Doomed and Out 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

PURPOSE AND OVERVIEW: self destructing deck to support second player

This deck has one purpose and only works in a 2 player game (2 handed usually):

-Load the other player up with the most powerful attachment Steward of Gondor, Blood of Númenor and maybe another key attachment

-Give their heroes each an average of 2 resources

-Grant them often 6 additional card draw

-Then reduce their threat back to starting level

-Eliminate this decks player so the remaining player goes on to a crushing victory.

I will explain in detail how this happens and the only few weaknesses but basically after Drinking Song came out it made this deck work 100% of the time during my testing.

PLAYING THE DECK

Mulligan: it’s all about draw so look for at least a couple cards in hand that generate draw but honestly with Erestor this might not be that important.

Resource Phase: play all of your obvious draw cards first until you don’t have any left. Also play any resource generating cards and a Captain's Wisdom if you landed on it as it can only be played now. You must draw Justice Shall Be Done but you have the specific card fetching to do so.

Planning Phase: play Justice Shall Be Done for further draw and resource acceleration, remember this is now the only time to play it during the Planning Phase. Draw any other cards and fetch the last pieces to hook up your player across the table. -key attachments to play is Steward of Gondor, any others are bonus extra -key combo cards are a Song of Travel on Aragorn and a single Desperate Alliance in hand to play later on.

Quest Phase: Quest with your remaining heroes or save them for defense depending on scenarios enemies. Travel Phase:nothing special

Encounter and Combat Phase: Simply survive, Aragorn is all that matters

Refresh Phase: Play Desperate Alliance and trigger Aragorn ability before you are eliminated at the end of the round.

THE AFTERMATH

There is now only one player but that player has very powerful attachments, lots of extra card draw and additional resources going into the second round of the game. This can make them unstoppable especially if you build a deck expecting this serious boost to draw and resource acceleration.

KEY CARDS AND COMBOS

Justice Shall Be Done as mentioned above you must get and play this on round one to leave the game at the end of the round.

Heed the Dream the most important card for specific digging and draw and you have the fuel to pay fully for both effects twice a game!

Sneak Attack Gandalf always use for card draw unless you have all the pieces you need

Word of Command don’t forget to use it while Gandalf is out.

The Seeing-stone should always fetch Deep Knowledge

Desperate Alliance can only be played if Song of Travel is out and you only need Aragorn to survive so attach the song to him.

Drinking Song saves you from a full hand of no more draws

WEAKNESSES

-Surviving the first round with high threat around 46. Encounters that start with too many enemies in the staging area that you can’t defend and/or go undefended against will all engage you.

-Too many Doomed cards in encounter deck may prevent you from using all your doomed cards and thus slow the deck’s engine

-The Encounter deck limiting your threat reduction would ruin that Refresh Phase which that other player needs for survival

-Any Encounter deck with particularly nasty attachment removal or draw/full hand punishment can be detrimental

CONSIDERATIONS AND FURTHER STRATEGY

Customize what you want to equip the other player with. The core engine of this deck is draw with a few resource accelerators. There are 19 that grant draw, 6 of those are a specific fetch from your deck draw. Drinking Song is there if you happen to not hold any more draw cards. You can personalize this deck to have different attachments I just find if you get Steward of Gondor, Rod of the Steward, Blood of Númenor and Heir of Mardil on a hero that is just too good but might get boring so feel free to change it up!

Be careful with your threat and don’t go too high if the Encounter has any threat raising. Remember you raise your threat one last time in Refresh before using Aragorn’s ability!

Warning! This deck honestly feels a bit like cheating but is really just the combo of Denethor Erestor and then lots of extra draw. It’s so consistent you almost won’t want to play a single handed game without it..

OVERALL

This deck really plays like solitaire and for testing that’s exactly what I did. It’s fun to see if you can draw your entire deck and get clutch attachments out. It’s also nerve racking when you’re running out of draw but you still need key pieces to finish the combo! At the same time it feels ridiculous when you hit all your draw and easily get all that you need.

COMMENTS AND FOLLOW UP

Let me know of any rules comments or concerns. There are crucial action windows but I’m quite sure all the plays I’ve mentioned are legal within proper action windows. I assume you can use this deck against most encounters and it’s not shut down too often but if you find it’s bad against many let me know which ones. Otherwise have fun and set your other deck up for success after round 2 or if playing with a friend at an event go around and watch other players or get food while they finish up destroying the scenario!