Free Peoples in Secret 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck here was designed to take The Free Peoples event for a spin to see how well it plays while testing what seems like a promising secrecy shell. Aside from the secrecy, this deck operates much the same as any other ally-swarm deck does by playing a boatload of allies to mass relevant stats. After getting the necessary amount of traits in play, The Free Peoples makes for a great mid to late game play that provides a willpower boost mirroring Faramir's and readies all heroes and allies in play so the table is open to full participation in the coming combat phase. Basically, you're getting 2 powerful things from just 1 card.

The Heroes

All 3 heroes are ideal choices for this type of deck. Of course, Folco Boffin makes secrecy easier to handle by granting an extra resource in the first round and reducing threat to 16 right off the bat when he is sent away so that secrecy lasts a bit longer than otherwise. Denethor gives access to the sphere and his starting stack of resources overcomes some of the common deficiencies of a 2 hero deck. Haldir of Lórien is fine for questing due to his 2 and can be a great attacker or sniper with his ability. Denethor and Haldir also each come with 3 traits that they don't have in common, which gets us 6 of the 9 traits needed for The Free Peoples!

The Deck

This deck primarily focuses on questing and can do it well thanks to an assortment of and allies that carry at least 2 . Chief among these are Mirkwood Explorer and Wandering Ent, which pay off soon after they get questing. Ranger of Cardolan is also included for his good, flexible stat spread. The rest of the allies are unique and hold useful abilities, like Faramir's willpower boost or Gléowine's card draw. Most of the allies also possess at least one trait that is not shared by our heroes, so getting 2 or 3 of them out is often enough to enable The Free Peoples.

To help the deck get to that point, the attachments and events help with affording all those allies. Both Steward of Gondor and Resourceful are cards to look forward to seeing in the opening hand or at least in the early game, and they are best to play on Haldir of Lórien because the majority of the allies are . Strider allows Haldir of Lórien to pull double duty by questing and attacking and can also give a bit of extra willpower in the early game. Daeron's Runes draws cards to feed the ally-swarm and Heed the Dream extends one's reach into the deck, increasing the chances of pulling that Resourceful, Steward of Gondor, or whatever even without paying the extra cost. Timely Aid fetches allies to bring into play as long as we are in secrecy, and Vanish from Sight can bring us back into secrecy mode when necessary while also being particularly helpful in that regard for those quests that tend to spike the threat dial.

Concluding Thoughts

So there you have it! Just gain resources, pile up some allies, and use The Free Peoples for a big swing in game tempo when necessary. Keep in mind that it can also ready healer allies for more uses, as well as the Mirkwood Explorers so they can pop a location after committing to the quest. The deck turned out better than I expected, and I could see this being an approach with & swarm decks to pursue without needing to adhere to one central trait. So it provides an alternative to the well-known tribal swarm decks of the Dwarves or Elves.