Théoden Renowned Tank (FP only)

[DáinIronfoot]

Nothing fancy here, folks. Just a big Theoden with his favorite son, nephew, and niece and a certain Wizard and Hobbit along for the ride.

FREE PEOPLES (37 cards):

Frodo, Resolute Hobbit w/ The Great Ring

Theoden, The Renowned (starting)
Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark (starting)

Eomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark
Eowyn, Lady of Rohan
Gandalf, Manager of Wizards x2
Merry, Swordthain x2

Herugrim
Eomer's Spear, Trusty Weapon
Eowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade
Riddermark Javelin x4
King's Mail
Rohirrim Helm x2
Rohirrim Shield x2

King's Board
Sword Rack x2
Hearken To Me
Home and Hearth

Simbelmyne x4
Ride With Me x4
No Living Man x3
I Am Here

Once Theoden has all his gear (Herugrim, Hearken To Me, King's Mail) and niece and nephew out, he is a strength 11, vitality 5, damage +2, defender +1 beast that is very hard to kill thanks to the fact he can only take wounds in his skirmish...and only one at a time, at that! Oh, and he spots his son to increase the move limit, too. Hard to beat all that, eh? :hey:

But that's just the start: your other companions are no slouches, either. Theoden can make them all beasty in skirmishes thanks to Ride With Me, and they can also load up with javelins and throw out lots of archery...then hopefully get them back the next turn thanks to Sword Rack and/or Swordthain. And while they may not have much other gear of their own, Ride With Me uses their king to make any of them strength +5 and damage +1. Not bad at all.

They can also help Theoden out in return. King's Board makes a nifty combo with I Am Here if you pull it off right: exert Eomer and Eowyn twice with King's Board to make Theoden a total of strength +8, then exert Theoden twice with I Am Here to heal Eomer and Eowyn up the next fellowship phase! Downright mean if you can pull it off at the right time.

Simbelmyne obviously helps cycle like crazy, whether you need companions like Eomer or Eowyn, or possessions like Herugrim or another javelin or a healing Rohirrim Shield. Name it, and it's yours.

Gandalf is mostly here to give you access to Hearken To Me and another Theoden signet for use with No Living Man (which can spot up to 4 Theoden signets here ), but his ability can help anyone out if you're desperate for some strength. Merry, as noted above, gives another signet and also nabs possessions back when you need them, like your healing shields, skirmish negating helms, or flying javelins.

Far from a perfect deck, granted, but I've been trying to create a Theoden tank and/or Theoden signet deck for a while now, and this is my most promising design yet. Help make it better!

[Elendil!Urukfear]

I love it!!! But one problem is how are you going to get those possessions on Theoden to begin with, since you don't have multuple copies of Herugrim, King's Mail, or Harken To Me.

[DáinIronfoot]

Simbelmyne helps to a large degree. You can use it to help pull Eomer and Eowyn and, once you have them, possessions as needed. Hearken To Me is probably the hardest to pull, since there's no help for getting it out quickly, but I had trouble thinning anything else to put in more copies of it and/or Gandalf. I guess that one would take a little bit of luck.

[Gil-Estel]

make sure not to bid anything I guess, since Theoden has only 7 resistance. Otherwise Theodred isn't able to show in your starting...

[Elessar's Socks]

Unless you plan to triple move from the start, maybe move Theoden and Theodred into your draw deck, and start Eomer/Eowyn instead. Eomer is generally a stronger skirmisher, anyway, and it looks like their wounding toys (Trusty Weapon and Dernhelm's Blade) are more important to your overall wounding strategy.

[Elendil!Urukfear]

That's true but the general goal of the game is not to wound minions but to discard them. also, the main point of having a theoden renowned tank is to use theoden, so i would keep him in your starting fellowship just start someone else with him.

[DáinIronfoot]

Yeah, I think I like starting with Theoden/Theodred better...though as pointed out, it does mean I can't bid anything. I guess whether I start them or Eomer/Eowyn would depend on the Shadow I used.

