The Steward and the One Ring 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

== Heroes ==

Denethor is your blocker/scryer and carries The One Ring, getting +1 with Inner Strength (which also gives you a built-in "Burning Brand" for 1 threat) and another +2 with a Gondorian Shield (which can only be played with Reforged). Put one or both Unexpected Courage on him and he can double or triple block and/or use his scry ability.

Eowyn is the primary quester, with plenty of things you don't mind discarding for her ability (primarily Elven-light, Gondorian Shield and Steward of Gondor, and secondarily any of your duplicate unique attachments). With Snowmane and Herugrim she can quest for big AND attack for 5.

Glorfinel is another primer quester who gets better after you get a Light of Valinor on him, and your primary attacker before you get Eowyn built up. An Unexpected Courage on him allows him to attack twice (or once if you don't have Light of Valinor on him yet).

Put a Song of Healing on each hero to keep them healthy, and give you another way to discard things you want in the discard pile.

== Allies ==

12 of the allies have "Enters Play" abilities, making them good targets for Stand and Fight.

The Envoy effectively costs only 1 resource and can help "move" a resource to any of the heroes when she enters play because they're all Noble traited. She also has the Gondor trait, so the Knights can bring her back to hand, making her an excellent reusable blocker.

The Minstrel digs out an event when she enters play: Elven-light, Reforged and A Test of Will are my primary targets. This will also help thin the deck (slightly).

The Handmaiden is a powerful quester and reduces threat when she enters play.

The Knights are powerful attackers and return a Gondor ally (both Envoy and Knight are Gondor) when they enter play.

Master of the Forge digs up attachments. This obviously helps build up your heroes, but also thins the deck (much more so than the Minstrel) and gives you more for Eowyn to discard if you can only pull a duplicate unique.

The Riddermark's Finest are here to get rid of locations, and can be reused with Stand and Fight.

If I need to sub in Miner of the Iron Hills I'd trade them for two of the Minstrels.

== The Rest ==

Ancient Mathom is obviously here for card draw. The other card draw in the deck comes from Elven-light (easy to get into the discard pile with Eowyn's ability and Song of Healing) and Daeron's Runes (which can also help discard Elven-light).

I always attach Steward of Gondor to Glorfindel for two reasons: 1) Spirit has many more cards that require resources than Lore. 2) It gives him the Gondor trait, so I can play the second Gondorian Shield on him for +2 if that's needed. HOWEVER, I like to keep my third Reforged available in case an effect causes me to discard an attachment.

== Quests ==

In Core and Shadows of Mirkwood this deck beat everything except for Escape from Dol Guldur. I had to sideboard in the Healing Herbs to get through Rhosgobel, and failed at Return to Mirkwood several times before I got through it because of the quickening Threat. I wasn't using The One Ring for these quests.

I only added The One Ring and Inner Strength (moving A Burning Brand to the sideboard, and adding a second Herugrim and Snowmane to the main deck) when I started testing against the Khazad-Dum quests because of the shadow effect of a single treachery card (Sudden Pitfall). I've won all of the Khazad-Dum quests several times but haven't moved past them into the Dwarrowdelf cycle yet.