Flying Solo (My best solo Eagles deck)

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jamjams32 1061

I started playing LOTR since it’s initial release and even from the base box, you could tell they were trying to push an eagles deck on us. And like everyone else I tried to make numerous eagles decks and they all just fell flat. I feel like since the beginning of this game there has been this collective desire to build and play a competitive mono tactics eagles (solo) deck. Since the beginning, I’d say there has been two major issues with solo mono tactics eagles decks:

1) Not enough willpower and questing

2) Expenive eagle allies

I will say that after the release of this latest pack, I think Meneldor has single handedly made solo mono tactics eagles decks not only viable but actually very powerful. It’s triggered ability of placing two progress as he comes in or leaves play shores up one of the major weaknesses of a tactics eagles deck before. His ability is massive and shouldn’t be understated. There are many ways this deck tries to utilize his ability including things like Born Aloft, Meneldor's Flight, or even the ability of Gwaihir.

This deck also tries to account for the more expensive eagles allies as well as the desire to want to replay many of these allies over and over from a classic tactics hero Hirgon. This deck makes excellent use of his ability. There’s rarely not a turn that I’m triggering his ability which over the course of the game pays huge dividends and really makes playing and replaying these awesome eagle allies a real possibility.

To further support the overall questing and willpower of the deck we’ve got hero Éowyn. It should be no surprise she’s a rockstar in this deck as she’s widely known to be a top tier hero for tactics. Her low starting threat and 4 willpower make her a force to reckoned with.

Since the release of Grimbeorn the Old, I’ve been addicted to using him. I generally build pure solo decks and he’s an absolute monster in a solo deck as he can effectively handle both the defending and attacking phase of the game which gives me the freedom to usually focus on questing or whatever else with my other heroes. I’ve posted multiple decks with Grimbeorn the Old now so look at some of my other decks to get more comments on him. But he’s amazing and this deck tries to leverage his ability to the highest degree possible.

I’ve played this deck through 7 quests so far and it’s been dominating them. This deck has so much versatility too. I can quest successfully, see what came off the encounter deck, and depending on what i see I can pivot my strategy. Maybe I pull a location so i trigger Hirgon ability to play Meneldor to place some extra progress on that location. Or maybe i reveal an enemy so I trigger Hirgon again to put into play a Descendant of Thorondor to put extra damage on that enemy. This combined with a Bow of Yew or two on Grimbeorn the Old means he’s more often than not one-shotting enemies with his ability.

Arod and The Red Arrow aid with additional willpower and location control

I love to get Grimbeorn the Old loaded up with Captain of Gondor, Bow of Yew, Magic Ring, and a Rohan Warhorse for maximum effectiveness.

All in all it’s just an incredibly fun and powerful deck to pilot. I truly get that sense of eagles swooping in and out of play helping me out which is a blast. I like how there’s plenty of room for creative and strategic play with this deck as there’s a lot of decisions to make and timing to work out to maximize gameplay.

I have a sneaking suspicion the eagles archetype is not done and that we’ll be getting a little more love for them this cycle. So this deck will be tweaked as i see fit as more tools and options become available. But for now this is the solo mono tactics eagles deck I’ve had the most success with. And it’s a deck i truly want to keep playing because of how fun it is.

As always, let me know your thoughts and ideas about the deck. Game on

13 comments

Nov 10, 2018 jtwilliams37 130

Love it, I'll have to try it out. Thanks for posting!

Nov 10, 2018 jamjams32 1061

@jtwilliams37 Thanks buddy! Hope you enjoy it.

Nov 10, 2018 velcrohead85 152

Really like the look of this, although I'm a cycle and a bit behind so it might be a while before I can play it. Out of interest, any particular reason for leaving out Landroval?

Nov 11, 2018 jamjams32 1061

@velcrohead85 Thx for the comment! Yeah I certainly considered him. I don’t think it’s a bad include. But since the rest of the allies can be quite expensive and maybe the biggest reason for not including him is so far i haven’t had any problems at all with a hero dying. This can be a very effective defensive deck so so far i haven’t felt like I needed to trigger his ability much. I’m sure you could find a place to at least put a one of of him in the deck and it would be fine

Nov 13, 2018 Alonewolf87 2497

How about a couple Thicket of Spears?

Nov 13, 2018 jamjams32 1061

@Alonewolf87 Yeah that could be a good include. I don’t have too much defending as Grimbeorn is such an incredible defender (and attacker). Also I’ve played this so far only solo so it’s not too often that i get swarmed by enemies. I’ll be honest for some reason i haven’t included thicket of Spears in many of my decks but maybe i should start considering it more

Nov 13, 2018 mrbonanza 1

thx for your post. eagles are fun, thematic and efficent in solo with new cycle. I run similar deck with mablung instead. Its very good for solo, but I find that threat management can be problematic even with secret vigil.Thats why I add gandalf.

here my suggestion. you should maybe try Radaghast instead of treebeard. you dont have ent in your deck, and fighting is cover elsewhere. Radaghast will help you more with his creature ressources/healing/questing . Yes he's costly and stats are bit weak, but usefull in eagle deck .

Also, I find that necklace of girion could help you with a extra ressource + 2will for questing, things that typical eagle deck struggle with.

Nov 14, 2018 Alonewolf87 2497

Also, why no Flight of the Eagles?

Nov 14, 2018 jamjams32 1061

@Alonewolf87 I like flight of the eagles but not as much in a solo deck as the odds of seeing them is quite a bit lower only drawing one encounter card a round. In a multiplayer deck you bet I’d throw it in

Nov 20, 2018 The BGamerJoe 5274

I got to play through a few games with this deck and feature it on my blog: lotrdecktest.wordpress.com

Dec 04, 2018 mrbonanza 1

In the last 2 weeks, I played this deck with first 12 saga quest, mostly solo. Here my findings:

First, this deck did well in every aspect of the game (questing, get rid location, fighting/defending, managing threat at least to survive, killing in staging area, card draw). I did some minor changes that improved this deck for my game style.

First, in order to play eagle each turn and to leave at least 1 resource on grimbeorn, I need just more resources. So, I add 3x resourceful, muligan for it. Playing saga, I had access to Frodos’ resource pool, so it could be played during first round with luck.

Second, Support of eagle x3. So powerful on grimbeorn! You can stack multiple copy on him without taking a single restricted slot. Make him also very flexible bc you can switch to boost def or attack (or both). In most of my game, I was able to put at least 2 on him. in theory he could be 12atck -2 armor or 15shield to defend (having in play vassal or guardian with 3x support). Do you need more?!? This is why I ditch weapon card, to make more so room for more utility stuff (resourceful, gandalf, necklace, magic ring)

Very excited about this deck. Fun and competitive.

Dec 06, 2018 jamjams32 1061

@mrbonanza Thanks for the comments!! Glad you’re enjoying it.

Apr 02, 2021 kvanlint 1

I just managed to get the hold of this cycle and also saw possibilities for a viable solo eagle deck with Meneldor's introduction. My build is still a work in progress (and differs a bit from yours) but I did keep Flight of the Eagles in over Meneldor's Flight. Even though the chances of pulling an Eagle from the North are fairly slim in solo, both event cards do the same thing for the same cost (i.e. pull an Eagle back to your hand) to trigger Meneldor's ability. Unless you're playing stuff to get events back from your discard pile I do not see a lot of reasons not to favour Flight of the Eagles.