Éowyn, Zombie Hunter

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Derived from
Rise From Your Grave 9 3 1 1.0
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Some Sort 3481

You know the only thing that could make Forth, The Three Hunters! even cooler? Allies. Also maybe a fourth hunter. So here we go, my Three Hunters + Allies + Also Maybe a Fourth Hunter deck.

I just happened to have a "no allies ally swarm" deck lying around for quick repurposing. Technically it has four allies, but none of them were all that important, so out they go.

The engine of the deck is Spirit Éowyn paired with Stand and Fight. Eowyn enables any other deck at the table to discard an ally on demand, and then Stand and Fight lets you pull it back from the dead and add it to your zombie horde. Suddenly your allies are every other ally in every other deck at the table. (Except for Neutrals, because annoying Stand and Fight ruling is annoying.)

Because this is Spirit, we can then recur Stand and Fight a stupid number of times to fill up our board. Dwarven Tomb brings it back for another play. Map of Earnil brings back the Dwarven Tomb which brings back the Stand and Fight, and then buries the Dwarven Tomb back in your deck to recur Stand and Fight yet again. If needed, throw in a Will of the West or two to get another couple dozen plays, but in practice I find it pretty easy to get 6-8 Stand and Fights without any other trips through the deck.

As I mention in the older deck's description, Stand and Fight isn't just a replacement for playing allies, it's a straight upgrade. It lets you play allies in any eligible action window. Unexpected attack during the quest phase? Stand and Fight. Two points of attack short during combat? Stand and Fight. Forced to exhaust an ally at an inopportune time? Stand and Fight. Lose someone to a bad treachery? Stand and Fight.

Also, because it's a Spirit Event, you can use Good Meal on Merry to reduce its cost by two! (Ruling confirmed with developers.) Basically any ally from any sphere (except neutral) can be played at any time for two fewer resources. It's good!

With the rest of our deck space, we build around The Three Hunters and Stand and Fight, Attachment Edition. Everything that makes Stand and Fight great makes Reforged great, too; you get access to everyone's attachments (Eowyn again gives every other player an opportunity to pitch them on demand). You can play them in any action window instead of being limited to the planning. Good Meal makes them all stupid cheap. Etc.

(In this deck Good Meal essentially lets you reduce the cost of almost any card in the game-- including out-of-sphere allies and attachments from other decks-- by two. It's like a turbocharged Captain's Wisdom that doesn't require an exhaust. It's fun.)

The One Ring is just here to get us one attachment closer to flipping the Three Hunters contract and to start us out with The Ruling Ring to give us a bit more breathing room while we're setting up. I stick it on Galadriel and her four HP means she's not at much risk of dying unexpectedly, and our low starting threat means the reduced threat-out level isn't any issue either. Depending on the quest, feel free to sub in The Master Ring or The Ring of Power if they buy you more breathing room.

Oh, also! Eowyn Voltron. Because why not. If she has, say, Golden Belt, Herugrim, Firefoot, Snowmane, and Silver Circlet she can quest for 10, automatically ready, attack for 12, and then splash any overkill damage onto some other enemy engaged with you. Plus with her built-in effect you can boost either of those values by up to 4 points per round. Tactics Éowyn eat your heart out!

(This assumes you're letting allies handle the defense for you; you can equip her with Golden Shield and turn her into a super-defender just as easily.)

The deck's not totally optimized. Right now it's at 56 cards, though functionally that's 53 after the Contract and the Ring. The attachment mix could probably be curved a bit better with playtesting.

Right now the most important part is mulliganing hard for the Mirror of Galadriel, which is the key to getting all the disparate pieces you need when you need them. The forced discard isn't a huge cost given how easily you can play stuff from the discard pile, though take note that if any neutral cards wind up discarded they're gone for good.

Also, you could build a different version of this deck that ditches Merry for Arwen Undómiel. You'll lose out on that great Good Meal discount and you'll no longer be able to dip into secrecy reliably enough to play the Resourcefuls. Also, Hobbit Pony shouldn't be underrated as a tremendous piece of quest control. Still, Arwen's better stats and built-in resource acceleration are totes amaze.

Ultimately the reason I didn't go that route is the same as the reason I didn't use Steward of Gondor (which is easily playable with Reforged); this deck only functions in multiplayer, and the more partner decks the better. As a result, it seems wise to minimize potential unique conflicts.

Also I just really love Good Meal.

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