IF I did switch to Eomer/Eowyn starting, do you think I should toss in another copy or two of Theoden to ensure I get him early enough?

[GarrisonofGondor]

Yeah you probably should. But the bloodlines rulebook says decide randomly who goes first. It does not say bid burdens.

[Thranduil]

It looks like Théoden might be very exhausted most of the time from the amount your exerting him. Perhaps a couple Have Patience wouldn't go amiss.

And if you really want to make Théoden's strength ridiculous, have a G for Grand engine with Leader of the Company, Foe-hammer and Weapon of Heritage! :hey:

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

I used to be big into G for Grand...until opponents started using all the extra twilight it costs to rip my fellowship a new one. I'm leary of designing a deck around it now.

Have Patience is scary for the same reason...I prefer not to use it whenever other healing methods are available to me due to some bad past experience with the twilight it adds. I'll consider tossing in a copy or two since Theoden is such a big piece, though.

[Elf_Lvr]

Yeah you probably should. But the bloodlines rulebook says decide randomly who goes first. It does not say bid burdens.

On a note, the Comprehensive Rulebook definitely overrides the individual starter rulebooks, which are mainly used for helping start new players out and leaves out some concepts (like bidding). I'm sure the Comprehensive Rules were posted over somewhere at CC, even if they aren't on here right now.

Oh, and Dain, as to any twilight issue, I'd say go for the Grand. I've got a Rohan/Gandalf deck that commonly throws out 8+ twilight during the fellowship phase, and it really doesn't seem to mind. That's just my deck; but the more strength you have, the less you really have to mind what your opponent does with that twilight.

[Elessar's Socks]

That's true but the general goal of the game is not to wound minions but to discard them.

Not sure I get what you're saying here. Trusty Weapon, Dernhelm's Blade, Riddermark Javelin, Sword Rack, Swordthain, and No Living Man are all related to wounding.

Actually that might be why I'm having trouble reviewing this thing; it's a Theoden tank deck without beatdown in the forefront! I dunno, would it work better to pack in skirmish staples like Deor, Thundering Host, and We Left None Alive; and run Leader of the Company with G for Grand, or Gondor with Help In Doubt and Need?

For wounding maybe run Merry's Sword and switch Eowyn to Restless Maiden or Lady of Ithilien. You have Sword Rack and Swordthain in place already to catch the discarded Sword and Dernhelm's Blade.

Manager of Wizard's strength "boost" is too easy to prevent without extra card drawing, especially once you double move. Maybe the Theoden signet / No Living Man angle can be dropped if the need for Theoden signets proves too restrictive.

Sure, start Theoden or pack extra copies if you'd like, but decrease your deck size! I should start bribing Dain with or something. *LOL*

[Elendil!Urukfear]

Well, I'm not exactly sure what it means because i heard it from someone else, but the point is that you'r not always gonna get by with just wounding a minon, discarding minions is simply more worth the time than pumping up characters and trying to make your guy stronger than the other guy just to get a wound.

Best example i can think of right now is a fierce skirmish; if you use a ton of pumps on your companion just to get 1 wound on a fierce nazgul (or something) it's not worth the trouble since he's fierce anyway.

[Elessar's Socks]

If both wounding and beatdown are out, how would you discard minions otherwise? Unless you mean Ithilien Blade, but not every deck can seriously abuse it without dedicating further space to support cards (e.g. companions, a way to make minions roaming), and that could end up changing the point of the deck.

Beatdown often has a way of wounding a minion more than once a skirmish phase. For example a deck can take down a 3-vitality minion without too much trouble (an exertion from Rider's Mount and damage +1 from Rider's Spear), and if that's not enough, it could be a disadvantage for a minion to be fierce.

[Elendil!Urukfear]

I'm not specifically referring to this deck, but to the goal of the game... somewhat. Idk, I'm just a newb trying to fit into a community of experience in lotr gameplay. Srry for the trouble.