One card that has piqued my interest for a long time, but which I've never really been able to make work effectively, is Knight of Minas Tirith. In theory, the ability to engage and immediately attack an enemy is very powerful - almost as good as just discarding an enemy without further argument.

But in practice, that 3 attack - combined with the mono-Tactics requirement - just hasn't cut it for me. It can't reliably kill what it engages.

It's kept niggling at me in the back of my mind, though, and I keep wanting to give it another shot. And I think that Hirgon might be just the hero to use for it. Reducing the cost makes it 2 cost for 3 attack - not bad, though probably still beat out by the Marksman of Lorien, and the threat boost for an attack boost is just what we need. Now it's 4 attack when it comes in and uses it's preemptive attack. Combining it with TaAragorn gives it effectively 5 attack on that crucial turn (against any enemy with at least 1 defense). Another option is LdBoromir - now we're up to 6 effective attack, but we also require a second deck.

Now the real question: can we put together a decent deck around this core? Well, the basic idea is to use the Knight to kill enemies before they engage us, but we are likely to need a good defender while we wait to set up the ability. Beregond calls out immediately, of course. That gives us a mono-Tactics deck, if we like. But we also need good questing to guarantee that Hirgon can get his ability off. Hirgon is a dedicated quester, and Aragorn is no slouch at it. In addition, Boromir is pushing us towards a Gondor deck on the other side of the table - including him to boost the attack of a single ally seems...inefficient. Gondor decks are characterized by low starting willpower.

That pushes us towards TaEowyn as our third Tactics hero. That gives us 6 willpower between her and Hirgon, up to 8 with Aragorn. That's a starting threat of 27 - nice and comfortable.

But...

Hirgon's threat raising/stat boost ability and cost reduction are the ideal combination for another underutilized ally, Defender of Cair Andros. Hirgon pushes threat up towards the magic 40, and the stat boost and cost reduction make the ally much more effective on the way. We're already trying to optimize one underused Gondor ally, can we do a second? Why not? The more the merrier! That pushes us towards a higher threat hero - and TaTheoden fits the bill perfectly.

A starting threat of 33, our heroes questing for 9 out the gate, and if we can get some readying in play, we can benefit from his high stats more than once. We're still in need of a good defender, though. We're committed to a quasi-valour approach, so some threat control would be nice. Beregond is practically screaming at us at this point. Spirit version, of course, not the Tactics version. We've got 5 of our 6 heroes now, and LdDenethor rounds out our Gondor deck quite nicely. An infusion of starting resources to get the ally swarm started early.

The Spirit/Leadership Gondor deck practically builds itself. Lots of 2-cost allies, Herald of Anorien to play them (and the doomed isn't objectionable, as the other deck wants to be in valour territory anyways!), a few big beefy allies available for combat emergencies (Knight of the White Tower is a favorite, as is Veteran of Osgiliath). Faramir and Visionary Leadership to provide game-winning levels of willpower. Sneak Attack Gandalf for card draw and threat reduction if need be. A Very Good Tale, some cancellation, Steward of Gondor and the associated Rod. Prepare for Battle, maybe - extra card draw seldom goes amiss. A few interesting options do point themselves out, though. Gondor ally swarms are likely to want heavy emphasis on leadership. Since Beregond's resources seem likely to be able to pile up, Livery of the Tower is a good choice. We don't want to sink too much of our deck space into a super-defender, given that the other deck is likely to be handling most of the combat once it sets up. But Livery isn't a bad choice, and absolves us of the need for a bunch of readying on Beregond - undefended attacks can be soaked with resources. A second copy could go on the Steward himself, if necessary. The last set of really interesting options are the mounts - Snowmane and Steed of the North for readying, and Roheryn. If we're going to go for killing enemies as we engage them, we might as well go all in on it. Add a Westfold Horse-breeder to fetch it, and I think we're done.

The Tactics deck has some other interesting options. Spear of the Citadel, and Gondorian Spearmen - this and the Defenders of Cair Andros gives us multiple options to get rid of enemies before we have to deal with their attacks. For cheap early attack power, we could go for Riddermark Knights or Westfold Outriders. With Aragorn's engagement ability, the Outriders seem superfluous, and we could use an extra 4 attack (5 with Hirgon!) against tough bosses. Steward of Orthanc, Guthlaf and Grimbold add extra questing power for cheap (and the doomed on the Steward is helpful, yet again!), and Deorwine for another defender (with built in shadow cancellation at that!). Legolas and Foe-Hammer for card draw, and a weapon to trigger it. We could either go for Blades of Gondolin or Daggers of Westernesse, but I like the Daggers more. Extra attack on Aragorn means that Roheryn is more effective. To that end, a couple copies of Gondorian Fire help round it out. (Honor Guard, Gondorian Shield and Secret Vigil are no-brainers, of course.)

