Mirlonde and Friends (for Solo League 45) 1.0

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• 1.0

This deck was created for Solo League 45 over on bgg. If you're reading this, you should join--it's challenging and fun!

This month's challenge was especially tough. The goal was to build a single 50-card deck capable of beating The Steward's Fear, The Druadan Forest, and The Morgul Vale. Plus the deck had to include at least one hero from those packs, so either Hirluin the Fair, Mirlonde, or Théoden.

I beat my head against a brick wall testing several decks against those quests:

• Outlands: Wasn't fast enough against Steward's Fear; the Zealous Traitor from the Underworld deck slaughters allies with fewer than 3 hitpoints. Plus The Morgul Vale punishes multi-sphere decks and allies.
  
• Sniper Haldir: This deck (Eowyn, Mirlonde, Haldir) was able to beat Morgul Vale consistently, which is no small feat. I had [Éowyn](/card/145002) feed weapons to Haldir, allowing him to snipe most of the big baddies. But the deck failed miserably against The Steward's Fear, since the enemies have much lower engagement costs.
  
• Secrecy Theoden: Well, it was worth a try.
  
• Mono-Lore Vilya, with Elrond, Mirlonde, and ... Folco: No comment.
  
• Mono-Tactics with Beorn, Eowyn, and Theoden: A fun deck, but not consistent enough. I did have one deeply amusing win against The Morgul Vale where Beorn took off his [Helm of Secrecy](/card/22090) to reveal that he was actually [Háma](/card/04076) in a bear costume, just waiting for the opportunity to feint and feint some more.

Finally, I settled on this Bond of Friendship deck, a tighter, stronger version of my Seven Heroes, True Solo deck. It's very strong. Piloting is enjoyable, since there are many decision points. One thing I really like about this deck is that I'm happy to see almost any card in it at any point of the game. The only card that needs explanation is Song of Wisdom. That's there (together with A Good Harvest, which is more generally useful) just to help get Firyal in play. She makes that much of a difference.

The deck can beat The Steward's Fear pretty consistently, and it stomps The Druadan Forest. But The Morgul Vale is very tough and requires some luck. There are 2 copies of The Master's Malice in the encounter deck, and either one will mean game over. Mulligan for A Test of Will, which can cancel one. Firyal can also help; otherwise you just have to pray you never see the second copy. Orc Vanguard can also be devastating if it comes out too early.

One key: when you're ready to kill one of the bosses ("captains"), keep Eowyn ready just in case one of the Morgul Bodyguards come out. (They prevent you from damaging captains.) Eowyn can attack the bodyguard, trigger her ability, then attack the captain, taking them both out in the same round.

I ended up getting a little lucky: beat Steward's Fear on the first try, Druadan Forest on the first try, and Morgul Vale on the second try.