No Surprises 1.0

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• 1.0

Christmas present for @BeestThouNotInHaste!

Mulligan targets: Unexpected Courage, Ithilien Lookout, Treebeard.

I know, not having Treebeard be the first card you look for is madness, but there's a reason: this deck is built around Denethor and the encounter manipulation cards, allowing you to choose what the encounter deck reveals while you (slowly) set up. Denying the encounter deck card advantage, especially in a surge-a-palooza like Ring-maker, is really, really good, while Gléowine, The Unsung Hero, and Keys of Orthanc allow us to maintain our own card advantage.

Ideally, you get Unexpected Courage on Denethor as soon as possible, and, every planning phase, use the Denethor Tree:

• Exhaust Denethor: do you like the top card of the encounter deck? Whether Y/N, ready Denethor; if Y, end. If N, move it to the bottom of the encounter deck and continue to next step.
• Exhaust Denethor again: do you like the new top card of the encounter deck? If Y, end. If N, move it to the bottom of the encounter deck and continue.
• Play Rumour from the Earth/Ithilien Lookout/Celduin Traveler: note the top card of the encounter deck. If you don't like it and its type matches the type the ally you played can discard, you can discard it. End.

Denethor may get hit by the odd point of direct damage due to being exhausted, but there's healing in the deck to help with that, and you might even be able to get rid of whatever card would hit Denethor before it goes off.

Sadly, while this deck can hit pretty solid (Ents...) and and can buy itself the time it needs to set up using its scrying shenanigans, there's the little problem of defending. I'd say your best bet is to avoid enemies as long as you can until you get Treebeard ready (might want to throw in a copy of Self Preservation or two to help his survivability). For the likes of Mugash, though, you're better off just saying good-bye to one of your cheaper allies.