The final focus of this deck is to provide additional to quest past all of the enemies that are being kept in the staging area. Much of this is in the form of temporary boosts like Astonishing Speed and Escort from Edoras, but since the staging area shouldn't remain clogged up with enemies for long - due to the attack power being marshalled by the companion deck - these temporary boosts should be sufficient to overcome most problems. In addition, a little location control provided by Arod and the Snowbourn Scout will help with managing the staging area.