Run Rohan, Run!

[NappyKorn]

I was bored yet again and was trying to think of a deck type that I don't normally run. Two things came to mind, I'm not a big Rohan Player and I normally don't build a deck to run with (not counting the occasional double here and there). This is what I came up with.......

Bearer and Ring:

Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
The Great Ring

Companions:

1x Merry, From O'er the Brandywine (start)
1x Eowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan (start)
1x Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark (start)
1x Aragorn, Defender of Rohan
1x Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
1x Eomer, Heir to Meduseld
1x Theoden, The Renowned
1x Haleth, Son of Hama

Possessions

1x Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow
4x Rider's Bow
1x Brego
1x Firefoot (TTT)
2x Horse of Great Stature
3x Rider's Spear
3x Rider's Mount
2x Merry's Sword

Conditions:

2x Riding Like the Wind
1x Escape

Followers

1x Rohan Stable Master

Allies:

1x Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals
1x Hobbit Party Guest

Events:

4x Simbelmyne

Strategy:

First off I thought about running Merry, Swordthain and Swordracks, but decided to go with this Merry because he can actually fight early if he gets his sword and nothing is more annoying than moving to site 2 or 3 and here comes some self assigning minion and now Merry is dead. That and if I went with Swordthain I would have to wait on a swordrack and sword and I can grab Farmer Maggot with Green Dragon Inn if I go first. Granted that site that discards allies would be bad to see, but I haven't seen that site played too much because most people aren't stupid enough to run allies in expanded.

Basic idea is to go first if you can play Green Dragon Inn grab Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals (or Hobbit Party Guest if you got the Farmer maggot in first draw). With your first Simbelmyne grab Merry's sword and start playing your other Companions. When set up you can use Merry's Sword twice a turn and with 6 companions that's 12 exertions. Kill off with Aragorn's Bow and run with Riding Like the Wind. Added a copy of Rohan Stable Master so merry can be considered mounted and doesn't lose strength from Riding Like the Wind if he is forced to skirmish (or Frodo for that matter). Anything that gets through the exertions and archery phase can fought with Eomer. Each companion bearing a mount, rider's bow, and rider's spear are decently strong and if Eowyn wins her fight she adds strength to the others. For Emergencies you can exert the bearers of Horse of Great Stature to give some strength as well. When setup Eomer is a pretty good fighter (defender +1, strength 16, if Eowyn won, and damage +1). Theoden with Theodred out and 2x Riding Like the Wind can give you a possible 5 moves in a turn.

Be ware though only use Aragorn's bow if you know there is no other option for saving your companions as there is no threat removal and not sure I wanna make the deck any bigger. I could throw in a Sting, Elven Long Knife to remove the threats and make the deck 35/35.

I currently have this free peoples paired with a shadow that helps it a lot if the conditions are met for it to do it's trick, but not gonna get into all of that, so any suggestions on a shadow for this or what could make this better are always welcome.

Thanks for the read,

NK


Edit:

Would Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark perhaps be a better option? With Merry's Sword and Aragorn's Bow he could be just a strong, but if I face certain minions he won't and Heir to Meduseld can always be strong with companions in play.


HERE is a link to a shadow that I came up with for this fellowship. It is actually standard legal but does what I want for the fellowship, which is cycle and make my opponent rethink giving chase and getting to far ahead of me on the adventure path .

[hsiale]

Serious problem: you start with only one companion and he is not valiant. Which means Simbelmyne doesn't work. It's hard to solve this. You could bid 0 and start Eowyn, Theodred and Merry (replacing Strider with Defender of Rohan). Or you could replace Gamling with some valiant companion (maybe Eowyn, Lady of Rohan).

[NappyKorn]

I figured with 5 other companions in my deck I would be sure to draw 1 early, but as of lately my draws have been bad and nothing better than removing luck from the equation . I like the idea of starting the extra companion to get a better use out of merry's sword if my luck lets me down. I'll replace strider (since I just wanted him b4 his bow and well he can be fetched with simbelmyne). Thanks for the advice, for you.

NK

[NappyKorn]

Added a link to a shadow I made to help the fellowship, just checkthe original post.

Thanks,

NK