Beravor, Ranger of the North 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

Changes Made from the Previous Version: Exchanged Halbarad for Thalion and 3x Out of the Wild for 2x Secret Paths and Gather Information. Those changes definitely improved the deck.

This is a thematic Grey Wanderer deck featuring Beravor wandering alone through the lands of Middle-earth. It focuses on Secrecy and on fitting Beravor out with powerful yet still thematic attachments, and on using Beravor's rich knowledge (her card-drawing ability) to great effect. The Rangers were known for their cunning and stealth, taking on the enemies only when properly prepared, but then killing them with a powerful strike. This deck attempts to symbolize the Ranger's ability to complete their quests with little help from others. It also doesn't include big armour or weapons that would not really fit their style of fighting, but it has managed to beat some fairly tough quests already and I'm quite happy with it.

How to play:

• Setup: Hope not to draw Strider (which is unlikely) in your opening hand. Mulligan if you can't find some secrecy cards. It's always great to have Timely Aid and Risk Some Light, and Timely Aid will bring out either Gandalf or Thalion most of the time (though sometimes, it's just wasted). Gandalf may help you a bit better in the first turn to clear away any initial obstacles (either kill an enemy right at the start or help with questing against a nasty location), and if you don't have to face those obstacles, reduce your threat to stay in secrecy even longer. Risk Some Light on the other hand can easily set up the next two turns, maybe even three. If you don't see those cards, Resourceful is also a great card to begin with. Attach Strider to Beravor, of course.
• The first round: Quest with Beravor for 4, and if you have an ally out, send it to the quest, too. Hopefully they'll make some progress, but if they don't, do not worry. Travel to any location that sits around in the staging area, but leave enemies where they are. Now, Beravor's ability will make itself useful: Exhaust her and draw two cards. Then, if you need some resources, exhaust the contract and add 2 to her pool.
• The next rounds: Building up Beravor. Having two copies of Resourceful on her at an early point in the game can be quite helpful. If you have problems with questing or attacking, look for Timely Aid or Elf-stone to get cheap allies (Gandalf, for example). If you don't get enough resources using Resourceful, use the contract. Then, start to attach the Signals to her to build her up as defender, attacker and quester. And don't forget to use her ability every round, if possible: This way you will draw your whole deck most of the time. Look for Song of Kings, so you no longer have to worry about only playing one Leadership card per turn, and concentrate on finding Blood of Númenor and Gondorian Fire. You will also most likely draw either Unexpected Courage or Magic Ring soon to get an extra action out of her. After seven or eight turns, you will have drawn half your deck and equipped her to allow her to quest, defend, attack and draw cards. If you attached A Burning Brand to her and don't care for unpublished errata, nothing will stop her.
• How to deal with those big enemies: Leave them in the staging area until you got a bunch of resources, Blood of Númenor and Gondorian Fire. Defend them, spend a resource if needed to make Beravor a defending beast, ready her with Unexpected Courage, Magic Ring or, if you need more resources, the Contract, and smash them. Due to the low threat you can decide when to take on those enemies and you can preapre for them. When playing Journey along the Anduin, I was able to take out two Hill Trolls and Chieftain Ufthak each in one round with her. It was really satisfying to watch those beasts being crushed by a single ranger.
• The Side Quests: Normally, after a few rounds of setup, questing should be no problem, and you can throw in one of the Side Quests whenever seems fitting. Both can be expected to be completed within one or two rounds and give great reward: Double Back helps keeping your threat low, so that you stay in secrecy for the entire game. Scout Ahead is even more powerful, allowing you to take out one nasty enemy, location or treachery and then set up the next three to four rounds. Amazing. Gather Information, on the other hand, helps to find a crucial card (e. g. Unexpected Courage). Those three Side Quests also give an advantage for Thalion, since having them completed means that he becomes another hero and thus is able to be Lost and Alone in Foundations of Stone, so that you don't need to lose by discarding all of Beravor's precious attachments. The Side Quests can also be used as buffers for the regular quest card: If the next quest card would soon force you into an unprepared fight, a Side Quest can win you one or two extra rounds of preparation as excess progress of Side Quests, unlike that of locations, will not go to the main quest.

