Land of Shadow - Crossroads 6.0

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I ended up building this due to campaign constraints (these heroes got me through The Passage of the Marshes) as well as my own thematic reasons. I really wanted to focus on characters that were present at this point in the books (it wasn't easy to follow that). I'm confident that outside these boundaries I can build a stronger response to Journey to the Crossroads.

I should note that this is campaign mode and I therefore had the following boons in the deck: Sting, Mithril Shirt, and Brace of Coneys. The deck also had the burden The Searching Eye.

Playing each character to their role is important. I've been using The Land of Shadow version of Frodo Baggins. Theres not a lot in Journey that punishes you from using the Ring so you can rely on it heavily. With it Frodo handles any role and selecting what he does is part of the challenge. In the early game I reserve him for attacking. Once he gets a Fast Hitch and other attachments he can start questing / defending. Sam quests, in the early game he can double as a defender / attacker with his response. Damrod I reserve as an attacker. He only hits for 2 but it does add up. Beravor draws cards. Cram is there to allow her to help questing or defending. There is only one copy of Wingfoot but this card works very well for her in this scenario.

For strategy try and get Frodo loaded up with Dúnedain Warning, Fast Hitch, Sting, and Mithril Shirt. He can become the key blocker. With Sting he becomes a formidable defender. Several shadow cards result in extra attacks which is fine with the Fast Hitches. Once Frodo is powered up with warnings / shirt he can defend against an oliphaunt. Bill the Pony is important to help against the occasional +1 attack shadow.

The best trap seems to be Poisoned Stakes. This combined with Forest Patrol can result in never engaging an enemy. Experienced players will recognize this as a two-card combo which normally shouldn’t be relied upon. However it does show up more than one thinks with support from Anborn, Daeron’s Runes, Beravor, Damrod, and Master of the Forge.

Ambush is pretty good as well. It doesn’t stop the forced effects from engagement but it does allow you to attack before defenders are assigned. This is action advantage in disguise.

The Ents are necessary for their hit points and their questing prowess.

Faramir is critical as the threat coming from The Cross-Roads is significant. With all the card draw he should show up in a few rounds.

Mablung fills an interesting niche. Many times i'll hold him in hand until I find i've left an enemy in the staging area I couldn't engage or get to for whatever reason. Next planning phase he can bring that enemy down before it gets to The Black Gate.

Oliphaunts are troublesome. My standard way of dealing with them is to let two go to the Black Gate. I really like one to show up early as I know i’m going to ignore it, thus i get a bit of a breather. The scenario doesn’t require you to kill everything, you just have to quest through The Cross-Roads. With this in mind I usually engage the last oliphaunt that shows up. Ranger of Cardolan can help. The forced effect on an oliphaunt exhausts every ally. Ranger of Cardolan’s trigger happens next so he can take one for the team.

The Dark Lord's Summons is problematic. The only defense against it is to defeat enemies quickly. This is where I really like Sting. Too bad its a Boon and not a regular player card. Sting accelerates encounter deck discard. I’ve watched it discard The Dark Lord’s Summons and other cards I never want to reveal.

Journey spits enemies out at an alarming rate. The encounter deck is capable of presenting some impossible openings. I recall one game where The Cross-Roads coughed up an oliphaunt, followed by the encounter deck revealing Man of Harad which surged another Man of Harad which surged a Captain of Harad. When this happens I scoop, record the loss and set up another attempt.

The above notes make this sound like a great deck against Journey. This deck is the result of self-imposed thematic constraints. Therefore it will lose more often than win. After learning and playing to the scenario I have piloted this deck to win around 30% of the time. I like my solo games difficult so this is enough to satisfy my campaign needs.