"Aragorn and Éomer and Imrahil rode back towards the Gate of the City, and they were now weary beyond joy or sorrow. These three were unscathed, for such was their fortune and the skill and might of their arms, and few indeed had dared to abide them or look on their faces in the hour of their wrath." - The Return of the King

I had thought that my search for a Leadership-Tactics solo deck had ended with my previous deck, yet even though I still feel that deck is probably the most efficient way to play those spheres in solo and in the current meta, I was still unsatisfied. The deck is powerful, but having Balin, as good as he is, along with Boromir felt thematically odd. So instead I decided to build this deck inspired by the very pages of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. It prominently features three of the most powerful lords of men, and thematically this is one of my favorite decks. It may not be as strong as my previous deck but with a bit of fortune this can become an even more powerful force.

It features many of the same cards, but this strategy is radically different. A variation of the classic tempo deck with Imrahil, Eomer and Eowyn, it drops Spirit and a third sphere for a more aggresive approach, relying mainly on Sword that was Broken for willpower. The rest is the classic "allies leaving play" strategy, and for that you'll need to chump-block almost every turn. But even against more powerful enemies or in case of an emergency, it includes Gondorian Shield and Dúnedain Warning to turn Aragorn or Imrahil into a mighty defender. The rest is pretty self explanatory. Give Éomer his usual attachments and watch him destroy multiple enemies per round. Since the starting threat of 33 can be risky, I'm also waiting for new Valour cards that could potentially make this deck more powerful. As you can see, this is more of a theme deck than anything else, and I can't wait for our first ROTK saga expansion to try this against the Pelennor. Southrons, Variags and Easterlings beware!

Aragorn (core)

Éomer

Imrahil

Errand Rider x3

Envoy of Pelargir x3

Squire of the Citadel x3

Snowbourn Scout x2

Westfold Outrider x3

Weather Hills Watchman x3

Faramir x2

Galadriel x3

Gandalf x3

Steward of Gondor x3

Rohan Warhorse x3

Dúnedain Warning x2

Sword that was Broken x3

Gondorian Shield x3

Firefoot

Celebrían's Stone

Valiant Sacrifice x3

Feint x2

Sneak Attack x3

Gather Information

What do you think?

Sounds good. I always have had in mind a deck boosting the discarded allies with himrahil and eomer together.
And aragorn + sword + faramir are good for quest.

Good deck for solo games. The problem could be the drawing effects (Valiant Sacrifice is not enough), probably with Gandalf. Also high threat..., your deck seems Gandalf dependant, but ok.

Sadly there's little to none card draw effects in these spheres. One of the reasons Balin is so good is because it allows for repeatable shadow cancellation and card draw with KUTM, but without him, yeah, card draw is a weakness for sure. However Valiant Sacrifice works as well as it can due to all the chump blocking. I'm really hoping for more card draw in Leadership this cycle. As for Gandalf, indeed he is the only means of threat reduction, but even today Sneak Attack + Gandalf remains one of the most powerful combos in the game. It's not so hard to pull off, and I've yet to threat out with this deck.

I'm just surprised that you only have one copy of Firefoot in that deck. Other than that, it looks like fun.

I too considered adding more copies of Firefoot, but in a deck like this every card slot counts. Firefoot is amazing, but not really that essential and drawing a second copy in the middle of the game or even in the opening hand can be very detrimental since you'll have to wait a bit in order to play it, as opposed to the other, more important attachments like Sword or Steward which you must have either in the opening hand or second turn at most. Galadriel also helps a lot in this respect though.

I am glad I persuaded you to drop Balin from the Gondor deck, haha. Yes, Gondor/Rohan with Aragorn fits the theme perfectly.

As for the deck, I love Quick Strike for Ěomer with Firefoot. It can kill two enemies with a single blow (especially if one had already been injured). Add Mighty Prowess, you kill three Orcs with one Rider.

I would drop the watchman and signals, rely on chumps and shield.

1 Horn of Gondor should be there. Maybe have just 2 Swords and add 1 Visionary Leadership? Or even with 3.

1 Captain of Gondor.

1 Heir of Mardil. Should be easy to use: Errand-rider, Squire, Horn, Steward. Good targets for it, too.

If you have Galadriel, you might as well add Erestor traveling with Strider.

