A last Alliance of Eagles and Hobbits! 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Thanks to the last COTR podcast, I wanted to try to create a Last Alliance deck, using this new amazing contract from Alep Childreon of Eorl. And… wow! This deck is sooo fun and it’s based on Eagles and Hobbits.

The new contract

First of all, the new contract: while you have more hobbits, you reduce the cost of eagles and viceversa. This means that, in the first turn of the game, you’ll have a discounts for eagles (two heroes are from tactics sphere, so you can pay almost every eagle in the first turn – except 4 cost ally eagles). While the game is going on, you can optimize the cost of allies, by alternating hobbits and eagles characters.

A huge number of combo

But the really shining part is the action in the new contract: once a turn, you can change “Hobbits” trait in one card into “Hobbits or Eagles” and viceversa. This opens to a very huge number of funny combo, like:

• Fast Hitch on Gwaihir: you want a incredible hero able to ready many times in one turn. Quest for 2, ready, defend for 3, ready, attack for 4… You can do it!
• Change the text on Gwaihir in: After an Eagle or Hobbit ally enters or leaves play, ready Gwaihir. This is perfect with Gaffer Gamgee: you block an attack by returning the hobbit in your hand, ready a 4 attack hero to smash the enemy.
• Change the text on Eagles of the Misty Mountains: after another Eagle or Hobbit Character leaves play, you may attach that card facedown to Eagles of the Misty Mountains. In one of my game, this ally became a 10 attack 10 defense, with Fast Hitch able to ready it.
• Reduce you threat by 4, changing the instance in The Shirefolk.
• Return a hobbit ally to shuffle a Eagle of the North in the deck with Flight of the Eagles (and maybe playing it again for 1 less resource). Farmer Maggot is the perfect choice if you want direct damage.
• Search your deck or top 5 for a Hobbit or Eagle ally with Raise the Shire: maybe Meneldor or Descendant of Thorondor will help you in the combat phase and will come to your hand at the end of the turn, readying Gwaihir two times in the same turn.
• Search the top 5 cards in the deck for a Eagle or Hobbits cards with The Eagles Are Coming!.
• Increase Merry and Pippin's ability (+1 attack and +1 engagement cost) by including Gwaihir in the number of Heroes you’re counting (and readying again Gwaihir by Merry’s attacking ability).

You can do a lot of more combo, they can be really effective, but moreover they are so fun.

I would say it’s one of the funniest deck I’ve played. Thanks to whole team of Alep.

Power of the deck

You generally lack of shadow and treachery cancellation (Halfling Bounder will help), but you have card draw (Pippin, Daeron's Runes, The Eagles (and the Hobbits) are coming), resource acceleration (the contract itself), healing, questing and combat (boosted Eagle of Misty mountains and Gwhair can be exceptional fighter), a bit of control location (Meneldor), threat reduction (The shirefolk), action advantage, direct damage, low starting threat… I won at the first try The Wastes of Eriador in solo which is one of my favorite and testing quest.

Mulligan for

Fast Hitch is a mulling-for-it card but the contract offers so many ways to use eagles and hobbits traits, that you can take almost every card in your starting hand.

General Suggestion

It’s preferrable to use the action of the contract after the staging, instead of using it during the planning phase, because you can optimize the turn. This deck is also powerful in multiplayer, because of ranged and sentinel keyword, Pippin’s ability.

At the end, you will have a lot of fun playing this deck!