Shadow and Flame - Progression - Solo 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

It took many attempts to get past the Balrog. Many companies died in the mines.

The plan for defeating the balrog is for Elrond to be the primary defender against the balrog's unrelenting attacks. With a couple of couple of Dúnedain Warning on him, and Arwen Undómiel on the table, he can defend balrog attacks without dying. Add A Burning Brand to him and you can defend the balrog indefinitely. Elrond is also the primary recruiter for the company. As such, he should also become a Steward of Gondor.

Frodo is in the company to deal with balrog attacks while Elrond gets his kit on. Once Elrond is ready to handle the balrog, Frodo focuses on the quest. Celebrían's Stone looks great pinned to his cloak.

Prince Imrahil's task is to get the many leadership attachments onto other company members. He should become Resourceful in order to accelerate that task. He also helps Gandalf make surprise appearances. A previous version of this company had Aragorn in place of Prince Imrahil. Spending a resource to ready Aragorn proved to be too expensive. Since many an ally is likely to succumb to balrog attacks, Prince Imrahil will ready without needing to spend any resources.

This deck is built with 2 core sets.

The deck has a 1-2 success rate. The early game is tense. Once you get set up, you can feel the momentum shift to your side and a path to victory should present itself.

Card draw is crucial. You need to find the cards to get your board state set up. Use Gandalf to draw you cards. Early on I was using Gandalf to keep my threat low. That never worked out.

Erebor Hammersmith can be used to keep Path of Need in play. Heroes not exhausting is very powerful.

Miner of the Iron Hills can be used to remove the Counter-spell condition attachments that ends up on Duran's Bane. At least, that's how I interpreted the rules.

At 56 cards, the deck can likely be trimmed down. Some ideas that have not been tested:

Vilya can probably go; I think the Vilya/Elrond double exhaust was only used once in the three games. Certainly once Path of Need is on the table, Vilya/Elrond is a nice combination. But it can be a while before that happens. Timely Aid is likely a better inclusion since it does not require exhausting the deck's primary defender.

Song of Wisdom is in the deck to add Lore to Frodo so he can have A Burning Brand when he is defending balrog attacks. In the three plays, that never happened. So Song of Wisdom could get cut.

Gildor Inglorion was included to help with getting the right cards in hand. I don't think his ability was every used; he was primarily used for questing. Gléowine might be a better inclusion; I would gladly quest for 1 less in order to draw a card.

Elrond's Counsel is great in your opening hand as it will give you 2 rounds before the balrog attacks. Once your threat passes 3 though, the 1 additional quest point is not worth much. Maybe remove one? I also would not use Dwarven Tomb to fetch an Elrond's Council. Save Dwarven Tomb for A Test of Will.

This version does not include Hasty Stroke. With 17 attachments in the deck, and Elrond needing 3 of them in order to beat the scenario, being able to counter the shadow effect that discards all attachments is a good thing. Finding a way to get a couple of Hasty Strokes into the deck would be good.