The Deck
I decided a few weeks ago that I would take on The City of Corsairs using a brand-spanking new netdeck destined to cause errata...
Solo combo deck +90% win rate, usually on turn one
by Rouxxor
Heroes
Bifur (Khazad-dum)
Bilbo Baggins (The Hunt for Gollum)
Denethor (Flight of the Stormcaller)
Allies
Erebor Hammersmith x3
Erebor Record Keeper x3
Ered Nimrais Prospector x3
Dwarven Sellsword x3
Gloin (On the Doorstep) x1
Gandalf (Core) x1*
Attachments
Legacy of Durin x1
Scroll of Isildur x1
Rod of the Steward x1
Tome of Atanatar x1
Good Meal x3
Events
Daeron's Runes x3
Deep Knowledge x3
Heed the Dream x2
Lorien's Wealth x3
Mithrandir's Advice x2
Ravens of the Mountain x1
Out of the Wild x1*
Gaining Strength x1
Legacy of Numenor x3
Lure of Moria x2
Second Breakfast x1
We Are Not Idle x3
Justice Shall Be Done x1
The Seeing Stone x3
Sideboard
Heed the Dream x1*
Mithrandir's Advice x1*
Erestor (The Treachery of Rhudaur)
Legacy of Durin x2
Lore of Imladris x1
Needful to Know x1
Risk Some Light x1
The Evening Star x3
Durin's Song x1
Gaining Strength x1
Song of Battle x1
Song of Travel x1
Dunedain Pathfinder x1
Born Aloft x1
Sets Used
Core
The Hunt for Gollum
Conflict at the Carrock
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Shadow and Flame
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Blood of Gondor
The Morgul Vale
The Voice of Isengard
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Drowned Ruins
A Storm of Cobas Haven
Check out notes from Rouxxor and others at RingsDB
RingsDB Link
And read the detailed deck notes at Hall of Beorn
Hall of Beorn Link
Rouxxor has set up a masterpiece of a deck that can beat almost any quest. But here's the catch: This one falls in the "almost" category. To beat The City of Corsairs, you need to destroy Captain Sahir. On my first attempt I got up to that point with a smile on my face and joy in my heart. Then I counted how much attack strength I had on the board. Then I just looked a little sad.
As is, this deck can muster only 13 attack. The absolute best-cased scenario requires 14 to defeat The City of Corsairs. Fortunantly Rouxxor included a sideboard with two options for you: Dunadain Pathfiner and Gandalf. Gandalf is designed to be combined with Song of Battle and Born Aloft for an infinite damage loop, but we just need to play him once. This can get us up to 18 attack strength in a best-case scenario. My first attempt was not a best-case and I ended up with 9 resources on Captain Sahir, requiring 21 attack strength to destroy him. This is why I also added in the sideboard card of Out of the Wild: To eliminate all but one card from the encounter deck and skip dealing shadow cards.
Another route would be to leave the deck as is, not play Justice Shall Be Done, and defeat Captain Sahir during round 2. A great theory that I personally was not able to pull off. Justice Shall Be Done provided cruicial resource acceleration for me. But that might just be a skill-level limitation.
The Journey
Rouxxor built his deck well and you tinker with it at your own risk. I had no problem establishing the initial combo settings (empty deck with Tomb of Atanatar in my hand, all dwarfs out, and the necessary cards in my discard pile) both times I ran the deck as-is. After my adjustments, it took me three attempts before I could successfully re-establish the combo setting. Maybe this could happen under other circumstances, but it certainly seemed like a correlation to me.
Since you only truly care about stage 3 &4, I recommend seeing if you can get the combo set up before even bringing out the encounter deck.
Now, once your deck is empty and everything is in it's place, begin implementing the infinite resource combo. I went through the entire combo a single time, to make sure I understood it and to see it in action, and then acted as if I did it X times (where X = infinity).
Time to play Gandalf and get that threat down a bit (not that it should matter).
And now for the infinite progress combo. As above, I did this once then clicked through the quest stages and arranged the staging area & encounter decks as each stage directed. For stage 3A, pick a Corsair Infiltrator as your raider (they don't have an ability to gain extra resources). Add 1 resource. Pick Streets of Umbar as your location. For stage 4A, pick another Corsair Infiltrator as your raider. Add 1 resource to each raider and to Captain Sahir.
Now, start looping Out of the Wild. Follow the same instructions given in looping Ravens of the Mountains (skip step 5&6 which is built around readying Bifur). As with both of the above, do this loop once and then add all but one encounter card in the deck to your victory display. I picked a second Streets of Umbar to remain.
Your staging area should have: Streets of Umbar, The Shattered Monument, Corsair Infiltrator (2 resources), Corsair Infiltrator (1 resource). The encounter deck should just have Streets of Umbar (or whatever card you picked).
Proceed to the quest phase. Quest with just enough power, then loop Tomb of Atanatar / Second Breakfast / Lure of Moria to ready everyone.
The Infiltrator's engage you. No shadow cards dealt. Sacrifice the Prospector's to enemy attacks. Destroy both Infiltrator's, adding their resources to Captain Sahir (who should have four total), then loop Tomb/Breakfast/Lure to ready everyone and attack the captain for 17.
Proceed to victory dance.
Final Scoring
0 Completed Rounds x10: 0
Ending Threat: 39
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -1 (Justice Shall Be Done)
Total Score: 38
The Recap
Let's be honest: This was more of a deck test than an play through that gave a real feel for the quest. But playing this deck is a game in and of itself. While the combo is there, just waiting to be unleashed, you do need to find the right order to play your cards in to get the initial conditions set up.
Still, I was able to appreciate what I saw of the quest while moving at super-speed. Mixing up sailing & sea warfare with a land battle keeps the player on their toes (and brings in interesting challenge to deckbuilding). Corsairs are nasty enemies and I can see that, with any deck that is not a turn-one victory, this would be a quest to bring your best well-rounded deck to.
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