Victory on the First Attempt!
The Deck
Choosing a strong focus for my decks is a weak point. Solo play necessitates doing all things well and I want to accomplish this using all of the neat tricks at my disposal. Too often the result is a mess pulling in too many directions and doing nothing really well. The idea hit me to try a template, where I boil down the key things I want to do, and then branch out from there.
I was one of the many super-excited when Tactics Eowyn was revealed. Brewing ideas began popping up in my head, with the foremost one being the mass-slaughter of trolls at the Carrock. For some reason, pairing her up with Spirit Glorfindel seemed like a natural fit (probably because paring anyone up with Spirit Glorfindel is a good place to start for a strong deck). Doing a little bit of basic math, I realized I could add in Galadriel and still stay in secrecy (and be greatly aided in staying there). After throwing a few ideas around, I settled on my template concept and ended up with this:
Super Secret Tech (draft)
Heroes
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Galadriel (Celebrimbor's Secret)
Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)
Ally
Derndingle Warrior x3
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Elven Jewler x3
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Attachment
Rivendell Blade x3
Rohan Warhorse x3
Ancient Mathom x3
Mirror of Galadriel x3
Unexpected Courage x3
Nenya x3
Resourceful x3
Event
Foe-hammer x3
Unseen Strike x3
Dwarven Tomb x3
Elrond's Counsel x3
Power of Orthanc x2
Sets Used
Core
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Redhorn Gate
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
The Voice of Isengard
The Dunland Trap
Celebrimbor's Secret
Escape from Mount Gram
The Flame of the West
RingsDB Link
Does it accomplish every last thing I want it to? No. Light of Valinor is an obvious addition to make. But this is a good start that should be able to handle most things a quest will throw out. A strong focus was put on equipping Glorfindel and Eowyn with fancy attachments, mainly because I want Eowyn to swing as many times as possible during her final showdown with the trolls.
Now to make the changes!
Elven Jewler is there to help solve the issue of "dead" unique cards in my hand. We do not need three of her. Ally Arwen can help my Derndingle Warrior's block even better and a Westfold Horse-breeder might be able to help fetch those much-desired horses.
Attachments gets quite a shake-up. Unexpected Courage can
get Eowyn readying, so one Warhorse will be fine. I'll switch in
Snowmane since I need her willpower (especially in that final round) and
Asfaloth for the fun of it (since Galadriel can lay down the Lore once
she has her ring). With my low threat, one Rivendell Blade and one
Dagger of Westerness would be a good arsenal for Glorfindel. Light of
Valinor is still needed and Nenya, while a necessary part of the
operation, should be easy to find with the Mirror of Galadriel. One
attachment spot is still open, after getting rid of both Blades, but I
feel pretty happy how things are looking in this section. Instead I'll
give that spot to events and throw in a copy of Daeron's Runes to help
find the pieces I need.
Finally, the rest of the events. The White Council is in here to help
with readying and resource fixing in a pinch, but the main function is
to help get cards back to be fished out with Galadriel's Mirror
(especially if they were discarded due to the Mirror's fickleness). Will
of the West can help with getting those cards in a well, so we'll put
in one of those. Power of Orthanc, Fair and Perilous, and Ride The Down
all have uses in a deck like this. The Mirror can grab them for us, then
Dwarven Tomb can give multiple uses of the one we need most. And now
for The Hammer-stroke. A big hope for this deck is eliminating all four
trolls in one turn. To do that, they need to be engaged simultaneously.
We'll drop out another hammer to make it the right tool fit.
Now is this deck any less of a mess than the attempts I used to make? I think so. Starting with a template and making strategic decisions creates more of a toolbox than a disaster. Or so I hope...
Super Secret Tech
Heroes
Eowyn (The Flame of the West)
Galadriel (Celebrimbor's Secret)
Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)
Allies
Derndingle Warrior x3
Arwen Undomiel (Watcher in the Water) x1
Elven Jewler x1
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Westfold Horse-breeder x1
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Attachments
Dagger of Westernesse x1
Rivendell Blade x1
Rohan Warhorse x1
Ancient Mathom x3
Light of Valinor x1
Mirror of Galadriel x3
Snowmane x1
Unexpected Courage x3
Asfaloth x1
Nenya x2
Resourceful x3
Events
Foe-hammer x2
The Hammer-stroke x1
Unseen Strike x2
A Test of Will x1
Dwarven Tomb x3
Elrond's Counsel x2
Fair and Perilous x1
Power of Orthanc x1
Ride Them Down x1
Will of the West x1
Daeron's Runes x1
The White Council x2
Sets Used
Core
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Redhorn Gate
Road to Rivendell
The Watcher in the Water
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
The Black Riders
The Blood of Gondor
The Voice of Isengard
The Dunland Trap
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Antlered Crown
Escape from Mount Gram
Across the Ettenmoors
The Land of Shadow
The Flame of the West
RingsDB Link
So how did it work out? Four less trolls in the wild lands of Middle-earth! Two Unexpected Courages, a Rohan Warhorse, and The White Council gave Eowyn the action advantage she needed to get the job done.
Not saying it went perfectly. I could not find Nenya for the first 3-4 rounds for the life of me, which significantly hurt my ability to blow past through the first stage at the rate I wanted. The staging area started getting a bit concerned, but that was easily solved once Nenya was back on the scene.
And even with a win there are changes I would want to make. Galadriel's Handmaiden is a great card, but Galadriel herself + Elrond's Counsel provided more than enough threat reduction for this deck. Celduin Traveler would have been more of a welcome sight, allowing me to get a few peeks at the encounter deck. I would fully switch those out. And instead of taking out a copy of Nenya, let's leave all three of those in and take out a copy of Resourceful.
The Recap
After an exhilarating victory at the Carrock, I wanted to seek out a new challenge for this deck. Finishing up the Ringmaker cycle was a natural choice, but I was also naturally too lazy to put the encounter deck together (a new storage solution implemented since then should eliminate this excuse). Stone of Erech was sitting on top of my collection and won by the wide margin of, "Why not?".
This quest was a blast. Stone has a counter-strategy for every strategy. Such as lowering willpower, blocking events, dramatically raising threat, etc. It comes off as very well-rounded in its approach to hinder your progress but did this without seeming too brutal. When it turned out I could not use Eowyn's ability on the final boss, it was more amusing than frustrating. But was it the quest I enjoyed or was I simply really enjoying my deck? Hard to tell sometimes!
The progression from Dusk to Eventide to Midnight is similar to the Time X mechanic from the Ringmaker cycle. Even though the progression to each new stage is permanent, I found it less punishing and not as much of a joy-killer as Time X.
The final victory was satisfying, featuring a battle quest with 29 attack committed (Fair and Perilous x3, due to two Dwarven Tombs and help from The White Council). It just took me a while to get there! I intended on letting loose during round 10, but revealed Haunted Valley and all of my heroes lost the ability to sphere-match for the round. Round 11? Haunted Valley. Round 12? Shadow Man, stopping me from playing events for the round. Revealing a Vale of Shadows, with seven quest points at Midnight, was actually a relief!
Final Scoring
12 Completed Rounds x10: 120
Ending Threat: 21
Total Damage on Heroes: 3 (Galadriel)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -6
Total Score: 138
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