Very good points Fingolfin! I'll try to address them individually.

I never even considered Quick Strike. It certainly is a good option to destroy enemies in the staging area. However, I see some problems with it: You'll obviously want to use it with a 5-attack Eomer, so in order to use it effectively you need to either have Firefoot on him or wait till an ally is destroyed. For the first instance, you'll only be able to play it from turn 3 onwards, since the first 2 turns you'll be collecting the resources to play Firefoot, and in this deck the tactics resources are scarce (Errand Rider is used mainly as a chump). In the second instance the enemies will already have attacked, so playing an event to attack back is not really optimal, especially considering the high threat will mean enemies will engage the round they appear. And if you want to use Quick Strike to kill an enemy that remained in play from a previous turn, well, if an enemy is left alive after the turn they appear you're not playing the deck correctly. The main exception to this are boss enemies, against which Quick Strike is good. In short, it's a good card but rather unnecessary and also resource intensive.

Mighty Prowess is a good card but with the Rohan Warhorse and Firefoot it's not necessary. It would end up most of the times as a dead card.

The Watchmen are there mainly for the willpower. With Stwb in play you only quest for 6 with the heroes, so I added the Envoys and the Watchmen so they can quest for 2, which can be essential. Again, I have the hardest quests in mind. As for dropping the signal and relying only on chump blocking, the deck does that alright, but these days having a strong defender is essential, and I'm afraid the Shield is not enough. The Watchmen are mainly meant to be "chump questers" that can also fetch a point of defense, and they've worked great so far.

Horn of Gondor + Heir of Mardil is very good, but then again, it's rather superflous. Who would you attach them to? Eomer will be ready when you block, Imrahil readies on his own after an ally dies and Aragorn also readies on his own. The only option would be Aragorn so he can ready after blocking, but that is rarely necessary. i might add a single Horn to attach to Eomer so I can have more tactics resources, but that's it. An aggro deck like this shouldn't rely too much on combos.

A single copy of Erestor might be a good option, especially since this deck lacks card draw and he can quest for 3 with Stwb. I had forgotten about him, and will certainly try to find room for him.

Another option that would be pretty good is replacing the Outrider with Honour Guard. I'll do it as soon as I get him.

In any case, I really appreciate the comments! Glad to see the deck spawned just a bit of discussion.

You can't put Horn of Gondor on Elmer if he has Firefoot and Rohan Warhorse attached since they are all restricted.

True! Thanks for pointing it out.

Glad you liked the comments, I will add a bit more. Do not feel like I am trying to persuade into anything, please, I will just argue why I think some of the suggestions are better than the cards you have there. It also comes from a long experience with these heroes, especially Éomer and Imrahil -- I have both heroes almost constantly in my decks (sometimes together). The only difference is, I do not play as much solo.

I cannot see why Quick Strike is costly. In my games it was usually on par with Feint (which you have), I would say more often better than worse, and surely more fun, generally a more versatile card. But I think both can fit. Éomer's bonus applies after Sneak Attack for questing, destroyed ally due to treachery or indeed after chump blocking. Starting at 33 threat, you should need a lot of chump blocking, especially early.

Yes, Mighty Prowess is more fun than effective. It is an immense pleasure to kill three enemies with a single Quick Strike but it will not work out very often (it will more with the likes of Gondorian Spearman and Spear of the Citadel). Though, with War-horse, Éomer could be killing repeatedly and damaging enemies left in the staging area.

If you think Heir of Mardil is too much, then put one instead of Warhorse. It is not restricted, so you can fiddle with a weapon, too, like Spear of the Mark. And as I said above, there are many options to combo it with, not just Horn. All 3 heroes have wonderful stats, so action advantage should be paramount to many other strategy.

I can see the Watchman be good. I haven't tried them. Envoys are surely great, though I like them with Leadership Boromir best, of course.

I am not sure about Honour Guard instead of Outrider. I love Outrider with Éomer, it is a Feint with the bonus for both Éomer and Imrahil, plus you can trigger Valiant Sacrice, and if you have Horn, the price will be same with a possible resource smoothing. Honour Guard is an excellent ally as well (have played him for months) but I think he is better off in different decks (with Beregond or Beorn, for instance).

