Saturday, October 1, 2016
Looking Back: Ringmaker Cycle
Celebrimbor's Secret and The Three Trials.
Not only is this the name of my new band, but these are the only two quests I really enjoyed out of the entire Voice of Isengard box + Ringmaker cycle. Part of that is my fault. In misunderstanding how Time X works on locations, I added a layer of punishment to the cycle that was not the designer's intention. I will add a little benefit to my doubt and classify this cycle as "My least favorite, but possibly better than I realize."
Note: Trouble in Tharbad was marked as a favorite quest as well, but that was more to do with the unique nature of getting your threat down to zero than anything else. I may consider changing that classification, or I may find that my new realization about Time X only solidifies my original choice.
Quest 36: The Antlered Crown
Victory on the Seventh Attempt!
The Deck
Having picked up Flame of the West the week before my first attempt at The Antlered Crown, I tried my first attempt at a Tactics Eowyn / Spirit Beregond / Tactics Merry deck. No bueno. At least not the way I built it that time around (I have ideas for making that a stronger deck in the future). Location lock and floods of enemies were things during two attempts so I changed tactics (for Lore) and went in the direction of a Noldor/Dunedain willpower & action advantage route heavily supported by Tale of Tinuviel. Once again, a solid concept (I think) that just wasn't clicking right for me. One thing is that my allies were not full Noldor & Dunedain. In fact, I had some key Rohan support in there that I was reluctant to cut. Why not make that cheaper, helping to empty my hand, and use the Tale's spot to further support our Rohan friends? Putting Gamling to good use was on my back burner and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Santa's Antlers
Heroes
Theoden (The Treason of Saruman)
Arwen Undomiel (The Dread Realm)
Elrond (Shadow and Flame)
Allies
Gamling x2
Escort from Edoras x3
The Riddermark's Finest x3
Westfold Horse-breeder x3
Gleowine x1
Miner of the Iron Hills x1
Warden of Healing x3
Derndingle Warrior x3
Ceorl x1
Attachments
Herugrim x1
Light of Valinor x1
Snowmane x1
Steed of Imladris x1
Unexpected Courage x3
Asfaloth x1
Events
Dwarven Tomb x3
Elronds Counsel x3
Elven-light x3
Fair and Perilous x3
Helm! Helm! x2
Power of Orthanc x1
Ride to Ruin x2
Stand and Fight x2
The Evening Star x3
Sets Used
Core Set
A Journey to Rhosgobel
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Shadow nd Flame
The Voice of Isengard
The Treason of Saruman
Escape from Mount Gram
Across the Ettenmoors
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
The Grey Havens
Temple of the Deceived
RingsDB Link
The Recap
So, there is a question mark up there next to the victory. What is up with that?
The deck performed well. The quest was hard but under control. Finally, the end was in sight! I was engaged with a Dunland Prowler, a Raven Warrior, and the Raven Chief. The Raven Chief had six damage sitting pretty on him. With a copy of Fair and Perilous in my hands and an Unexpected Courage on Theoden, I needed to survive one round of enemy attacks and I could swing for well more than I needed. A Derndingle Warrior, with boosted defense, takes on the Raven Chief. Shadow card? No effect. Theoden takes on the Raven Warrior. Shadow card? No effect, but Theoden still takes on two damage. Finally Chief Turch, with three damage on him, faces down a two attack Dunland Prowler. Shadow card? Raven Skirmisher. Shadow text: "Attacking enemy gets +X Attack, where X is the Time X value on the active location." What's the active location? Raven War-camp, with a Time X value of 3. Chief Turch dies. Game over.
I like playing Halo on the Legendary setting. You come up against skirmish after skirmish where multiple, sometime an agonizing number, of attempts are needed before you can move on (if your goal is to take all the enemies out instead of running past them in a mix of bravery and terror). And what happens when you fail all of those initial attempts? Back to the previous checkpoint with you! Sometimes that checkpoint is a ways back, but it is always a reasonable distance and you do not have to let one skirmish cause you to replay the entire level. Lord of the Rings: the Card Game is not like that and those moments are the frustrating ones. You can get a handle on the initial and even middle part of the quests, then one false steps or twist of fate sends you right back to the start. This was a major problem I had with The Dunland Trap, the first quest in this cycle, where there was a brutal transition point near the end that wiped away much of your earlier progress in amassing forces.
So I decided to give myself the win. This shadow could have easily belonged to the Raven Chief and brought about the end of the Derndingle Warrior. Chief Turch's attack was not even needed! Elrond w/Fair and Perilous + Theoden had this under control. And I realized I had already given myself quite a handicap in this quest (and in this cycle).
The First Handicap: The Death of Arwen. As the final round began, I looked up to the quest stage and realized I forgot to take off the final time counter at the end of the last round. That means the Raven Chief should have attacked again! I was pretty sure I had enough of a board presence to take that into account, but I could not remember exactly what I had in place during the previous combat round and how it would have played out (a downside of eliminating the detailed notes in my write-ups!). My threat was low enough to soak up the threat of not questing the final round (I hoped) and Arwen was not needed to take out the Raven Chief, so I decided to let her go.
