Hello, I wanted to ask the tactics players out there who have built an eagle-allied deck how they have done in game play. How do you work around the high costs? How well do they "synergize" with other players and decks? What other "coolness" have you discovered playing with the eagles. Thanks

I like to throw a Tactics hero in my deck when I can, but I pretty much let sleeping eagles lie unless I'm playing multiplayer. I bought the entire Shadows of Mirkwood cycle at once and tried a solo Eagle deck against Conflict at the Carrock. It took a dozen or so tries before I finally beat it. The problem is that I had to get Steward of Gondor out to pay for them. Then I need Eagles of the Misty Mountains to power it up when Winged Guardian and Vassal of the Windlord get discarded. Finally, I need Support of the Eagles to enter play to maximize on Eagles of the Misty Mountains.

When it all does work out, I love playing Support of the Eagles on Boromir. He becomes very powerful.

Some ideas to help pay for the Eagles are:

Radagast: You need to get him out early, but if the game lasts long enough, he can make up for his high cost.
Steward of Gondor: No explanation necessary.
Theodred: Theodred can accelerate your Tactics resources and gives you access to the Leadership sphere from the beginning, so you don't need a song.
Horn of Gondor: Really helps when the eagles get discarded to power up Eagles of the Misty Mountains.

I have found that the Eagles faction work best as deck component rather than a full dedicated deck.

My favorite variant is playing a lore/tactics with the tactics made up of Legolas and primarily Eagle cards. That is the deck I rocked Journey to Rhosgobel solo with, which is perhaps one of the hardes scenarios. In this deck I actually tend to emphasize the low cost eagles.. winged guardian and vassal of the windlords, and then try to keep them in play until I can drop an Eagles of the Misty mountains to be buffed by there leaving play. I also bring in support of the eagles to make Legolas a killing/questing machine. I tend to avoid all but maybe one or two expensive eagle allies (usually 1 Thorondor) and have struggled to find any use for the event cards. There doesn't seem to be enough Eagle keyword cards to make the events really worth it, so I use things like quickstrike in their stead… which fits well thematically in an eagle deck if you think about it.

Also forgot to mention I always include 2 Radagasts if not 3. He is a must for eagles.

Granted, I have only probably played about 4 games with eagles thus far, but I am not so sure that getting Radagast out is as important as getting Eagles of the Misty Mountains out. When I have been playing, I tend to put them out first, even with Ragast in my hand. Given the choice when spending resources, the eagles go first for me. If they are out first, then all the dead eagles will attach to them. If I put Radagast out it may take me a while to get Eagles of the Misty Mountains out, and by that time I will have been forced to put eagles out to attack and defend with not benefit of becoming attachments. I am not saying Radagast is not important, because he is in a deck of this type, but in terms of priority I think EMM is number one. Radagast then comes second, or third depending on how many eagles you have in your hand.

Eagles of the Misty Mountains costs 4 and Radagast generates resources to spend on Eagles. As long as you still have your three heroes, you should be able to play Eagles of the Misty Mountains the turn after you pay for Radagast. If you have 5 resources and play Eagles of the Misty Mountains, you won't be able to play Radagast the next turn because you'll only have 4. But if you have Eagles of the Misty mountains and a couple eagle allies, I can see why you would just get the eagles out. But Radagast only pays for himself if you get him out early enough.

I run a mono-Tactics Eagle deck in my two-player setup. Heroes are Boromir, Legolas, and Hama. It's pretty terrible at questing, but it just obliterates enemies. It can struggle as a solo deck due to low willpower, but Radagast and a few Eagles of the Misty Mountains can get the job done provided the encounter deck doesn't reveal a slew of locations.

Radagast is definitely the key card. As soon as he is in play, you can crank out one of the big allies (EotMM or Descendant of Thorondor) every round. Really fun deck when paired with a heavy willpower build.

For me, birds in a mono-red deck do not work well because you are depending too much on the resources, especially Horn of Gondor and if you're fortunate to get the new Resource cards from Dwarrowdelf cycle, they still do not pay for themselves fast enough in my opinion.

My recommendation is either going Purple-Red, Red-Blue, or a tri-color of the three.

If Purple-Red, Steward of Gondor is a must as well as Sneak Attacks paired with either your Gandalf cards or your Descendent of Thorondors. Resourcefuls are a good idea too along with Radagasts but are useless if bringing out late game, as they probably will not pay for themselves coming out so late. Use Theodred for sure to increase your red resources overtime. Be sure to also grab Cellarian's Stones so that you can attach to Theodred to make his guaranteed questing more useful rather than just for the sake of resource gain. Remember to especially have your Horn of Gondors in this deck, as the Sneak Attacks (especially on the first combat-action step) will definitely accelerate the horn's usefulness. Born Aloft is also another great red card to combine with not just your birds but especially Gandalf, letting you use him again after a whole successful turn if he still lives by the end of the combat round (that action step is when you should jump him back to your hand). Second Breakfasts may also be suggestable because of the dependence on Horn of Gondor, Resourceful (?), Steward of Gondor, Cellarian Stone, Born Aloft, etc. (if be any more etc.). Erestor is also very useful in giving purple its draw ability as well his discarding stuff that is collecting dust in your hand.

