A Journey To Rhosgobel Solo 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

A solo deck capable of beating A Journey To Rhosgobel with regularity, using only core and Shadows of Mirkwood cycle cards.

Heroes

Glorfindel has no single purpose. He can quest if necessary. We attach Dúnedain Cache to him in order to attack Mirkwood Flock or Black Forest Bats. We make full use of his unique healing ability, discussed later. We attach Song of Kings as a priority, and subsequently Steward of Gondor. We can also attach Song of Travel but this is not a priority.

Frodo Baggins is mainly here for his defending and access to Spirit resources. Attach Fast Hitch to him as a priority - he can then quest as well as defend.

Beravor is mainly here for the card draw. We try to avoid using her during questing and combat and make use her ability to draw cards at the end of each round if possible. This deck depends on getting the right cards into our hand asap and her unique ability is vital. Attach Unexpected Courage to her but this is not a priority. Beravor is potentially a decent defender in an emergency so feel free to add a second A Burning Brand to her (definitely not a priority).

Stage 1

This is a restrictive scenario with the cards we have available in this cycle. For example, in stage 2 the only card we realistically have available to heal Wilyador is Lore of Imladris (x3). A maximum of 15 healing. Not great. This results in stage 2 becoming simply a question of seeing if Athelas and Lore of Imladris appear from each deck fast enough. This doesn't meet our criteria - it is weighted far too much towards luck.

Our strategy is to remove the Rhosgobel location from staging as soon as possible while in stage 1 (Northern Tracker and Snowbourn Scout). We then use Glorfindel's and Radagast's healing ability each round to negate the 2 hit points Wilyador receives. We apply Lore of Imladris as soon as they appear in our hand and enter stage 2 with minimum damage on Wilyador.

Mulligan your initial hand until you receive Northern Tracker. This card is vital to clearing Rhosgobel before Wilyador dies. We are aiming to remain in stage 1 until we have used all three Lore of Imladris cards.

Snowbourn Scout is to be used to aid questing through Rhosgobel asap. They are also perfect meat shields for taking an initial hit from Chieftan Ufthak or Ungoliant's Spawn before we place a Forest Snare on them.

We also require getting Radagast into play as soon as we can. Once Rhosgobel is cleared we use all his resources to heal Wilyador every round in stage 1.

Getting Haldir of Lórien into play asap with A Burning Brand means we can defend any Mirkwood Flock or Black Forest Bat (he is ranged) without worrying about their shadow cards (there are plenty of bad ones in this encounter deck).

As we are trying not to complete stage 1 for a while, Protector of Lórien becomes a very useful attachment for Frodo Baggins (especially if he has Fast Hitch) as we can discard duplicate cards to top up our questing, carefully matching what is in staging.

Once Rhosgobel is cleared, Wilyador's condition stabilises as we are able to heal him/her for 2 every round (with Glorfindel and Radagast) to cancel out the end of round effect. When we've healed Wilyador as much as possible i.e. when we've used all 3 Lore of Imladris - we are ready for stage 2.

Stage 2

Chances are, we will have 1 or 2 Athelas if we've been in stage 1 for a while. If so, it is quite common for this deck to be able to quest straight through in one or two rounds to complete the scenario.

If we still need Athelas and we foresee ourselves being in stage 2 for a little while longer - use Will of the West to get the Lore of Imladris cards back into our deck.

Neither Glorfindel or Radagast can use their abilities to heal Wilyador now - without losing those cards (which we definitely don't want to do). So feel free to now use Radagast's resources on the eagles in the deck (Eagles of the Misty Mountains and Vassal of the Windlord).

Continue to bring out allies as and when. Defend with Haldir of Lórien and A Burning Brand as often as possible (to avoid the nasty shadow card effects) - Glorfindel can heal him any damage taken. Frodo Baggins is a secondary defender once Haldir of Lórien is in play.

In terms of threat, our main concern is being 40+ and Hummerhorns entering staging. This will be brutal and potentially game ending. If Hummerhorns enters staging while we have a sub 40 threat level - use Gandalf's ability entering play to kill it off.

Threat reduction comes in the form of The Galadhrim's Greeting and Dwarven Tomb plus an extra Gandalf.

As soon as our Athelas outweighs Wilyador's current damage put everything into questing to finish the scenario asap. We could use Gandalf and Protector of Lórien to boost our questing here if necessary.

Other cards

Miner of the Iron Hills - withold using this ally unless we have a condition that requires removing. There are two copies of "Caught in a web" in the encounter deck that can cause this.

Gléowine - luxury card to aid card draw. Avoid questing with this card as there are plenty of damage exhausted character cards around.

A Test of Will - obvious usage. Try to resist using this card for any treachery that won't prove fatal. There are plenty of terrible cards here.

Hasty Stroke - see previous.