THE NINE COMPANIONS

This is a thematic solo deck for playing the three saga quests in The Road Darkens deluxe expansion using the Nine Companions of the Ring: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli. Oh, and Bill.

I played The Ring Goes South, Journey in the Dark, and Breaking of the Fellowship in campaign mode with the same 3 heros, using mostly the same deck. The differences are shown in the sideboard and explained below. I beat each quest in 1-3 attempts, though with close calls (this deck is thematic, not optimized).

The Road Darkens (37+14):

2x Bill the Pony

3x Elrond for condition removal.

3x Gandalf

2x Gandalf's Staff gets more tactics resources

2x Narya can be used to ready Gandalf himself. also enables Ancestral Armor.

2x Flame of Anor

Journey in the Dark (37+14):

Remove Bill the Pony because "the Mines are no place for a pony, even one so brave as Bill" (replace with Dúnedain Remedy)

Remove Elrond because he can no longer help us (replace with Athelas)

3x Servant of the Secret Fire

2x Gandalf's Staff

2x Narya

2x Flame of Anor - "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass!"

3x Athelas for condition removal

2x Dúnedain Remedy can be passed around to heal

Breaking of the Fellowship (37+13):

Remove Gandalf - fly, you fools!

3x Galadriel

3x Athelas

3x Dúnedain Remedy for archery damage

3x Dúnedain Warning - now that Gandalf if gone, the heroes need to defend themselves.

1x Ancestral Armor

PLAY NOTES

Mulligan: I look for Gandalf and/or Elf-stone.

Early Game: Try to stall a bit and get out a few allies. But once Gandalf is out you need to power through because threat is a big threat to this deck. Save Elf-stone for either Boromir or Legolas as Tactics resources are the scarcest. Shadow of the Past can help you select softer encounter cards.

Questing is fairly easy because we have 4 heroes with 2 and Aragorn can ready while the Hobbits use Fast Hitch. Plus we also have the Grey Wanderer, Celebrían's Stone (used to play Sam), Frodo's Intuition, and the Fellowship of the Ring for questing.

Defending is handled by Aragorn in the beginning. But after a few turns, there are lots of great defending options. Gandalf with Narya. Gimli with Ancestral Armor (use Steward to pay for it) or Raiment of War. Or Boromir with Raiment of War. Frodo can defend if needed (use ability or mithril coat).

Attacking also has plenty of options. Merry and Aragorn can handle most defending and attacking with just one other ally. Merry with Fast Hitch can ready himself and another to take out two enemies (which is often needed, even solo)

Deck Strengths: The cards are just so powerful that if you can get them out, you can burn through the quest. Feel free to let Bill or Gimli take one for the team and then replay them.

Deck Weaknesses: The deck is slow to ramp up. Lack of resources and too many of the same unique card can really slow down this deck.

If you can stall the quest a bit early in you should be fine. However, Breaking of the Fellowship cannot be stalled, and that made it the most difficult quest for this deck. With Gandalf in the abyss and Frodo causing drama, this deck severely lacks , , and . luckily Frodo comes back for the final push. I recommend "The Seat of Amon Hen" for stage 3B.

With Gandalf, threat can be an issue despite the low starting threat. I've included Keen as Lances to help with that.

Resource management is also an issue. Spend lore resources for any neutral cards as there are fewer lore cards to pay for. Activate Gandalf's Staff to generate tactics resources.

Ally-hate treacheries and effects are brutal. My only suggestion is to just hold onto ally attachments until you are ready to use them, in case the ally gets killed or discarded.