The Second Handicap: Time X Locations. Early on in this final attempt I was dealt the treachery Raising the Cry, which has the text: "Remove 1 time counter from each location in play. Place X time counters on each location in play with no time counters on it. X is the "Time X" value on that location. If there are not locations in the staging area, Raising the Cry gains surge." I looked at it with puzzlement. When is a location ever going to have zero time counters? Does that mean a location will have twice as many time counters? That doesn't sound like a punishment, nor does it fit the title of the card. That would be more like "Delaying the Cry." Then it hits me. I run to grab my Voice of Isengard rulebook and the truth is revealed: I have been playing Time X on locations incorrectly this entire cycle. Taking cues from the quest cards, which typically have you re-ad time counters when you reach zero, I had been placing fresh time counters on my locations after they were all removed. No wonder I found Time X a crazy, overly-punishing mechanic! No wonder so many of these quests were missing an element of fun for me! I'll have to make a back-burner note in my mind to take another crack at this cycle in the future and see if some of the quests shine a little more for me.
What did I think of the quest itself? It was actually pretty decent. Not one that struck a "How many cool decks can I test against this?" sort of note, but it was a thematic and appropriately difficult final quest for the cycle. There are some very punishing and nightmarish scenarios that can pop up, with your board getting flooded by enemies out of nowhere, but once again that is a thematic note and goes with the assigned difficulty level of 7. I will go back and attempt it again some day, especially now that I understand what Time X locations really mean...
Edit: Returned with Santa's Antlers and got a good lead the third time around with a Derndingle Warrior and Warden of Healing down early. Kept Theoden up most of time and he plus Chief Turch took care of most enemies (with a Riddermark's Finest helping on occasion). I had actually switched out Helm! Helm! x2 and Ride to Ruin x1 with three copies of Hasty Stroke, since shadow effects were making blocking with Chief Turch too risky, but I never had to use one.
(Updated) Final Scoring
8 Completed Rounds x10: 80
Ending Threat: 43
Total Damage on Heroes: 0
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -7 (Raven Chief's Camp, Raven Chief)
Total Score: 116
Print on Demand 3: Stone of Erech
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
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
Monday, July 25, 2016
Print On Demand 4: The Old Forest
Victory on the Second Attempt!
The Recap
Well I certainly have found my new go-to quest for testing decks with a strong location focus. A few similarities to The Hills of Emyn Muil here, but executed much better (and thus making that quest less likely to see any play, although I hear the nightmare version is fun). I want to come back to The Old Forest with a bag full of the location-focused tricks Lore and Spirit have been gathering.
My first attempt featured a lot of wandering around and a location lock. I worked around this on attempt two by adding Mr. Underhill and Old Bogey-stories to the victory display at a non-essential time, bringing me up to the needed five victory points to proceed onward. On both attempts, Wall of Trees was a fantastic starting location for a deck designed to quest strong right off the bat.
It took me two rounds to get through stage 3B. I saw the staging area, quested with all my might, then somehow missed the fact that the stage had 18 quest points! That honestly seemed like it was going to be game-over for me, with a few enemies and Old Man Willow in the staging area. But my band of hobbits survived by the skin of their teeth and onward we moved!
Now let's talk about the art of this set. Not everything here is jaw-dropping, but when it is those jaws just hit the floor. Just look at Swaying Without the Wind by Jake Bullock. This piece is hidden away as a treachery in a print-on-demand set? Shame for everyone without it (which was me up until recently) and joy for us!
But it is Romana Kendelic's art on Song of Sleep, Lost and Witless, and Ending and Failing that really caught my eye. I immediately though, "Hey, that's the Courage Awakened / Free to Choose artist!" but how little did I know. Doing a search at Hall of Beorn revealed how prolific Ms. Kendelic has been in her contributions to the game. Little did I realize that this artist I was appriciating is the very same one who produced the Merry I was using to go against the quest.
Final Scoring
5 Completed Rounds x10: 50
Ending Threat: 35
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Sam 3, Frodo 1)
Note: Bill the Pony was in play, giving Sam that extra hitpoint.
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -7 (Mr. Underhill 1, Old Bogey-Stories 1, Withywindle 3, Deep Gulley 2)
Total Score: 82
I did not earn Old Bogey-stories on this victory attempt, not realizing the value in attacking Old Man Willow. Definitely an accomplishment I hope to make in the future as it is also a beautiful piece of art and will be useful in situations where I am drawing into cards that do not fit my exact situation (duplicate uniques, too much of the wrong sphere is a multi-sphere deck, that one missing combo piece, etc.).
The Deck
While reading The Secondhand Took's article on hobbit art, I was inspired to use Keen-eyed Took for a hobbit-themed discard deck. Ered Luin Miner is a card I have been itching to play with since opening him last month and this seemed like a perfect match. Ironically (or maybe not), the Took ended up being a pretty weak link the deck and was reduced to a one-of. While his ability + deck manipulation can help get the right card discarded, you're paying two resources for a privilege in a deck that has many other ways to grant the same favor.
Imladris Stargazer, Gildor Inglorion, and Wizard Pipe will help you in getting the right allies to the top of your deck for some Timely Aid, Expert Treasure-hunter(ing), or a reciting of A Very Good Tale. Good old Zigil Miner will dig up some resources for you in the meantime. You then have Elven-light, Hidden Cache, Ered Luin Miner, and Glorfindel who are begging to be tossed out with the trash.
