Rohan - Tentacles

[Shelobplayer]

This is a deck I'm building for a friend of mine, so it is on semi-budget (no ELK - Ranger's Longbow, horns or Returned + GOTM), and I also want to make it a bit different than my usual Rohan decks (again no horns, no northmen tech, no dwarven twist), but I want to keep it reasonably competitive, still can't get rid of the Leowyn - Tentacle synergy, I just grown to like it too much.

Here goes the list:

Freeps:
Ring-Bearer & Ring: Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir + The Great Ring

1 x Merry, Horticulturalist
1 x Eomer, Horsemaster

2 x Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien
1 x Aragorn, Defender of Rohan
1 x Erkenbrand, Master of Westfold
1 x Riders of the Mark
1 x Haethen, Veteran Fighter

4 x Simbelmyne
1 x Leowyn
1 x Aldor, Soldier of Edoras
1 x Weland, Smith of the Riddermark
1 x Guma, Plains Farmer
1 x Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals
1 x Hobbit Party Guest

2 x Merry's Sword
2 x Aragorn's Bow
1 x Eomer's Spear, Trusty Weapon
1 x Eowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade
1 x Brego
1 x Firefoot
1 x Coif
2 x Rider's Spear
1 x Riddermark Javelin

1 x Weapon Store
1 x Fortress Never Fallen
1 x Escape

2 x Unheeded
1 x No Visitors
1 x Daddy Twofoot

Shadow:
4 x Watcher in the Water, Many-Tentacled Creature
4 x Strong Tentacle
4 x Reaching Tentacle
4 x Huge Tentacle
4 x Foul Tentacle
4 x Evil Smelling Fens
4 x Captured by The Ring
1 x Gollum, Dark as Darkness
4 x Led Astray
2 x Fat One Wants it
3 x So Polite

38/38

Strategy:

I know a lot of you always played Rohan with Merry's Sword tricks, but I was always rather the Swordthain/Shadowplay/Unheeded type of guy, so I guessed I want to see it for myself this time. The idea is to bid to go first, Start at  Green Dragon Inn, pull a Hobbit Party Guest, and Pull Farmer Maggot with Merry's ability, so the healing for Merry is set. Fetch Merry's Sword ASAP and use it with some direct wounding or archery total to finish off troublesome minions. The main Healing engine is Leowyn fueled by tentacles, it makes no difference if they are in hand or discard pile, so they are ideal for Leowyn. Also note that if your group is fully healed, you can still ditch some tentacles to heal the villagers storing some extra archery or heals.

The Shadow is fairly simple tentacle bomb, mostly used for its synergy with Leowyn and because by chaining tentacles you can thin this otherwise fairly big deck in no time. The plan is to fill the discard pile with as many tentacles as possible and try to set up a swarm, preferably at Cavern Entrance. Gollum is there to generate some extra twilight and to bring back the watcher with ESF. The thing I really like about this shadow, is that it never clogs my hand while gathering for the bomb thanks to Leowyn (thinking back, I probably never played this shadow without Leowyn - yeah I don't have any HKOTN), and that it shows stopping power without playing a single card hence rather effective at stopping the opponent from running.

I know it is far from the top competitors in this format and that it has its many flaws, but the plan here is not to go to a tournament with this, we only play at the kitchen table, and while we like to play goodstuff, noone would ever play horn loop /lttg or 8 rangers start in our group, and even if we happen to play some rather broken deck, we are doing our best to at least make an even pairing.

Any suggestions on how to improve it are welcome

[Vroengard]

Wheres the last tentacle?

[Arcanite]

Also, Eomer from TT suits it better, as well as theoden TaP. Greenleaf is nice as well.

My Merry's Sword starts Merry, Pippin Wobas, and LOI.

[Shelobplayer]

I need a valiant in the starting fellowship to be able to play Simbelmyne (the AE version of Eomer might might be nice, but I don't have one unfortunately).

I missed the 4 Foul Tentacle from the list, but ofc they are in the deck