The Black Gate Opens - Specialist Deck Series 1.0

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• 1.0

For this edition of the Specialist Deck Series, we have two decks designed to be used together to beat the Epic Multiplayer version of The Black Gate Opens and Mount Doom.

This is the Black Gate Opens deck, and we've saved quite possibly the strongest until last. This is a Vilya deck, that's looking to get as many powerful allies into play as possible, in order to keep up with the constantly escalating encounter deck.

We start our hero lineup with Elrond, whose primary role is to wear and use his elven ring, Vilya. This is the cornerstone of the deck, and we'll be looking to get it in play as soon as possible. It helps our strategy that Elrond is a strong hero in his own right. With some action advantage, he'll be questing and maybe even attacking or defending as well. He's also the ideal recipient for Steward of Gondor to allow us to play any allies which have accumulated in our hand.

Next up is Gandalf. He really supercharges our Vilya plays by giving us knowledge and control over the top card of our deck. This way, we can practically guarantee we play a 3+ cost card with Vilya every turn, effectively doubling the deck's output. We'll also be playing even more cards from the deck with Gandalf's own ability, ensuring we get to see a huge number of cards over a game. Of course, he's got great stats as well, and we'll similarly be looking at readying effects to use them more often.

Finally, Éowyn joins us as well, rounding out a trio of some of the most powerful heroes in the game. Her excellent is always a draw of course, but we also want her ability to guarantee a kill on turn 1, as this can save us a ton of hassle in the long run. It helps that her low starting threat partially offsets the other 2 heroes as well.

Now seems like a good time to mention that we of course get a 4th hero for the quest. For the first and only time, we have Aragorn from this expansion. We get no value from the Sentinel keyword, but he does come with a very nice self-readying ability. Our Vilya game plan means we forgo most of the toys we could bring to maximise this ability, but we do have one: Banner of Elendil. The Banner is going to increase the effectiveness of our ally army even further and is especially handy for defeating Nazgul.

The overall strategy is fairly straightforward: Get Vilya into play, get as many high cost allies as possible, stay on top of the encounter deck as long as we can. Barring a big upset, it's most likely that we will eventually threat out rather than lose our heroes, we can only keep up with the encounter deck for so long.

Of course we are playing only to give the other deck long enough to beat the Mount Doom quest. In testing, the longest we needed to win was 8 rounds. The deck could have lasted at least one more, and with a good draw I can see 10 being within reach. This partially comes down to Doom Hangs Still, which can give us 2 "free" turns with the Valour action. If we can time those free turns with the movement of The Eye of Sauron even better.

Finally, we do get a choice each turn from the Epic Multiplayer cards. We'll always bring Nazgul over to the this quest if possible, and do our best to defeat them so they won't go back. For the beneficial effects, this deck will usually take the card draw, since our Partner Deck wants the threat reduction. Maybe once per game we'll swap that choice, but it depends on the game.

Let's look at the cards:

Arwen Undómiel - A good cheap quester who we'll expect to play from our hand. The defense bonus is huge, because we don't have a dedicated defensive hero. Gandalf or Elrond are decent targets and, once we play them, we have a few good ally defenders as well.

Beorn - Speaking of which, we have Beorn, one of the most durable allies in the game. We'll never pay his 6 cost, using Vilya to play him instead. Barring Shadow Effects, he can survive an attack from any enemy in the encounter deck, and he can also hit back just as hard. I wouldn't hesitate to use his boost if it will kill an enemy - there's always a chance we can get him back later.

Bilbo Baggins - Bilbo is another efficient quester, but we really want him to fetch Gandalf's Wizard Pipe, which extremely effective at getting the most out of Vilya.

Eagles of the Misty Mountains - We don't have any Eagle synergy, but this is one of the more useful allies, capable in questing and combat. The fact is that Éowyn does not have that many uses for her resources, so having a decent number of allies helps to make the most of them.

Ghân-buri-Ghân - There's no reason to use his travel ability in this quest, so Ghân is here solely for his , which can get quite ridiculous. He's always going to have a minimum of 2, but it can easily be 3+, which makes him the most efficient questing ally in the deck. If we ever travel to Towers of the Teeth, he's going to give us a very easy quest phase.

Giant Bear - A truly strong ally in combat. It can, for example, take an attack from the Mouth of Sauron and live. 4 is also nothing to sniff at, and all that with a readying ability as well. Much like Beorn, if the opportunity presents itself, don't hesitate to use the ability.

Gildor Inglorion - Gildor has an excellent combo with Vilya, especially if we haven't got Wizard Pipe yet, but he's really here for his decent stats. He'll likely be questing, but he can hold his own in combat as well.

