Portugal. The Deck

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Beorn 13324

I was designing this deck in my head, while wandering the fog-covered streets of Porto. It wasn't until The Crossing of Poros was released that I could complete it without proxies, so I can finally publish it. I wanted to make something that payed homage to my visit to Portugal, but given the theme of the game that connection has to be a bit abstract. Still, the Portuguese flag features a field of one third red and two thirds green, so I used that to guide my sphere choices.

Going all the way back to The Heirs of Númenor box I've been interested in Trap decks, but the archetype has always struggled to muster enough willpower. This has relegated trap decks to support status in multiplayer games, which is fine, but left one wishing for a few cards to make it a bit more robust. Wishes have been granted as Followed and Emyn Arnen Ranger are precisely the two cards that is archetype needed to become more well-rounded. With Followed attached to a 3 threat enemy, each Emyn Arnen Ranger is questing for 3, while we have already pulled that enemy's threat out of the staging area - benefitting from Mablung's ability along the way.

Forest Snare or Entangling Nets can mitigate any danger from the engaged enemy's attacks, or Gondorian Shield allows one of our heroes to simply defend, in a pinch. You can even use Dúnedain Hunter to setup this combo by laying down Followed before fetching an enemy to track. Because of the cost reduction from Damrod, it is possible for this deck to have Followed and Forest Snare attached to an engaged enemy on the first turn. Not too shabby for an archetype that can sometimes be slow to get going.

The goal here is to engage specific enemies when we are prepared to do so, and leave the rest in the staging area to be picked off by Faramir with his Great Yew Bow. Enemies with lower engagement costs can be temporarily halted in their advance using Take No Notice (or Noiseless Movement from the sideboard). Arrows from the Trees is a late game card which may or may not have utility, depending on the quantity and engagement cost of the enemies you face. Pairing with a Hobbit deck which features Pippin to raise enemy engagement is certainly encouraged. As always, use the sideboard to fine tune the deck, based on the challenges presented by your particular quest.

With inexpensive Tactics cards, Mablung will more than likely have an excess of resources by the middle game, but this is by design. If you've been able to lower your threat (Secret Vigil helps with this), you may be able to use those resources to pay the kicker on Arrows from the Trees. Alternately, use them to bring Gandalf into play, the Wizard has ways of getting heroes out of most any predicament. While I do feel that Trap decks are becoming more well-rounded, they are obviously a poor fit for scenarios where key enemies are immune or cannot have attachments, and there is still an argument to be made that decks like this are best suited to fill one role in a multiplayer game. Happy hunting!

8 comments

Feb 19, 2018 GrandSpleen 1398

Cool deck! I like this new trap and ally but haven't played with them myself. By sheer coincidence, over the last couple of weeks I've been toying around with my very own Lore Faramir/Mablung/Damrod deck. It's different enough from yours that I decided to publish it. More love for Faramir!

Feb 19, 2018 Beorn 13324

Thanks, GrandSpleen! You should link to your deck so I can check it out.

Feb 19, 2018 GrandSpleen 1398

It's this one here: ringsdb.com

Feb 19, 2018 Beorn 13324

Nice. I like how our decks have the same heroes but take a different approach.

Feb 25, 2018 Onidsen 1102

Just a question here - how do you get the Followed/Forest Snare/Dúnedain Hunter all in one turn? Since the cost reduction from Damrod hits the first trap played each turn, wouldn't it reduce the cost of Followed to 0, leaving you with 1 resource and 2 resources, unable to play the Snare?

Feb 25, 2018 Beorn 13324

The idea is not to necessarily play the entire combo on the first round. In any case, playing Dúnedain Hunter too early can be risky in this deck as we're light on the combat defense. Assuming you have at least one Lore resource left over, or a copy of Followed already in play, you can do this combo as early as the second round.

Feb 25, 2018 Onidsen 1102

Thanks for the clarification! I love the deck - I've wanted to build a Ranger/Traps deck ever since I got the Against the Shadow cycle. This one looks like it's finally a powerful and effective archetype.

Apr 05, 2018 Ryson 212

Hello.

I tried this deck solo vs Journey along the Anduin. I had a lot of fun ! Thanks for that.

Description of the game

The Troll was handled by Take No Notice turn 1, defended Gandalf turn 2 and locked by Forest Snare turn 3.

After that I was locked in a situation with The Brown Lands in the staging Area + East Breach as active location.

Hopefully, I was able to play the combo Emyn Arnen Ranger + Followed to unlock the situation.

The deck does ok in combat but in stage 2 of the quest, I had to take a lot of undefended attack to be able to quest and kill ennemies.

Hopefully Ioreth and Warden of Healing healed 5 hit points per turn and kept me alive.

I ended the game with 3 ennemies engaged: two in a Forest Snare and the third one with an Entangling Nets on it.

Conclusion & Suggestion

This deck is fun to play and takes advantage of trap which is quite a fun mechanic.

First of all, the deck begins quite high in threat to take full advantage of Dagger of Westernesse, Take No Notice and also Great Yew Bow. I would either replace these cards or find ways to reduce the threat level.

The combo Emyn Arnen Ranger + Followed want to have ennemies engaged. I would thus replace Mablung by Amarthiúl to help in combat. Resource-wise, you should receive approximatively the same amount but you gain the sphere.

Maybe the Master of the Forge can be a good inclusion to fetch trap faster. You have 20+ attachement, so it is likely that you will draw a more card per turn in average.

And finally the inclusion of Mablung (if you do not use him as a hero) to boost your willpower. (Quickbeam can also be used also but it is a little out of theme).

I think it is not a top tier deck but it I enjoyed playing it a lot. Thanks for sharing !