One Ring Fastred 3.0

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I always wondered why you never included Quick Strike into your Fastred decks. Don't you like killing enemies with Dúnhere before quest resolution?

@ticklerQuick Strike would mean you lose out on the -2 threat from Fastred later that round. So you are spending 1 tactics resource, a card, and 2 threat, for a gain of 2 or 3 progress. Doesn't seem worth it.

i think fastred will have enough possibilities to defend, especially with arwen (sentinel). in most cases you will not loose his bility to defend, and killing an enemy in the staging could sometimes be the crucial 2-3 progress that let you quest succesfully, or explore the active location. if there is only 1 enemy you can späre the quick strike for a btter situation. seems to me more worth, than the refugees. furthermore i would add a magic ring for fastred, at least a possible healing. ==> my version -3refugee + 2 qicksrike +1 magic ring

@doomguard I disagree. Dunhere isn't killing anything with Quick Strike until he has a couple weapons on him, so your first 2 tactics resources are already accounted for by playing a couple weapons on Dunhere and then you probably want an armor of Fastred. So you likely aren't playing Quick Strike until round 4 at the earliest, at which point a temporary increase in 2 or 3 willpower is a pretty weak effect. Consider cards like Courage Awakened or Radagast's Cunning, which are similar in what they do but don't get much play.

The refugees are exceptional in solo play because you can reliably keep them around for the whole game. You can play it on turn 1 and hold onto a spirit resource for A Test of Will, or you can play Open the Armory and a weapon on turn 1 and still be able to play the refugee. Having playtested the deck, there's no way I'd swap them for quick strikes. In multiplayer, the refugees are not as reliable, but I'd still rather swap them for the allies I put in the sideboard instead of Quick Strike.

As for the healing, I found the Honour Guards to be adequate.

In my point of view Quick Strike is only about covering Fastred as long as he doesn't have an Unexpected Courage. When you run into a situation, where you have to face multiple enemies, Dúnhere can kill these with a single weapon attached to him and often also 3 is enough on its own. A typical example is running into a surge enemey (with engagement cost = <15, 1-2, 2, 1 and 2-3) and then drawing into an enemy with an engagement cost of 20-25. Depending on the shadow card you can take one undefended attack on Dúnhere (with 4 hp), because at this point you will not have played an Honour Guard. But one bad shadow card on the wrong enemy and you are out.

For me Quick Strike helped me out in many encounters to deal with multiple opponents avoiding an undefended attack. Once Fastred got an Unexpected Courage I fully agree to @Seastan. After this there is no need for Quick Strike anymore.

I have built a Fastred deck with The One Ring, but I have not played it. I included some of the new master cards just to find out how they fit. I guess The Ring of Power could be a good substitute to Quick Strike anyway, because this might be more useful later too. But I don't have any experience here. This was actually the point why I wanted to know your argumentation to not include Quick Strike @Seastan : ). Thank you for the answer.

I am generally not a fan of cards that are really useful 2% of the time but then are useless the other 98% of the time.

Your starting threat is 23. The number of times you will have to deal with two 4+ attack enemies with lower than 24 engagement cost on the same round in the early game is really not that high. I'd rather have cards that are useful all the time. This just tends to be my preferred playstyle.

fastred would not kill an opponent in the staging area is a different argument, than that of 2-3 willpower. and that argument i can understand. the other i do not agree, because its not only the willpower it is, no attack from that enemy, no shadow, no longer forced effect of that enemy, its not only the willower.

i would say it depens on the scenario. a scenario with many of enemys, the quickstrike could help a lot, if there are never more enemys then defender its not much worth. ==> leave it if younhunt gollum, take it to the battle of minas thirit.

I've played a lot of Fastred / Inner Strength, and I totally agree with Seastan. Not only is killing an enemy during the quest phase unnecessary, a lot of times it's actually bad, because you WANT to defend with Fastred. With Inner Strength you don't have to worry about shadows anymore, and even if you trigger it you're getting a net threat reduction out of the deal.

If you just want to put a couple extra points of progress, spend that resource on another ally. (I'll second how good Silvan Refuge is with a shadow-proof Fastred as a defender). If you want to cover Fastred, remember that (a) a lot of the time Quick Strike won't be enough to kill the thing you want to protect Fastred from anyway, and (b) Feint does the same thing much more flexibly. But really in solo you're not often going to deal with more than one enemy at a time anyway, and in multiplayer it's not like you have to handle combat for the entire table.

I like the adjustments, the idea of the ring on Fastred with Inner Strength makes a lot of sense.

I have a question about Eowyn. In another write up you mentioned how you can get 2 attacks out of her ability, more with Rohan War horse if memory serves. How does that work exactly? She attacks, readies with the +9 in the susequent action window and then attacks again but the +9 counts towards both attacks?

@Glorfinzell Looks like you answered your own question! ;)

@SeastanThis applies to Háma's ability as well, right?

@bobbymcbobface Correct.

Thanks Seastan, your work on action windows has been very helpful I just wanted to make sure I understood it correctly...thats why your the GOAT in my opinion☺

@Seastan hello, I've recently been eager to build a staging strike deck with Dunhere and T Eowyn. However, my card pool is not expansive. In terms of allies, what would you suggest their primary role be? Blocking, questing? Both? Does Rohirrim Scout have a role here? I'm asking because I'd like to supplement with the cards I have. Thanks!

just beat the LAND OF SORROW with this solo and it was so fun. but maybe I don't get how the ONE RING/MASTER Card works....why are there multiple copies of Inner Strength if you can search it up with the One Ring? wouldn't those slots be useful for something else? I must be doing it wrong. thanks for the great deck @Seastan

@thrilliod I only count one copy of Inner Strength?

Oi. I’m an idiot. Sorry lol

No Magic Ring? seems perfect in here given how little you care about threat!

@Bushidough Magic Ring is a good idea!