Starter - Fangorn

Format: King Standard

Author: Phallen

Ring-bearer:
Ring:

Adventure deck:

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x
1x
1x
1x
1x
1x
1x
1x
3x
3x
3x
2x
1x
3x
1x
2x
2x
4x
1x
2x

Shadow Draw Deck:
2x
2x
2x
4x
3x
1x
2x
3x
3x
2x
3x
2x
1x
1x
1x
3x

Notes

Ents marching to liberate Isengard from Saruman and his Orcs.

Free Peoples: (starting companions Merry, Pippin, and Forest Guardian. I recommend a low bid, 0-2)
First things first, this is not a typical Ent build. Most of the time, you play all the Ents who are not unhasty and just let them take wounds while you mosey on down the site path, it's just too much vitality for many decks to get through. Unhasty Ents, however, can find themselves unable to skirmish when you need them most if you're careless. You're going to have to manage your unbound Hobbits closely. This makes the deck a bit less effective but far more interesting, and it also means you don't have to just flood and run. You still can do the "typical Ent" thing, playing 3+ Ents at site 3 and then doubling 2-3 times to end the game, but pulling it off will require a bit more finesse. If you don't remove minions, unhasty

For Unhasty, notice that exerting a Hobbit to skirmish looks a lot like losing a skirmish with that Hobbit. However, losing a skirmish means you can use Kept Safe tokens or Skinbark's vitality instead of your Hobbits', which may in turn mean saving vitality for when you absolutely need an Ent to skirmish down the line. Sometimes it is better to lose! When you plan to win, Treebeard's text can decimate minions. It's up to you to decide how to spend his vitality, and unlike the Hobbits his vitality is unprotected and only comes back at sanctuaries.

Merry and Pippin don't have to lose every skirmish they fight, though. When armed with swords they have very respectable ceilings of 11 and 8 strength and some pumps beyond that. They can win skirmishes but it has to be planned. This is important for Good Work, which I'm hoping will be enough against Easterlings (that and killing minions to double). You'll need to be careful about how many threats are around, especially at site 5 which might knock Pippin down to 3 strength. Frodo allows for some control and of course Ents are good at clearing threats via valiant demise. If you absolutely need to clear threats mid-turn, that's always an option. Pile those wounds onto a Hobbit then heal up with Hobbit Appetite and you're good to go for next turn.

I could redo the deck to use the regroup discarding versions of them with a few card substitutions, but I feel like there's *something* here with them fighting. Especially to counter big fellowship hate, where a smaller fellowship will definitely feel the weight of lugging three low strength Hobbits.

I picked Noble Intentions over Hobbit Intuition just for kicks really, I find it works out here because this deck has plenty of vitality on its Ents. Hobbit Appetite and Kept Safe offer ways to combat the onslaught of wounds and so far that seems to be enough, but swapping for Hobbit Intuition would be an easy buff.

Shadow:
Expensive Isenorcs are good disruptors and terrible closers, which should compliment Ents' strengths. Strip your opponents of their possessions and conditions, deal a wound or two in skirmishes, then deal another few in the regroup phase. Bear in mind that many times it's worth leaving some minions around to discourage double moving. In the regroup phase at site 5, for example, an opponent may not want to double to site 6 when there are 2 Orcs alrady on the table, a much bigger impact than a couple of wounds which would be healed at site 6 next turn anyway. Being able to stop them at 5 likely means they'll have to stop and heal at 6 too

Scaffolding will get you some long-term value out of discarding your minions, namely by protecting vitality down the road so you can get more wounds out of them. This is especially helpful for Isengard Smith or Isengard Warrior. Once a companion is exhausted you'll be able to afford extra minions with Tower of Orthanc, which will then allow you to cause more wounds. It's a vicious cycle.

I am afraid it's not a very beginner friendly Shadow side since you've got to judge how to use the regroup abilities. You're probably going to wind up needing to make moves where you can and just trying to dampen your opponent's ability to keep up with the Ents. Or maybe that'll make it perfect, both players can just prioritize FP and the match is overall less complex. You should be causing enough wounds to make people stop at sanctuaries if nothing else.