So, I'd like to build a deck using Erestor, but I'm torn between a few different approaches.

1. Two leadership heroes to give access to Steward so we can play the majority of cards that we draw as needed. Perhaps Aragon for the use of Celbrain's Stone?

2. Two spirit heroes so I have access to Zigil Miner for resources and Will of the West for discard pile recycling

3. A tactics hero to give easy access to the new weapon - likely Mablung for the resource generation

- 3a: a second tactics hero - perhaps Beregond for the defense and kind of cost reduction

- 3b: a second lore hero - perhaps Damrod for cost reduced traps and another card draw

Regardless, any deck should likely include Ered Nimrais Protectors to get back any key cards.

What are some of your thoughts on the direction of building a Erestor deck?

I'm playing around with Matt's deck now and lack of resources is a major problem. He hints at more cards to come so I might stop and wait for that. The deck isn't very strong imo. And even in spite of it being a discard deck, the two tactics elves still suck.

I tried the Erestor deck mentioned in the FFG article, and I noticed a few things :

-the starting hand is cool, you get a lot of cards

-then you only play with 4 cards each turn, so if you have the new Noldor weapon or Protector of Lorien and you need to buff yourself for 3, well you've got to discard almost everything, which limits the options of the 4th card you wanna play

-first hand of 6 cards, before a possible mulligan, was tough, I did not know if I should keep it or not

-without the harp, the deck becomes weak

-got Will of the west on my second turn and never saw it again, so...

-I don't think I like this type of deck

The only other type of deck that I would try is with Outlands. Also, I wonder if more attachments would be better than events, what do you think ?(Because I always got an event I did not need in my hand and never got the event I needed in my draw.)

What do you think? And do you like the Erestor deck type?

Cheers!

I got my pack yesterday (hurray for actually having a a community now) and after trying Matt's deck, I think that right now the archetype is still way underdeveloped. Mainly because of lack of resources, and ways to get key cards when you need them. I like the idea, but right now running Erestor in solo seems extremely risky IMO. I think that by the time we get to the Grey Havens this will be a more or less complete archetype.

I'm playing around with Matt's deck now and lack of resources is a major problem. He hints at more cards to come so I might stop and wait for that. The deck isn't very strong imo. And even in spite of it being a discard deck, the two tactics elves still suck.

Same issue here-Matts deck was not bad with questing for me, but stalled with resources too often. I also think I overestimated how many cards I would have at a time. At most with that deck you only have four after round 1, which left me with tougher decisions on discarding effects (protector or elven spear, for example). I wasn't so sure about Beorns take that includes card draw but it's looking appealing. Also, a power deck to me would include Glorfindel and his attachments, with Galadrial and hers-you'd likely get set up quick:splash in blades and you've got a machine going. Heck, a well placed Elronds Council and your have a secrecy deck. I just can't make myself use Glorfindel...

I agree with all of the above. It's almost like the deck is fighting itself. I'm going to put it aside until we get the last two packs. You need a super low curve to play the cards, but you also need to discard the cards for the triggers. I think as a blizzaro support deck it might work, but not solo.

This is definitely an archetype in progress. We don't know the whole story yet. I feel like Lore and Spirit will be the cornerstones here - if you have e.g, 2 Spirit heroes and 1 Lore, you can play the Harp and PoL from your first hand - and hopefully an Elven Jeweller as well. The Tactics cards are not worth it so far, I think. I really want to make Watcher of the Bruinen to work, with Cloak of Lorien and maybe Elven Mail (does it go on allies?), but I agree even 4 cards per round seem too few to power all effects - even with the Harp. If you get two harps in play and we get some more cards that mess with the discard pile and boost allies, then it could get really good. Will be interesting to see if some kind of cost reduction will play into it as well. I hope the Dread Realm spirit hero is Noldor - but I guess now we have TGH/Dreamchaser to look forward to as well.

I will definitely pair it with Spirit for Will of the West and dwarven tomb. Eowyn is a good choice since you can get some use out of cards you can't afford that round. I would not go all in on the discard strategy however and would build to a more conventional deck type.

Thank goodness the designers are finally showing Spirit some love!

not a discard strategy deck but I paired him with leadership boromir and imrahil and went heavy on gondor allies, since they mostly cost 1-2 you can dump 3-4 allies per turn (up to five in a single turn with a very good tale!), then with visionary and boromir's bonus, they all get decent stats. Throw in a cloak of Lorien, some healing and a burning brand and you can make a reliable defender out of erestor too, if chumping is too risky.

I will definitely pair it with Spirit for Will of the West and dwarven tomb. Eowyn is a good choice since you can get some use out of cards you can't afford that round. I would not go all in on the discard strategy however and would build to a more conventional deck type.

That's what I did... but I got Will of the West right away and never saw Tomb later in the game...

I guess that a little bit of unlucky drawing destroys this type of deck. But then, again, who never had a bad drawing even with a solid deck?

not a discard strategy deck but I paired him with leadership boromir and imrahil and went heavy on gondor allies, since they mostly cost 1-2 you can dump 3-4 allies per turn (up to five in a single turn with a very good tale!), then with visionary and boromir's bonus, they all get decent stats. Throw in a cloak of Lorien, some healing and a burning brand and you can make a reliable defender out of erestor too, if chumping is too risky.

I like this... Might try it! What quest did you play against?

I really like that Gondor deck idea. I might try Aragorn and Sword that was Broken instead of Imrahil though.

I've only tried it against intruders in chetwood thus far (paired with a primarily spirit deck) and it crushed that quest, with faramir and visionary I had 51 willpower from the gondor deck alone, then leadership anborn swinging for 4 and the veterans from osgiliath for 3 each to deal with enemies.

