Edge of Mirkwood (One Deck Per Cycle: Shadows of Mirkwood) 1.0

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• 1.0

I like the idea of "One Decks" but I also like playing thematically, so I'm making an attempt at One Deck Per Cycle where each deck is (for the most part) thematic for the quests in the cycle. I am playing normal mode, not nightmare.

This is mostly a "standard" Silvan deck but Beorn is there to help out his neighbors with the early game combat. Thranduil's ability is a perfect fit for the Bond of Friendship contract; he helps mitigate the main drawback of a quad-sphere deck (being able to pay for things early on). The other main drawback of Bond of Friendship is the 2x limitation, but with Galadriel's card draw it's usually not too long before I see a key attachment or event that I'm looking for. This deck is pretty light on willpower so for the scenarios that need early willpower it's important to see Nenya and/or Celebrían's Stone and/or Galadriel's Handmaiden early on.

Scenario-specific notes (for the difficult scenarios in this cycle):

Journey Along the Anduin: mulligan for Feint, Cloak of Lórien, and/or Marksman of Lórien. In a "perfect" first turn I would quest with nobody, engage the Hill Troll, play Feint, play Marksman of Lórien with the other three resources, and attack with everyone but Galadriel to kill the Hill Troll. Then feel free to turtle in stage 1 until you have enough willpower to progress quickly through stage 2.

Escape from Dol Guldur: somehow not the hardest quest in the cycle with this deck. Rossiel is the "best" prisoner choice, but I have also won with Thranduil being the prisoner. In that game I saw Hummerhorns and Ungoliant's Spawn in the first two turns but still won thanks to Beorn.

Conflict at the Carrock: mulligan for Henamarth Riversong, then turtle forever using Galadriel's threat reduction. Once you see enough copies of Elrond's Counsel and/or Gandalf to get your threat down to 30-ish you can leisurely move on to stage 2 and take on one troll at a time.

Journey to Rhosgobel: get those Honour Guards out as quickly as possible (this is one of those thematic concessions that I don't love but Rhosgobel is just ridiculous).

Return to Mirkwood: this is the only scenario in this cycle that this deck really struggles with (of course it does with a starting threat of 38!). Mulligan hard for the threat reduction cards (Sneak Attack+Gandalf, Favor of the Valar, Elrond's Counsel). It's also hard to know when to use Galadriel for threat reduction or questing (with Nenya) because the best way to win this scenario is to rush through each stage as fast as possible. Unfortunately it does require a fair amount of luck to beat RtM with this deck -- the worst card to see is Gollum's Anguish (raise your threat by 8) because that's basically game over. In the most satisfying game that I had with this deck, I had to deal with two copies of Attercop, Attercop and I still won!