The Forest Wakes 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a thematic deck built for an ongoing series on my blog, Darkling Door.

Theme: The march of the Ents

Played Against: Nightmare Into Fangorn

"To Isengard! Though Isengard be ringed and barred with doors of stone; Though Isengard be strong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone, We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door; For bole and bough are burning now, the furnace roars – we go to war! To land of gloom with tramp of doom, with roll of drum, we come, we come; To Isengard with doom we come! With doom we come, with doom we come!"

—Treebeard, The Two Towers

Strategy

This is an Ent deck that covers for the Allies' slow start by focusing on big Heroes.

Getting some repeatable healing out early is absolutely vital for preventing this deck from burning itself out. I look for either Self Preservation or Wellinghall Preserver in my first hand, aiming to get it down on round 2. Ent Draught is a good card to see too, since I can pay for it and still afford one of my 3 cost cards the next round.

I prioritize getting extra hitpoints or healing on Treebeard first, and Quickbeam second. Treebeard is the star of the show here, with his ability to excel at either questing or combat, depending on what is needed at any given moment. Boomed and Trumpeted is my favorite way to ready him, allowing him to perform both roles in one round. And if ever I send him on the quest and end up wishing that I had reserved his beefy stats for the Combat phase instead, Don't Be Hasty! has me covered.

My favorite combo in the deck is exhausting Quickbeam (along with Folco) to help pay for Peace, and Thought, and then just readying him right back up again with his ability. A little damage on an Ent is a small price to pay for drawing 5 cards!

Once the deck gets going, with a small army of Ent Allies and multiple healing effects in play, I don't really need Folco Boffin's extra resources or stats anymore, so I'm happy to send him on his merry way as soon as there's any danger of threatting out. He provides plenty of extra breathing room for my now-enraged Ents to bulldoze whatever's left of the quest.

It's pretty awesome to see just how hard this deck hits from round 1—and it just keeps applying the pressure until nothing can stand in its way.

► For more analysis, check out my blog post on this deck.