Nurn Brooks Much Delay 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

(Note: I forgot to include Bond of Friendship in the card list, but, well, obviously this is a Bond deck).

The central pillars of this deck are Frodo Baggins and Elrond, who each provide two crucial advantages against the Fortress of Nurn:

• Frodo gives both action advantage and threat reduction all in one. Since the quest doesn't do a great deal to raise your threat, using Frodo's ability every single turn lets you stall nearly indefinitely (depending on your Power of Mordor cards, see below). Elrond's well rounded stats make him the perfect hero to ready using Frodo's ability as well. It also helps avoid The Dark Lord's Reach a bit. I rarely have exhausted characters with attachments when that card is revealed.
• Elrond's most valuable ability here is resource smoothing. Bond of Friendship is excellent against this quest since you need your heroes to do so much, but it spreads your resources across four spheres, and you also are going to be limited in your cards in hand. You pretty much have to play whatever you get in order to win, and Elrond helps to pay for whatever allies you draw into. His healing boost is also really useful, since this quest deals out a good bit of chip damage between one of the castle quests, shadow effects, enemy engagement effects, and treachery cards.

The other heroes fulfill the key combat roles. Beregond helps you handle the 6 attack you get from Thane and from the Olog-Hai. Glorfindel can chip in questing if needed (and always if you get Light of Valinor), but primarily functions as my key attacker.

As the deck title indicates, the primary strategy for this deck is to stall, stall, stall. With Frodo's ability, you can take the time to play through all of your cards. I regularly find that I have an abundance of resources and next to no cards in my hand by the time I finish. The encounter deck side quests are actually beneficial cards to reveal in most cases, as they just give you more turns to stay in Stage 1. The goal is to get to Stage 2, blitz the quest (ideally with Merry, though obviously nothing can be counted on in this quest), and then take out Thane in 1-2 turns, tops.

Player card strategy tends to be pretty variable since you never really know what cards you are going to get. The deck is built around playing lots of 1x allies, where none of them are especially key to the strategy. The most important ally is probably Warden of Healing, as this quest can certainly wear you down with chip damage. Otherwise, as long as you get enough attack and willpower, it mostly doesn't matter which allies you draw. A few notes though:

• I learned how good Nori can be from Glamcrist's BEST deck (which certainly was an inspiration here). In Nurn, he can really excel, as there are bound to be stretches where you have drawn your entire available deck, and Nori can recycle your discard right back into your hand the next turn.
• Ioreth can not only provide some key healing, but I often find her most valuable contribution is exhausting when I hit an 'exhaust a character you control' shadow or travel effect.
• Almost all of the leadership cards are allies (or Hauberk of Mail, which is free on Beregond). This is because I use Frodo's resource to activate his ability every round. I might occasionally skip a round and take the threat increase to play Valiant Sword, but he never pays for allies.
• This is the first deck I've ever built where Ingold is useful, but you stall so much in this quest that I find he is questing for 3 more or less every round, and can handle a couple of points of damage.
• I actually only rarely get Steward of Gondor into play, since I never save 2 resources on Frodo. When I have gotten it into play, it is because I used Errand-rider to get resources to him, or used A Good Harvest. If I can manage it, I put it on Elrond.
• Elrond's Counsel is mostly useful in your opening hand, before hitting the Power of Mordor card that limits threat reduction. However, it can also be used to buy a turn of saving Frodo's resource - it is still worth it for 1 point of threat reduction and 1 willpower.
• The power of Favor of the Valar is limited by the Power of Mordor deck once again, but if you are otherwise keeping your threat steady, can keep the game alive for long enough to win.
• I go back and forth on whether Vilya is worth it. I rarely get much use out of it, but if it landed early enough, it could be a decisive early game advantage.

In terms of quest strategy, the biggest decision in this quest is which Power of Mordor card to go after. I tend to prioritize them in the following order:

• Doomed 5 + limits your threat reduction.
• Enemies cannot be damaged the turn they engage.
• Khamul the Easterling
• Your threat goes up by 1 when you draw cards.
• 5 threat location

Frodo neutralizes the threat reduction one, and you can maintain consistent threat pretty solidly throughout the quest. The doomed 5 can even be helpful, since it triggers Angbor the Fearless's valour ability. Not being able to kill enemies is more a nuisance than anything (especially since it means the Soldier of Nurn steals another of your cards), but I like to have the extra time to build up my boardstate to take down Khamul. If I've had a great start or was slow to get through the first side quest, I might go for Khamul second. The Tower of Barad-dur has cost me a couple of games, mostly because it contributes to location lock. If it comes out as the card revealed in Stage 2 it is not so bad, but any earlier can cause serious problems.

This deck certainly isn't going to beat Nurn everytime. That quest just has too many ways to beat you, including engagement with huge enemies too early, location lock, direct damage, and the oh-so wonderful The Dark Lord's Reach being revealed by a Thane Ulchor attack, when Beregond is exhausted... Still, it gives you a fighting chance!