Rate this Deck: SFtF Rohan/Southron Wounding

[ket_the_jet]

Thanks to Legolas3333 and Macheteman for encouraging me to take this idea further!

Starting Fellowship:
Boromir, Bearer of Council with The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles
Gandalf, Leader of Men
Elite Rider

Free Peoples (31):
Theoden, Leader of Spears
Eomer, Keeper of Oaths
Eowyn, Lady of Rohan (P)
Gamling, Warrior of Rohan   
Merry, Swordthain
Sam, Son of Hamfast

Leowyn
Deor
                        
Blade of Gondor         
Eomer's Spear
Eowyn's Sword, Dernhelm's Blade
Herugrim, Sword of the Mark
Rider's Spear*
Firefoot
Snowmane
Windfola
Brego
Swift Steed

Hearken To Me   

Saved From the Fire x4
Simbelmyne x3
Let Us Be Swift x3   

Shadow (31):
Suzerain of Harad
Southron Veterans x2
Southron Chieftain x3   
Southron Assassin x2   
Southron Bandit x3
Desert Scout x3
Desert Runner x4

Red Wrath x2
High Vantage x2
Discovered x2
   
Harsh Tongues x3   
Rout x3   
Rallying Call

Sitepath:
Edoras Hall
Rohirrim Camp   
Hall of the Kings   
Pelennor Prairie   
Steward's Tomb
Minas Tirith Fourth Circle
Pelennor Grassland
Cross Roads    
Dagorlad

The more I thought about it, I really liked L3333's idea of a Saved From the Fire Rohan deck. It's pretty straight forward...after the initial Elite Rider kill, Gandalf is a nice road bump. If you get Hearken To Me, fantastic. If not, no big deal.

Brego is specifically for Boromir. He could always use the extra heal, and that exertion is nifty when facing Orcs or Uruk-Hai (finish them off with the Blade of Gondor).

I altered the idea for the Shadow off of another deck posted here.

It is also worth noting that this deck is not for me--it is for a friend who I am trying to get into the game. So the deck is supposed to have a relative ease of use for a beginner.

Also, Eowyn, Lady of Rohan. No exceptions. It's the only one without a fivehead (except Eowyn, Dernhelm (P)).

Thoughts welcome!

Edit: After playing my first two live games with this deck, I have decided that it needs better cycling, particularly from the Free Peoples side. I am thinking of making these changes:
Remove: No Rest For the Weary x2, The Red Arrow
Add: Leowyn, Deor, Merry Swordthain

Swordthain will allow me to discard unnecessary possessions early in the game to not clog my hand. Deor will help me cycle (and win skirmishes) and Leowyn will cycle and heal when I cannot win them.

Edit 2: Leowyn and Deor were both greatly appreciated in the newest iteration of this deck. Losing No Rest For the Weary and that defender bonus was a little intimidating because I don't have any swarm protection besides Firefoot. But as I look at it more, I don't have to worry as much about besieger swarm with Snowmane and Orc swarm is tough, but they will all be exerted with the ponies. So really, it's only Moria swarm and a strength 11 Boromir can usually survive that (although Heavy Chain might be a necessary addition to this deck). If I did add it, it would likely be at the expense of Rohirrim Army--in most games, I didn't even play that card.

Edit 3: Rohirrim Army was superfluous. No use. I just updated this again...Rallying Call and Cross Roads is one of the coolest combos ever. Thanks for continued views on this topic...it is getting pretty close to what could be a fantastic deck.

Edit 4: I changed the two Shotgun Enquea to Southron Veterans.
-wtk

[Gil-Estel]

The cool thing is, that when you grab a valiant man and SFTF in your starting hand, you can burn the Elite Rider, grab 3x simbelmyne and use them. That is 6 cards gone from your drawdeck at once! That helps the filtering. But I would definately recommend some conditiondiscard. At this moment you only have a beatdown deck, with a little corruptionprotection, but against for example your own shadow you would be toast....

[ket_the_jet]

But I would definately recommend some conditiondiscard.

You don't think that 3x Let Us Be Swift does the job? Conceptually, that's six conditions (and three sites liberated...)

