Deck Tech: The Silent Sisters 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 21 of Deck Tech! Last week we played Éowyn secrecy with Théodred for resources.

And this week we're also playing a psuedo-secrecy deck with Beregond to help keep threat low as much as possible. And then, with our threat low, we can use Unseen Strike and Dagger of Westernesse on the ladies in the deck to chop up our foes.

Spoiler alert, though, that doesn't quite work out as intended against every quest.

Quest 1: Into the Pit

First card revealed from the encounter deck: Zigil Mineshaft. So Cave Torch and "Doomed 2" makes that go away really quick. And I drop an Unexpected Courage on Beregond, a Light of Valinor on Arwen, and a Dagger of Westernesse on Arwen.

If our threat were still a bit lower, we'd be off to a good start!

First staging reveals a Goblin Follower, who engages and doesn't contribte his threat! But his shadow is also a threat increase, but not enough to stop me from using Unseen Strike to kill him.

After this we make slow and steady progress for a few rounds, raising my threat a little bit and working through our location chain. When we get to stage 2, my threat is too high to avoid engaging the Patrol Leader. And his shadow raises our threat some more.

I play a Glorfindel the following round and try to start chipping away at the Patrol Leader, but other goblins keep getting in the way. So we just quest through, with Beregond's tanking keeping my threat from spiraling out of control.

Final Score: 114. 8 full rounds, 36 threat, 2 damage on heroes, 3 vp.

Quest 2: Fords of Isen

Time for some hand size shenanigans to get this one going. My opening hand includes one Galadhrim Weaver and two Island Amid Perils. So I pitch another card, and use my three spirit resources to drop my threat by 2 and shuffle both Island Amid Perils back into my deck. This also reduces my hand size by 3.

I have to engage a Dunland Berserker, though, and I don't have any readying for Beregond.

Once I get Grima, I use him to defend the Berserker a few times, and we luckily avoid any damage. The shadow effects are getting rid of all my attachments, though.

By round three, my hand size is down to zero overall, thanks to cheap cards and pitching to Arwen for resources.

By round six, I've quested into stage 3, and there are a lot of Dunlendings in play. My hand size is low, so a lot of effects are just not a problem, fortunately. This includes the timed effect on stage 3, and the forced Dunlending search on Dunlending Chieftain.

Glorfindel is a huge help, because he can tank some enemies, die, and come back the following round without requiring any cards in my hand. And if he doesn't die, he can just ready and attack!

Unfortunately, my threat is too low most of the time to be forced to engage all the enemies, so it's a bit slow going.

Final score: 142. 11 full rounds, 33 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 1 vp.

Quest 3: Conflict at the Carrock

This is the only quest where the Beregond threat reduction loop really kicks in. I start off with Elven-light for draw, and all three Handmaidens to keep reducing threat early.

Of course, I spend a few rounds questing very minimally to avoid making any progress on the quest. A lot of rounds, actually. I build up, reducing my threat with Handmaidens, Island Amid Perils, and Beregond until round 9 when I make my first permanent point of progress on stage 1 and quest all the way through it. (I accidentally made a point or two before this, but Misty Mountain Goblins kept taking them away!)

I quest past the trolls for a couple of rounds, so I can travel to the Oak-wood Grove and pay for Grimbeorn. Though I don't really need him.

I use Grimbeorn to tank the first troll (Stuart) because Beregond is in a sack. But the rest of them I tank with Beregond for threat reduction. The deck drops as low as 12 threat for a little bit, but a Frightened Beast bounces that back up. Not enough to engage more than one troll at once, but enough to be slightly annoying.

By the time I'm done, Beregond is tanking each troll no sweat, and Eowyn and Arwen do have all three daggers equipped for bloody murder (aided by a bit of Unseen Strike and Treebeard).

Not even using Grimbeorn to attack, or any of the attacking allies I've played other than that Treebeard.

Final Score: 157. 14 full rounds, 18 threat, 2 damage on heroes, 3 vp.

Play Tips:

1. Depending on what shadow effects your quest has, you can absolutely play this like a bit of a Dunedain deck. Keep an enemy engaged with you to reduce your threat by 1 every round.
2. Island Amid Perils lets you reuse your Galadhrim Weavers, which is amazing. Even if all you use it for is recycling more Island Amid Perils. It will keep your threat low.
3. This deck needs Elven-light pretty badly. I recommend mulliganing for it over everything else.
4. Don't feel bad pitching any of your secrecy cards to Arwen for more resources. They're nice to have, but not essential to the game plan.

Next week: we're back in mystery land, since I've tried out both of our new heroes! Anything you guys want me to build?

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