We Could Let Her Do It...

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Passage Through Mirkwood - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-29
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Fantasty 2288

"Her" being Rossiel of course, who did you think?

Concept

This is my latest attempt at a thematic, modern day secrecy Rossiel deck. The hero line-up works really well together: Frodo Baggins' effect not only lets you keep your threat low, but also allows you to get double usage out of Rossiel. This has been notoriously difficult in Rossiel decks, where you want her to both quest and defend once the victory display is set up. Frodo Baggins lets you do this right off the bat.

Rounding out the hero line-up is Sméagol, whose 3 threat keeps your total starting threat at a nice 18. He has an obvious downside in forcing you to shuffle two copies of Stinker into the encounter deck, but this deck actually has many ways of preventing that card from showing up or resolving. Sméagol also provides some clutch card draw when you need it, which is known to happen in Rossiel decks (given that they require quite some setup).

The One Ring

The One Ring goes on Rossiel. We can make use of the Ring in two ways:

  • It lets us start with Well Preserved in hand, which helps buff up Rossiel to 4 and provides repeatable healing at will for her. This makes her a much more reliable defender.
  • We can run The Master Ring to add even more cancellation to your standard Rossiel deck, which also helps getting rid of Stinker when it shows up.

Events

The reason secrecy and Rossiel go so well together is Out of the Wild, a card that actually pre-dates Rossiel. While other events that place cards in the victory display such as None Return and Leave No Trace require quite a lot of setup (revealing and defeating/exploring an enemy/location), Out of the Wild simply lets you pick a card directly from the top of the encounter deck.

Out of the Wild should preferably be used first to put a location in the victory display, not an enemy. Boosting Rossiel's willpower usually has higher priority than her defense, since your low starting threat allows you to avoid enemies for the first few turns. We do run both Leave No Trace as well as None Return, so while Out of the Wild can get you set up turn 1, there are plenty of opportunities to get just the right cards in the victory display.

The other events we run are easily just as important as the ones we have already discussed.

  • Keen as Lances lets you make use of the victory display in more than one way, giving you access to very power
  • Timely Aid is a staple in any secrecy deck. It's the only card we run because it's absolutely crucial to keep Frodo Baggins' resource available for his effect.
  • Daeron's Runes and Drinking Song provide additional consistency and card draw. Drinking Song is especially useful since we're running a Hobbit hero in Frodo Baggins. It lets you get rid of excess unique cards or Rossiel-related events that you don't need at the moment.

Since they are so crucial, we also run 3 Galadhrim Minstrel to fetch them faster.

Gameplay

The rest of the deck plays as your typical Rossiel deck with Ents splashed in. They are a natural fit since you're naturally taking your time with this deck anyway, which is what Ents typically do as well. We also run 2 Woodland Sentry for even more "cancellation". Henamarth Riversong and Firyal provide you with much needed encounter deck control to avoid Stinker or other nasty encounter cards (or at least give you a heads up to let you know they're coming).

Pretty much all the attachments go on Rossiel. Magic Ring is a flexible card that either lets you speed the deck up through resource acceleration, or lets you get two defenses out of Rossiel. And we can easily afford the threat cost. All copies of Resourceful should also go on her, seeing as how we run only 3 cards in Timely Aid and Sméagol can't have attachments. Cloak of Lórien can boost her even further so she can defend for 5-6 against some of the stronger enemies out there.

7 comments

May 24, 2020 Some Sort 3913

Nicely done! I think this is the first Rossiel deck where my first instinct isn’t to replace Rossiel with someone else to make it work better.

May 25, 2020 doomguard 2121

perhaps adding some feigned voices, to keep enemys at bay and re-use the minstrels. perhaps then it makes sense to put a few more silvans in it. would recomand Galadhrim Healer and silvan tracker

May 25, 2020 perseflamme 70

Nice deck, and nice explainations. Thanks for charing it. You make me want to try it !

May 25, 2020 Fantasty 2288

@Some Sort Thanks!

@doomguard I like the idea of returning Silvan allies to hand in this deck a lot, might take out the Daeron's Runes for a playset of Feigned Voices. Not just for reusing the Galadhrim Minstrel, but also the Woodland Sentry! I'm not sure about running more Silvan allies though, Silvan Tracker is quite expensive for what it offers and I can already reliably heal Rossiel with Well Preserved anyway.

I might try out The Elvenking instead of Feigned Voices as well. It provides additional action advantage for Rossiel and it can continually recycle my Galadhrim Minstrel and Woodland Sentry late-game, too.

I've also been thinking of including Power of Command since we run anyway, and this deck might struggle with early against some quests. The obvious downside is that playing it will use up Frodo Baggins' resource, so you can't reduce your threat that turn. And actually triggering Power of Command raises your threat by an additional point, so playing it in the early game is less than ideal.

@perseflamme Thanks! If you do end up trying it I'd love to hear your thoughts.

May 25, 2020 doomguard 2121

i see no problem with more leadership-res, just give frodo one of the recoursfull. if he piles res, he can later pay for treebeard magic ring or gandalf. and, put in power of command. in most cases in the first 1-3 rounds you will use it,if otherwise you have to increase your thread nonetheless and then its in every case the cheaper way threadwise.

May 25, 2020 Seastan 44447

Very cool deck!

Do you think (MotK) Firyal is worth considering in place of Rossiel here? Firyal effectively counters the Stinker treachery, not to mention provides very powerful encounter deck control over the rest of the game, which this deck seems to be going for. You'd still start in secrecy, and if you want you could start with Power of Command on her so she starts with Rossiel's top-end willpower.

You would lack a solid defender, but I think bumping up Treebeard to 3x and mulliganing for him would solve that issue.

May 25, 2020 Fantasty 2288

@Seastan Thanks! And great idea, I think that would definitely be worth it. Starting out with (MotK) Firyal would be a great early game boost, which this deck welcomes with open arms to be honest. You'd be slightly more reliant on opening up with Treebeard but with Rossiel you're equally reliant on seeing Out of the Wild or something similar in your opening hand. You could also probably cut Magic Ring in that case. Maybe free up some more room to also include Risk Some Light for even more encounter deck control.