The Grey Company (Thematic) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

"The days are short. If thou art in haste, remember the Paths of the Dead"

-Tolkien (Return of the King)

Who are The Grey Company?

The Grey Company was led by Halbarad and the twin sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir. They traveled from the North seeking Aragorn at Galadriel's request. To Aragorn they brought advice from Elrond, and a banner made by Arwen bearing her seal. Their horses were strong and proud but rough-haired. As their name implies, they wore cloaks or mantles of grey colour and carried no symbols save for a white star on each of their brooches.

They accompanied Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli through the Paths of the Dead and went with them to fight at Pelargir and in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. It was at this battle that Halbarad fell after slaying many servants of Sauron. Later on, the Grey Company presumably accompanied Aragorn and an army to the Battle at the Black Gate, although few of them are said to have survived the battle.

Source: lotr.fandom wiki

The Deck

This deck was made to play solo, but also works in a multiplayer setting. I will describe how it plays out solo, and add notes on changes that could be made to make it a stronger deck in multiplayer.

So far, the deck has handled itself quite well, but the goal was to keep the Dunedain theme, and that sometimes made the deck less than optimal. You will definitely find better decks that have a stronger combos or toolboxes, so this deck is meant to appeal those who like to take a thematic approach.

Off to the Paths of the Dead!!!

The Gameplan

Pretty simple game plan here:

• Engage with enemies to trigger Amarthiúl's abilities.
• Use traps to weaken engaged foes or Followed to help with questing.
• Use attachments such as Roheryn, Armored Destrier and Wingfoot to efficiently block and attack foes, usually leaving 1 or 2 weakened foes alive.

The Heroes

Amarthiúl - Amarthiul rewards you for being engaged with enemies, something which this deck excels at. His access to opens up the powerful Followed trap, and also allows you to play a couple of other useful Tactics cards. When you engage with 2 enemies, you gain important resource generation that can be spent on both or cards.

Halbarad - Halbarad was a tough choice, as I originally preferred a straight up hero, and loved the Halbarad ally card. However, upon play testing, hero Halbarad is a complete beast as he allows you to quest without exhausting, and has decent stats across the board. Allowing you to willfully engage and extra enemy comes in handy in enemy heavy encounter decks.

Aragorn - How could I play a Dunedain deck without Aragorn? He is a jack of all trades here, providing decent blocking, good attack, and decent questing. The real key, however, if in the fact that he gives us access to which meshes so well with the theme of the deck, and opens up card draw. His ability is also a saving grace in the threat heavy scenarios, as you don't have access to .

Questing

This deck does not quest as well as many stronger decks, but it hasn't yet been the cause of any failures. Your options for questing:

• Gimli is huge value for making sure you have enough blockers while still questing.
• Emyn Arnen Ranger is a wonderfully thematic and powerful questor, usually questing for at least 2.
• Followed is a powerhouse.
• Sword that was Broken is something I will be searching for with Dúnedain Pipe late game.
• Wingfoot is great on someone like Aragorn
• Halbarad almost always meets the condition to not exhaust when questing.

Defence

• All of the heroes can defend well enough early game.
• Dúnedain Warning is cheap, and 1 shield is often enough for the smaller minions.
• Entangling Nets makes blocking easy.
• Feint and Coney in a Trap give you chances to not block and clean up the enemy build up.
• Armored Destrier and Roheryn give you blocking efficiency so you can swing away after.
• Andrath Guardsman and Guardian of Arnor negate attacks and can block well, allowing you to keep enemies engaged but harmless.

Attacking

• Dúnedain Hunter lets you fetch out an easy enemy to trigger engagement rewards, and can punch hard. You have to wait until something gives you access to , however.
• Legolas if a beefcake attacked with some added card draw. You will be very happy to see him. Add Steward of Gondor to Amarthiúl and suddenly getting 4 resources is easy.
• Both Amarthiúl and Aragorn can chip away with 3 attack.

Card Draw

A weakness of the deck. I originally had Gléowine in but added a 3rd Warden of Healing instead, as this deck takes punishment.

• Daeron's Runes is a classic, must have.
• Dúnedain Pipe comes in handy late game, looking for answers.
• Gandalf almost always gives 3 cards in this deck.
• Legolas is a champ!

What about multiplayer?

• Son of Arnor is exceptional!
• Campfire Tales, Sneak Attack and Deep Knowledge are all good choices.
• My buddy plays a spirit deck with Aragorn, so I generally swap my Aragorn out for Beravor.

Strengthening the deck

• There are some cards that would be hugely powerful in this deck, but remove the theme. If you don't mind that, consider building with more trap style with Damrod, or dipping heavily into tactics with #Eowyn or #Mablung. Adding another hero lets you use powerful traps like #Forest Snare.