A Journey To Rhosgobel Nightmare with Prince Imrahil (P2) 1.0

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• 1.0

(This is the deck for the second player. First player deck is here: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/17616/ajourneytorhosgobelnightmarewithprinceimrahilp1-1.0) Now that the game is basically complete, I wanted to go back and play all scenarios from the beginning, each one with a new and fun deck featuring cards from the whole pool. However I did set a condition: must use the hero released in that adventure pack.

For this particular adventure, building a deck that works has been a significant challenge. I have also concluded, after many failed attempts, that it is virtually impossible to build a single-player deck featuring Prince Imrahil and win this nightmare. Tri-sphere decks are way too slow for this nightmare scenario, mono leadership decks are not an option due to the need for healing, nor are bi-sphere decks successful (I tried multiple combinations). In order to succeed, you need to be able to: heal a lot, clear up to 2 or 3 new enemies per turn with ranged or eagle characters, quest for an average of 8-10 willpower per turn, be able to manipulate locations, be able to deal with treacheries and other effects which can sometimes decimate all of your heroes and allies, be able to deal with condition attachments.

I have tried many decks that only do some of the things listed above, but the encounter deck flips so many cards each turn that I was either left without enough questing power, or got overwhelmed by enemies, or ran out of time. Make no mistake, Wilyador sometimes begins turn 2 with 8 to 10 damage on him already, so this can end quickly. However, you do want to churn through the encounter deck as fast as possible, in order to find those precious Athelas cards. So you just need to be prepared for anything that it throws at you in turbo mode.

Probably the one class of allies that best synergizes with Prince Imrahil's ability is Silvans. So I build a deck featuring a number of Silvan allies, as well as Silvan specific events. Most of the rest of cards are focused on healing. I also added a few guarded attachments, as they are really powerful and help with cycling the encounter deck once you are in control. Glorfindel's ability is very helpful with this quest, and an early Asfaloth can ensure that you are already healing Wilyador on turn 2. Argalad's ability is also great for adding damage to an Eagle-Hunter sitting in the staging area, while also canceling its threat.

Another goal I set when building these decks was to try and use one of the new Contract cards, as well as The One Ring. Make this experience as "modern" as I can. So for the other player deck, a Tactics-Spirit one, I found Messenger-of-the-King Firyal to be an excellent add, for his ability to deal a point of damage to any enemy every time he attacks (especially to those Goblin Eagle-Hunters hanging out in the staging area). Core set Legolas helps with making progress on locations or quests, while Lanwyn is a great hero to have for this adventure since her ability has a good chance to trigger every turn due to the special nightmare rule that the first Creature revealed during the questing phase gains Surge, plus all the other Wilyador-focused treacheries that all Surge as well.

All in all, I have managed to consistently win 5 out of 5 times with these couple of decks now. It's a lot of fun, and it feels really satisfying to finally figure out how to beat this nightmare adventure.