Muster the rohirrim - Let's talk about Rohan

[Thorondir]

Hey guys. I wanna share my study about Rohan with you.

Since Rohan is pretty much based on possessions, a big weakness is that guy, Grima, Wormtongue. Also and have some natural benefit fighting the rohirrim, like Living off Rock and Quelled.


Burden removal: nule, nope, nothing, zero. We can understand three things from this information: 1) you should mix other culture cards (like Hobbits and Gandalf); 2) it's very hard to play with alternative ring-bearer if you want to play pure Rohan; 3) make it Resolute Hobbit, stack some resistance possessions and just run! Coif is the only thing to avoid burdens.

Condition discarding: few but pretty effective. Fortress Never Fallen is on R-list, can easily be discarded and depends on winning skirmishes, but really can be a bad-#$&*@! card. Let us be Swift is an amazing card, but depends on having Valiant companions, which was a poor fellowship untill some strong guys were made in Hunters block (like Horsemaster, Aragorn, Defender of Rohan and Gamling, The Old). Eomer's Steed is also an option but since Eomer is always the main fighter, an exertion can be very costy.

Avoid discarding condition: none, but there's not much conditions to rely on, so not a very big deal.

Possession discarding: great! Can easily be a harsh time against Corsairs, Web-dependent shadows and also Grond. Many events, like For the Mark, Ferthu Theoden Hal, Swift Stroke and some companions, like Aldred and Erkenbrand.

Avoid wounds: great, I guess. Bitter Tidings is very hard to use but be can funny. Golden Glimmer is good, but with a high cost. Throne of the Golden Hall is amazing and, of course, both Éowyns Lady of Rohan and Willing Fighter (and Sister-Daughter of Theoden, right?). Also Herugrim, Sword of the Mark for Théoden.

Changing sites: no business of yours.

Site liberation: amazing. Fell deeds awake, Helm! Helm!, Let us be swift, Unyielding, Warrior of Rohan and some Théodens. Also Banner of the Mark, Rohan Worker and the HOLY Sturdy Shield (I think it's OP, btw).

Running: great, but risky. News from the Mark is a nice card but... really, six? And who needs a 4 mov. limit? Riding like the Wind is also good for a mount-based fellow, but that -1 strength can kill you. Safest way is to go Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark + Theoden, the Renowned.

Tokens: not so much. Restless Warrior and Merchant of Westfold. Also both horses Mearas of the Mark and Noble Mearas. Some conditions are easy to add tokens, such as Cast from the Hall, Border Patrol and We left None Alive.

Hunter/Anti-hunter: pretty decent fellowship for hunter block, yeah. Also some good guys to counter it if you don't want to go hunter, like Rohirrim Soldier, Rohirrim Warrior. Good events and possessions.

Threat removal: lame! Only card is Rohirrim Herdsman -- way too costy.

Healing: ok. Some Rohirrim Shield, easily retrieved from the discard pile, and Leowyn, With Strength to Fight.

Followers: very good. Enough said.

Allies: very nice, best culture, I guess. But little point on expanded.

Cycling: ok. Many cards to discard and some to take them back. A Rohan deck should not be too cloggy.

Defenders: good. Eomer with Firefoot, Protecting the Hall and also Spear of the Mark. Only strategy against swarms, but not much. And, of course, the Renowned if you go Eowyn.

I find Rohan a pretty versatile fellowship. There are some good strategies to choose. You can either go for horses, plains, valiants, followers or hunters deck. It's the only culture that doesn't have a ring-bearer, which I thought was wrong before studying Rohan properly. Hunter block tried to compensate this with a lot of events and benefits for Frodo (but Frodo only).

Never seen a deck without Éomer. He is key. The killing machine. Eowyn is an amazing support and Theoden could be either a support or a great fighter (actually he's the only companion that can also be a tank, since everyone's got 3hp and he can be 4 with Herugrim and 5 with Harken to me).

The worst thing a shadow can do against the rohirrim is either burden or possession discarding -- that's why I use Swordthain and Shadowplay against Grima.

So... What do you guys think of Rohan?

+ Read about Rohan sinergy in "Riding along: Rohan and other cultures": http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8815.0.html

[ramolnar]

In what format? In general, Rohan is a high-cost deck designed around the skirmish phase, so it does well when the shadows focus on mid-sized minions in the skirmish phase and poorly otherwise.

Towers Block: Like pretty much everything, Rohan beats some decks (swarm, Southrons) and does poorly against others (Easterlings). Dunland and Trackers depend on war clubs and weary. Being able to chump-block Allies at site 4 and then possibly at site 6 can help. Rohan + Sam could be viable, but there are better options.

Towers Standard: I play Rohan here, because swarm-type decks that beat Legolas Dauntless Hunter, the key card in the format, tend to have trouble against Rohan. Also, Simbelmyne thins the deck and makes it easier to play a swarm-type anti-DH deck. Depending on Fortress Never Fallen can be tough against trackers and such. Timed right, everything goes away and it's an easy win. Timed wrong, it's an easy loss.

Movie Block: In sets 1-7, Rohan + Merry's Sword was almost broken, since blocking Enquea makes it easy to romp and race. Then Peter Jackson and Corsair Marauder appeared. Plus, FNF is too inconsistent to deal with Ninja Gollum and Beseigers. Rohan + Gandalf is playable, but I think there are better decks.

Expanded: I rarely see Rohan because there are no overpowered cards compared to other cultures. No Madril, no Namarie and Gil-Galad, no Scouring of the Shire, no Aragorn Thoronogil plus the threat-Longbow, no Gandalf, Powerful Guide. Yes, I know about the Horn deck, but that's not really a Rohan deck. It's a trick that uses Erkenbrand's Horn to get things.

[dmaz]

I've never actually played a Rohan deck before, but I've always been fascinated with the potential of their abilities. After spending the better part of an evening, the other day, looking through all of their post-Set 10 cards, I'm really convinced that there are some strategies that have yet to be fully tapped into with them. There are many companions they have that seem like the could be strong, but you just never see played. I think it will just be a matter of connecting the dots with some of them to some other already-strong strategy to make a killer deck.

Even by themselves, without any support, I've always seen Rohan as holding their own. Given, they can really lose without support (their condition-removal in expanded is hard sometimes to pull off) in Expanded...however, I don't think I ever remember seeing them get completely brutalized.

What I wanted to touch on was what combinations you could splash to make them stronger, without taking away the glory. I guess what you would want is your opponent to be able to look at your deck and still say "wow, that's a strong Rohan deck", not "wow cool combo fellowship", ya know?

I think the combination of Shire can be strong, especially considering what Merry can do when he has his toy! However, for versatility I would probably always lean to Gandalf. Since he has so many end-all events to solve problems, it feels like there wouldn't be as much of a card-count commitment in order to deal with conditions (Grown Suddenly Tall or Deep in Thought), or Grima/some direct wounding (Terrible and Evil).

The downside to Gandalf in Expanded is those wizard conditions...but with beefy rohan companions you should be able to handle them.

Something I really like about Rohan is that their site-liberation events also have additional/other optional effects. Site control is still relatively strong in Expanded with Besiegers, and Let Us Be Swift can really kick them in the grundle, when combined with the mounts which can nearly exhaust their key stacking troll.  If your opponent isn't playing site control, these events do other positive things so you're not dealing with a dead card

Altogether I think there is still a lot that can be developed with Rohan to make them into a very top tier strategy in Standard/Expanded.