Theoden has Rohan and Noble, and Aragorn has Ranger. Hirgon's Gondor gives us the last trait we need for a couple of useful events. Proud Hunters for resource acceleration, and Oath of Eorl, to give us just one more way to turn the tables on the encounter deck. And becmay not be such a thing as overkill when it comes to trivializing combat, Battle-Fury gives us preemptive attacks, faux readying, and another way to use Beregond's resources!

And there you have it. It's not a perfect deck, by any means. It's probably not even the best deck to use Knight of Minas Tirith. One or two more attack boosts could likely be found. Adding in Marksman of Lorien, for the -2 to an enemy's defense, and Cirdan or Gandalf in the Gondor deck with Narya could give one more attack boost. But that's getting into multiple-card combos, and the deck I've already got doesn't need anything except to quest successfully on the round I want to play the Knight.

Here's the mono-Tactics deck: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/7273/knights-of-gondor-and-of-the-mark-1.0

And here's the Leadership/Spirit Gondor deck: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/7274

Feedback, comments, and questions are encouraged!

Thanks for the explanation. I never find a place to play knight of gondor in a deck and when I see that you put so many cards only to allow you to do his effect I prefer just play marskman and choose my others cards for another reason ^^.

For exemple with Hirgon I really like TaPrince Imrahil who bring the same allies with a come into play effect for only one resource. But you can only put him instead of Aragorn.

Since you play tactics you will have a lot of attack and defense really fast so you will send your hero to the quest, and don't have a great use of so much equipment. Especially a end of game cards like gondorian fire. But even dagger of westernesse don't seem very good to me. I only like gondorian shield who help in the first(s) turn(s). I prefer to play more allies like defender of rammas or knight of the swan. And feint, always play feint in tactics :).

I also prefer Eowyn to Theoden. You have a free-kill and unless you send all your heroes in quest Eowyn is better for quest, and that is what you need.

Imrahil and Hirgon are an interesting combination, but I've never really been able to make them work together. It always seems as if I'm wasting the resource advantage that Hirgon offers me on TaImrahil's ability when I could be using it to further my board state. Not that I dislike Imrahil - far from it - I'm just not sure that Hirgon offers the best complement to his ability. I'm actually thinking of putting together an Imrahil/Silvan deck focused on recurring Silvan allies.

I also don't think I've included too many cards for the Knight of Minas Tirith - just 3 heroes, across 2 decks. And I think I agree that Marksman of Lorien is a better card overall, but there's something satisfying about killing enemies before they ever get to attack.

I agree with Dagger of Westernesse - it's not particularly useful in and of itself. Mostly, I just use it to trigger Foe-Hammer, because I need the card draw. Gondorian Fire could be dropped with almost no consequence to the deck. I just wanted another way to boost Aragorn's attack with Roheryn, and most of the other ways were Restricted.

Defender of Rammas is an excellent ally, but between Beregond (in the other deck), Defender of Cair Andros and Deorwine, I've got my defensive needs mostly covered. I suppose I could swap out Deorwine for the Defender, and it would help my cost curve.

I deliberately skipped Feint, because so much of my deck is built around killing enemies before they get to attack. Battle-Fury, Oath of Eorl, Roheryn, the Knight, and the direct damage options. If I really need to cancel an emergency attack, I've got Grimbold for that, and he gives me 2 willpower until I need his ability.

As soon as Hirgon came out I made a pair of decks around the Knight of Minas Tirith that I found really fun to play. It has Tactigorn in one deck and LeBoromir in the other. It also has some Entangling Nets so the Knight can 1-shot most enemies. A third deck with Narya could get even more out of him. I also included Born Aloft because he's worth the cost of playing again.

Gondor's Finest: http://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/3891

I put together Prince Imrahil and Hirgon for a mono tactics gondor deck: http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/57048 . It gave me a lot of fun, he successfully replace a gondor deck closeSeastan's one ( http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/54385) who was not only weak but also really boring. He was incredibly consistent at those two things ^^. Not the first time that I have hard time when building gondor deck though.

Not wanting to be a spoilsport, but does the Knight of Minas Tirith / Hirgon combination actually work? Wouldn't the Knight's Response trigger and the attack resolve before Hirgon's "Then, ..." takes place?

53 minutes ago, naverag said:

Not wanting to be a spoilsport, but does the Knight of Minas Tirith / Hirgon combination actually work? Wouldn't the Knight's Response trigger and the attack resolve before Hirgon's "Then, ..." takes place?

I'm pretty sure that once the Knight is played you initiate the 4 steps of combat, then Hirgon will trigger before the attack resolves.