Even greater is the Red-Blue combination. Because you are able to reduce threat, you can optimize Resourceful's secrecy cost, effectively letting it pay for itself the very next round and onward to making you well financed to play birds. Instead of running Theodred, run either Dwalin or Glorfindel (if Glorfindel, definitely run Light of Valinor and Elrond's Counsels) for lower threat. Galadhrim's Greeting is a must also in threat reduction. The most important two cards to have in this deck are Zigil Miners and Stargazers in the deck, as they do not just meet your resource dependence greatly with the small sacrifice of a few high cost cards here or there, but also are excellent in card-drawing management of cards that you absolutely need to come up next while those others get the pick-ax, so to speak. Always have Dwarven Tombs in the deck, and also consider using A Test of Will as most "When Revealed" cards in this game are very nasty. I also like Arwen for her defense buff and sentinel ability she gives one of your characters along with a good questing character. In fact, if there be any complaints about questing prowess, blue solves those. Include especially three of Radagast, as his 5 cost is also effective for pick-axing with Zigil Miner to buy Gandalf or another high cost bird.

Making a Red-Purple-Blue requires a lot of consideration in what to keep and what to toss to make the most of your deck and getting the birds you wanted in the first place. Theodred and one of the aforementioned blue heroes will do well alongside a red hero of your choice; consider also one of the Song of Battle, Song of Wisdom, or Song of Kings to strengthen the resource gain of a color you may be in demand of. Definitely be able to purchase blue, as your threat reduction is very dependent on that, the use of secrecy, and Zigil Miner-Stargazer combo; later Theodred can reinforce your resources into red once all blue requirements are met. Timely Aids are also very effective, as your secrecy cost will be easy to meet, making a Gandalf, Radagast, Descendents, etc. cost effectively only 1 purple resource to play if one is on top of deck (stargazers will help determine that too). I'd say the rest is covered with the former paragraphs to make tri-color utilization most effective for your birds.

To see my Purple-Blue deck, go to Winning Deck Builds post in the Strategy forum of lotr to get some more ideas and combinations. I hope this was insightful and I hope to see what build you choose yourself.

I forgot about card draw: play Valiant Sacrifices from purple, especially in combination with Sneak Attacks and Born Aloft. Also Ancient Mathoms from blue are great, especially in solo-play as you are guaranteed to be the recipient of the 3 cards to draw. Don't forget Erestor. If ever needed, Gandalfs too is great for card draw. Because birds cost so much, I'd imagine you will not have many card draw problems however.

Most cards are from the Dwarrowdelf cycle that I have mentioned; very worth getting, as I believe all colors but green came out winners in that cycle (I know some people will say new Aragorn was worth it alone but I thought so too until I saw a lot of the other cards and combinations, especially with secrecy.

I just tried a game out tonight with the 3 hunters (Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas) against Passage Through Mirkwood using Eagles as my main allies. I won 2 and lost two (lost the first one to drawing Ungoliant's spawn first round and forfeited the third game when I drew Ungoliant's spawn first round again!).

My last game was awesome because I won in the 5th round. I don't think I've ever won a game so fast before! It was really exciting. I started with Radagast in my hand and played him on round 2 (after having used only Aragorn's resource to ready him in the first round). I got two The Eagles Are Coming which helped me get allies that Radagast could pay for. By the end I had Radagast, two Vassal of the Windlord, 1 Winged Guardian, and 1 Eagles of the Misty Mountain. We had to defeat Ungoliant's spawn at the end, and it was a piece of cake with that lineup.

I had Steward of Gondor and Horn of Gondor in my deck, but never saw those. Valiant Sacrifice was excellent, as mentioned above. I also really love Common Cause in any deck with Aragorn (Core) in it.

So the point of this post is that an Eagle deck can work . . . at least against the intro scenario.

I played a Three hunters/Eagles deck for a long time. They kick major butt as long as your don't pay attention to VPs or aren't too worried about taking them underground. Thematically I don't really like them, but they are fun to play. Radagast is a must. Get a few Vassals and Guardians out early and pay for the upkeep until your EoMMs are ready, then start beefing them up. Save your Decendants until you really need them: they love to snack on goblins and work great with Sneak Attack! too. (Don't forget to tuck the Sneak Attack card under your EoMM and collect a token with the Horn.)

