Old Dogs, New Tricks 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Aragorn, Frodo Baggins and Glorfindel — three well-worn heroes that make for a classic and powerful lineup. This deck is my attempt at teaching these old dogs some new tricks by incorporating cards from the Haradrim cycle.

The way I like to play this deck is to use Frodo's ability to ride the early game while building up Aragorn to defend in the late game (Protector of Lórien, Arwen Undómiel, Unexpected Courage and A Burning Brand make him reliable). Aragorn's ability allows Frodo to do his thing, and it means we don't care too much about Glorfindel's drawback and the other threat raising cards in the deck. I will happily take threat during the first few rounds and then reset with Aragorn to play a "normal" game, once I've established a bit of board presence.

For this build, I started with powerful staples that give the deck a solid base of questing power, encounter card control, and draw. I then looked at newer cards to give the deck a modern feel:

• Firyal, Jubayr - Two of the best allies in the game. Resources here are tight, so the deck aims to play them via the Elf-stone.

• Dunedain Pathfinder - While he needs to be used carefully, I think this guy is underrated. Bringing locations into the game synergises with the use of Ancient Mathom, Asfaloth and Elf-stone.

• Heirs of Earendil - This card is amazing. Aragorn and Glorfindel give the trait requirements and the drawback is mitigated by Aragorn's ability. It's very satisfying to outright discard a disgusting location that you just revealed during the quest phase.

• Magic Ring - This works very well on Aragorn or Glorfindel. The ring can also allow you to ready Sam Gamgee, who costs just 1 resource and has synergy with Frodo.

• Dúnedain Pipe - This can be used to cycle expensive cards that are difficult to get out in the early game (Firyal, Jubayr, Northern Tracker) or dupes of cards that we already have out (Treebeard, Elf-stone, Light of Valinor). The deck shuffling from Master of the Forge means that we have a chance of seeing these cards again, should we need them.

Another inclusion I like is Fair and Perilous, which works well with Glorfindel's native 3 and 3 to kill the 2 / 4 and 1 / 5 orcs found in the Haradrim cycle.

This version is what I used to beat The Dungeons of Cirith Gurat: https://youtu.be/UbMH3nJtlgM. I think it could beat other quests with some modifications: maybe a Fast Hitch for Frodo, Coney in a Trap for enemy control, or the Silvan Refugee for early questing power. One thing I like about these heroes is that there are so many things that work with them - it was very difficult to get this down to 50 cards!

Overall, I think there are probably stronger builds to be found with these heroes, and I recognise that some of the cards here are overused, but I still like this deck because it has a good mix of old staples and new interactions. I hope you enjoy it too.