Solo League 22 (June 2020, JatA+EfDG+AJtR) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

A deck made for the Solo League 22, on BGG or the FFG forums. It's my first time trying the league.

The idea is to make a deck to face 3 scenarios from a cycle and to include at least one of the heroes from the pack or box for one of the 3 scenarios. This month it is the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle and the 3 scenarios are Journey Along the Anduin, Escape from Dol Guldur and A Journey to Rhosgobel.

The cards are all from the Core, Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle and the LotR Saga boxes. This isn't a firm restriction to only use cards from those sets, but I don't have a massive collection anyway and thought it would be interesting to try and build a solo deck with just those sets. I don't have The Flame of the West or Mountain of Fire. I would have probably included Friend of Friends, Ghân-buri-Ghân and Halbarad if I had those boxes.

Strategy

In the opening hand I ideally want to see Steward of Gondor. Quickbeam and Mablung are nice allies to have in play early on, Bill the Pony is excellent as a free ally. For A Journey to Rhosgobel seeing Lore of Imladris in the opening hand is great as well.

Early on, I will quest with all 3 heroes if I need to, but I usually leave Beravor ready in case of a low threat enemy. If she doesn't need to defend she can draw. Low threat enemies are a big problem if I see too many early on. Sneak Attack with Gandalf can help stabilise. Against high threat enemies, Sam Gamgee with Hobbit Cloak and Staff of Lebethron is a good defender. I do have to rely on the expensive allies to defeat strong enemies, but with a low starting threat I usually have time to get them into play either with the help of Elf-stone or Steward of Gondor.

Strider's Path is very helpful against locations like the Necromancer's Pass and the Mountains of Mirkwood. Take No Notice is good for retaining Sam Gamgee and Pippin ability later in the game if threat has risen too quickly.

Changes

I initially had Beravor, Denethor and Damrod but found they couldn't quest or handle combat well enough, and replaced Damrod with Prince Imrahil. I then found the starting threat was too high and I couldn't deal with tougher enemies like the Hill Troll.

I then decided to go for Hobbits and Beravor to keep starting threat low, and I could keep the rest of the deck mostly the same. The Hobbit specific attachments were worth making space for. Fast Hitch, Staff of Lebethron and Hobbit Cloak are very useful, and Bill the Pony is amazing with Sam Gamgee,

I did have Song of Travel, A Test of Will and Unexpected Courage in the deck at an early stage, but found it too difficult to consistently make use of the Spirit cards. I did also have Miner of the Iron Hills and Gléowine but I found I didn't need condition removal that much, and Beravor seemed to draw enough cards in most of my test games.

Results

I have tested the deck against the scenarios with reasonable success.

• Journey Along the Anduin 3/3 (I turtled for a while before dealing with the Troll, then rushed through stage 2 as fast as possible)
• Escape from Dol Guldur 2/5 (Both wins I had Pippin as the prisoner and had 2 treacheries in setup. I lost very quickly without at least 1 treachery in setup. I had 2 quick losses with Beravor as the prisoner, and one slow loss with Sam Gamgee as the prisoner, where I got location locked on stage 1 but lasted 6 rounds)
• A Journey to Rhosgobel 3/5 (One loss I had both copies Exhaustion and a Swarming Insects early and just lost all my heroes, the other loss I didn't get enough copies of Lore of Imladris or Athelas and lost Wilyador. Getting at least one Lore of Imladris early was key in all the wins)

I'm fairly optimistic about Journey along the Anduin and A Journey to Rhosgobel, but Escape will require a lot of luck for my league games.

Feedback would be much appreciated!