Drop It Like It's Hobbit
Heroes
Merry (The Wastes of Eriador)
Pippin (The Black Riders)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Allies
Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens) x1
Glorfindel (Flight of the Stormcaller) x1
Imladris Stargazer x3
Kili x1
Zigil Miner x2
Barliman Butterbur x1
Gildor Inglorion x1
Gelowine x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Mablung (Land of Shadow) x1
Mirkwood Explorer x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x1
Bill the Pony x1
Faramir (Core) x1
Fili x1
Keen-eyed Took x1
Ered Luin Miner x3
Gandalf (Over Hill and Under Hill) x2
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x1
Attachments
Expert Treasure-Hunter x2
Good Meal x3
Wizard Pipe x1
Events
Elven-light x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Timely Aid x3
A Good Harvest x3
Hidden Catche x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
Sets Used
Core Set
The Hills of Emyn Muil
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders
The Morgul Vale
The Road Darkens
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Thing in the Depths
Temple of the Deceived
RingsDB
This deck seems like a bit of a jumble, but so far it has been consistently spamming out allies once it hits its rhythm.
There is a lot of alteration that can be made here, if you are willing to let go of the amazing name. The Hobbit theme is honestly pretty optional. Take out Bill the Pony, Barliman Butterbur, Good Meal, and Frodo's Intiution. You now have 8 card spots free and can use any combination of sphere-relevant heroes. The entire Lore sphere is fairly optional as well. Expert Treasure-hunter is nice to have, but not fully needed.
The Recap
Well I certainly have found my new go-to quest for testing decks with a strong location focus. A few similarities to The Hills of Emyn Muil here, but executed much better (and thus making that quest less likely to see any play, although I hear the nightmare version is fun). I want to come back to The Old Forest with a bag full of the location-focused tricks Lore and Spirit have been gathering.
My first attempt featured a lot of wandering around and a location lock. I worked around this on attempt two by adding Mr. Underhill and Old Bogey-stories to the victory display at a non-essential time, bringing me up to the needed five victory points to proceed onward. On both attempts, Wall of Trees was a fantastic starting location for a deck designed to quest strong right off the bat.
It took me two rounds to get through stage 3B. I saw the staging area, quested with all my might, then somehow missed the fact that the stage had 18 quest points! That honestly seemed like it was going to be game-over for me, with a few enemies and Old Man Willow in the staging area. But my band of hobbits survived by the skin of their teeth and onward we moved!
Now let's talk about the art of this set. Not everything here is jaw-dropping, but when it is those jaws just hit the floor. Just look at Swaying Without the Wind by Jake Bullock. This piece is hidden away as a treachery in a print-on-demand set? Shame for everyone without it (which was me up until recently) and joy for us!
But it is Romana Kendelic's art on Song of Sleep, Lost and Witless, and Ending and Failing that really caught my eye. I immediately though, "Hey, that's the Courage Awakened / Free to Choose artist!" but how little did I know. Doing a search at Hall of Beorn revealed how prolific Ms. Kendelic has been in her contributions to the game. Little did I realize that this artist I was appriciating is the very same one who produced the Merry I was using to go against the quest.
Final Scoring
5 Completed Rounds x10: 50
Ending Threat: 35
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Sam 3, Frodo 1)
Note: Bill the Pony was in play, giving Sam that extra hitpoint.
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display: -7 (Mr. Underhill 1, Old Bogey-Stories 1, Withywindle 3, Deep Gulley 2)
Total Score: 82
I did not earn Old Bogey-stories on this victory attempt, not realizing the value in attacking Old Man Willow. Definitely an accomplishment I hope to make in the future as it is also a beautiful piece of art and will be useful in situations where I am drawing into cards that do not fit my exact situation (duplicate uniques, too much of the wrong sphere is a multi-sphere deck, that one missing combo piece, etc.).
The Deck
While reading The Secondhand Took's article on hobbit art, I was inspired to use Keen-eyed Took for a hobbit-themed discard deck. Ered Luin Miner is a card I have been itching to play with since opening him last month and this seemed like a perfect match. Ironically (or maybe not), the Took ended up being a pretty weak link the deck and was reduced to a one-of. While his ability + deck manipulation can help get the right card discarded, you're paying two resources for a privilege in a deck that has many other ways to grant the same favor.
Imladris Stargazer, Gildor Inglorion, and Wizard Pipe will help you in getting the right allies to the top of your deck for some Timely Aid, Expert Treasure-hunter(ing), or a reciting of A Very Good Tale. Good old Zigil Miner will dig up some resources for you in the meantime. You then have Elven-light, Hidden Cache, Ered Luin Miner, and Glorfindel who are begging to be tossed out with the trash.
