Yet another Fastred+Dúnhere deck... 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

First of all credits to Mr. Underhill and Seastan for their approach on this deck.

So, this is a typical Fastred and Dúnhere deck, nothing new, just a very strong, solid good deck.

Éowyn comes to provide the tools for those two and a solid boost, along with initial threat reduction. Starting at 23 is really good while our heroes are not set yet and give some tempo to setup everything while avoid nasty enemies.

This deck moves around Fastred and Dúnhere .

To set the first, Fastred, I have Raiment of War. I tried Gondorian Shield and also Golden Shield. Both are Restricted and both provides only +1 . Golden Shield can provide a bit more with the help of The Favor of the Lady or Windfola but the setup is troublesome. I wanted to depend less on cards and setup and more on interactions.

Raiment of War is the winner. It costs 2, it's 2x Restricted but the +2 is a really big help to Fastred who will be defending everything and some nasty shadow effect could provide more damage than the expected so this Item is really the best option for him.

Another trick in the deck is Arwen Undómiel and that's why the 3x copies, her abillity goes really well with Fastred.

Honour Guard can avoid damage and a late Captain of Gondor can boost the .

Dúnhere only needs the help of a Spear of the Mark and a Dagger of Westernesse for a healthy 7 that can be boosted with Unseen Strike if needed. Guess that's enough to deal with enemies populating the staging area.

Allies and I have Arwen Undómiel as mentioned, 2 for 2 cost is a nice trade, Galadriel's Handmaiden is the same with a drop, West Road Traveller is the same with location-manipulation that can be handy since the deck doesn't have many location-tools and a bit more expensive Steward of Orthanc that also has 2 and provides card draw at the exchange of really nothing ( in this deck is meaningless).

Additional 2x The Riddermark's Finest to work around locations if necessary and lone copies of Gandalf (for his multitasking) and Bofur because he's a good Dwarf that loves to Quest.

Card Advantage I have Ancient Mathom, Foe-hammer and Open the Armory for a specific Weapon draw.

Negation with A Test of Will and Hasty Stroke.

And Unexpected Courage for multitasking Heroes.

And that is the deck...

Second choices... Silvan Refugee was a must-have-3x in both Seastan and Mr. Underhill's decks. I like Silvan Refugee, 2 for 1 cost allows a Questing ally on first turn with a back-up A Test of Will in hand to be played. But... with the inclusion of Gandalf, Bofur and The Riddermark's Finest the Refugee would flee when those allies were also used. I tried the deck without it and didn't felt the need to play that ally.

I also thought in a chance to play Dunedain Pathfinder. The deck is not a good deck against locations, it can have a good and The Riddermark's Finest as well but it's not superb on locations. The Pathfinder would pair well with Ancient Mathom to provide early card draw and that's something to trade for... I'm still on this guy to go in the deck.

Now... what I'm really really looking into is,

+3x Dwarven Tomb or Will of the West

for-1 of each weapon (Dagger of Westernesse, Raiment of War, Spear of the Mark)

Dwarven Tomb allows the recycling (not imediate) of the negation cards, and A Test of Will is a really good card in this deck.

On the other hand Will of the West allows a recycling of all the cards in the deck. In this case I would surelly make way for Silvan Refugee since it could be replayed in the future. Also, replaying our draw cards and Unseen Strike is neat. With the amount of draw the probability to have a negation card again in hand is good.

And why this thought?! Well, Open the Armory proved to be effective. 10 cards dig is really good and with 6 hits (2 each) the probability to see one in every 10 cards is there. Right now the deck is more than solid with 3x each Weapon and 3x Open the Armory but sometimes I end up with multiple copies of the same Weapon in hand.

Decisions, decisions... trade consistency for more options? Or have redundancy at the cost of less options?