The Men of Dale 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

With two auto-include heroes and such strong allies, the Dale deck kind of builds itself but I thought I would throw my version out there. We’ve got some more Dale cards since the initial flurry of Dale deckbuilding happened after Wilds of Rhovanion was released and those give us some more options. This is my attempt at building a “pure Dale” deck without any of the “non-thematic” cards like Gandalf, Steward of Gondor etc. The one concession to theme is hero Beravor. Her access to to Lore and Bartering and her on-demand card draw are just to helpful to pass up.

This deck plays like a Dale deck! Get King of Dale out ASAP and start dropping allies and equipping them with attachments. I kept the number of events low so the deck could focus on building the strongest army possible over the long game. with strong card draw and no Steward, resources can become a choke point so I included a copy of the new Descendant of Girion to help make sure you can play those attachments for free it at least cheaper. He’s not amazing but it’s a decent engine when it happens. Necklace of Girion is very helpful in Bard son of Brand and those big bursts of resources off of Traffic from Dale give you some big turns.

I included the Guardian of Esgaroth because he’s amazing but the deck isn’t hyper focused on making him a monster. Valiant Determination is meant for him as is the single copy of Wild Stallion With those two attachments alone he becomes as good as OHaUH Gandalf and you can make him even bigger! With more attachments than allies in the deck, every Dale ally can have an attachment (except the Long Lake Trader) and still load up a Guardian or two with several attachments.

Bold but True: the Mariner's Compass is better than the Map of Rhovanion.

How many times have you been recently burned by an X location? The Compass can make that go away. I like the map as well but that Compass can really save your bacon! It best on the North Realm Lookouthere but you could temporarily drop it on a character or the Rhovanion Outrider.

I included 1 copy of the wonderful Ancestral Armor so you can build up a monster defender if you want.

I also included Spare Hood and Cloak and although the deck doesn’t rely on it, it provides early willpower and card draw and it can help get maximum value out of your big attackers and defenders in the late game.

This deck does lack healing and threat reduction so it's not the best choice for some of the longer quests we've seen recently, but it will have a good chance at knocking out most quests that don't go too long.

Other than that this has all the standard Dale tricks! Get King of Dale out as soon as you can and start building up a massive army of the Men of Dale and enjoy the game on east mode! Joking... sort of.

Beyond the three heroes, King of Dale and Necklace of Girion are the only uniques in the whole deck so this should be easy to fit into a pickup game. Thanks for reading!