For Steve - A Strong Deck 1.0

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• 1.0

For Steve G!

This is a well-rounded deck that addresses all areas of the game. Here are some thoughts:

Questing: The deck has good questing power via powerful heroes, a global buff from Brand son of Bain once attachments are on characters, and good questing allies like North Realm Lookout (which will quest for 3 once it has an item) and Guardian of Esgaroth (which will quest for a whole lot once it gets more items). Also note that once Light of Valinor is on Elrond with Celebrían's Stone, he quests for 5 each turn without exhausting!

Defense: Elrond is a strong defender, and many Dale allies can quickly get powered up to be strong defenders. Redwater Sentry has 4 defense and 4 HP as soon as you get a Hauberk of Mail on it for free, and it's also a good target for Squire's Helm. If one goes down fighting, you can save the attachments and put them on an new ally with the ability from Bard son of Brand. Even though Elrond has a great healing ability, Daughter of the Nimrodel can only heal heroes. The card you really want is Warden of Healing, but for now, we can use the Daughter. Note that once you get Arwen Undómiel in play, you'll be able to further buff whoever you intend to use for blocking. You can keep Hasty Stroke in reserve for any particularly nasty treacheries.

Attack: After weathering the attacks from enemies, you can attack with a few characters to take care of them. Obviously Warrior of Dale with a Bow of Yew will be a great choice, though Brand can fight too, and Guardian of Esgaroth is entirely flexible to do whatever you need.

Card Draw: This deck has great card draw ability because of Brand son of Bain's ability combined with the two Master of the Forge. We can also draw 3 cards (and get a temporary ally) with the classic Sneak Attack + Gandalf, as needed.

Resource Generation: This deck also has good resource generation from Steward of Gondor and King of Dale, both of which are attachments that can be found by the Master of the Forge.

Threat Control: The deck starts relatively high on threat, but it should quest consistently and generally only gain threat from the regular Refresh phase increase and any effects in the encounter deck. For treacheries, we have A Test of Will. Otherwise, we can keep our threat down with the superb Elrond's Counsel, and use Sneak Attack + Gandalf for threat reduction if we have enough cards.

Encounter Deck Control: In solo play, when you're often only revealing 1 card per turn, Henamarth Riversong is extremely strong. We also have A Test of Will for treacheries and Hasty Stroke for shadow effects.

Other Notes: It's easy to customize this deck to address any particular challenges from quests. I listed a few cards in the sideboard that could be useful, depending on your needs. Unexpected Courage will let you use your powerful heroes multiple times to quest, attack, and defend as needed.

Strategy: Since Elrond can pay for allies of any sphere, obviously Steward of Gondor should go on him. For mulligan strategies, you'll want to look for cards like Steward of Gondor and King of Dale to get your resource engine going, and other powerful early effects like Light of Valinor, Celebrían's Stone, or Unexpected Courage. Though it's possible to play Gandalf for full price or play Sneak Attack with someone other than Gandalf, it will generally be best to just wait until you have both cards in hand to use the most powerful combo. Gandalf's flexibility will be useful in this deck, where you can draw cards, reduce threat, or even deal damage as needed.

Have fun!