SoM Progression: Masochistic Eagles from Rohan

I've created these two decks to start my progression series (with the caveat that I allow myself to the whole cycle of player cards from the start) and had quite a surprising success, managing to beat each of the SoM quests on the first try. I did get quite lucky with encounter cards drawn in the Return to Mirkwood, however the decks proved to be reliable and not overly reliant on any one card. I was beginning to worry the game might be a bit too easy for me, however Massing at Osgiliath quickly proved me wrong. :-)

The basic gist of the fellowship is as follows: you use Glóin to soak up as much damage as possible and send the resources to the Lore & Tactics deck to fuel first consistent healing (Daughter of the Nimrodel and/or Self Preservation) then the eagles and the more expensive Lore allies (Haldir of Lórien and Gildor Inglorion). Otherwise the roles of the decks are quite simple: & handles most of the questing (with the help of Rivendell Minstrel and/or Eagles of the Misty Mountains), Glóin tanks as many undefended attacks as possible and & focuses on healing Glóin and dispatching the enemies from afar via ranged attacks.

To elaborate on individual attachments:

• Steward of Gondor goes on the Steward of Gondor, i.e. Denethor. You might get away with playing it on Glóin if you have enough resources to send to the other deck via Parting Gifts, however most of the time this is risky and you're better off just putting it on the son of Ecthelion.

• The first Song of Battle goes on Denethor to smooth the resources gained from his title and/or from the generosity of Glóin, the second should go on Dúnhere if you have Support of the Eagles waiting.

• Following from that, the first Support of the Eagles goes on Legolas, the second on Dúnhere to help out with the enemies lined up in the staging area.

• Song of Mocking naturally needs to be sung by Glóin as it helps him siphon any damage that might be coming over to the second deck. You can fetch it with Rivendell Minstrel, however only after you get the Song of Battle on our Steward.

• Dúnedain Warning can go either on Glóin (if you need to actually defend some of the nastier attackers or until you get your healing engine and Citadel Plates going) or on Denethor if you need to build him up to be quite tanky. You can always start with them on Glóin then later send them over to the other deck once our dwarf friend gets going!

• Unexpected Courage is quite versatile and should be used according to the quest: I usually put my first on Beravor with the other copies going either to Denethor (if Glóin needs help with tanking) or Legolas (if everything is going smoothly, he can snipe multiple enemies engaged with the questing deck).

While the decks need a bit of time to get going properly, none of the quests in the first cycle gave me too much of a trouble with that; most importantly, I had a blast every game. If you give these decks a try, I hope you will too. :-)

EDIT: I came back to this fellowship to give the Massing at Osgiliath another go and I managed to win it on the 2nd try. The key thing was mulliganing agressively to get cheap allies to feed to the worgs on turn one and getting the combat engine on the Lore/Tactics side going ASAP.