I always thought it was a shame that Help In Doubt And Need only applied to unbound men...
-wtk

[Gil-Estel]

Oops, I was looking for Fortress never Fallen, for Deep in Thought, maybe even for Sleep Caradhras and Grown Suddenly Tall, and I thought this card was Arrow Slits, which is also a good card against obviously corsairs, Grond and a weird guy that play Spider Poison etc...

[ket_the_jet]

Fortress Never Fallen was a thought, but I don't want to be particularly reliant on conditions (a la Saruman's Power, etc.)
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

To whomever gave it a two, why?
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

I give 3 stars. The fellowship deserves at least 4... but you should add some possession removal like Roll of Thunder if you don't like Arrow Slits. The problem I have is with the shadow... it just looks like a bunch of minions put together... maybe if you explain it I could understand.

[ket_the_jet]

Sure. The idea of the shadow is to get bonus wounding with the initiative.

Harsh Tongues can be hard to set up early, so Southron Chieftain is a great way to get the initiative. When you have the initiative, Desert Runner and Desert Scout can do some pre-skirmish wounding. Surprise! Red Wrath will wound a guy twice!

Southron Bandit is for building twilight. Most people will choose the threats anyways, but that's fine with me too.

Southron Assassin is a pretty nice card because most decks play the Ring-Bearer as the only Ring-Bound companion in their deck...he can also knock out an annoying Smeagol or Sam.

A copy of Suzerain of Harad is fun and helpful to get the twilight necessary for Red Wrath (ambush is a pretty sweet deal).

Discovered is obvious condition removal, High Vantage is great to avoid archery (which can be pretty effective against the shadow). Rout plays off of having the initiative. Shotgun Enquea is crowd control.

Does that explain it better?
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

I give 3 stars. The fellowship deserves at least 4... but you should add some possession removal like Roll of Thunder if you don't like Arrow Slits. The problem I have is with the shadow... it just looks like a bunch of minions put together... maybe if you explain it I could understand.

I love Arrow-Slits. The problem is that I don't want the deck much bigger than 64 cards because getting Saved From the Fire in the first or second turn is pretty important.
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

Ok, thanx for the explanations.

Now. I think your minions are too weak for the Southron Assassin trick to work. Also, do you realize that if I assign Desert Scout/Runner first and Southron Chieftain as the last minion, no wounds are going to be added. Harsh Tongue is probably going to be discarded before you get 3 tokens on it.

Do you really need Windfola and Snowmane? I usually don't use them in my Rohan decks. Maybe you could remove 1 to put Arrow-Slits. You could also you the "fortification site 3" to play it from your draw deck.

[ket_the_jet]

Snowmane kicks #$&*@!. It kills Dunland decks and really impedes besiegers. I've never used Windfola, but for the same cost as a Swift Steed, I'll run with Windfola.

Keep in mind with the first burn of Elite Rider I can grab three Simbelmyne and, in effect, take six cards out of my draw deck making it more likely I get shadow cards later if I am facing an archery deck.

But anyways, I am not worried about the shadow side because this deck is pretty well off running to site nine with a quick set-up.

I think three Harsh Tongues increases my odds well enough.

But what would you change on the Shadow side, then?
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

Another thought, with the exception of higher cost Suzerain or Enquea, everyone is relatively cheap and they swarm well enough with a good draw or two.
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

Actually, I'm not too sure about what you can change. Maybe someone who made more Raiders decks could help you.

[ket_the_jet]

This is my first Southron deck. I think it will work a lot better than anticipated.

Of course, if it is much worse, then...that was a lot of trading for foils for nothing.

Again noting that this deck is going to be for a friend (beginner), so it has to be much more simple than, let's say, my Dwarven stacking machine.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

I played two games with this for the first time against an Elvents/Beasterling deck. I lost both due to poor healing and not being able to get my companions strong enough.

Some thoughts on the Free Peoples' side might be Leowyn and We Left None Alive, but I don't know what I would remove to make that happen.

The main issue with the deck is that it did not cycle very well after a very quick free peoples' set up. The Saved From the Fire trick worked wonders for a nice fellowship set up.
-wtk