Fog on the Barrow-downs - Specialist Deck Series 1.0

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• 1.0

This is the third deck in my Specialist Deck Series, where I build a series of decks to take on the LotR Saga quests.

The first deck for A Shadow of the Past can be found here: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/18970. It also includes more of an explanation of the series and what I'm trying to achieve with the project.

The previous deck for The Old Forest can be found here: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/19159.

Frodo's journey to Rivendell continues with Fog on the Barrow-downs. This quest can be really tricky and packs lots of nasty surprises. The dangers of this quest are communicated very strongly when Stage 1B gives us a free turn without the quest phase. Starting a quest with a bonus is never a good sign. So what are we up against?

There are a few effects that punish the use of allies, including the extreme effect of Trapped Inside a Barrow, which will result in all or almost all of our allies being discarded. Note that as we are not playing in Campaign mode we don't get a bonus 4th hero which would make this quite a bit more forgiving.

On top of this there are lots of powerful Wight enemies to contend with. Many of the dangers of this quest are manifested by having enemies engaged with us. Some through the Wight's own effects, which can prevent card draw, resource generation or threat reduction. Some which boost their or which give them additional attacks. Others which search up more enemies and allow them to contribute their while engaged with a player.

Threat is another problem in this quest. In particular, Stage 2B causes additional threat raising every round and with other effects in the encounter deck losing due to threat is a real possibility.

Finally, this quest has what might just be my least favourite treachery in the entire game: Frozen by Fear. Everything about this card is awful. First it prevents all Action and Response effects, which means we can't use events, a lot of attachments get shut down and a huge number of character abilities go as well. It's absolutely crippling. Just for good measure it also has Surge and Doomed 1. As an added sting, it has a Shadow effect which prevents the enemy from taking damage for the round. This effect is usually unhelpful, but as mentioned above we really don't want the Wight enemies to hang around in this quest. This being present in the deck will mean we have to be very careful when we quest each turn.

That's a lot for one quest, so how do we beat it?

We're going to start with a strong combat hero and develop a strategy with minimal reliance on allies. Well, they don't get much stronger than Grimbeorn the Old, who is not only an excellent combat hero, but also comes with built in action advantage by being able both defend and attack in the same round. With limited support from allies, we'll need all the action advantage that we can get. Of note, Grimbeorn is also our first hero in the series, but he certainly won't be the last.

What we'll also need is lots of , so this will heavily influence our other hero choices. We'll choose Arwen Undómiel, for her combination of low threat cost, high and the fact that she makes an effective draw engine with Elven-light. The sphere will also give us access to boosts and threat reduction.

Finally we'll look to the sphere for our final hero and the only one that fits the bill is Sam Gamgee. We need his 3 to get anywhere with questing and, like Grimbeorn, his in-built action advantage will be a great help with only a few allies to support. also gives us resource generation that we really need and a handy selection of attachments to buff up Grimbeorn's combat stats.

The general strategy for the deck will be to quest like crazy and allow Grimbeorn to handle most of the combat. If needed, Sam, Glorfindel and Gandalf can lend their support. The likelihood is that we lose all of our allies when we get stuck in a Great Barrow, but that is what the deck is built for.

In testing I achieved two wins out of three attempts. In the loss I was initially location locked. I tried to clear The North Downs out of the staging area but didn't have enough to explore it. Then I ended up with two enemies I was unable to defeat. This combination resulted in a fairly quick loss. This isn't an impossible situation, but would probably require the intervention of a Sneak Attack-ed Gandalf to beat it (or at the very least more early boosts).

Onto the deck:

Faramir - With only a few allies, we really want the ones we do have to make a big impact. Faramir certainly does this, with up to 7 on offer and we should usually manage at least 3-4.

Galadriel - A boost of when needed, but more importantly helps us search up one of the many attachments we are looking for. All of them cost less than 3, so it should be no problem finding something useful.

