Book Club: Star of High Hope 1.0

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• 1.0

"And while the world darkened and fear fell on Middle-earth, as the power of Sauron grew and the Barad-dûr rose ever taller and stronger, Arwen remained in Rivendell, and when Aragorn was abroad, from afar she watched over him in thought; and in hope she made for him a great and kingly standard, such as only one might display who claimed the lordship of the Númenoreans and the inheritance of Elendil!" - Lord of the Rings: Appendix A; Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Here Follows a Part of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen

I've decided to build a series of decks that encapsulate a specific point in the Lord of the Rings books, so they're essentially broad "theme" decks and the cards within are selected primarily for 'thematic fit' than their 'raw power'. As such these decks probably won't work against every quest, and should probably always be played as part of a two-handed/two player setup, so plan accordingly.

This deck represents Halbarad bringing the standard made by Arwen Undómiel to Aragorn as he decides to take the Paths of the Dead from Dunharrow. Though it was not till Pelennor Fields was in unfurled by Halbarad before the Host of Mordor.

I hate Steward of Gondor, it's arguably the most powerful card in the game, defines the sphere of Leadership, is a vital linchpin card in the majority of the most powerful deck archetypes in the game, and it's very inclusion in a deck list can make a 'bad' deck work. But it's 'thematically' shackled to a single character and this isn't going to change any time soon, so for this deck the Steward will represent that standard, that bore the White Tree of Gondor, the Seven Stars and the Crown of Elendil.

Opening Hand:

It's a deck with 2 leadership heroes, Steward in your opening hand is going to make everything considerably smoother. An Elven-light is also going to get our card draw engine off to a flying start very quickly so wouldn't go a miss. We're sticking with a Dúnedain theme, as Halbarad brings the remnants of the Grey Company south to aid Aragorn, so we'll gain some benefit to keeping at least one enemy engaged with us.

At the Table:

All of our heroes, with a little support, can quest and still be ready for action in the Combat phase, even Arwen Undómiel once she finds the Light of Valinor. Steward of Gondor should go on Aragorn, though thematically Halbarad carried it into battle on the fields of Pelennor. This will let you use Aragorn's own resources to fuel his readying ability and let Arwen gain an extra resource for herself. The Spirit cost curve for the deck is pretty even, but the higher cost allies will help out a lot, especially with questing and location control so the earlier you get one to hit the board the better.

You've got plenty of other resources acceleration, we have Dúnedain Marks and Warnings to help our heroes in combat, Aragorn especially given he has sentinel should get the Destrier and the Dúnedain Warning will help him defend as a base 2 Defence isn't really going to cut it against a lot of more recent quests for very long in a deck with very little healing. In a solo game however Halbarad makes more sense to be your defender as you won't need Aragorn's sentinel keyword and he has a higher base attack to put to use.Though this does mean you're likely to be questing for less on the first turn as you keep Halbarad back to defend, though with our resource acceleration and the flexibility of the Dúnedain Warning you can start off with Aragorn as your primary attacker then switch the defence buffs to Halbarad once you've engaged enemies.

The extra resources from Steward of Gondor will let you pass off the Dúnedain signals to other players if they need it, Dúnedain Remedy especially is a powerful healing card with Rune-master essentially giving you a point of healing AND a resource for a single card.

I've wanted to use Star Brooch for a while and I think this hero line-up is perfect for it. Thematically, the Star of the Dúnedain was a silver brooch, shaped like a many-rayed star, worn by the Rangers of the North. . It served as part of their identity, and the only ornamentation the Rangers ever wore in their journeys. As our Dúnedain heroes will be questing and ready for combat and we're going to try and have enemies engaged as much as possible, this is one of the cheapest Willpower boosts available in the card pool, with the added bonus of preventing willpower reduction effects present in more recent quests.

Rounding out the deck is a small selection of Aragorn's toys with Celebrían's Stone and Sword that was Broken to help with resource smoothing and providing a substantial willpower boost among our heroes and small party of Dúnedain.

Sideboard:

We've got a relatively slim sideboard to tweak the deck a little, I can't bring myself to cut any more thematic goodies. Though the cards in the sideboard can help with a little of the decks weaker areas such as card draw with the Rod of the Steward and some early willpower boosting from free with the Dunedain Pathfinder

Tale of Tinúviel seems like an obvious choice, but as we're sacrificing ruthless efficiency for some theme-bullshit by not running 3x Light of Valinor there's too much of a risk of it sitting dead in your hand if Arwen Undómiel doesn't have the light to be ready to use the event after questing.