The Boss Deck 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Are you terrified of losing another character to the City Guard? Does the Hill Troll or Attercop pose a threat? Worried about defending a Mumak, Nazgul, or Thaurdir?

Look no further. This multiplayer deck is designed to let you handle the "boss" enemies with ease.

Dain: Dain is arguably the best starting defender in the game. By using his ability, he blocks for 6, so he can take an attack from any boss-level enemy. When he wears The One Ring and has Inner Strength, he can defend for 7 and cancel a shadow for the cost of 1 threat. An ideal set up for Dain is to have The One Ring, Armor of Erebor, Ancestral Armor, and as many Unexpected Courages as possible. A Golden Belt with other attachments is icing on the cake.

Top Card Shenanigans: One of the best parts of this deck is that Gandalf reveals the top card that Dain will discard. This can earn some free resources from Hidden Cache. (Extra resources typically go on Dain). It is also amazing at digging through the deck to find what you want so that you can draw it wtih Gandalf's staff, or on your next turn. Even more nuts is setting up a Well Equipped. Discard with Dain until a Citadel Plate, Ancestral Armor, or Unexpected Courage is on top of the deck and play Well-Equipped to get the attachment for free. Wizard Pipe and Expert Treasure Hunter let you have even more fun getting free cards. Ring of Thror is nuts in this deck, but it is a 1x since the deck struggles to quest/get rid of locations on its own. That being said, an early Ring of Thror can net tons of free cards.

Gimli: This deck has the tactics Gimili that I've always wanted. An ideal scenario is to load him up with 2-3 Citadel Plates, a Golden Belt, a Rohan Warhorse, and a War Axe. When fully beefed up with damage, Gimli can whallop the boss for 24 attack. Gimli typically gets the first Golden Belt.

Gandalf: Gandalf plays a support/fill roll. He typically quests and enables the top card shenanigans. Once he finds Shadowfax, he can participate in more defense/attack. Playing Gandalf's Staff for 1 resource is very satisfying. He typically picks up 1-2 Dagger of Westernesse. He can aslo get a War Axe, if it is the top card of the deck and played with his ability during the planning phase.

Dealing with threat: The deck starts at a whopping 36 threat. Given the fact that it threats out at 45, some threat reduction is required. The Galadhrim's Greeting is typically used to target this deck to reduce threat by 6. Mid-late game, the deck is typically set up and will use Dain/Wizard Pipe/Gandalf's staff to dig for either The Galadhrim's Greeting or A Test of Will.

Starting hand: Wizard pipe is great. Keep basically any hand with it. Having some well-equipped and some restricted attachments is also great.

Well-Preserved: Playing with Well-Preserved (The Master Traited card from Under the Ash Moutaints) takes this deck to a whole new level. (Note that in order to play it, Wizard Pipe must be drawn to swap it onto the top of the deck and play with Gandalf's ability). If that card is chosen from The One Ring's setup ability rather than Inner Strength, (due to having a Gandalf's Pipe in hand), then Dain can defend for essentially 11 every single round. He defends for 6 with his ability, and as long as he doesn't take 6 damage, he can heal it all off the next turn. This is an ideal swap when going against the City Guard from The City of Ulfast. Otherwise, Inner Strength is probably better. Well-Preserved also makes Dain extremely versitile. If Gimli already has enough restricted attachments, throwing a couple Citadel Plates and Vigilant Guard can be just as Valid on Dain. The deck will frequenty take 3-4 undefended attacks, put all the damage on him (since he has 12-16 hit points), and heal it all away.

Forth, The Three Hunters: Unlike most 3 Hunters decks, this one really doesn't need to flip the contract. It is lousy at quseting anyhow...it relies on other decks to quest. The contract is mainly used to allow the heroes to pick up an extra restricted attachment. The on-demand healing and cost reduction for the restricted attachements just make it even better than it already is.