Would
Merry's Sword be your first pull with
Simbelmyne? No, it wouldn't be mine either. But in the first three games I played,
Merry, Horticulturalist died by site 5. That's just unacceptable. At strength 7, he's at least "competitive companion" sized.
MuadDib brought up the point of running 3 or 4 copies of Merry and starting Eowyn and Eomer, but I don't think that I can get the deck small enough to justify doing that. Honestly, that would probably be the best option.
Conceptually, swapping any starting Merry with Eomer means that I need to find two more deck spots to add Merry. I think the Shadow ran best at 34 cards, so that's where I'd prefer to keep it.
Have you ever used
Merry, Noble Warrior? He's already come through in a pinch for me.
-wtk