Drop It Like It's Hobbit
Heroes
Merry (The Wastes of Eriador)
Pippin (The Black Riders)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Allies
Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens) x1
Glorfindel (Flight of the Stormcaller) x1
Imladris Stargazer x3
Kili x1
Zigil Miner x2
Barliman Butterbur x1
Gildor Inglorion x1
Gelowine x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Mablung (Land of Shadow) x1
Mirkwood Explorer x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x1
Bill the Pony x1
Faramir (Core) x1
Fili x1
Keen-eyed Took x1
Ered Luin Miner x3
Gandalf (Over Hill and Under Hill) x2
Treebeard (The Antlered Crown) x1
Attachments
Expert Treasure-Hunter x2
Good Meal x3
Wizard Pipe x1
Events
Elven-light x3
A Very Good Tale x3
Timely Aid x3
A Good Harvest x3
Hidden Catche x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
Sets Used
Core Set
The Hills of Emyn Muil
Khazad-dum
The Redhorn Gate
The Long Dark
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders
The Morgul Vale
The Road Darkens
The Antlered Crown
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Thing in the Depths
Temple of the Deceived
RingsDB
This deck seems like a bit of a jumble, but so far it has been consistently spamming out allies once it hits its rhythm.
There is a lot of alteration that can be made here, if you are willing to let go of the amazing name. The Hobbit theme is honestly pretty optional. Take out Bill the Pony, Barliman Butterbur, Good Meal, and Frodo's Intiution. You now have 8 card spots free and can use any combination of sphere-relevant heroes. The entire Lore sphere is fairly optional as well. Expert Treasure-hunter is nice to have, but not fully needed.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Quest 35: Celebrimbor's Secret
Victory on the sixth attempt!
The Deck
From the story section of The Nin-in-Eliph, I knew I would be going up against Orcs this time around. Great! Time to break out the tactics orc-hate! I put in Legolas and a few other Tactics-centric ways to get progress out. I did not realize how much questing strength this quest would actually require. Coming just 1-2 progress sort of clearing The Secret Chamber, I lost momentum and could not get that final progress on before the chamber was destroyed.
Separately, I have been working on some decks for my wife and I to use. After a crushing defeat vs. Shadow of the Past, I decided to do a bit of play testing to make sure the decks actually work well before we make another attempt. She's a fan of Elves so I went for a Silvan theme (even though two of the heroes are Noldor). While my eventual intent was to simply splash some spirit into my tactics deck for the next attempt of Celebrimbor's Secret, this seemed like as good a time as any to playtest the Silvan deck I was building for my wife.
Silvan Survival
Heroes
Celeborn
Galadriel
Glorfindel
Allies
Naith Guide x3
Orophin x2
Galadhrim Weaver x3
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Defender of the Naith x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Attachments
Cram x3
O Lorien x3
Light of Valinor x2
Mirror of Galadriel x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Nenya x2
Events
Feigned Voices x3
Sneak Attack x3
Valiant Sacrifice x3
Fair and Perilous x3
Island Amid Perils x3
Sets Used
Core Set
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Druadan Forest
The Blood of Gondor
The Dunland Trap
The Three Trials
Trouble in Tharbad
The Nin-in-Eilph
Celebrimbor's Secret
Across the Ettenoors
The Treachery of Rhudar
RingsDB Link
You're looking for Nenya or Mirror of Galadriel in your opening hand, along with 1-2 allies to get you started. Then bounce things, boost things, and recover things (via Galadriel's Handmaiden and the shuffle from Mirror of Galadriel).
The Recap
I do not mind loosing against a quest the first time. My goal is to take a deck I think will function well in most circumstances, combine it with a quest I know little to nothing about, and see what beautiful child they create. Usually it's a monstrosity.
I do take issue with miss-plays: Missing a line of text or keyword that results in a playthrough being invalidated. The above six attempts represent one standard failure (using mono tactics with low willpower), three missplays, one error in judgement (letting locations freely stack under The Orc's Search), and a victory.
Let's talk about the error in judgement, because I think it has some relevance to others going up against this one. My second attempt was a pretty handy win, but I realized I neglected to set out a location of my choice (I was playing on OCTGN and forgot that set up pieces with player input like that do not automatically generate). Figuring attempt three would be easy as well, I allowed a couple of locations to be damage unto destruction and placed in The Orc's Search. In fact, I encouraged it several times! My thought was that it would clear up the staging area (which it did) and I would rush to victory so fast that the increased threat of Bellach and the increase in my own threat at the end of the round would be negligible. Wrong! Very wrong. Painfully wrong. One of the biggest tips I can give is, as far as it is within your power, do not let locations build up under The Orc's Search. Fully prevent it if you can! With that, I wonder how brutal this particular quest becomes as you add players. The last thing I ever wanted was more encounter cards to be revealed, giving me either locations to be damage or effects to cause the damage.
This is a fresh and exciting quest for me. While the Time X keyword is used almost too much in the Ringmaker Cycle, I like that it has a bit more of an optional consequence here. Is it bad to run out of time? Depends. How does your staging area look? I also love the creativity of the encounter deck "questing" against you. Who will explore a location first? Will the enemy discover The Secret Chamber before you? And then it wraps up with a good old boss fight.
This does seem like a solo quest to me, though. Not that multiplayer can't win (or have fun). But if I am ever in a playgroup that wants to throw down Celebrimbor's Secret, I am likely going to cluck under my teeth, wrap my fingers on the table, take a deep breath, look my fellow players in the eye and tell them, "I need you to accept the fact that you're likely going to die." And be they willing, we will ride to ruin.
