Side Questing Through Belegost 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a reworked version of my Thurindir the Snapping Turtle sidequest deck that I used to get through The Ruins of Belegost with Mr Underhill.

The previous version was a solid solo deck but this version is designed to couple with a Beregond Tower deck which covers all the defenses.

Basic Idea

Belegost is pretty brutal. This deck aims to produce plenty of willpower throughout the game and provide control and support through sidequests, card draw, healing and readying for Beregond in the second deck. By the end game it should be able to muster 20+ to kill the dragon.

Sidequests might seem like an odd choice to bring to Belegost, but it actually works pretty well. You have to bring lots of willpower anyway to keep on top of the ever-increasing locations that flood the staging area and the nasty high-threat treacheries. Since you have to quest for big numbers anyway, half of the time you'll be able to complete a sidequest, and when those nasty treacheries/locations come up, you're making just enough progress to keep on top of things and clear the active location. The benefits these sidequests give is very powerful and they're worth completing.

Opening Hand

The first couple turns of Ruins of Belegost tend to be fairly easy if you have enough willpower, so look for foundational cards like Silver Harp, Unexpected Courage (for Beregond in the other deck), an Ethir Swordsman or two to start boosting questing numbers and a Thror's Map to mitigate the travel effects which will start to be pretty bad by turn 3.

I think The Storm Comes is the best sidequest to clear on turn 1 since it helps you get allies out faster and conserve resources on Cirdan for events and attachments.

Basic Play

You'll be questing with all your heroes and adding willpower with the ever growing herd of Outland allies. Eventually Cirdan and Thurindir will get some action advantage through Wingfoot and Light of Valinor so drop the Legacy Blades on them as the show up. The heroes will start out questing for 10 by themselves and by the endgame, they'll be questing for 16-17 assuming you're able to complete sidequests.

Cirdan's discard effect can force you to make some hard decisions, so try to get the Silver Harp down ASAP so you can just keep all your cards every turn. If played alongside the Beregond deck, Arwen can occasionally drop a resource on Cirdan to help get the Harp, Unexpected Courage or retain a resource for Test of Will later in the round.

Try to keep all the Ethir Swordsman and Anfalas Herdsman in play so you have plenty of willpower and hitpoints to absorb direct damage from the dragon and the spikey hazards you'll run into in Belegost. The ally hate should be directed at the poor Envoy, the Honour Guard and the Knights of the Swan if you have to.

There are several bad treacheries in the deck so keep your Test of Will for whichever will ruin things most at the moment (usually Echoes in the Dark).

Beregond will take card of defense for you, but this deck will need to start killing off enemies fairly quickly and that's probably the hardest part of running the deck. Don't be afraid of holding back Eowyn so you can use her 10 ability twice during the first few turns to get the board clear of enemies. You don't want those Cave Dwellers lurking around too long... By the midgame, Thurindir should be attacking for 6-8 with 2 Legacy Blades and Cirdan can wield one as well. Between Thurindir's 8, Cirdan's 5 and Legolas and Quickbeam, you have a base of 21 so if you're able to hold a couple allies back or have the Ranged Tactics allies help from the 2nd deck, you can take the dragon out in one attack at the end of the quest.

The Will of the West must be kept in hand to cycle the Beregon deck. If the game runs long, you might empty your deck as well so I threw a second copy into the sideboard.

Testing

I cycled through several variations on this deck as we tried to beat Belegost and found that the Outlands allies, while a little cheaty, were the best way to get reliable willpower on the table. This deck coupled with the Tower Beregond deck gave Mr Underhill and me a couple good solid games and seemed to do the trick. You can watch a successful play through Belegost here.

If you want to play this kind of deck as a solo deck, I would recommend something closer to the original deck I published with this hero lineup: Thurindir the Snapping Turtle. This deck is specifically designed to play with it's partner deck and would flounder without it.