Three Hunters? can someone fill in a noob on these guys and why they seem to be a good combo despite the hight threat? Looking for a combo that might be better than Thalin, Legolas, and Theodred with my eagles. Thanks.

I don't think it has much to do with them being a great combo or anything, it's very much a thematic issue, about how they worked as a trio in the books.

Ranger of the Force said:

It's from a line in The Two Towers, "Forth the three hunters!". Spoken by Aragorn to Gimli and Legolas.

Bullroarer Took said:

If you're a movie fan, that line would happen instead of Aragorn saying, "Let's hunt some orc!" at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

I was just posting in another thread that with the upcoming arrival of Elrond and Vilya, you could use him in an eagle deck. Elrond is a lore sphere but can use his resources to buy tactics sphere as well. Vilya allows the player to draw a card from the top of the deck and immediately put it into play for free (no resource cost).

My biggest gripe with an eagle deck is they are so expensive so those early turns are crucial to get the deck moving. The low willpower is also a problem but the lack of resources fuels that. With Elrond/Vilya, you can get eagles for free and I think that can be quite powerful.

Also, you can add in some lore cards to your deck and get healers or willpower producers.

Elrond plus Radagast plus two other heroes could be quite the factory. You could even do the Elrond and Sons deck! One of the sons is leadership deck but you can add in some songs and steward of gondor and it only makes it that much better. You can also add the Dunedain cards for extra attack, defense, and the almighty willpower.

In playing eagles, I've noticed that they are slow to get going, but once they do they become very powerful. I can see how Elrond might take away that early weakness, so you might be on to something…

I just recently made a Spirit/ Leadership? Tactics deck using both the Rohan heroes (Hama, Theodred and Eowyn). it's a bit tough to start out, but once I get steward of Gondor on Hama then not only can I pump out eagles, I can also use his engine of recurring anything I need, from melandor's flight, to fient, to even The Eagles are coming!. It's not bad. Still needs some work on questing. Eagles are just not that good with questing. I really hope the new Hobbit pack has some more eagle support, because the eagle theme is not as strong as it should be right now.

Sorry to Necro this thread, but I'm somewhat new to the LotR LCG, and I was wondering if a mono-sphere Eagles deck has become anymore viable and if so, what expansions do I need.

I sort of went hog-wild getting into the game, right now I have the following.

One Core set

The complete Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle

The Redhorn Gate

Khazad-Dum and The Black Riders are on the way.

I tried out a mono-sphere Eagles deck on Passage Through Mirkwood last night, I'm not going to remember my list at the moment, but even though I destroyed that scenario in about five rounds, I noticed that the high cost of the Eagles and the low willpower of my Hero's would be a huge problem later on. I ended up using Gimli almost exclusively for questing, even though he get's so powerful as he takes wounds, I never had the opportunity to attack with him because he had my best willpower.

Just a quick reply, since am in a rush, but I think mono-Tactics Eagles is still difficult (although with Merry out there is at least low-threat/mid-willpower choices out there), but combining Tactics with Lore, and using Elrond, can help smooth the resource costs, and lets you drop in Elven Stone etc. to play Eagles for cheapsies, while still running decent willpower.

Maybe, Elrond, Pippin, Merry as the heroes?

depends on what you are trying... do you mean for solo or multiplayer?

Right now I'm playing solo. I'm hoping to get some multi-player games in at some point, but I'm not sure when that will happen. I have two very small children at this point, so getting together with anyone is difficult at best.

I used to run this deck, way way back:

Heroes (27 Threat)

Glorfindel (S)
Legolas
Elrond

Allies x 21
Imladris Stargazer x 3
Arwen x 2
Vassals of the Windlord x 3
Landroval x 1
Descendant of Thorondor x 1
Winged Guardian x 1
Eagles of the Misty Mountain x 2
Henamarth Riversong x 2
Daughter of the Nimrodel x 2
Gandalf Core x 3
Radagast x 1

Attachments x 15
Light of Valinor x 3
Unexpected Courage x 2
Rivendell Blade x 3
Support of the Eagles x 2
Burning Brand x 2
Vilya x 3

Events x 15
Elrond's Counsel x 3
A Test of Will x 3
Hands upon the Bow x 3
Feint x 3
Daeron's Runes x 3

Obviously, with newer cards out, it could do with some tweaking. I remember that this deck used to really eat some quests up. It's not quite eagles only, but at least sticks to Elves and Eagles for theme. I can imagine that some new cards for Noldor will help it work a bit better. Any help? As a plus, it is a good solo deck, providing excellent willpower and combat punch when necessary. Plus, Eagles are just fun.

Thanks! I'll have to give this one a try. I love the Eagles, I think my next deck after playing this a little might be a Dwarf deck, but we shall see.