The Deck
From the story section of The Nin-in-Eliph, I knew I would be going up against Orcs this time around. Great! Time to break out the tactics orc-hate! I put in Legolas and a few other Tactics-centric ways to get progress out. I did not realize how much questing strength this quest would actually require. Coming just 1-2 progress sort of clearing The Secret Chamber, I lost momentum and could not get that final progress on before the chamber was destroyed.
Separately, I have been working on some decks for my wife and I to use. After a crushing defeat vs. Shadow of the Past, I decided to do a bit of play testing to make sure the decks actually work well before we make another attempt. She's a fan of Elves so I went for a Silvan theme (even though two of the heroes are Noldor). While my eventual intent was to simply splash some spirit into my tactics deck for the next attempt of Celebrimbor's Secret, this seemed like as good a time as any to playtest the Silvan deck I was building for my wife.
Silvan Survival
Heroes
Celeborn
Galadriel
Glorfindel
Allies
Naith Guide x3
Orophin x2
Galadhrim Weaver x3
Galadriel's Handmaiden x3
Silvan Refugee x3
Defender of the Naith x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Attachments
Cram x3
O Lorien x3
Light of Valinor x2
Mirror of Galadriel x2
Unexpected Courage x2
Nenya x2
Events
Feigned Voices x3
Sneak Attack x3
Valiant Sacrifice x3
Fair and Perilous x3
Island Amid Perils x3
Sets Used
Core Set
Foundations of Stone
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Druadan Forest
The Blood of Gondor
The Dunland Trap
The Three Trials
Trouble in Tharbad
The Nin-in-Eilph
Celebrimbor's Secret
Across the Ettenoors
The Treachery of Rhudar
RingsDB Link
You're looking for Nenya or Mirror of Galadriel in your opening hand, along with 1-2 allies to get you started. Then bounce things, boost things, and recover things (via Galadriel's Handmaiden and the shuffle from Mirror of Galadriel).
The Recap
I do not mind loosing against a quest the first time. My goal is to take a deck I think will function well in most circumstances, combine it with a quest I know little to nothing about, and see what beautiful child they create. Usually it's a monstrosity.
I do take issue with miss-plays: Missing a line of text or keyword that results in a playthrough being invalidated. The above six attempts represent one standard failure (using mono tactics with low willpower), three missplays, one error in judgement (letting locations freely stack under The Orc's Search), and a victory.
Let's talk about the error in judgement, because I think it has some relevance to others going up against this one. My second attempt was a pretty handy win, but I realized I neglected to set out a location of my choice (I was playing on OCTGN and forgot that set up pieces with player input like that do not automatically generate). Figuring attempt three would be easy as well, I allowed a couple of locations to be damage unto destruction and placed in The Orc's Search. In fact, I encouraged it several times! My thought was that it would clear up the staging area (which it did) and I would rush to victory so fast that the increased threat of Bellach and the increase in my own threat at the end of the round would be negligible. Wrong! Very wrong. Painfully wrong. One of the biggest tips I can give is, as far as it is within your power, do not let locations build up under The Orc's Search. Fully prevent it if you can! With that, I wonder how brutal this particular quest becomes as you add players. The last thing I ever wanted was more encounter cards to be revealed, giving me either locations to be damage or effects to cause the damage.
This is a fresh and exciting quest for me. While the Time X keyword is used almost too much in the Ringmaker Cycle, I like that it has a bit more of an optional consequence here. Is it bad to run out of time? Depends. How does your staging area look? I also love the creativity of the encounter deck "questing" against you. Who will explore a location first? Will the enemy discover The Secret Chamber before you? And then it wraps up with a good old boss fight.
This does seem like a solo quest to me, though. Not that multiplayer can't win (or have fun). But if I am ever in a playgroup that wants to throw down Celebrimbor's Secret, I am likely going to cluck under my teeth, wrap my fingers on the table, take a deep breath, look my fellow players in the eye and tell them, "I need you to accept the fact that you're likely going to die." And be they willing, we will ride to ruin.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Campaign Progress Update: Journey in the Dark
The Recap
As I documented in my post on Journey in the Dark, I was not satisfied with my deck or experience playing Journey in the Dark earlier this year. Sure, I won, but I accumulated all four burdens and had a pretty "meh" time playing. Hoping to improve both my experience with the quest and my campaign pool, I went at it again a few weeks ago with a new version of my "Hot Mess for Moria" deck. It was a blast! Now, I did not have reveal after reveal of Mines of Moria, so that helped ease the frustration of the quest. The deck got out quite a few allies until my horde by the end was pretty sizable, giving the Balrog little chance of survival. I did sacrifice Gandalf and earned that thematic satisfaction.
This quest was beaten fair and square previously, so I am not going to increase the number of attempts it took me to beat it, but I am going to update my campaign pool with the new adjustments:
Boons
Mr. Underhill (attached to Frodo Baggins)
Noble Hero (attached to Sam Gamgee)
Anduril, Mithril Shirt, Sting, Glamdring (one in opening hand, others shuffled)
Burdens
Gandalf's Delay (setup)
Overcome by Terror (shuffle)
Overcome by Grief (setup)
Shadow of Fear (shuffle)
Fallen Heroes
Gandalf
The Old Forest and Fog on the Barrow-Downs have made their way into my collection recently. I plan on tackling them with the heroes and campaign pool I had accumulated at that point (which means I can go with Merry/Pippin or Merry/Pippin/Sam). If I earn the accompanying boons, I will add those to the campaign pool moving forward.
