The Choice of Lúthien

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Kelfox 231

"...for mine is the choice of Lúthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter."
-Arwen Undómiel


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Overview: This is a thematic (but quite powerful) deck centered around our favorite (or second favorite, Eowyn + Faramir fans?) couple in LoTR. Oh shoot, maybe our third favorite, Legolas and Gimli fans? But I digress, we are also joined by the Knight of the Riddermark, Esquire to King Theoden himself, Merry. This works best in multiplayer where you can sweep the board of enemies for your playgroup. You defend one attack, then use Merry loaded with readying attachments to ready Aragorn and himself, and Aragorn's ability to pull in the next enemy. Rinse and repeat until you run out of enemies or readying attachments for Merry. It is quite satisfying vacuuming up 4 enemies in a single turn while still questing pretty strongly.

Mullgan: You're not too dependent on any single card, but I generally like to try to get a decent questing ally and a defender on turn 1, Elven-light is also very nice to see so you can balance your draw/resources.

Early Game: Try to get a defender (Defender of Rammas or Winged Guardian) out along with a Galadriel's Handmaiden or Silvan Refugee for some more questing power. Arwen Undómiel will be your main quester, supported by Merry and/or Aragorn if the need is great.

Your relatively low starting threat and additional reduction with Elrond's Counsel will help you here.

Mid Game: Hopefully you have a Defender of Rammas reinforced with a Raiment of War to defend for 5 with 3. Winged Guardian, if you have spare resources, can help you while you get that set up.

Load up Merry with his Rohan Warhorse x2 so that he can kill the maximum amount of enemies. Aragorn gets 2x Dagger of Westernesse and a Captain of Gondor to bring the hurt, along with his enemy reducing abilities. Loaded up, he can pack a strong effective 9 with his defense reducing ability

Balance your resources with Arwen Undómiel's discard, either giving yourself or as needed. Draw cards with Foe-hammer and Proud Hunters to get even more resources as a bonus for murdering all the enemies for your fellowship.

Late Game: You can fairly strongly with a group of Galadriel's Handmaidens and Silvan Refugees. Protect these guys from treacheries with your A Test of Will. You can handle several enemies a turn with your defending alllies and board-sweeping heroes, Aragorn's ability is especially strong for those Goblin Archer type enemies that like to stay unengaged and plink away at your characters.

I like to throw an Unexpected Courage on Aragorn first so he can defend in a pinch, or contribute his 2, 2 resources for 2 ain't a bad deal. If you get more Unexpected Courage, you can choose who to put it on, if you lack Rohan Warhorse on Merry you can throw it on him, especially if you're playing in a 4-player game where you might see more enemies. If you're going to use Merry to quest, make sure you have the ability to play A Test of Will to protect him from nasty treacheries that can take him out of the game.

Conclusion: Not exactly a new combination with Merry/Aragorn, but a slightly different take on it. A good partner deck might bring along some healing and more questing power. Once you get set up, you'll be able to handle killing the enemies for many players, they just have to be able to defend or you can cancel the attacks for them with Feint.

4 comments

Mar 30, 2019 IsraeliWolf 2

so how would this work? and would it be fair/ against the rules.

you kill an enemy with both Aragorn and merry. then you can grab another enemy from the staging area.. the ready Aragorn and then with unexpected courage on merry ready him as well and attack again?

you can continue pulling enemies and attacking? there's nothing against this in the rule books? also, they don't attack either?

Mar 31, 2019 Kelfox 231

Actually it's even better, Aragorn will automatically ready with Merry's ability, you only really need readying on Merry for this to work. And yes, they don't attack since it's past the "Resolve Enemy Attacks" phase.

As far as I know, this is how it's intended to work. You might see similar decks around here that use the same principle with Merry/Fast Hitch with Aragorn as well.

:)

Mar 31, 2019 Wandalf the Gizzard 2415

The combo is legal! And the enemies you engage with Aragorn do not attack.

Mar 31, 2019 IsraeliWolf 2

Holy.. that's powerful.