Beast deck - A strange alliance 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a really fun deck that I most often play in 2-player games but it can also stand really solid in solo games!

General Idea

Starting with the opening hand I want to mulligan for Light of Valinor and it's always great if it happens to get Golden Shield for Éowyn!

In 1st round I play Light of Valinor on Glorfindel in order to quest without exhaust and as a consequence I don't have to raise my threat by his effect.

In this deck I chose allies to be really good at specific things. For examples I have great attackers (Giant Bear, Azain Silverbeard), great defenders (Defender of Rammas, Beorn) and dedicated questers (Ethir Swordsman, Arwen Undómiel). Most of allies are really straightforward and go into play to execute the usual tasks. Although, there are other allies who can help in other ways. Such an ally is Westfold Horse-breeder who can really help take one of the many mounts in your hands.

In general, I use Éowyn for questing and defending (and one super strong attack), Grimbeorn the Old for defending and attacking multiple enemies and finally Glorfindel for questing and attacking enemies. In order to make my heroes absolute beasts I start to build them up as follows.

Optimal Hero Builds

Starting with Éowyn, my plan is to get her the Snowmane and then the Golden Shield. In that way she can always be committed in the quest along with Glorfindel for a total of 7 and when I quest successfully she can ready and be prepared for a potential defense. When Éowyn defend an attack while having the Golden Shield she can get up to 5 ! Then if it happens to have a Golden Belt in hand, I love to attach her the Windfola in order to give her +1 which can boost also her to 6. Furthermore, when an encounter card forces Éowyn to leave the quest I can exhaust Windfola to commit her back into the quest. Moreover, if you play with other players and they need some help with attacks and you need another sentinel character (except Grimbeorn the Old) you can commit Arwen Undómiel to the quest and give Éowyn +1 and the sentinel keyword until the end of the round!

Despite the high of Éowyn I prefer to defend most with Grimbeorn the Old. My late game build of Grimbeorn looks like this:

First of all I use Firefoot on him in order to take a good use of the excess damage that comes from his attacks. Then I start to build up his to maximize that excess damage. As a second restricted attachment after Firefoot I use War Axe, so Grimbeorn the Old can reach 6 . If I have an extra Golden Belt in my hand I try to equip him Rivendell Blade as a 3rd restricted attachment. In that way Grimbeorn the Old gets a "virtual" +2 . An alternative of Rivendell Blade is Rohan Warhorse which fits best in quests with a lot of enemies. Of course I always try to have a resource on Grimbeorn the Old in case I need his effect. Just to give him more resistance in attacks, if Arwen Undómiel is in play I tend to give him that extra +1 when I commit her to the quest. To make Grimbeorn the Old an absolute combat beast I use Unexpected Courage on him just be ready for multiple attacks!

As said before Light of Valinor is the basic attachment for Glorfindel. Despite that, I want to enhance his combat abilities. To do so, after feeding up Grimbeorn the Old, I use another copy of War Axe on him along with a spare Rivendell Blade or a Rohan Warhorse (depending on what is left from Grimbeorn the Old). With all that, Glorfindel can commit to the quest and be ready for an attack in the same round with an average of 5 . In case I don't have a spare Golden Belt to attach Windfola to Éowyn, Glorfindel is a great target for it as you gonna commit him to the quest every round. Sometimes you start with a lot of cards in your opening hand, in order to boost Glorfindel resources you can play Horn of Gondor on him which you can always get from Gather Information. I don't have a specific Hero for Horn of Gondor, instead I choose where to equip it depending on the demand for / resources.

  ### **Conclusion** I really enjoy playing with this deck, although I haven't play-tested it a lot, I've managed to defeat the first 4 quests of the saga expansions in campaign mode (in 2 player game) and some other quest here and there, such as Dead Marshes. Something I want to change but I haven't figure out how to do it so far is to reduce the number of cards from 55 to 50. I'm thinking of removing the 2 [Feint](/card/01034) cards as I have great defenders and as a result enemy attacks aren't much of a problem. Another card I thought it isn't essential is [Warrior of Dale](/card/18005). At first I included him to the deck in case I had a spare [War Axe](/card/22032), but I think attaching it to [Warrior of Dale](/card/18005) isn't my priority. Anyway, I'm curious to see your suggestion about any change that will get my deck work better and make it reach the 50 card threshold.