Deck Tech: Galdara 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 22 of Deck Tech! Last week we used Beregond and Éowyn for a low threat, high damage deck that was never quite able to drop its threat consistently with Beregond. But it still worked out, thanks to the huge questing and defensive power of its three heroes.

This week, we're having fun with Caldara! And some cards that you almost certainly wouldn't expect. AKA, anything that isn't spirit. This deck has Galdor to help you get an Imrahil in the discard for a first turn Caldara. And a surprise Steward to use up some lore resources and accelerate playing allies the normal way.

Elven Jeweler and Guardian of Rivendell are in here mostly to get the 6 card acceleration from Galdor, and it works surprisingly well.

So, let's take it against some quests and see how we fare.

Quest 1: Journey Along the Anduin

I drop all six cards from my opening hand into the discard pile with Galdor, including one Imrahil. The initial setup is a Dol Guldur Orcs, who I'll have to fight right away, and the ever present Hill Troll.

So I use all my initial resources to play a Guardian of Rivendell, discarding two Elven-lights for later use.

Arwen and Caldara quest into a Necromancer's Reach, but at least Caldara will heal. I defend the Dol Guldur Orcs (who get a nasty shadow) with the Guardian, use Caldara to summon up Prince Imrahil who attacks with Galdor to clear out the orcs.

In the next couple of rounds, I play Treebeard and Bofur, discarding cards to shrink my hand size. And then in round four, I discard a Steward of Gondor :( so I can draw six.

I engage the troll on round five, after using Fortune or Fate to bring Caldara back. She quests and I discard her for two allies (Glorfindel and Hama) to kill the troll.

Round six, I bring Caldara back again, just in case. And I quest with nearly everyone, hoping to push into stage 3 early. The active location is Banks of the Anduin, so I'll have an easy ambush if I do.

Which works out, and there are no enemies in the staging area, so it looks like we outran them! And I didn't even have to discard Caldara again.

Final score: 75. 5 full rounds, 31 threat, 1 damage on heroes, 7 vp.

Quest 2: Massing at Osgiliath

This time I only discard four cards, keeping a Steward in my hand and I don't remember what else. The four extra cards finds an Imrahil, but I chose to cycle Elven-light with Arwen instead round 1.

That gets me Daeron's Runes, so I can draw 2 and discard Imrahil. And I use a Dwarven Tomb to get an Elven Jeweler back into my hand, planning on feeding her to one of the scouts.

Which I do, repeatedly, over the course of the quest.

Round two I'm rewarded for holding onto Steward, drawing into a Good Harvest and using Galdor's two otherwise useless resources to play it on Arwen. Which means I have enough resources to Fortune or Fate and get Caldara back.

Who promptly disappears to find us Hama and another sacrificial Jeweler.

Round four I play Fortune or Fate again after making Hama my Sword-thain, so I can fetch one good ally and two sacrificial Jewelers. And then I accidentally quest into stage 3 without a Ranger.

So, I'm forced to sacrifice a hero to declare questers. Goodbye Imrahil! You served us well. And I have an extra in my hand, plus the resources to play him the normal way next round. And we're engaged with the Witch-king.

Jewelers to the rescue! I keep throwing them at the Witch-king for two more rounds, questing like mad and raising my threat to keep him engaged with me.

And it's enough. We make it through with progress to spare in round eight. And I resummoned Caldara to avoid losing any points.

Final score: 102. 7 full rounds, 33 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 0 vp.

Quest 3: Foundations of Stone

I'm sure if I had the time this week to try again, I'd succeed at this easily, but you can be the judge of that.

First round I discard four, leaving me with a Fortune or Fate in hand and an Imrahil in the discard pile. I then play two Jewelers, discard the last card for a resource, and use Galdor to draw 6 more. That gives me Eomund for a bit more willpower early.

Round two I play Good Harvest and Steward again, adding a Bilbo and playing all three Elven-lights from the discard pile.

I follow this up by playing another Jeweler next round, discarding two Elven-light, and I can discard the third for a resource. Definitely no draw problems here.

I quest into stage 3 and 4 on round 5, and lose basically nothing. There aren't any items in the deck. No Armor, no Weapons, no Mounts.

My stage 4 is the Old One Lair, which reveals four cards. Three of which are Nameless Things, and one is Lost and Alone. Galdor shuffles back into the deck, as I don't need his Lore resources right now.

Then, in questing on round six, I get a Deep Deep Dark to buff up all those Nameless Things, and another Lost and Alone to shuffle Imrahil into the deck. We do make it to stage five, though, which limits my questing significantly because the encounter deck just swallowed up my heroes.

The remaining Fortune or Fates get attacked to Nameless Things, and so does Galdor. So I try to keep playing Sword-thain and Imrahil to have two heroes questing, but it's not enough and I call it when I'm forced to engage the Elder Nameless Thing.

Just very bad luck with the Lost and Alone draws in an otherwise fast attempt. And if I'd gotten the stage 4 that didn't reveal any encounter cards, I would have easily cruised through.

Play Tips:

1. Don't be afraid to discard a lot of great cards with your initial draw. This deck has a ton of draw effects thanks to Galdor and Elven-light.
2. Good Harvest doesn't have to be for Steward. You can use it with Galdor's built up resources to play for a spirit ally from your hand.
3. Discard cards with Guardian of Rivendell and Elven Jeweler to get you closer to Galdor's draw 6 and your Good Harvest or Fortune or Fate.
4. I don't usually do it, but if you end up with a hand that includes nearly all of your Caldara recursion, you should take a regular mulligan instead of Galdor's mulligan. You'll just have a bit of a slower start only being able to discard one ally to Arwen, generally.
5. Dwarven Tomb can pull back allies, too! If you haven't seen Fortune or Fate yet, or don't want to sacrifice Caldara again before the end of the game, it can be a very useful move.
6. Recurring Escort from Edoras is a good idea if you're near the end and you just need to power quest out.

Next week: I'm working on a Rossiel build for @stokesbook, but it didn't come together quite well enough this week.

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