Challenge Accepted #6: With Great Threat Comes Great Enemies

Play Encounter at Amon Dîn with a deck starting at 38 or greater threat

Deck Summary

This deck has a bit of everything. A mining section for Dáin Ironfoot (Hidden Cache and Ered Luin Miner), all the heals necessary for Treebeard (Ioreth and Warden of Healing), some of Gandalf's toys (Gandalf's Staff and Wizard Pipe).

Dain is the defender while Gandalf and Treebeard will quest while you try to get some additional allies out. The trickiest part is the fact that basically every enemy will engage you immediately, which is why quest tempo cards like Don't Be Hasty! and Late Adventurer are in the deck. They help allow you add/remove questers as need be for additional / . Noiseless Movement is helpful for those early-game situations where you are already engaged with an enemy and you need a turn to take care of it before letting the newly revealed enemy from engaging.

Erebor Toymaker is really helpful in getting out the attachments. First Unexpected Courage will go on Dain, the others can be dispersed between Treebeard and Gandalf as desired. Favor of the Valar is necessary to keep you in the game for any quest with doomed, but it's not necessarily needed right away, so I usually wait for a Toymaker to help out....crafting that favor? shrugs

The sideboard highlights some other themes I tried during my testing, at one point I had more attachments in the deck so Ring of Thror was another accelerator and Dain helper. I originally started with my favorite "make Treebeard an elf" concept deck (Treebeard of the Silvans deck here) so that is why Elf-friend and Lembas remain in the sideboard.

Quest Summary

I had a pretty easy time with Amon Dîn, enemies in the first few rounds was the most dangerous prospect. Dain could defend easily enough, but without Treebeard or allies to take them out it could easily turn into being overrun. My first game revealed me an enemy during setup and another turn 1. Noiseless Movement saved the day so that one could stay in the staging area while I defended with Dain and attacked with Treebeard. By the following round I had a few allies to help quest or attack so things eased up as I went.

In another game, due to a series of unfortunate events, I had 6 dead villagers mid-game and I revealed a treachery that raises your threat by that number. Luckily Favor of the Valar saved my bacon and I continued on my merry little way with 45 threat. Next round, I play Favor of the Valar again, you know, just in case, and reveal the same treachery. After that I made sure to finish the quest as quickly as possible to avoid any further close calls!