How is Outrider a Feint? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get it. I considered Honour Guard for quests with archery and direct damage mainly, but he would also work great when Aragorn is defending. I can see him being not essential, though.

I personally just prefer to Feint the enemy than using Quick Strike. Don't get me wrong, I've used Quick strike in the past and I see how it helps after an enemy is just revealed, but I don't see the combo with Sneak Attack. Sure it triggers Eomer and Imrahil's abilities, but since Gandalf returns to hand at the end of the phase, questing has already resolved, so no tricks to take the threat off the staging area. Unless I have a hero with 5 attack before staging, I'll just be striking for 3. Not to mention that with Quick Strike I need to spend an action.

I think you are confused what Quick Strike is. Check the card. At least I think you must be because I have no idea otherwise. Also, when you Sneak Attack someone for questing, Éomer will have his bonus until the end of the round, not a phase.

Outrider can pull an enemy after their attack is over, so it will not attack you (like with Feint). It just needs to remain in the staging area in the first place -- which only works for the high threat enemies with your deck, I know.

What I meant with Sneak Attack is that Eomer will get the bonus AFTER resolving questing since Gandalf returns to your hand at the end of the phase, so if you want to use Quick Strike to clear the staging area of the enemy's threat to quest for more, you won't be able to unless you can kill the enemy with just 3 attack. With stuff like Elladan with Rivendell blade it works, but with Eomer it doesn't since he'll only be 3 attack, unless he has Firefoot of course.

Now I understand what you mean with the Outrider. I wouldn't just go and straight up call him a Feint, especially in this deck since most enemies will engage the round they appear.

omg! I LOVE lorical decks and it hurts me so much as I don't own VoI. I also like Gondor/ leadership/ + willpower. The one thing to think about is that the starting threat is 34. isn't that a bit high? do you plan on using Gandalf/sneak attack to bring that down?

It starts at 33, not 34, and yes, most of the times Sneak Attack + Gandalf, or just Gandalf alone is used to reduce the threat. However, in this type of deck a starting threat of 30+ isn't THAT high since it has a very aggressive approach and tries to finish the quest as quickly as possible (this deck is most at home in HoN and AtS). But even for the earlier and slower quests (We must away ere break of day comes to mind), you can still play slowly, building up your attachments and allies, and of course use Gandalf to reduce the threat. Strangely enough, I've yet to threat out with this deck.

What I meant with Sneak Attack is that Eomer will get the bonus AFTER resolving questing since Gandalf returns to your hand at the end of the phase, so if you want to use Quick Strike to clear the staging area of the enemy's threat to quest for more, you won't be able to unless you can kill the enemy with just 3 attack. With stuff like Elladan with Rivendell blade it works, but with Eomer it doesn't since he'll only be 3 attack, unless he has Firefoot of course.

I don't see where you got the idea that Quick Strike would be used to clear staging threat? It wouldn't, since Eomer has no means of attacking the staging area.

(I do think you're probably right to leave it out in these circumstances btw, but this discussion has gotten very confused)

One of the best uses of Quick Strike is after the encounter cards are revealed but before the quest resolves, attacking the enemy and destroying it thus negating its threat. I wrongly assumed everyone knew this.

Do you mean Hands Upon the Bow? Quick Strike does not allow you to attack an enemy in staging and engaged enemies do not contribute their threat during quest resolution (apart from when they do due to treachery or encounter effects) so using quick strike before quest resolution would not negate any threat..?

After a quick check, you are absolutely right. For some reason I had thought that you can target an enemy in the staging area with Quick Strike. Sorry for all the confusion, my bad.

That is one of the best uses of Quick Strike if you have Dunhere as one of your heroes, but it doesn't work for anyone else.

Yes, that is why there was a confusion. And I think Dúnhere might have played his part indeed. Quick Strike is made for him. But as I said before I have used it well with Éomer on Firefoot, defeating two enemies at once -- but obviously it only works sometimes, if one of them is weak or damaged already (in my games not an uncommon feature). And sometimes the 1 attack boost caused by Captain of Gondor (or even Spear of the Mark, though it is rather weak if you don't have staging area access) can make a difference. Captain of Gondor is not restricted, so that is a clear bonus. But I see Dúnedain Mark can work just as well (or better) if you're not going to use Captain as a defensive tool as well as offensive.