Challenge Accepted #2: Nuthin But A G Thang

Play The Battle of Lake-town using a deck where every every hero and ally starts with the letter G.

Deck and Quest Summaries

So I went back and forth on what to publish for this challenge as I tried several hero / player card configurations for this challenge. Admittedly, I had little luck besting the dragon. Heroes were either taken out before they could be set up to defend or a treachery wiped out my allies or a bad starting Smaug would wreck my face before I could even try to set up. I will be publishing my final lineup but will give a brief overview of each deck I tried.

Lineup #1: Gandalf / Gildor Inglorion / Glorfindel [this deck]

• 3 losses - 1 on the first round, 1 on the third round, 1 after making it part way through stage 2.
• This deck was pretty fun to use, it's straightforward but Gildor comes in so handy for those early draws until you get set up with some Expert Treasure-hunters. Galadriel helps dig out important attachments and rearrange the deck. Guardian of Ithilien made it into every iteration of every deck I made simply because it's a cheap chump ally (granted, that is not the best strategy against Smaug due to shadow cards that punish you for it but it's what I had to work with). Eventually, Gandalf gets set up with Ancestral Armor, Self Preservation, and a A Burning Brand to become the sole defender. (NOTE: I was playing the latest errata on Burning Brand as well, not that it made any difference).

Lineup #2: Galadriel / Gríma / Galdor of the Havens

• 4 losses - 1 early on, 2 on stage 2, and another attempt made it all the way to stage 3 before threating out.
• This was actually my most successful lineup, the idea behind it being getting out OHAUH Gandalf as quickly as possible to help quest and defend Smaug. Get out Self Preservation on him to keep him healthy and use his staff for resources/cards. Grima was considerable help in spitting out allies quickly and Galadriel / Galdor helped keep useful cards in hand. On my last attempt, I was simply moving too slowly to win. With the constant threat raise from Gandalf and lack of high attack power, whittling away at the dragon was not possible and so I threated out with 12 damage on Smaug. I call that a partial win! ;)

Lineup #3: Gandalf / Glóin / Gríma

• 4 losses - 2 within the first few rounds, the other 2 on stage 2.
• This was my first deck attempt and Gloin was not as useful as I hoped. But the biggest problem here was that the deck suffered from low due to lack of access to allies. My threat raised quickly so Smaug began engaging and taking out my allies too quickly for me to keep pace.

This was an interesting challenge to approach, mainly due to the difficulty of the quest I needed to take on. Allies being limited to "G" was the biggest issue, I think, as it left very few options that were not 1 chumps, which is precisely what you don't want for this quest. I had fun experimenting with hero lineups I haven't tried before (lineups 2 & 3 specifically) but I will admit that I have had my fill of running around Lake-town. Someone else can bring the buckets next time ;).