I had a chance to play this deck again... first time on GCCG in about 5-6 weeks.
EMHR did give out too much twilight but I was lucky and only lost
Eowyn LoI at site 2. Gandalf died to 2x
Too Great and Terrible at site 5. I still feel like early sites are the riskiest and I need to be set up quicker. So, I pared the deck down a bit to 35/35:
--
Beneath the Mountains (illegal)
+
Ever My Heart Rises (works)
--
Glamdring (nice to look at their hand, but it seems to be discarded very easily)
+
Gandalf's Staff (helps vs. Easterlings if needed and...
Too Great and Terrible, grr...)
--
Durin's Secret (I used to play 3x, then 2x, but now it seems 1x is fine for my normal move pattern)
--
Gimli's Battle Axe, Trusted Weapon (no point without
Beneath the Mountains)
If I cut out any more cards, I might go with
Not the First Halfling and
Gandalf's Staff to get it down to 33. But it seems OK as it is... especially since
EMHR makes the "starting hand" 14, not 8.
I think my strategy vs. Freeps Ents would be to get a
Constantly Threatening in hand, discard my deck, and then swarm after a triple. Seems like it would work if they didn't know I had it and I played it after their triple with plenty of twilight. I would play my Freeps as normal and try to hit them on site 9. They would have to triple twice to beat me there anyway.