I thought about swapping Aragorn in but i had plenty of willpower without the sword that was broken, seemed like overkill to me.

I think that at this time that's the way to go. Use Erestor as a draw engine rather than a discard engine.

Did somebody say outlands? Sshhhh!

I've been running Erestor/Grima/Glorfindel and that's been working very well. Granted it's not a viable multiplayer option, but I've put it up against all the new stuff and even some Nightmares and it's done pretty good. Grima really helps smooth things out since you have such a limited time to play everything. Threat is never an issue because of Elronds Counsel coming up so often. I'm having a blast with it, I didn't think I'd like Erestor but he's quickly become one of my favorites!

I've been running Erestor/Grima/Glorfindel and that's been working very well. Granted it's not a viable multiplayer option, but I've put it up against all the new stuff and even some Nightmares and it's done pretty good. Grima really helps smooth things out since you have such a limited time to play everything. Threat is never an issue because of Elronds Counsel coming up so often. I'm having a blast with it, I didn't think I'd like Erestor but he's quickly become one of my favorites!

Cool heroes combo!! How many cards do you have in your deck? Do you have a list?

I'm just running 50, with 3 Will of the West and 3 Dwarven Tombs it doesn't run out, and the Tombs wind up being super useful for Elrond's Counsel if you get them early or if you haven't stumbled across a Will of the West yet. I'll send you a list when I get home, it's real fun.

Thanks! My deck had 65 cards, I thought about a standard deck with Erestor... or even a shorter one, so all your cards get drawn fast.

both the Grima and Gondor deck ideas seem pretty good. I wonder if you could fit in a few Song of Earendil's into the Grima deck to make it more co-op friendly and play it as a support deck. I do remember reading that something was coming that would get stronger when there were copies of it in the discard pile, so I'm sure that will help shape up any Erestor decks.

Got to try out the Gondor deck a few times, and it is really strong. 3+ allies is typical on the first turn, with as many as 6 in one game. There is enough card draw to chump block once or twice every turn, so enemies aren't too scary as long as they don't have effects for killing allies. The card draw also helps make sure you can get Steward and Visionary Leadership with some consistency.

Can we have a list pretty please?

Here's my current deck list. Some of the cards I'm on the fence about are Denethor, Ithilien Archer (multiplayer only), Herald of Anorien (probably solo only), and Gandalf and/or Sneak Attack (rare to get both on the same turn).

**Heroes** (starting threat: 32)
[boromir]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Boromir-hon ) (*Heirs of Númenor*)
[Erestor]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Erestor-ttor ) (*The Treachery of Rhudaur*)
[Prince Imrahil]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Prince-Imrahil-ajtr ) (*A Journey to Rhosgobel*)
**Allies** (38)
3x [Citadel Custodian]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Citadel-Custodian-hon ) (*Heirs of Númenor*)
1x [Denethor]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Denethor-eaad ) (*Encounter at Amon Dîn*)
3x [Errand-rider]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Errand-rider-hon ) (*Heirs of Númenor*)
3x [Faramir]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Faramir-core ) (*Core Set*)
3x [Guard of the Citadel]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Guard-of-the-Citadel-core ) (*Core Set*)
3x [Herald of Anórien]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Herald-of-Anorien-*** ) (*Trouble in Tharbad*)
2x [ingold]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Ingold-twoe ) (*The Wastes of Eriador*)
3x [Pelargir Ship Captain]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Pelargir-Ship-Captain-tmv ) (*The Morgul Vale*)
3x [squire of the Citadel]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Squire-of-the-Citadel-tbog ) (*The Blood of Gondor*)
3x [Veteran of Osgiliath]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Veteran-of-Osgiliath-efmg ) (*Escape from Mount Gram*)
2x [Mablung]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Mablung-tlos ) (*The Land of Shadow*)
3x [Warden of Healing]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Warden-of-Healing-tld ) (*The Long Dark*)
3x [Envoy of Pelargir]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Envoy-of-Pelargir-hon ) (*Heirs of Númenor*)
3x [Gandalf]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Gandalf-core ) (*Core Set*)
**Attachments** (6)
3x [steward of Gondor]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Steward-of-Gondor-core ) (*Core Set*)
3x [Visionary Leadership]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Visionary-Leadership-tmv ) (*The Morgul Vale*)
**Events** (12)
3x [A Very Good Tale]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/A-Very-Good-Tale-thohauh ) (*Over Hill and Under Hill*)
3x [Gaining Strength]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Gaining-Strength-tsf ) (*The Steward's Fear*)
3x [Wealth of Gondor]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Wealth-of-Gondor-hon ) (*Heirs of Númenor*)
3x [Daeron's Runes]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Daeron's-Runes-fos ) (*Foundations of Stone*)
**Quests** (1)
1x [send for Aid]( http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Send-for-Aid-ttor ) (*The Treachery of Rhudaur*)
***
^^Deck ^^built ^^with [^^Rivendell ^^Councilroom]( http://ddddirk.github.io/lotrdb )

Cool deck!!! Have you tried to trim it down to 50 cards?

That's the thing with Erestor though. Trimming it down to 50 cards means you go through your deck even faster and there is no will of the west. You are burning through 4 cards a turn in addition to 6 (setup) + 15 (Very Good Tale) + 6 (Daeron's Runes) = 27. So in a 50 card deck you can potentially run out of cards after 6 turns, (assuming you use Gandalf for threat or damage). This might be long enough in a 4 player game, but in solo or 2 player that's probably going to be too short.

But if you wanted to trim it down to 50, I'd probably take out the Daeron's Runes, Herald of Anorien, and possibly the extra copies of Mablung or Ingold.