I was quite hyped when I noticed that combining Ents and BoF I could revive good ol' purple hero Faramir and makes an round one ally Treebead possible. I theo-crafted a deck so far, but stoped because I am not really happy with the outcome. For what is more, I cannot imagine that the new deck might be better (or more fun) than my current Ent deck. Soooo... somehow I need your help/input here.

First off: My current deck uses Quickbeam, Pippin and Elrond . I really, really do like hero Quickbeam because of a decent 2 questing power plus 4 attack right from the start. Oh and enables an instant Entmood. Pippin has a low threat, helps with card draw every now (also gives access to the damm bursts, which I rarely use tbh) and Elrond gives a huge bonus to Wellinghal Preservers as well as paying for red ents, too.

I have no published version of my BoF ent deck, because at the very moment it is a mess. I could publish it on request, though.

So for the choice of heroes I decided that my new deck should also contain hero quickbeam. Faramir is quite set, too. Lores Bifur can get resourdces from other heroes (especially leadership and spirit), so that dwarf is a good choice, too. This hero lineup will result in a high starting theat, so my spirit hero should enable access to threath reduction (and most probably should not have a high starting threat itself). So I have Beregond (own threat reduction) or Arwen (because of Elronds Council) in mind. These were my first thoughts.

The green and red cards within the deck are more or less all set; Ents and related cards. I added just one copy of each unique ally (except Treebeard), so I have a few deck slots to fill. There are a few cards to mention here: I added Secret Vigil for additional threat reduction. The "usual" Entmood is somewhat unstable even with 3 ent cards of each type (sometime I draw 0 ent cards when playing Entmood, that feels unsatifying), now there are even less ent cards in the deck, so I decided to try Peace and Thought - with 4 heroes there should be a possibility to have two to spare... anyhow, I have space for a 10th green card. A Warden of Healing might do it.

With the neutral cards I am also quite sure which ones to take. Ally Gandalf and Treebeard, Favour of the Valar, A Good Harvest and two side quests. Seems like a perfect match to me.

Now for the part which made me hesitate. There are a few purple cards which seem to be a good addition to ents: Hauberg of Mail (can be attached to an ent) and Man the Walls (exhausted allies wont quest in the first round anyways). I decided against Sneak Attack, because those two Gandalfs are the only usefull targets - to get both needed cards in hand has a very low chance. For all the other cards: I dont know. Are there any good cards which can boost an Ent deck? Its more or less the same with the 10 spirit cards. Two Tests of Will. Sure. Maybe two Ancient Mathoms. But basically for each other card I'd chose something to reduce threat. My thought so far: can a deck which uses roughly 1/5 of its cards to reduce the threat (which is a problem that only occurs because of initially choosing to use 4 instead of three heroes) be better than "my original deck".

Luckily, there is one deck on ringsdb which uses BoF and Ents. Even more, its author is Seastan! Holy Grail found, I thought. I peaked what theme and combos he has chosen. Bifur and Faramir. Nice. Red and green: more or less the same as me. Purple: more or less just resouce generation/smoothing. Blue: Test of Will and threat reduction. So now really new knowledge here, besides: Narya and no Ent heroes. So that leaves me with the thought that his deck utilizes powerfull (but generic) heroes and choses Ent allies (because of "powerfull") and tries to migrate their weakness "enters play exhausted" by adding Faramir and Narya. This is like a Vilya themed deck. Yes, this is an ent deck but I personally would not rate this an ent deck.

So, after that wall of text: what cards in purple and blue sphere did I miss which can boost the ents? Thanks in advance.

52 minutes ago, Flrbb said:

what cards in purple and blue sphere did I miss which can boost the ents? Thanks in advance.

Ever Vigilant, Need Drives Them

Stand and Fight if you go with Arwen, possibly Valiant Determination.

In general I found that Tighten Our Belts can be really good in Bond of Friendship decks, since you often might end up not using resources from 2-3 heroes in a turn.

1 hour ago, Flrbb said:

Hauberg of Mail (can be attached to an ent)

Since you can play it only on Derndingle Warrior isn't it kinda the same idea of Sneak Attack and Gandalf?

I agree, purple is known for readying and ents need it. Grim resolve is awfully expensive with only 1 hero, so probably not that one.

In spirit, spare hood and cloak might not be a bad one to toss on a character who doesn't quest to try and ready up wellinghall preserver or something.

Desperate defense isn't horrible on derndingle warrior, though i am not sure if that's worth it.

8 hours ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Since you can play it only on Derndingle Warrior isn't it kinda the same idea of Sneak Attack and Gandalf?

Never thought it that way. 😶 But you are right. Well, no. On second thought; if you have played your two copies of Gandalf, a Sneak Attack becomes quite useless or the other way round: a Hauberg of Mail still blocks your hand (you could've drawn another more usefull card instead) as long as you do not have a Derndingle Warrior around, but you can instantly play the DW and attach the HoM later.

I thought of SHaC, too. But you have to transfer it back at times, so as a WP can be needed as good quester in each round there might be no chance to transfer it back. Maybe when using Faramir to ready that WP...

SpMerry might not be a bad choice for the spirit hero -- he has both low threat and threat reduction. The bad part is that there's no room for Dam Bursts or Fast Hitch. You can do Hobbit Pony.

Hauberk of Mail can also go on SpBeregond, if you're using him as the spirit hero.

Errand-Rider is a fine purple choice in a four-color deck, he's cheap and can really help with resource smoothing.

Wellinghalls are fantastic ent healers, but you'll have only two, they aren't cheap, and they can't heal the non-Quickbeam heroes. Dunedain Remedy is a lovely healing card.

The leadership cards used in the Stereotypical Treebeard-ally Ent deck (lineup LeFaramir/Bifur/Mablung) were Sneak Attack (for Gandalf), Gaining Strength, We Are Not Idle, and King Under the Mountain. WANI is a deck thinner, but can give you an extra resource from exhausting Bifur. King Under the Mountain on Bifur gives you additional card draw (choice of two). I think Steward isn't a bad option if you're playing alone.

A Very Good Tale may be a good way to cheat ents into play, especially since Faramir can ready one of them again when an enemy engages

Arwen and Reforged go well together.