Rate this Deck: Free People Rohan only

[Witchkingx5]

Well, I was trying to build a new kind of Rohan Deck. It's real life Deck, so I'll add some comments regarding missing cards:

Ring-bearer and Ring:

Isildur, Bearer of Heirlooms
The One Ring, Such a Weight to carry

Companions:

1x Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien (starting)
1x Eomer, Horsemaster (starting, foil)
2x Theoden, Ednew
2x Gamling, The Old

Allies:

1x Leowyn

Artifacts:

1x Narsil, Blade of the Faithful
1x Scroll of Isildur
1x Seeing Stone of Orthanc

Possessions:

3x Rider's Spear
1x Eowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade
2x Rohirrim Mount
2x Swift Steed
2x Coif
1x Armor of the White City
1x Ranger's Cloak

Followers:

1x Elendil's Army
1x Faramir's Company

Conditions:

2x For Death and Glory
3x Cast from the Hall

Events:

2x Our Inspiration
3x Ride With Me
1x For the Mark

Strategy and other explanations:

Ok, let's get started with the comps:

Isildur is in my opinion one of the best Ring-bearers, especially cus' of his skirmish ability that just has to exert 3 comps and of his pump ability, which I'll explain later. I know that The One Ring, the Ring of Doom would also have been a good choice (also see later why that) but unfortunately, I don't have one.

Eomer, Horsemaster is an obvious choice. once you can get your hands on that guy, he's the number one Choice as Eomer being a Hunter and having a very nice Skirmish Pump ability that can help cycling. Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien really is the most used Eowyn in both Standard and Movie cus' her wounding ability is just too good. Theoden, Ednew can get a base strength of 9 as soon as you have 3 mounts in play and he's also damage +1 while being able to spot Eomer. His resistance ability is nice but not too important, that's why I didn't include Gandalf in this Deck. I'm happy to have 2 copies, but maybe having 3 of them would be a bit better, I dunno, it also saves a slot for another good card. The reason why I chose Gamling, The Old will be explained better once you see the Events and Conditions. With a base strength of 7, he's a nice fighter.

As for Allies, I chose Leowyn for Healing. I don't think I'd need any other allies as I have other cards that do the job better that those Villagers.

Now for Artifacts: I have a not-decked copy of Narsil, Narsil, Forged by Telchar, but first I wanna get the Vitality Bonus for Isildur, which I'm gonna explain later, and second I also wanted to include scroll of Isildur, which works better with more artifacts. And the Blade of the Faithful costs one less, but maybe I'll replace it. Will see what playtesting shows me. Scroll of Isildur is Obvious cus' of Isildur's relatively low resistance. Seeing Stone of Orthanc is just there to fill up the third Artifact slot needed for Scroll of Isildur, it can draw cards in regroup which can be pretty helpful.

You might have been very surprised in the Possesions section. First, I don't have any Eomer's Bow or Trusted Weapon etc. so I just use Rider's Spears for Eomer, Theoden and Gamling and Eowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade for Eowyn. But anyway, those spears aren't that bad at all, providing damage +1 when the companion is mounted. As for horses, I have noce of the Return of the King horses like Snowmane, but those other ones do their job really well, maybe even better than those rares from Return of the King. Rohirrim Mount is for Eomer, who can easily fight two minions at once, and Eowyn, who's wounding ability is much better when fighting two minions. Those Swift Stweeds are very good against damage +1 minions and that's very important for Theoden, as you will see later. Now Coif is a ver good card for Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien so that she can exert once more to use her wounding ability and I usually put the other one on Theoden, Ednew so that he can exert more often, which I will explain later. mabe a bit surprising might be Armor of the White City, but I actually figured out a little Combo with that one: As Isildur's ability says, that each knight is strength +1, giving him Armor of the White city makes him profite from his own ability and brings him to a new base strength of 11, when bearing narsil even 14! Ranger's Cloak is cool cus' of the Resistance bonus Isildur gets and also the Vitality can help. Obviously, this might be a reason to replace Narsil, Blade of the Faithful with Narsil, Forged by Telchar, but I wanna hear some opinions first before making any changes.

I included two Followers in this Deck: Elendil's Army and Faramir's Company. Elendil's Army is just an awesome card for providing strength, and here I can make use of the Vitality Bonuses Isildur gets: I need to exert him to transfer Elendil's Army. And the opposite of that is Farmir's Company, which provides a bit of healing. I need to spot a possesion to use Faramir's Company, so that's another point why I included Ranger's Cloak and Armor of the White City.

