This deck is designed to turn Aragorn lore into a 5 willpower, 6 attack, 6 defense, and 8 hit point powerhouse that can ready for every phase. The King has Returned.

Here is the deck:

Heroes:

Aragorn lore

Glorfindel spirit

Balin

Allies: (9)

Arwen x3

Master of the Forge x3

Gandalf x3 OHaUH

Attachments: (35)

Dunedain Mark x3

Duendain Warning x3

Celebrians' Stone x2

Sword that Was Broken x2

Unexpected Courage x3

Miruvor x3

Steward of Gondor x3

King under the Mountain x3

Narvi's Belt x2

Light of Valinor x3

RIng of Barahir x1

Healing Herbs x3

Asfaloth x2

Burning Brand x1

Protector of Lorien x1

Events: (6)

Elrond's Counsel x3

Daeron's Ruins x3

Total 50

Strategy:

Card draw from King Under the Mountain, Master of the Forge, and Deron's ruins is really important. I look to have one of the first two in my opening hand. With KIng under the mountain and Deron's Ruins you need to keep track of what attachments you are discarding. You want to avoid discarding the last of only copy of an attachment if you have not played it yet.

Steward of Gondor goes on Balin to pay for the pricy leadership cards and use his shadow replacement ability. Later in the game you can put Burning Brand on Aragorn to shut down shadow cards once and for all. Narvi's Belt will help Balin spread those resources around. Early on he will also become your main defender so the Dunedain Warning's go to him.

All copies of Unexpected Courage go on Aragorn. By mid game you can pay resources from Balin to give Aragorn the Duendain Warnings and Glorfindel can give him some Duendain Marks. Early on it is better to give the Dunedain Marks to Glorfindel since he will be ready with LoV after questing to attack.

Aragorn will also get all copies of Miruvor to use, and Healing Herbs will be useful to heal any characters with damage. Protector of Lorien for that extra will power push of defense bonus

Arwen will give her defense bonus to Aragorn as well, but early on it will go to Balin.

Gandalf Provides extra will power and more attack strength to kill boss enemies.

By mid to late game you can quest for 20 every turn, and defend a 6 attack enemy without worry of shadow, and attack for 13.

Alternatively, you can just keep the Dunedain Warnings on Balin and turn him in to your super defender. He should get at least a copy of Unexpected Courage and Miruvor.

So, this deck does pretty well on most scenarios. I have not tried it on all, but suspect it will not do well on quests that hit hard early where you need lots of Chump blockers. But it did handle PiP when 3 enemies with 3 attack each engaged first round.

It is a bit more of a thematic deck designed around Aragorn, but it can really hold it's own.

So, there you have it, turn the starting threat of 12 Strider into the 25 threat King by the end of the game. Give or take a few attachments.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

P.S. Watch out for Druadain Forest and the treachery that makes you pay for all attachments you control or lose all attachments. Aragorn can easily have over 10 attachments at one time. For instance he had 18 attachments on him at the end of JDtA. The deck did beat Drudain Forest, but I had to always make sure I had equal amount of resources to attachments, which restricted the Aragon build.

The King escaped from Dol Guldur! 2 out of 5 times

Aragorn was 31 threat hero by the end (attachment and aditional bounus, Arwen, PoL with cards to discard etc.) that could ready 3 times per round, with a Burning Brand.

8 will, 6 attack, 9 def, 8 hp

Edited July 13, 2013 by Tracker1

Impressive to escape dol guldur 2 out of 5 ... well done

I've always wanted to make a deck like this. Well, maybe not always, but ever since Ring of Barahir came out, I really wanted to make the best use out of Aragorn and his many special attachments. Very cool deck. And I'm glad it works, because most of the time thematic decks don't work.