Mono-Lore of the Eagles 1.0

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• 1.0

Radagast and Elrond have proven to be best buds when it comes to the eagles. Both have access to multiple spheres, Elrond can Vilya out the expensive eagles while Radagast arranges the most expensive one on top of your deck with his Wizard Pipe. Maybe he's sending them smoke signals? Meanwhile Radagast's Staff further helps your resource acceleration. Between the two of them you're in some serious eagle-befriending business. Most people have paired the two of them with a tactics hero to further help pay for the eagles and to use valuable events connected to the eagles. But when I tried this kind of deck, effective as they could be, I found I filled almost the entire rest of my deck with different versions of card draw just to keep finding the right pieces/more eagles. It was an effective deck but I could have been doing so much more.

Enter Erestor stage right. You've heard of him, famous manic drawer and discarder of cards. With him I didn't need to stuff my deck with card draw. He was sure to find the critical pieces for Elrond and Radagast AND all the eagles. Sure, he doesn't give you a tactics resource but once you've got the ring, pipe, and staff you really don't need it, and in most games I've got all three by the third round. Suddenly I could fill my deck with all sorts of other fun stuff. Firyal! Glorfindel! The Evening Star! A Burning Brand! Huzzah!

This deck is a blast to play, one of my favorites I've ever made. Every round feels a little like Christmas, as Vilya decks tend to be. You'll want to focus on getting the key attachments out early: Vilya, Wizard Pipe, Radagast's Staff are the three main ones, but I've found Protector of Lórien on Radagast in the first round can go a long way towards early survival. If I see both Vilya and the pipe in my first hand I buy them both then can pick whatever goodie I want from the other 8 cards to bring in free.

Once you've got the keys in place, start building your army! The eagles will do most of your fighting for you so most of the rest of the allies here are here for questing purposes. With Elrond exhausting most rounds for Vilya you'll need to a few more questing allies to stabilize your board state, at least in solo, so prioritize them. You'll also obviously want to get Eagles of the Misty Mountains out asap so you can build it up.

Thoughts behind some of the card choices:

~The deck has 54 cards so you can remove any of Glorfindel, Mablung, or Arwen Undómiel when a teammate is using one of them without having to find something to replace them with. Glorfindel is great here since he can be free with Vilya and usually will have cards to discard. Mablung is a cheap quester with a useful ability. Arwen quests and will give one of your strong defenders sentinel. You can drop her if you're playing solo.

~Will of the West is your only recycling card, but you may not even need it. If you see it too early Ered Nimrais Prospector can shuffle it back into your deck. I originally had more of them but found I just didn't need that many. Even if you only go through the deck once you'll have a big army by the time you reach the end.

~You start with a high threat so often Gandalf gets used for threat reduction. You also have a Favor of the Valar and The Galadhrim's Greeting to help out.

~You can blind Vilya if you want to---you'll find something good most of the time---but I've found it's usually best to use Elrond for questing until I have both Vilya and the Wizard Pipe. You'll still build an army quickly, don't worry.

~Between Meneldor and The Evening Star you can do some serious location control. Don't forget to let your Meneldor leave play quickly or you won't be able to play the next one when it shows up in your hand.

~Loyal Hound is just a fantastic card. Powerful attack for the cost, a life-saving ability, and it lets Radagast quest without exhausting when it enters play.

There's good stuff on the sideboard too but I've given this deck a lot of playtesting and feel confident in the choices here for most quests. If you like something there or elsewhere just add it in! Going over 50 cards really isn't a problem for Erestor.

I always know I'm on to something interesting when I come up with an idea for a deck and then check Ringsdb to see what other have done with it only to find nobody has made a deck with those three heroes before. Turns out we've all been missing out---mono-lore eagles are awesome! Try it and find out for yourself.

Happy questing, everyone!