The Deck
Another Hot Mess for Moria
Heroes
Aragorn (The Watcher in the Water)
Gandalf (The Road Darkens)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Allies
Dori (Over Hill and Under Hill) x1
Galdor of the Havens (The Treachery of Rhudaur) x1
Gildor Inglorion x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Mablung (The Land of Shadow) x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x2
Anborn (The Land of Shadow) x1
Bill the Pony x1
Eldahir x1
Erestor (The Long Dark) x1
Faramir (Core) x1
Gimli (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Ingold x1
Beorn (Core) x1
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Steward of Gondor x1
Sword that was Broken x1
Elf-stone x2
Expert Treasure-hunter x1
Fast Hitch x2
Gandalf's Staff x1
Good Meal x3
Narya x1
Shadowfax x1
Wizard Pipe x1
Events
Captain's Wisdom x3
Timely Aid x3
Heed the Dream x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
A Good Harvest x3
Sets Used
Core
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Dead Marshes
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders
The Road Darkens
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Treachery of Rhudaur
The Land of Shadow
The Grey Havens
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Thing in the Depths
RingsDB Link
Get some allies out. Heed that dream. Destroy the monster. Rescue theprincess Istari something.
As I documented in my post on Journey in the Dark, I was not satisfied with my deck or experience playing Journey in the Dark earlier this year. Sure, I won, but I accumulated all four burdens and had a pretty "meh" time playing. Hoping to improve both my experience with the quest and my campaign pool, I went at it again a few weeks ago with a new version of my "Hot Mess for Moria" deck. It was a blast! Now, I did not have reveal after reveal of Mines of Moria, so that helped ease the frustration of the quest. The deck got out quite a few allies until my horde by the end was pretty sizable, giving the Balrog little chance of survival. I did sacrifice Gandalf and earned that thematic satisfaction.
This quest was beaten fair and square previously, so I am not going to increase the number of attempts it took me to beat it, but I am going to update my campaign pool with the new adjustments:
Boons
Mr. Underhill (attached to Frodo Baggins)
Noble Hero (attached to Sam Gamgee)
Anduril, Mithril Shirt, Sting, Glamdring (one in opening hand, others shuffled)
Burdens
Gandalf's Delay (setup)
Overcome by Terror (shuffle)
Overcome by Grief (setup)
Shadow of Fear (shuffle)
Fallen Heroes
Gandalf
The Old Forest and Fog on the Barrow-Downs have made their way into my collection recently. I plan on tackling them with the heroes and campaign pool I had accumulated at that point (which means I can go with Merry/Pippin or Merry/Pippin/Sam). If I earn the accompanying boons, I will add those to the campaign pool moving forward.
The Deck
Another Hot Mess for Moria
Heroes
Aragorn (The Watcher in the Water)
Gandalf (The Road Darkens)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)
Allies
Dori (Over Hill and Under Hill) x1
Galdor of the Havens (The Treachery of Rhudaur) x1
Gildor Inglorion x1
Henamarth Riversong x1
Mablung (The Land of Shadow) x1
Quickbeam x1
Warden of Healing x2
Anborn (The Land of Shadow) x1
Bill the Pony x1
Eldahir x1
Erestor (The Long Dark) x1
Faramir (Core) x1
Gimli (The Treason of Saruman) x1
Ingold x1
Beorn (Core) x1
Envoy of Pelargir x3
Attachments
Celebrian's Stone x1
Steward of Gondor x1
Sword that was Broken x1
Elf-stone x2
Expert Treasure-hunter x1
Fast Hitch x2
Gandalf's Staff x1
Good Meal x3
Narya x1
Shadowfax x1
Wizard Pipe x1
Events
Captain's Wisdom x3
Timely Aid x3
Heed the Dream x3
Frodo's Intuition x3
A Good Harvest x3
Sets Used
Core
The Hills of Emyn Muil
The Dead Marshes
The Redhorn Gate
The Watcher in the Water
The Long Dark
Over Hill and Under Hill
Heirs of Numenor
On the Doorstep
The Steward's Fear
The Black Riders
The Road Darkens
The Nin-in-Eilph
The Treason of Saruman
The Wastes of Eriador
The Treachery of Rhudaur
The Land of Shadow
The Grey Havens
Flight of the Stormcaller
The Thing in the Depths
RingsDB Link
Get some allies out. Heed that dream. Destroy the monster. Rescue the
Friday, July 8, 2016
Quest 51: Temple of the Deceived
Victory on the Second Attempt!
Talk about "semi-chronological," eh? Skipping from quest 34 to 51!
I, and I trust I do not stand alone in this, have been itching to get my hands on Temple of the Deceived since it was first announced. That is a very rare occurrence for me. There are other quests that have grabbed my interest but it is usually the player cards I am chomping at the bit for. Temple had such a unique, board-game like feel to it that I wanted to stop my blog in its tracks and take a crack at this one.