And now for another very important point: Conditions. I recently discovered the condition For Death and Glory, which was actually made for the Northman's strategy, but I use it elsewise. First, I wanna neutralize Hunters Uruks a bit as they are very powerful opponents. And the Skiirmish ability is a very important point if the Shadow players doens't play any Hunters at all: It helps Gamling, The Old quite a lot. Exerting Theoden and making him Hunter 1 (Swift Steed and Coif to make that exertion less dangerous) gives Gamling his strength bonus +3 (!), which is in my eyes very strong, giving him a base strength of 10 (!). The other Condition is Cast from the Hall, which I'm not really sure if I shoud keep it. It's nice with many possessions (which I have) and it can also help finishing off high-vitality minions like Trolls, Shelob etc. But another important point for that card is an event.

And the event is... Our Inspiration! I first wanted to include four copies of that card , but then I saw For Death and Glory is a Skirmish abiltiy, so that's why I cut it down to two copies. This card can be used in many combinations, e.g. discarding not-yet-needed conditions for Eomers ability giving him strength +2 or a nice counter to possesion discard from any source.it has some bonuses against Sword Rack, mainly that it's less vulnerable to condition discard an that it can also bring back possesions of any culture and this during Maneuver Phase, where the Shadow player can't take such a big advantage of some extra twlight as during Shadow Phase. The other very nice event is Ride with me, a card that exerts Theoden (Coif!) to make a Rohan companio strength +5 (!) and damage +1. I don't think cutting down that card to one or two copies is good cus' it can a) be recycled by Eomer or Leowyn and b) be a very important card and is just to strong to abuse. The last event s for the Mark, pretty basic possesion discard, can be recycled by Eomer or Leowyn when not needed. By swithing the two Narsils, I could eventually drop that card for another Our Inspiration, Ride with me or, if I get it, Theoden, Ednew.

Well, this was mroe an article than just a review, I hope you enjoyed reading this and please comment and rate!

[MuadDib85]

I gave it a 3.

It looks fun to play and could win a game or two aswell I guess. But as you know, generally Rohan will get bashed in standard.

Footman's Armor is by far the best armor option for any Gondor ringbearer in any format that it is allowed in. Imo.

[Witchkingx5]

I know, directed wounding is a weakness... but against any beatdown Deck, this Deck naturally wins. Swarm also shouldn't be that big problem with a 14 Strength Ring-bearer. I think I'll include Site manipulation in the Shadow side to be able to use my Rohirrim Mounts. What do you think of Narsil? Should I keep that one or should I change?

[MuadDib85]

Narsil is a preference thing, it depends how much fighting you plan to do with Isildur.

I would suggest Rohirrim Mount with Spear of the Mark for Eowyn. She can then fight three minions at a time while at a plains.

Also Rohirrim Javelin Riddermark Javelin and Fall Back To Helm's Deep fit the whole plains thing. Merry, Swordthain is awesome. Riders of The Mark, Rohirrim Army and Erkenbrand can all be nice.

1x Leowyn is kind of pointless, I'd run at least two probably three.

I don't like Cast From The Hall or For Death and Glory.

Maybe Last Days of My House could be a possibility..

[Witchkingx5]

Well, I don't really want to rely on Plains Sites in fact I don't even think the strategy would be more succesful. I neither have Last Days of my house nor Spear of the Mark, but I prefer Dernhelm's Blade anyway as it can finish off a strong minion surprisingly. I was figuring out the whole fellowship tricks for a pretty long time, and I don't really want mre than 5 comps and those comps I have sem pretty nice to fit in the strategy.

More copies of Leowyn would indeed be a nice possibility. I need to get my hands on some of those...

I also don't think I need Swordthain. Our Inspiration is much better in this Deck, can be recycled for Horsemaster etc.

Fighting with Isildur really depends on the opponent. If he plays any sort of Uruk Hunters (or any Hunters at all) I think using For Death and Glory to neutralize them makes Isildur fight pretty often.

And btw, I played the Swordthain/ Riddermark Javelin/ Rohirrim Army/ Erkenbrand stuff before, but it's not really fun to play and often also dies to Beatdown, which I don't want to.

Anyway, thx. for the suggestions/ ideas!

[MuadDib85]

Nazgul will tear this deck to shreds. As would Uruk Hunters, Men Archery, Men Site Control, Men Stacking, Orc Swarm, Orc Corruption, Corsairs, Beseigers, Enduring Nazgul.. etc..

Rohan really do stink in standard. Not much can be done about that.

1x You Do Not Know Fear wrecks For Death and Glory, but you know your player group better than me, if that Izzy Orc Swarm you posted has won four games in a row, anything's possible

[Witchkingx5]

My play group is mostly GCCG

but yes, this was more a fun Deck and of course Decks like Elven Hunters and Ithilien Blade are much mroe consistant. I was just trying out something new.

[MuadDib85]

Elven Hunters and Ithilien Blade are both lame. I do have decks built with both on gccg for specific opponents that have played horn deck, broken token etc.. against me before but generally never use them.

[Witchkingx5]

I just discovered Firefoot, Mearas of the Mark (13R126)! This card would fit in perfectly!