Help in Doubt and Need / Sauron Swarm

[Aolhelm]

In preparation for the Gemp TS tournament, I put together (and have been tweaking) the following deck:

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
Ring: The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Adventure deck:
The Riddermark
Plains of Rohan Camp
Stables
Westemnet Hills
Hornburg Courtyard
Hornburg Armory
Cavern Entrance
Valley of Saruman
Palantir Chamber

Free Peoples:
1x Éomer, Third Marshal of Riddermark (starting)
1x Éowyn, Sister-daughter of Theoden (starting)

3x Aragorn, King in Exile
3x Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith
1x Aragorn's Bow
1x Blade of Gondor
1x Ranger's Sword
1x Ranger's Sword, Blade of Aragorn
1x Brego
1x Eomer's Spear
1x Firefoot
1x Rider's Mount
2x Rohirrim Bow
1x Éowyn's Sword
1x Sting, Baggins Heirloom
2x Hard Choice
2x An Honorable Charge
3x Simbelmyne
1x Citadel of the Stars
2x Help in Doubt and Need
1x Arrow-slits
2x Fortress Never Fallen
1x We Left None Alive

Shadow:
4x Goblin Runner
2x Gate Sentry
4x Gate Trooper
4x Gate Veteran
3x Grishnakh, Orc Captain
2x Orc Ambusher
3x Orc Insurgent
4x Orc Runner
2x Enduring Evil
4x Hate
2x Desperate Defense of the Ring

I'm open to the idea that my companions might need some swaps. I'm quite unsure whether to run Boromir LoG - Aragorn signet, so he can be healed by Aragorn and Hard Choice, plus the anti-overwhelm helps against huge minions - or Boromir DoMT, who handles his own healing.

I haven't had a chance to test this against Dunland possession discard yet, but I feel like that might be a baaaaad matchup. Rohirrim Bows and Citadel of the Stars may help with that, though. I've had someone suggest that adding a few Rohan allies and Well Stored would be nice for extra healing (and incidentally make Eowyn w/sword damage +1) - but I don't know what to cut.

On the shadow side, I think things are working fairly well. Orc Insurgent is ridiculously good against Three Hunters freepsides, which I've seen several of. Still, I open things up to the community - is there some "must have" card I'm missing? Or something I'm running that doesn't make sense? Cavern Entrance is the ideal place to swarm, if I haven't pulled it off earlier, but it's also a bit rough for my freepside.

[Ringbearer]

Why not always starting Eomer? He's the nuts.

[hsiale]

The problems of HiDaN deck are:
- lack of logical starting fellowship,
- to have everything work, you need 45 cards, and then the deck won't work due to bad cycling.

IMO the only way to have it work is to reduce to bare minimum. Frodo, 2 guys and two guys. Nothing more. Then you earn some space. So I'd remove:
- Sam, knight, Theoden (there is no good Theoden in TTT block, 2 vitality is simply not enough for a companion), Hama,
- Sword of Gondor, Herugrim, second Sting

Now you can add two more Aragorns and one more Boromir. 1 or 2 Rohirrim Bows, 1 Rider's Mount, 1 Citadel of the Stars (best anti-Dunland card). Maybe one more Ranger's Sword (and I'd go with FotR version uless in very Uruk-heavy meta). Playtesting should show which Boromir is better and if you can remove Hard Choice to put something better.

[Aolhelm]

Reduced it to 5 companions as recommended (and updated the decklist at the top). I'll try playtesting this, thanks.

I still don't have 4 Aragorns, but I think 3 may be enough due to Riddermark and (mostly) the excellent cycling the Shadow side provides. Time will tell. Right now it's 34/34; I could trim a card or two on the freepside but I actually don't want to trim anything else from my shadow...

[Ringbearer]

When I played HiDaN I played it as a rohan deck with a few gondor companions for boosts.

[Cw0rk]

If you want to run more the 5 companions, I would recommend using Eowyn, LoR. She is perfect vs Enquea. For your Shadow, I don't see any reason to not have Goblin Runner x4.

[Aolhelm]

Worth noting, thanks. I'm liking it much better at 5 companions, though, for now; also, I already have Goblin Runner x4 (top line of Shadow).