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volnay 2

Description

Rohan:

  • Lothíriel + Horn of the Mark + Escort from Edoras + Gamling (7 WP + draw 1 card + activates Eomer's ability each turn)
  • Théoden allows us to play allies more often
  • Théoden + Snowmane + Herugrim + Windfola (3 WP & 6 ATT)
  • Éomer + Firefoot + War Axe : Up to 9 ATT with assignable excess damage

Gandalf/Elrond:

The Vilya Factor With those out of the way, we needed some power cards to benefit off of Vilya so that we could quickly assemble an army of the strongest allies in the game. For these spots, I decided on the following:

  • Beorn: He has amazing stats, but on top of that, his printed cost of 6 which makes him a very good candidate for Flame of Anor.
  • Boromir: Solid stats in both Atk and Def, with a built-in action advantage effect that is easily triggered in this deck.
  • Faramir: This deck can amass a large amount of allies in no time and Faramir shines in any deck that can do so.
  • Gildor Inglorion: He has just amazing stats, he's an additional target for A Burning Brand if necessary and his effect is similar to Imladris Stargazer so it synergises incredibly well with both Vilya and Gandalf.
  • Northern Tracker: This card alongside Asfaloth makes location control into a non-issue.

Finalizing the deck list Rounding out our line-up are a couple of cards I haven't discussed yet:

  • Arwen Undómiel is there mainly as a potential first turn 2 Willpower drop if you need it. The Def boost is definitely handy as well.
  • Bilbo Baggins helps search for Wizard Pipe in the early game and also provides 2 Willpower for a first turn drop.
  • Henamarth Riversong provides crucial scrying which makes questing a cakewalk in solo. No need to scry for shadow cards, because A Burning Brand takes care of all of those anyway.
  • Speaking of A Burning Brand, you will most likely put your first copy on Elrond, but if you play it off the top of your deck with Gandalf's effect, you can also put it on him since he's considered to have the printed Lore resource icon at that point.
  • And finally, A Test of Will is there because it's a staple and given how fast this deck is, you'll almost always have a copy available for when you most need it.

Dale:

Overview This deck aims to play Dale allies and power them up using Item attachments. The heroes support this goal by providing card draw (Brand son of Bain and Beravor) and resource smoothing for attachments (Bard son of Brand).

One of the deck's strengths is that it has a lot of card draw. Seriously, this thing can draw loads of cards. Between the hero abilities, Gléowine, and Gandalf, you will have plenty of options in hand to work with during your games.

The deck also has a lot of resource generating cards to keep things moving along. King of Dale, Steward of Gondor, Bartering and Traffic from Dale mean that you won't be short of resources once things are up and running.

Heroes

One of the limitations of this deck is that the heroes have a mediocre stat line. Just look at all those twos...

However, this lack of specialization gives the heroes a certain amount of flexibility. I usually try for the following setup:

Brand son of Bain gets Protector of Lórien, Unexpected Courage and Celebrían's Stone so that he can quest for 5 and then attack for 3. He can also defend in a pinch thanks to Protector. Bard son of Brand gets King of Dale, Steward of Gondor and any other attachment (usually Protector of Lórien) so that he can play off-sphere Dale allies for free. His resources pay for North Realm Lookout, events and Item attachments of any sphere. I almost always use him for questing. Beravor gets nothing. Her job is to exhaust every turn to draw 2 cards. The only exception to this is if you need to use her for early game questing or defence. Her 4 means she can usually take one undefended attack or soak some archery damage. Get to the point already! How do I play this deck?

Quick start:

Mulligan for King of Dale. Play attachments on Dale characters to draw cards and gain willpower. Draw lots of cards. No seriously, just keep drawing cards. Play the cards. Profit. Longer explanation:

Step 1. Get King of Dale into play.

King of Dale is a key card because it makes Dale allies cheap and removes the need for a resource match. Mulligan for it if you don't get it in your first hand. Once you get it, it should be played on either of your Dale heroes as quickly as possible. I personally like to play it on Bard son of Brand since he will also get Steward of Gondor.

One thing I like about this deck is that there are a couple of ways to get King of Dale out on the first turn.

Play any 1 cost attachment (Protector of Lórien, Map of Rhovanion or Hauberk of Mail) onto Brand son of Bain (don't forget to draw a card!). Next play Bartering, return the attachment to your hand and play King of Dale at -1 cost, using Bard's resource. Alternatively, play the same lore attachment using Beravor's resource. Then use Traffic from Dale to gain a resource on Bard. You can also do this with a Bow of Yew for free. The same principles can be used for a first turn Steward of Gondor, and we all know how powerful that is. If the right cards are drawn, this deck can play King of Dale followed by a North Realm Lookout and a Map of Rhovanion on the first turn - a very solid start by all accounts.

Step 2. Play allies and attachments

Once King of Dale is out you should be able to play one or two Dale allies per turn. The synergies between the allies and their attachments in this box is really cool. Remember Brand's response: you get to draw a card each time you play an attachment on a Dale character without an attachment. This means that the best way to play is to initially spread the attachments around, 1 per character, so that you can maximise your draw from Brand son of Bain. Don't worry if you have to play these attachments suboptimally, e.g. playing Bow of Yew on a hero turn 1. The important thing is to get these cards down so that you can move through the deck and get your pieces in play.

The Dale allies work like this:

Long Lake Trader is a support ally who can move your attachments where they need to be. Let's say you played Bow of Yew on Brand turn 1 to get your draw rolling, but now you want it on your Warrior of Dale. No problem, the trader can move it for you. He can also hold an attachment by himself temporarily and move it to a better character later on. Redwater Sentry is a mini Beregond once he gets Hauberk of Mail because it will give him 4 , 4 and Sentinel. Those stats are amazing in this card pool. North Realm Lookout is amazing combined with Map of Rhovanion as he will quest for 3 without exhausting. He can take a Bow of Yew to chip enemies in the combat phase too. Warrior of Dale is the most difficult ally to play since he requires the use of King of Dale for the resource match, and that's why you have two copies. However, he's a very good attacker once he's out with a Bow of Yew. Step 3. Profit

The deck becomes straightforward to run once you get a feel for how it plays and you figure out how to use the allies. The power cards from the core set help keep things ticking over - honestly, part of the reason this deck runs well is because of things like Steward of Gondor and Sneak Attack + Gandalf. That combo alone solves a whole host of problems in this game.

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