The Wanderers 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

But in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree-folk called them Rangers, and knew nothing of their origin.

This is a "stealth" deck intended for solo play. It relies on heavy encounter deck manipulation to try and forge the easiest path through a scenario. In some ways it's like playing easy mode, only instead of removing cards with gold-ringed icons, you get to choose yourself which cards you ignore. Thematically I really enjoy playing it, since it gives me a feeling of controlling an elite squad of commandos who are always one step ahead of the enemy.

Of the different kinds of encounter cards, on average I find enemies to be the worst. A single enemy creates a lot of action disadvantage. You need a quester to deal with its , a defender to deal with its attack, and finally at least one (though usually more) attackers to get rid of it. If you don't kill it on the turn you engage, then rinse and repeat. Enemies can also cause your board state to shrink, which is the opposite of what you want. Then there's surge, shadow effects, when engaged/attack effects, etc.

To avoid all that nonsense, this deck uses a mix of several strategies:

• Filtering: Firyal, Ithilien Lookout, Out of the Wild, Risk Some Light, Scout Ahead
• Cancelling: The Door is Closed!, Quick Ears
• Neutralizing: Ranger Spikes, Forest Snare (combo with Followed to make one of them your pet!)
• Disposing: Woodland Sentry

For the odd enemy that slips through all that, and for "boss" enemies added via the quest deck, then there's Blood of Númenor and Gondorian Fire. With The Grey Wanderer, Resourceful, Necklace of Girion, and Leaf Brooch, you should be able to amass a pile of resources by the mid to late game, when your threat is high enough for those enemies to engage.

This means that the majority of cards you'll be encountering will likely be locations and treacheries. For locations, there's Northern Tracker, Rhovanion Outrider, and Secret Paths. For treacheries, many of them work by catching you off guard. Often if you know what's coming, you can easily mitigate their effects. For the really nasty treacheries and locations, use the same filtering/cancellation as for enemies.

Also, don't forget that enemies trapped in Forest Snare still get dealt a shadow card. This is an easy way to get rid of an unwanted encounter card using Risk Some Light and Scout Ahead.

Early Game

You want to get at least one Resourceful in play ASAP, so mulligan for it in your starting hand. Other high priorities are Out of the Wild, Risk Some Light, Rivendell Scout, Firyal, Ithilien Lookout, and Needful to Know.

During setup attach Strider, or, if you already have it in your hand, then attach Leaf Brooch instead.

You'll want to use Beravor's ability every single turn of the game. You'll also want to trigger The Grey Wanderer almost every turn. Occasionally it makes sense to skip it for a turn or two in the early game, to stay in secrecy a bit longer while you draw cards.