Overall, this deck works pretty well. You will play many rounds (around 15-20 on average) since this deck takes its time to grow to full strength, but once it has arrived at that point, it is really powerful. This, I think, perfectly shows the ability of the Rangers of the North: Knowing when to retreat or vanish from sight and when to attack with their full strength. It's biggest weakness, however, is the start of the game: If your starting hand is bad or you draw the wrong encounter cards, the came can be over pretty quickly. Nonetheless, if you manage to survive the first rounds, it is great to see how a single ranger (and a woman) takes on Sauron's evil minions with ease.

Sideboard notes: If the quest has a nasty Condition treachery, substituting Athelas for Strider's Path is a good idea.

Thougts on the deck's theme:

Beravor is quite thematic to the Grey Wanderer Contract and the attachment that you want to get on her at the very beginning, which is of course Strider. She is a Ranger, one of the wandering people in Eriador, alone for most of the time, and able to handle tough situations without aid from others. This is why I included only two allies. Thalion for thematic reasons, who may show up and help her to find her way through her quests; and Gandalf, who is also a bit thematic, since he knows of the secret activities of the Rangers and sometimes shows up to help them. (But, to be honest, his only purpose in this deck is to solve those tough situations where you are stuck and cannot get out without some external help, or simply to reduce your threat.) Those are the only allies in this deck, because Rangers are lonely wanderers and seldom seen in groups, having to rely on their knowledge and cunning to survive and beat the Enemy's minions. To represent those skills, some of them acquired by long years of learning, some of them passed on to her by her noble bloodline, I have chosen a variety of attachments. First, who is more resourceful than a Ranger of the North? Resourceful gives Beravor access to a maximum of four resources per phase without having to raise the threat by using the contract. Of course, with a starting threat of ten, having to raise the threat is not all too painful, but this deck's strategy is to take on the enemies only when properly prepared for them, so the more time you save, the better. This is also the reason why I included Self Preservation in this deck, which is also a classic Ranger skill, along with a for a ranger not-so Unexpected Courage. Beravor, of course, is a Dúnadan, and thus knows of the healing herb Athelas. But as the contract and Self Preservation should provide enough healing, Athelas is only there to discard Condition attachments and can be substituted if there are no such treacheries in the Encounter Deck. Next are three attachments coming from her signal-based communication with the other Rangers in the vast lands of Eriador which allow her to quest, defend and attack more efficiently, the Dúnedain Quest, the Dúnedain Mark and the Dúnedain Warning. She also has some knowledge of traps and how to use them, allowing her to catch unwelcome enemies in the Forest Snare. And her lineage plays a huge role, too: Her Blood of Númenor allows her to defend attacks, and her knowledge of the Gondorian Fire brings her a much needed boost for her attacks to take down even the nastiest enemies. Being a Lore hero, she also has deep knowledge of the old songs of the Dúnedain like the Song of Kings, which allow her to use her many resources to even greater effect. And lastly, she also wields some helpful tools that may prove crucial on some point of her journey: In order to always see what is coming towards her, she often wields A Burning Brand, and she also keeps a Jewell similar to Celebrían's Stone with her that gives her the strength to go ever onwards. If she is in dire need of help, she will place an Elf-stone on a place she visited, or call for Timely Aid, and then, aid will come. And if everything fails, she may even pull out an ancient Magic Ring to bail her out of trouble, but at the cost of a rising threat. But not only the things she carries with her are her advantages in play, but also her cunning and wit avail her in her quests: If need be, she is able to quickly travel unseen on Strider's Path, and she also knows many more Secret Paths in Middle-earth that help her to fulfill her quests quicker and in time. When the paths grow darker, she may Risk Some Light or Scout Ahead to see what's next, and before she goes on to the next stage of her quests unprepared, she may first Gather Information to set herself up for the future dangers. And if the threat goes too high or she needs to vanish in secrecy, she will Double Back and take a short break of the threats she as a Ranger constantly faces.