Gandalf - As useful here as ever. His temporary nature is less of a problem when we are trying to keep allies to a minimum and the flexibility is a great asset. Threat can be an issue in this quest so we might use his threat reduction ability more often than usual.

Glorfindel - Another high impact ally. We get a lot of value out of Glorfindel: he has high , action advantage, he's a discard outlet for Elven-light. He even doesn't mind being discarded too much.

Rosie Cotton - Her ability is always useful with Sam. Mostly we will just want help questing, but nice to have the option for a combat boost. Beware of Frozen by Fear, and consider just questing with her if that would be a problem.

Captain of Gondor - A very effective attachment for Grimbeorn, given he gets to use both bonuses. With this in play he doesn't need much extra help taking out the enemies in one round.

Celebrían's Stone - We need as many boosts as we can get due to our lack of allies and this is one of the best. Play on Sam since Arwen has other restricted attachments that she wants.

Dúnedain Mark - We've chosen the signal attachments because they are not restricted and they don't have other limitations on their effects. With all our boosts in play, Grimbeorn can one-shot any enemy in the encounter deck. It won't be used often, but a nice ability is to transfer the attachment during the combat phase to get a double use.

Dúnedain Warning - Even more important than the Mark, Boosting Grimbeorn's is necessary for him to keep tanking the enemy attacks. Any two boosts gives him enough to match the base of the strongest enemy. As with the Mark, we can also transfer this to use it twice in the same phase.

Gondorian Shield - We aren't limited by restricted slots on Grimbeorn and if we do attach Steward to him he gets the full bonus. The second copy can go on Sam if we draw it. The fact that this is an armor attachment is also useful for Sterner than Steel.

Hauberk of Mail - This attachment is usually better to have that Dunedain Warning since it gives Grimbeorn an extra point of . Only two copies because it is limit 1 per character. If we do draw a second, we can put it on Glorfindel or more likely discard it to ready him.

Steed of Imladris - A very helpful card. Provided we have an active location this acts as psuedo- and helps us stave off location lock. It's also nice to have another outlet for discarding Elven-light.

Steward of Gondor - We always want resource generation and this is still the best. In this deck I could see it being played on any of the heroes to great effect and we would need to let the situation dictate who gets it. I think the default target would be Arwen, as we need the resources for drawing cards and being able to afford to play Glorfindel multiple times is a big plus.

Strider - Since we expect to have few allies this is a very cost effective boost, especially early in the game. Put on Sam to minimize the impact of Dreadful Song. The first condition will be placed on Arwen since she will have lower . If we get stuck with both copies of Dreadful Song without being able to cancel either there's a good chance we have lost regardless.

The Day's Rising - A nice little attachment that let's Grimbeorn trigger his ability essentially for free. Note that we can trigger this before his own response, so even if we have no resources he can gain one from The Day's Rising and then immediately spend it to counter-attack.

Unexpected Courage - Very helpful if we need to make multiple defences or attacks. One of the tools to enable Grimbeorn to manage combat single-handedly.

Windfola - A cheap boost for Arwen, nothing fancy.

A Test of Will - There are a couple of nasty treacheries in the encounter deck and we will be very happy to have this when we see them. Again, keep in mind Frozen by Fear - if we don't cancel it we lose the ability to cancel anything else that round as well.

Elrond's Counsel - A very handy card for this quest. The threat reduction will always be welcome and we need every point of we can get.

Elven-light - One of the only sources of card draw we have, and it's often worth it to mulligan for this card. Once we do have it, it should help the quest to go smoothly.

Feint - Helps to manage the combat phase a bit easier. Particularly useful if we need to engage an enemy before Grimbeorn has any boosts.

Sneak Attack - Mostly used for getting extra value out of Gandalf - any of his modes are amazing value for 1 resource and may be crucial early on. Faramir and Rosie can both be decent options if we need a questing boost.

Sterner than Steel - Free shadow cancellation so long as Grimbeorn has an armor attachment. This isn't the worst quest for shadow cards, but without any healing we want to minimise the damage suffered.