Minions are roaming at the start of the game, so you can actually ninja minions off the RB if you want to. Then you draw into your companions, start to set up, voila! Merry comes into play about the time you've got the combo ready to go.
Cut
Gwaihir, your chance of drawing into Gandalf soon enough to use him effectively is not that great. In fact, since you're running 35 cards before
No Visitors, you may just need to drop the Gandy package. Its more for kicks and giggles anyways, not really reliable enough to run if you're over deck spaces, and
No Visitors is absolutely 100% totally more worth it (this is actually part of the reason Pippin can kick butt early game). In fact, I would toss in a
Community Living to ensure you can get Twofoot earlier (and its better than another copy of twofoot because it thins your deck). So drop the Gandy package, toss in
Community Living and 2
No Visitors. Now you have a 35 card deck still, but its cool because you're running this with
Rohirrim Guard.