The Deck
There's a level of satisfaction in using cards that come with a quest to tackle that quest. Rohan horses is an archetype I have been playing around with a bit this year, so hero Elfhelm made me justifiably excited to return to that archetype. Adding in Tactics and Spirit gives quite a few horse to choose from, with the Charge of the Rohirrm and Westfold Horse-breeder being natural accompaniments. I wrestled with how many Rohan-centric cards to add in and went with Astonishing Speed, since a massive and dramatic questing phase would be needed to wrap up the quest. Oh, it's worth noting that this draft of the deck was made after my first play-through. The initial deck was brimming with cheap Rohan allies and cheap allies are not favored in this quest (there are still a few in the below decklist, though).
I considered using the new dwarf, Ered Luin Minder, as he fulfills the needs of 3-cost allies (this scenario punishes you for allies costing 2 and under), multi-sphere resource management woes, and a chance of combing with A Very Good Tale. In the end I went with an (almost) pure Rohan course, with the exception of Beorn for fun.
Pretty basic goal with this deck: Get a horse on everyone, load up Eowyn with resources, and pump out allies. Chumping with allies will allow Eomer (equipped with a mount) to take out any enemy that pops up. Save at least one Astonishing Speed for an astonishing last round.
You Get A Horse
Heroes
Elfhelm (Temple of the Deceived)
Eomer
Eowyn (Core)
Allies
Cerol x2
Eothain x2
Beorn (Core) x1
Deorwine x2
Westfold Outrider x3
Eomud x2
Gamling x2
Hama (The Treason of Saruman) x2
Westfold Horse-breeder x3
Attachments
Amored Destrier x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Rohan Warhorse x3
Snowmane x1
Steed of the Mark x2
Events
A Very Good Tale x3
Captain's Wisdom x2
Charge of the Rohirrim x3
A Test of Will x3
Astonishing Speed x2
Elven-Light x3
A Good Harvest x3
Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
Return to Mirkwood
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Steward's Fear
The Morgul Vale
The Voice of Isengard
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
The Thing in the Depths
Temple of the Deceived
RingsDB Link
The deck actually miss-fired. Steward of Gondor did not show up until the final round. A Very Good Tale and Elven-Light never made an appearance. Yet the deck more than held its own, which probably speaks more to the strength of Eowyn and Eomer than anything else. Elfhelm's contribution was welcome, and it was fun to use him, but I likely would have done just as well with Spirit Theoden.
The Recap
For my first attempt against Temple of the Deceived I messed up at the set-up. Being told to use the Ruins of Numenor encounter set from The Grey Havens, I picked out all the Lost Island cards that had the Ruins of Numenor expansion symbol. The problem? Just take a look at the Lost Island cards that come with Temple of the Deceived. What do you see on their Lost Island side? The Ruins of Numenor expansion symbol. They all have it! Their actual expansion symbol is on the back of the card. Told to set up all 15 Lost Island cards, I simply dealt out the appropriate number and chalked it up the extra four cards to intended randomization and set them aside. Fortunately one copy of Cursed Island was a part of the map I built (the other one was set aside). After beating the quest, I asked around on the appropriate subreddit and was shown the error of my ways. Now removing any The Fate of Numenor cards (goodbye Shrine to Morgoth!), I reset the map and began anew...
For my second attempt, the encounter deck kind of handed me a victory. I flipped to reveal aJungle Path Jagged Cliffs* in the upper left and a Cursed Temple in the lower right during the opening set-up. Starting at the Jungle Path (a great location to start at), I discovered a Winding Caverns bridging the two locations. Taking my time and building my forces, I went down to the Cursed Temple, dispatched the Temple Guardian (I had two ways to chose from by that time, allowing me to keep one in reserve for future use), made my way back to the Winding Caverns and jumped three spaces over to a Drowned Graves. With two Rohan Warhorses on Eomer and a few allies to expend chump blocking, three undead foes were easily removed. Using the Gate Key I found that the adjacent Temple of the Deceived card was The Grotto's Entrance. Ran over, took a chump block from the Temple Guardian, and quested like crazy (thank you Astonishing Speed) for a victory.
I usually pay little attention to the difficulty level, but this seemed far easier than I felt it would be. Seeing the "DL = 4" made sense: The quest is not a total breeze but you will not be wracking your brain on how to beat it. On future attempts I actually intend up the challenge by mirroring my erroneous setup: Placing one Cursed Temple in the card pool and one to the side, I will randomly deal out the appropriate number of Lost Island cards with The Fate of Numenor included. I will also place a stipulation on myself that the heroes cannot win if the Temple Guardian is still in play. Does this massively increase the difficulty? No, but it will have an impact. Honestly, I got pretty lucky and even reshuffling the encounter deck might give me all the difficulty I need. Temple of the Deceived is decent as a 4 but I would love it even more as a 5 or 6.
*Note: I actually had a Jungle Path in the upper left and miss-read what "not considered to be in the staging area" implied in terms of travel. Figured a re-do was needed, but checked the cards and Jagged Cliffs would have played out exactly as reported. We'll fudge that for now. But this does show that simply re-shuffling the island may give the added complexity I want.
Final Scoring
9 Completed Rounds x10: 90
Ending Threat: 41
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Elfhelm 4, Eowyn 4)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display:0
Total Score: 135
Talk about "semi-chronological," eh? Skipping from quest 34 to 51!