Glorfindel - Glorfindel has amazing stats for an ally, and we'll have no problem using his readying ability thanks to our duplicate uniques.

Jubayr - Our dedicated defender. The ability to remove a shadow is so powerful and can give a lot of confidence in the combat phase.

Legolas - One of the best attacking allies, and we'll never need to worry about card draw with him in play.

Mablung - Mablung is another good questing ally, who can give us a nice one off boost the turn he comes into play. If we need to make questing easier, he can pull an enemy out of staging. Conversely, if we want to make combat easier, he can move one back.

Marksman of Lórien - The marksman is an exceptionally efficient attacker, having an effective 5 the turn it comes into play. Amazing with Vilya since it can be brought into play during combat when we can be sure of the targets.

Quickbeam - Arguably the most efficient ally in the game - 3 for 2 cost is ridiculous, and he can even quest on top of that.

Súlien - A very strong quester, with an ability that is sure to come in handy later in the game and giving a huge boost in questing.

Treebeard - An amazing combination of stats for his cost. He'll be used mostly for combat, with his readying used when necessary. A great combo with Narya, since you can get repeated use of the boosted stats.

Warden of Healing - Since we don't have a dedicated defending hero, we will be taking damage from attacks. There's also a decent amount of direct damage in the encounter deck. In combination with Elrond, these guys are going to keep our characters alive a lot longer.

Wellinghall Preserver - Excellent questing allies despite not being ready for the first turn. This can work well for the quest, since the first few turns might not be as tough. The healing ability is a nice bonus. Again, it combos with Elrond, so they are extremely efficient at healing up direct damage effects. If we are using Treebeard to defend they can keep him healed too.

Banner of Elendil - One of our best cards for staying on top of the encounter deck. The boost is big and thanks to Aragorn's readying ability we can use the boost in the same turn. This is also a great boost for taking out the larger enemies like Trolls and Nazgul.

Gandalf's Staff - An excellent attachment we get to use since we have hero Gandalf. The sooner we can play this the better so it starts generating value. If possible I like to use to remove Shadow Cards as we are potentially vulnerable in that area. However, usually I find that the deck is so resource hungry it gets used for that instead. We have so much other card draw that the third option is not usually going to be necessary.

Light of Valinor - The cheapest way to get extra use out of Elrond. Unfortunately, it means we can't use Vilya in planning and quest the same turn. In most cases that shouldn't be a problem. With Unexpected Courage in play as well, this doesn't matter.

Narya - We look at this as a Vilya deck, but Narya is also a hugely effective tool for us. We are heavily reliant on allies and this makes them that much more effective, at defending in particular.

Steward of Gondor - Even with Vilya, this quest puts on so much pressure we need more help playing cards to keep up. Elrond should be the recipient since he can pay for all of the allies and most of the other cards too. With Gandalf and his Wizard Pipe, we'll have plenty of cards in hand to play.

Unexpected Courage - We have a real need for hero readying, not least because of our elven rings. Accordingly, Gandalf and Elrond want one of these each. Who gets the first likely depends on whether we already have Light of Valinor.

Vilya - This is card the whole deck is built around. Thanks to Gandalf we always know which card is on the top of the deck, so we can always get maximum value out of this. Playing our powerful and expensive allies for free is what makes the deck so strong. We have a good chance of seeing this turn one thanks to the additional cards given to us by Stage 1B. It's our highest priority to get this into play, so if we don't draw it, we want to find it with Word of Command.

Wizard Pipe - The pipe is a key piece of Gandalf's kit, allowing us more choice over how to play cards with his ability. Of course, this can also be used with Vilya to play any card from our hand. If we don't draw it early we'll hope to find it with Bilbo's ability instead.

Daeron's Runes - As ever, we want to see our key cards as soon as possible, and this is a cost free way to do so. Even better in a Gandalf deck, since we can play this off the top of the deck in any phase, and doing so gains us a card.

Doom Hangs Still - This is a card that seems tailor made for this quest, particularly the Epic Multiplayer version. We can buy ourselves a free round with no staging, and no quest phase at all. This means no tokens added to The Black Gate, no extra encounter cards to deal with, no threat raise from unsuccessful questing. If there are enemies, we can try and get rid of them on this turn to ease the following ones. The Partner deck at Mount Doom still gets to advance their quest, so this is basically all upside.

The Three Hunters - This card is like a super version of Aragorn's built in readying, except for the whole team. This can give us a big boost for the round, while still ensuring we can tackle the combat phase.

Word of Command - This card's entire job is to act as extra copies of Vilya to make sure we get it as soon as possible. After that, there are several other cards we'd be happy to find too. Between mulligans and the quest setup, the chance of seeing at least one of Vilya or Word of Command by turn one is almost 95%, compared to 75% for just Vilya.