Na'asiyah, Red Rider 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is my iteration of the Na'asiyah and Firefoot deck inspired by that of Diamondore12, which was in turn based on Taurelin's.

Like Diamondore12, my collection is limited to the following repackaged content: the core set, starter decks, and Dream-chaser cycle), so the deck was built with that restriction. My main goal was to allow for a better performance true-solo, which is my preferred way to play.

The deck is a blast to play, and it's catapulted Na'asiyah into the role of being my favourite hero as a newer player. It's also surprisingly powerful, consistent, and resilient for a limited-cardpool deck dedicated to loading as many attachments and resources on a single hero. More on that later.

Obviously, combat is Na'asiyah's primary strength. Once equipped with Firefoot, the ludicrous amounts of damage she's capable of dishing out can take out multiple enemies at once. She annihilates Hill Trolls and goblin swarms with ease, and usually has an abundance of resources left over once Steward of Gondor is equipped.

Denethor is there as our primary defender to help blocking in the early game while Na'asiyah gets set up. His extra resources at setup are also a huge help in scenarios that demand action on the first turn. Armoured Destrier is bonkers, and removes a lot of the anxiety of blocking early on, even before we can equip him with a Gondorian Shield to soak up beefier hits.

Lastly, Éowyn is here exclusively to quest; the deck's biggest weakness is its ability to overcome threat accumulating in the staging area. Even late game, our questing ability tends to hit a ceiling somewhere around 15 willpower, and Éowyn - girlboss that she is -  contributes most of that. Windfola offers a decent return of one extra willpower for one resource, and serves as an another target to be fetched by Westfold Horse-breeder. By the midgame, extra copies of our restricted or unique attachments can also be discarded to Éowyn's ability to get over the line.

To mitigate our unimpressive willpower, a lot of Na'asiyah's supporting cast were chosen to: a) Keep the staging area as empty as possible b) Give incremental progress tokens on locations or the quest c) Help Éowyn quest where possible d) Flood the board in the early game, to chump block and/or buy time if we're stuck with a slower opening hand.

Specific notes on card inclusions:

• Wait No Longer: I added this event on a whim despite finding it clunky in the Rohirrim starter, and ultimately ended up including all three copies after testing. It shines in the mid and late game when Na'asiyah trivialises all enemies and always has resources to spare, and it keeps the staging area threat-free.

• Blade of Gondolin: Initially I used War Axe, but Na'asiyah is so powerful already I found the extra attack power often felt superfluous. The extra quest progress is more helpful, especially when she starts dispatching multiple foes per turn.

• Foe-hammer: This does nothing until Na'asiyah has a weapon attached, at which point it digs through our deck very quickly. For this reason, it is more important to find an early Blade of Gondolin than Firefoot (who will undoubtedly arrive soon enough anyway, thanks to the Horse-breeder). Bridging the the early to midgame often relies upon finding Steward of Gondor as soon as possible so Na'asiyah can reach the stratosphere, which is why Foe-hammer is necessary.

• West Road Traveller: a good rate on willpower to help quest, and occasionally she lets us bypass a nasty travel-effect of a location in the staging area. That's it.

• Westfold Horse-breeder: an all-star. With three different mounts to find in the deck, she's almost always finding something useful. Even duplicate copies of mounts are better emptied from the deck than left there, and Éowyn can discard the fodder for extra willpower. At absolute worst, we'll get unlucky and find nothing in the top ten cards of the deck, but the Horse-breeder is still competitively costed, giving us one willpower for one spirit resource. Indispensable.

• Errand-rider and Envoy of Pelargir: more often than not, these allies end up giving Éowyn more resources, rather than Na'asiyah (which was what I imagined when I included them). This turned out to be surprisingly important in testing, since it gets our 2-cost spirit cards (Unexpected Courage and West Road Traveller) out earlier, and lets us hold up A Test of Will more often.

• Squire of the Citadel and Valiant Sacrifice: The Squire isn't always the one sacrificed, but when he is it's a neat little combo that pays for itself when the deck is stumbling and needs to fail forward by chump-blocking spare allies and digging for cards.

• Unexpected Courage: I usually put this on Na'asiyah, allowing her to make use of her significant defensive capabilities against enemies too big even for Denethor, and still attack. Usually, though, it's to let her attack multiple times against different enemies, truly turning her into a one-woman (+ horse) army. This offsets Firefoot's only unfortunate (albeit balanced, probably) limitation, which is that extra damage can only target one other enemy, not ALL of them :(

• Magic Ring: a fun inclusion I added because I like the idea of Na'asiyah getting her her own Ring of Power. Also, it's super flexible, and the deck's low starting threat and aggressive tempo means the extra threat is usually manageable.

Specific notes on card exclusions:

• Gandalf and Sneak Attack: the combo is super powerful, as always, but I cut it because (more so than usual) I found the cards individually don't shine here. The rest of our allies are cheap and relatively low-impact, because our non-Na'asiyah heroes tend to be quite tight on resources. Hence, Sneak Attack has few other enticing targets, and paying full price for Gandalf is usually unfeasible, since Na'asiyah can't do it.

• War Axe: As mentioned, Na'asiyah really doesn't need much help when it comes to attack power. I included War Axe in addition to Blade of Gondolin at first (discarding the Axe for a different restricted attachment as soon as I drew one), and found the best part about it was that it meant Foe-hammer was more reliably usable while digging. That might be justification enough for keeping it in, so I may add it to the sideboard, but for now, I'm happier with my Magic Ring and an extra copy of Wait No Longer. Ideally, I'd like to include another weapon attachment for the express purpose of making Foe-hammer more reliable, but in my collection, there literally isn't another cheap tactics weapon that's not restricted.

• Silvan Refugee: I've not tested with this card yet, because I'm worried it clashes with Squire of the Citadel and Valiant Sacrifice. Often however, I've found that my board stabilises quickly, and chump blocking is less common than I anticipated. If further testing indicates that the the deck's willpower shortage is more pressing than it's need for early chump blockers and card draw, I can see reconfiguring it slightly to include these.

• We Are Not Idle: Diamondore12 included this card in their build, which blew my mind because I didn't even realise it functioned in a non-dwarf deck. For some reason, though, it feels... weird to do so. I've opted not to include it, even though it can only improve the deck's efficiency.

A note on strategy, consistency, and resilience: Maybe I've mentioned it already, but Na'asiyah is very powerful at base, and the combo is less about turning her into a useful card than it is about making her absurd. As such, the deck is no slouch in the early game, even while still searching for combo pieces. In fact, it will reward you more often for aggressive play in the first few turns, rather than durdling.