10 - Flight From Moria (Progression Series)

ShellinProgression 5033

Description

This is another fellowship continuing on in my goal to play through all of the quests in release order to learn how all (or most) of the cards interact with one another. The first fellowship for the quests in the core set can be found here, and it contains a slightly more detailed overview of what I'm going for with building these decks. As always, any feedback is appreciated so that I can continue to learn more!

I built this fairly similarly to how I built decks for the other quests in this deluxe, focusing on dwarves for to make the most out of Dain, and Eagles/other cheap allies so I had chump blockers and questers that I wouldn't be too upset with tossing away if some bad treacheries forced me to do so. Eleanor + A Test of Will is there to help prevent some of the game ending Treachery cards, and Frodo + Galadhrim's Greeting + Gandalf is there to absorb some of the hits from The Nameless Fear when that card comes up.

These decks have a small amount of scrying + Shadow of the Past to try to be sneaky and beat the quest on the stage that makes you look for things that aren't treacheries, buuuuuut, I'm not very good at that encounter deck manipulation stuff. So the best way to beat this quest is to get some Fast Hitches on Frodo and let him hack away at the wall with some Abandoned Tools. The amount of Willpower I was able to get on the table was usually sufficient to quest through The Nameless Fear's threat (though obviously there were some occasional issues depending on what order the quests came out in).

I would say this was my favorite quest in the deluxe, because of how many different ways the encounter deck could try to punish you, and it was fairly difficult. I tried quite a few different hero combinations before thinking about throwing in Frodo, who made a huge difference. I haven't played any quests in the Dwarrowdwelf cycle before, so I'm going in 100% blind for my next six fellowships, and am excited to give them a shot!

4 comments

Jan 03, 2019 Wandalf the Gizzard 2508

With Boromir you could complete Escape from Darkness (the quests stage you need to defeat with the Abandoned Tools) in one round!

Jan 03, 2019 ShellinProgression 5033

@Wandalf the GizzardI looked into that possibility, but with the errata on Boromir it says you can only activate his ability once per phase, so I figured that was a no-go nowadays.

Jan 03, 2019 Wandalf the Gizzard 2508

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that! Some of us yet remember the Boromir glory days! :P

Jun 29, 2024 easypat 15

I definitely lucked out in my my playthrough using these decks. During setup I drew a Massing in the Deep, choosing to cancel it with Eleanor to set the tone. My first quest flip was Heading Up which I moved to the bottom after the first round. Next flip ended up being Narrow Paths, which luckily only neutered Thalin's 2 and left me with net zero. Unfortunately the first card in staging was a nasty New Devilry, which being the first card I thought I could deal with and save Eleanor for the next one. This brought up Hasty Council, which gave me the choice of Blocked by Shadow or Escape From Darkness. Everyone loves a risky roll, so I chose the first and turned over a location!

I played Steward of Gondor on Eleanor (could have gone on Frodo Baggins, too but any spirit) to pay for Northern Tracker and The Galadhrim's Greeting which were what kept both of the decks under 28. I used a couple Dwarven Tomb to recycle those since I was generating so many spirit resources.

Thalin was a real life-saver, keeping the Drummer and the Goblin Archer from sticking around. I think would have been great candidates for Shadow of the Past, but I never drew into it. On the second go round I might try using Steward of Gondor on Bifur to pay for Lórien's Wealth, which helped until I found Gléowine.

Thanks for putting these together, @ShellinProgression! I've used quite a few of your 2H decks, as-is and tweaked, in my 2H progression campaign.