Deck Tech: Snake Attack! 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week ten of Deck Tech! Last week we cruised to victory on an army of dwarves without any of the fuss and bother you need to use Dain solo. You can check that out here!

This week we're looking at one of the least straightforward decks I've ever built. The resource flow is strange, card draw and discard priorities are weird, and some of the allies have very specific optimal timing to keep in mind.

For all that awkwardness, you get incredible draw, some great allies, and about as many uses of Sneak Attack as you possibly can. (True story: The deck name comes from a typo that almost made it live.)

So let's play some games!

Quest 1: Journey Along the Anduin

Round one I start with Steward of Gondor and Rod of the Steward on Galadriel. A couple of turns later the Mirror of Galadriel and Silver Harp are in play on Galadriel as well, which allows the deck to start digging for Sneak Attack and Gandalf.

Shortly after that I clear out Chieftain Ufthak, the Marsh Adder, and a Hill Troll.

Stage two is pretty quick with all the willpower available, and unfortunately we get both Goblin Snipers in the ambush for stage three. Luckily, Sneak Attack lets us bomb them out of the staging area instead of having to wait for our threat to climb up high enough to engage them naturally.

Final score: 105. 9 full rounds, 25 threat, 4 damage on heroes, 14 vp.

Quest 2: Murder at the Prancing Pony

I took pretty full notes while playing this quest, so I can tell you my threat at the end of every round. And also count that I played Sneak Attack twelve times, and Gandalf without Sneak Attack a couple more.

This one starts off without a Steward in hand, so I sneak in Gandalf to draw a few more cards. Then I play a Galadhrim Weaver to recycle the Sneak Attack into the deck. I also play a Guardian of Rivendell and discard Glorfindel, since having him in the discard is like having him in hand.

I know threat reduction is important for this quest, so I use a few more Weavers to recycle Elrond's Counsel. And I move to stage two and actually get to stall. I know the stage is called Running Out of Time, but it's really easy to stall here when you can sneak in Gandalf any time you're threatened by the encounter deck.

Unfortunately, it takes about a dozen turns for me to figure out who did it and where. But in that time, I drop my threat to basically zero. And then thanks to the interactions of Hideouts and Suspects I have to keep them around for a couple of turns during stage three. In the final round, I sneak Gandalf in during the resources phase to drop my threat and then play him for full cost during planning to kill Johnny Goblin-fingers.

Final score: 176. 19 full rounds, 0 threat, 1 damage on heroes, 15 vp.

Quest 3: Flight from Moria

That last quest was brutally long, so we're doing something a little bit shorter here. I start with Steward on Galadriel again, and a Guardian.

Unfortunately, the encounter deck kills the Guardian right away, and we bypass the first quest stage we find. The next quest stage is Hasty Council, which gives me two choices: Going Up and Going Down. Amazing.

As we progress, Glorfindel gets killed and played from the discard a few times. Erestor, Galdor of the Havens and the Harp combo to enable a ton of draw and we eventually find the tools!

Once we've got the Tools, I see the single copy of A Foe Beyond in the encounter deck, and I let Sam die. (Denethor has the Tome of Atanatar at the time, and I'm actually okay with seeing Sam the White in the future.)

After this we grind out the last few rounds with Galadriel digging and Gandalf handling willpower or combat duties thanks to more Sneak Attack.

Final score: 142. 12 full rounds, 20 threat, 10 for Sam's death, 8 vp.

Play Tips:

1. Steward of Gondor goes on Galadriel, and she mostly uses her action to draw cards. This is a deck that needs a lot of cards.
2. Galadhrim Weaver wants to recycle Tome of Atanatar if you can, since that'll give you two more uses of Sneak Attack. But you can use her to recycle Sneak Attack or Elrond's Counsel, too, and that's not a problem.
3. Tome of Atanatar is an investment. With Mirror of Galadriel to shuffle and make it easier to redraw the card, it's basically four resources for two extra Sneak Attacks. But you need to have three resources available for it to be worth it right away.
4. You don't want to let duplicate uniques into the discard pile if you can help it. Definitely discard an extra copy of Steward of Gondor to ready Glorfindel, but if you can bring it back to hand with the Harp, you probably should. This will help your second deck (if the quest goes long) be more full of cards you want to use immediately, and smaller for easier Mirror reshuffling.
5. This is harsh, and I didn't do it during my tests, but if you can get the Galadhrim Weavers killed, you should do it. More shuffles and re-use of events is a big win.
6. Of the three big Noldor allies in the deck, Galdor of the Havens is the most important. His draw ability synergizes very well with a ton of other powerful effects, like the Mirror. So if you have the choice, prioritize him over the other two.

Next week: I'm going to see if I can actually pull off a solo Lords of the Eldar spam deck with Galdor and Erestor to dig as deep as possible quickly.

Blog: Last week I posted about some secrecy pitfalls in light of my previous low threat Deck Techs. You can check that out on the blog here and follow along via RSS feed here.