Deck Tech: Discard All The Cards 1.0

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Hey all, welcome to week sixteen of Deck Tech! Last week I played a two hero secrecy deck with a surprising number of Doomed cards.

This week we're going to head in a completely different Noldor direction from previous Noldor decks of mine. To the Sea, to the Sea! enables a fun Noldor strategy where you discard cards in order to play more cards. This deck just wants to discard cards and doesn't really care that much about playing any of them.

To that end, it's got three copies of Protector of Lórien and three copies of Elven Spear to guarantee you can discard cards to get whichever stats you need. And there are three Lindon Navigator's in the deck to get you even more stats per card, once you get them on the table.

Everything else in the deck is cheap, to maximize your options from Erestor every round. Just be careful about playing too many cards each round, since you'll need a few to spend for all the discard effects.

Quest 1: Druadan Forest

First round means I get to play a lot of cards, so we end up with a Protector of Lorien on both Arwen and Erestor, a Light of Valinor on Erestor, and a Dunedain Hunter in play. Erestor is our dedicated defender, thanks to the sphere match for A Burning Brand, which is why he gets the fun toys.

Legolas plus the Dunedain Hunter means we can clear out any of the basic enemies in this scenario with no trouble. And the extra progress means we can clear out locations at the same time.

By round three, I've cleared the staging area and the active location. Then a treachery on round four means I'm questing with zero willpower versus zero threat. That doesn't happen very often...

Unfortunately, it's round nine before we get to stage three and engage Dru-buri-dru. There, the Defenders of Rammas helps with siege questing, and Protector of Lorien helps to "convince" the enemies with our willpower.

Round 11, I quest for 20 against another empty staging area. And another treachery means no threat. So we can heal Erestor for slightly better score.

Final Score: 125. 10 full rounds, 25 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 0 vp.

Quest 2: Journey Along the Anduin

I get my favorite setup this time. Necromancer's Reach when all the characters aren't exhausted is great. And I play two Dunedain Hunters, pulling down a few small goblins to destroy.

Round two I play an Elven Jeweler and a Vassal of the Windlord, giving me enough attack to chump block and then kill the Hill Troll. Three extra threat from that is okay with three Elrond's Counsels in the deck.

Round three I pull the last Goblin Sniper with a Dunedain Hunter, clear out the staging area, and quest into stage 2.

Round seven sees me poised to clear the quest, but I can't make enough progress thanks to The Brown Lands. I do make it on round eight, but I choose not to engage the final enemy in play because I'm not sure I can handle all the defenses.

And round nine I kill a Dol Guldur Beastmaster, clearing every encounter card in play.

Final score: 102. 8 full rounds, 32 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 10 vp.

Quest 3: The Seventh Level

As always, I play a bunch of cheap cards round one. Light of Valinor on Erestor. Henamarth for some scrying. A Dunedain Hunter to thin the encounter deck and help Legolas make progress. And two Elrond's Counsels for good measure.

Then I kill two goblins to clear a Plundered Armory. Most of the rest of the rounds are pretty similar. Quest, reveal a goblin, kill a goblin.

Round four I get swarmed with goblins on stage two, but the Dunedain Hunters can basically kill one each. Then another bit of a swarm on round five.

And round six I just quest through, thanks to pitching cards to Protector of Lorien.

Final score: 78. 5 full rounds, 28 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 0 vp.

Play Tips:

1. Elven-light is a great card for the deck, since you can discard it for an effect, cycle it for one resource, and then you have two more cards to discard.
2. Light of Valinor always goes on Erestor. It's not a big deal for Arwen to exhaust when she quests, and Erestor is the defender in the deck.
3. Similarly, the first Protector of Lórien should go on Erestor.
4. Lindon Navigator is a better choice to discard for willpower over Protector of Lórien. That way you get two willpower and one attack from your card, instead of just one willpower.
5. Unlike other Erestor decks I've played, you can Will of the West whenever you want. Three of them should guarantee that your deck has enough cards in it to outlast most quests.

Next week: I'm finally going to get to Temple of the Deceived!

Blog: As always, you can follow the deck posts on the blog or via the RSS feed. And I'm thinking about starting a community deck spotlight on Thursdays, similar to some other community members. Look for that (or more details) soon!