I, and I trust I do not stand alone in this, have been itching to get my hands on Temple of the Deceived since it was first announced. That is a very rare occurrence for me. There are other quests that have grabbed my interest but it is usually the player cards I am chomping at the bit for. Temple had such a unique, board-game like feel to it that I wanted to stop my blog in its tracks and take a crack at this one.
The Deck
There's a level of satisfaction in using cards that come with a quest to tackle that quest. Rohan horses is an archetype I have been playing around with a bit this year, so hero Elfhelm made me justifiably excited to return to that archetype. Adding in Tactics and Spirit gives quite a few horse to choose from, with the Charge of the Rohirrm and Westfold Horse-breeder being natural accompaniments. I wrestled with how many Rohan-centric cards to add in and went with Astonishing Speed, since a massive and dramatic questing phase would be needed to wrap up the quest. Oh, it's worth noting that this draft of the deck was made after my first play-through. The initial deck was brimming with cheap Rohan allies and cheap allies are not favored in this quest (there are still a few in the below decklist, though).
I considered using the new dwarf, Ered Luin Minder, as he fulfills the needs of 3-cost allies (this scenario punishes you for allies costing 2 and under), multi-sphere resource management woes, and a chance of combing with A Very Good Tale. In the end I went with an (almost) pure Rohan course, with the exception of Beorn for fun.
Pretty basic goal with this deck: Get a horse on everyone, load up Eowyn with resources, and pump out allies. Chumping with allies will allow Eomer (equipped with a mount) to take out any enemy that pops up. Save at least one Astonishing Speed for an astonishing last round.
You Get A Horse
Heroes
Elfhelm (Temple of the Deceived)
Eomer
Eowyn (Core)
Allies
Cerol x2
Eothain x2
Beorn (Core) x1
Deorwine x2
Westfold Outrider x3
Eomud x2
Gamling x2
Hama (The Treason of Saruman) x2
Westfold Horse-breeder x3
Attachments
Amored Destrier x2
Steward of Gondor x3
Rohan Warhorse x3
Snowmane x1
Steed of the Mark x2
Events
A Very Good Tale x3
Captain's Wisdom x2
Charge of the Rohirrim x3
A Test of Will x3
Astonishing Speed x2
Elven-Light x3
A Good Harvest x3
Sets Used
Core
Conflict at the Carrock
Return to Mirkwood
Over Hill and Under Hill
The Steward's Fear
The Morgul Vale
The Voice of Isengard
Celebrimbor's Secret
The Treason of Saruman
The Land of Shadow
The Dread Realm
The Thing in the Depths
Temple of the Deceived
RingsDB Link
The deck actually miss-fired. Steward of Gondor did not show up until the final round. A Very Good Tale and Elven-Light never made an appearance. Yet the deck more than held its own, which probably speaks more to the strength of Eowyn and Eomer than anything else. Elfhelm's contribution was welcome, and it was fun to use him, but I likely would have done just as well with Spirit Theoden.
The Recap
For my first attempt against Temple of the Deceived I messed up at the set-up. Being told to use the Ruins of Numenor encounter set from The Grey Havens, I picked out all the Lost Island cards that had the Ruins of Numenor expansion symbol. The problem? Just take a look at the Lost Island cards that come with Temple of the Deceived. What do you see on their Lost Island side? The Ruins of Numenor expansion symbol. They all have it! Their actual expansion symbol is on the back of the card. Told to set up all 15 Lost Island cards, I simply dealt out the appropriate number and chalked it up the extra four cards to intended randomization and set them aside. Fortunately one copy of Cursed Island was a part of the map I built (the other one was set aside). After beating the quest, I asked around on the appropriate subreddit and was shown the error of my ways. Now removing any The Fate of Numenor cards (goodbye Shrine to Morgoth!), I reset the map and began anew...
For my second attempt, the encounter deck kind of handed me a victory. I flipped to reveal a
I usually pay little attention to the difficulty level, but this seemed far easier than I felt it would be. Seeing the "DL = 4" made sense: The quest is not a total breeze but you will not be wracking your brain on how to beat it. On future attempts I actually intend up the challenge by mirroring my erroneous setup: Placing one Cursed Temple in the card pool and one to the side, I will randomly deal out the appropriate number of Lost Island cards with The Fate of Numenor included. I will also place a stipulation on myself that the heroes cannot win if the Temple Guardian is still in play. Does this massively increase the difficulty? No, but it will have an impact. Honestly, I got pretty lucky and even reshuffling the encounter deck might give me all the difficulty I need. Temple of the Deceived is decent as a 4 but I would love it even more as a 5 or 6.
*Note: I actually had a Jungle Path in the upper left and miss-read what "not considered to be in the staging area" implied in terms of travel. Figured a re-do was needed, but checked the cards and Jagged Cliffs would have played out exactly as reported. We'll fudge that for now. But this does show that simply re-shuffling the island may give the added complexity I want.
Final Scoring
9 Completed Rounds x10: 90
Ending Threat: 41
Total Damage on Heroes: 4 (Elfhelm 4, Eowyn 4)
Threat of Defeated Heroes: 0
Victory Display:0
Total Score: 135
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