I enjoy this game the most when I can hold to a thematic element. I don't care about the most powerful decks. I want to be immersed in the story. My goal here is to put together a set of Dunedain "story" decks that run thru the Lost Realm and Angmar Awakened quests. This deck is for the 5th quest - Escape from Mount Gram. (FYI - I am a solo deck 2-core player.)
Theme Notes: For this quest, Gandalf is out -- because he would not be captured by Goblins. Also, Amarthiul is not available (based on the prologue.)
You don't get a true mulligan in this quest, so you're stuck with your opening 3-card hand. Risk Some Light is very nice to see...as is a Ranger (or Poisoned) Spikes. I also pulled Master of the Forge, since he was usually too late to be of any help. Finally, I use Beravor as the "starting" hero - giving me access to card draw if I don't like my starter hand. And really, that's a really tough choice in the 1st round -- quest or draw?
The most dangerous thing to avoid in this quest is not to progress to the final stage too early. You need to have several allies out to deal with the bigger orcs that are coming --- I prefer a minimum of 5. To this end, you may go a few rounds without questing so you can afford to play the allies you have rescued.
Again, I love the thematic feel of this quest.
I'M about to build a deck for the nightmare version of this quest using Elrond as the starying hero with various cheap allies.
Nice deck!