Ancient Kin of the North 1.0

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• 1.0

The hair in that lineup alone makes it worth trying. I think you need to listen to 80s rock when you play that deck.

HAHAHA! best comment ever @MinkeWhale Looks like a cool deck, and I'm glad to see Fastred get more play.

Nice! It’s always fun to see someone new take up that third hero slot in a Dale deck. I’m trying one out with the new Dáin Ironfoot for the same reason you chose Fastred: early defense. Then I throw in cards like Stand and Fightand Second Breakfast to get cards back from the discard pile. I was hoping it would speed up getting Dale allies and attachments out faster, but it still needs work.

Do you benefit at all from pushing enemies back into the staging area? It seems like a downside both in terms of being able to kill the enemy and in terms of questing next round. It seems like Beregond would fill the same role without those disadvantages.

You are absolutely right, @Seastan. I just hadn’t used Fastred yet and wanted to shy away from Beregond who is used a lot, esp in my local meta.

Fasted has lower starting threat, reduces threat more, has more attack strength, and has better hair. He only needs his defense when his super defenders don't get out early enough. I think the argument for Fastred stands. Plus, Beregond is a dirty traitor. That's gondorian blood on his armor. ;)

In seriousness, Beregond is a good pick.

I do think Fastred is underrated. I know it's not for everyone, but personally I find myself in situations early where early you can't strike back and sending an enemy back to staging is no big deal. By dropping your threat by 2 you maybe get an extra turn to get the dale super team assembled before you have to take that enemy back. Some enemies power up with each attack, steal resources and you risk shadows etc, so permablocking isn't perfect. Sometimes you ate forced to take an extra enemy as well, and kicking that down the road can be nice.

With Fastred you are handling with one challenge to the Dale archetype (early defense) at the expense of another (early questing). With only 4 among your questing heroes, you do not really want to be kicking enemies back to the staging area. Though if you're playing multiplayer and the other players are picking up the questing slack, this could be no problem.

I am a huge Fastred fan by the way, and it's nice to see him outside his normal lineup.

Main man, your last comment is the point of the choice. Fastred is the reason this deck is published, as a unique dale third wheel that does work.

When you say Fastred doesn't work well swap him for beregond .... You could also recommend eowyn, arwen or spirit glorfindel or any other super spirit hero commonly found in a lot of decks. I can tell you those options were discussed. And they would all work.

For what it is worth, this is a tested deck variation on tested decks that have worked with some hard quests. Some people have multiple decks assembled and play a lot of multiplayer it's nice to have a less popular third wheel in the dale deck so it's always ready to go.

@MinkeWhaleIf you look under the "Why Fastred?" section, none of the stated reasons are about using an underplayed hero. So forgive me for not realizing that this was the primary point.

@Seastan @MinkeWhale - thanks for your spirited dialogue which kept this deck on the front page for longer than it deserves!

@SeastanIt's all good, I thought he clarified that in his response. Pretty much everything I wrote is for my own amusement. I'm not that big of a Fastred fanboy. Keep fighting the good fight. @PeaceAndThought he's right though. This deck would be better with different heroes.