The Nin-in-Eilph - Progression - 2 Player - Great win rate

We won very consistently with these two decks against this quest, having played it like 20 times in a row to optimize the decks. But even when we won, it felt like we were on the verge of losing many times.

Not a fun quest at all. It's really annoying. There are a million ways to lose: Threat, enemies, location lock, losing a hero. The shadow effects can ruin you, especially "deal 1 damage to the defending char", because you don't draw many cards, and you need to get cheap allies out in play ASAP. If you chump block with a 1 HP ally and draw that Shadow, then he/she is dead, and you need to take the damage for the attack as undefended. But you won't have time, cards, or resources to play many allies with 2+ HP. That's the problem. You need questing power ASAP, or you will lose quickly.

Note, this game takes a loooong time to play. We often had games go over 2 hours. It's complicated, with many moving parts, and you usually have to make many attempts to finish the Quest cards.

Also note, 6 is the limit of threat that is revealed each round. It's also very common for 6 to come out. So if you're questing, plan on 6 threat being revealed, and you'll be good.

These two decks handled almost every combination of horrible encounter card luck, even when we didn't get good initial draws. A lot of times, even if you get a good draw, you'll lose most of it due to the Quest card that requires you to lose a card at random to quest. So you really have to rely on having strong decks and being able to benefit from almost any card you happen to draw.

In this quest, Eleanor exists only to handle the treachery "Low on Provisions" where it deals one damage for each char you have. That card will ruin your game, and you can't rely on getting Test of Will to stop it. As a matter of fact, Test of Will is almost useless in this quest, because the other worst Treachery card "Remnants of Elder Days" cannot even be cancelled.

Player 1 does most of the questing, and any threat lowering always goes to Player 2, because Aragorn can reset Player 1's threat. Both players have healing, and attachment removal, which is crucial to winning. Player 2 should always use Gandalf to lower their threat.

For Player 1, Asfaloth (Glorfindel) is a crucial card. Light of Valinor (Glorfindel) and Wingfoot (Aragorn) are too. You have to be careful not to have too many unique cards in your deck, because it's hard to draw/play cards especially early on. You need almost every card you draw to be playable.

Master of the Forge is great for getting Attachments out, which can be crucial to victory. Arwen is good for her ability as well.

Unexpected Courage usually should go on Dain first, then Aragorn second.

For Player 2, the usual dwarf swarm cards are good. Sword that was Broken is also a crucial card to give to Aragorn, that drastically improves questing. If all goes well, toward the end of the game, Player 1 has a lot of questing allies out, plus Sword that was Broken on Aragorn, Light of Valinor on Glorfindel, and one or more healers. Player 2 has a bunch of dwarf allies and Steward of Gondor and possibly some healers out. At this point Player 2 can easily kill enemies with dwarves attacking with Dain's buff. Player 1 has attacking power with Aragorn and Glorfindel.

The final boss enemy can usually be killed in one turn by Player 2, and many times you can save Sneak Attack Gandalf to make it even easier to kill at the end.