A Burning E-Brand 1.0

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For a long time have I used my Rohan deck with SpBeregond + Song of Wisdom + Gondorian Shield + A Burning Brand as defender in 3+ player games. Beregond super defender may come at an end.

We have seen that A Burning Brand is likely to be errated in the next release of the FCK. Waiting for an official confirmation of this, I have decided to create a new deck, akin to my previous Rohan deck, that can be used in solo and multiplayer. Now, the mega defender is Erkenbrand. The obvious advantage of Erkenbrand over Beregond is his in-build ABB effect, hence his name.

In its current form, the deck is presented as a multiplayer-friendly "soft"-defender version with only 3 Unexpected Courages and 1 Armored Destrier. The advantage of this version is that it can do many other things besides defending, namely: quest, attack, heal, card drawing, cancel treacheries... If you want to go more hardcore mode, ask which role is heavily covered by your colleagues. Swap three cards in your deck that cover that role with 3 x Miruvor. You can use the reading effect of Miruvor on Erkenbrand and bring it back to the top of your deck. Thanks to Beravor (or Galadriel) your card drawing won't suffer.

How to play this deck: In its core, the deck is a multipurpose Dale ally deck with a sentinel hero defender. So I won't discuss how to play it. I will just discuss the sideboard.

Notes:

1) If you are allergic to decks with more than 50 cards, remove The Day's Rising.

2) Unless you are faced with a heavy hitter from round 1, Hauberk of Mail is a better card in your starting hand than Ancestral Armour.

Sideboard:

1) If nobody uses Steward of Gondor, change the more thematic Necklace of Girion and The Day's is Rising for 3 copies of it.

2) Galadriel or Beravor? Both are great heroes for solo and multiplayer games. If you prefer Galadriel over Beravor, remove 3 copies of A Good Harvest and add 3 copies of Nenya. In general I don't have a preference, Galadriel can be better in scenarios which are heavy on threat, while Beravor gives more card drawing plus she has more rounded stats than Galadriel, making Beravor more useful in quest with keywords such as Battle or Siege. Galadriel gives you also access to Lembas, although I think they are not needed in general, they are a valid option :)

3) Denethor?? In the case that both Galadriel and Beravor are taken, the deck can also function with Denethor. In this case, if only for the reason of being thematic, ask to be able to have Steward of Gondor. Remove (2) Ioreth, (3) A Good Harvest, (2) Necklace of Girion and (1) The Day's Rising; and add instead (3) Steward of Gondor, (3) Rod of the Steward (both go on Bard) and (2) Dúnedain Remedy. If the healing role is properly covered by one of your colleagues, instead of (2) Dúnedain Remedy add (2) Errand-rider to pass resources across the table. With Steward of Gondor you are likely going to produce more resources than you can spend. Also, in scenarios where you start engaged with a heavy hitter, Denethor may be the better choice, as he allows you to play Ancestral Armor on round 1.

4) A Good Harvest, Captain's Wisdom or Legacy of Númenor? It is a matter of play style. Typically in 3+ players game, Legacy of Númenor is the most powerful card, but if you are teaming up with a secrecy deck... he/she is going to hate you, a lot! As for Captain's Wisdom, I have found in general it less useful in this deck than A Good Harvest, but Captain’s Wisdom allows you to play amcestral armour from round 1.

If you try, I hope you enjoy and have fun playing this deck.