Storm of Arrows

Premise

This is a direct-damage cheese deck that's meant to be both semi-functional and mostly thematic. It's incredibly fun to play, and can often kill most enemies before they even get to reveal a shadow card, all without declaring any attacks.

The Deck

Move over Legolas & Gimli, there's a newer and much hotter Unlikely Friendship in town: Argalad and Thalin. With these two in the mix, you've got a reasonable chance to deal 2 Damage to most enemies that appear from the Encounter Deck, especally once Argalad is dual-wielding some Mirkwood Long-knifes and being guided by the Light of Valinor. This let's him quest for 4 WP (while also reducing the Staging Area threat by up to 4 points as well) and still deal a point of direct damage to something in Staging. The Elvenking can also go onto Argalad as another means to both quest AND shoot the staging area, though I typically prefer to throw it onto #Thranduil for another point of questing willpower (or so he can function as a dual-blocker in emergencies).

At this point, you've also got 14 other direct damage cards to play with, in the doubles of Expecting Mischief, Hail of Stones, Pursuing the Enemy, Rain of Arrows, Galadhon Archer, Rúmil, and Gandalf.

The deck is designed to be functional in 1-Handed play, but it really shines in multiplayer (because you'll see even more enemies and another player can amass multiple enemies). For instance, you might use Thranduil's Combat Action to drop a Galadhon Archer, exhaust her to play Rain of Arrows, and then pick her up with Pursuing the Enemy. This lets you do 1 damage to every enemy revealed this turn Thalin), 1 damage to another enemy in Staging this turn (Argalad), 1 damage to another Staged/Engaged Enemy (Galadhon Archer), and 2 damage to every enemy engaged this turn (Rain of Arrows + Pursuing the Enemy). Of course, the ceiling is much higher. In quests that swarm you with enemies, I've dropped 2x Rain of Arrows and 2x Pursuing the Enemy in the same combat phase, wiping out an entire pack of Wargs in NM Wastes of Eriador, for example.

Rumil is there for spike damage against particularly beefy enemies, and he can easily be returned to hand and replayed any round as needed. Hail of Stones is a similiar spike damage card, and Expecting Mischeif pairs nicely with Henamarth Riversong so it never needs to whiff.

With Host of Galadhrim, The White Council, Galadhrim Weaver, and Galadhrim Minstrel you have a lot of potentials for recursioning any of your direct-damage tricks as needed (and even the possibility for infinite-recursions, but that's hardly necessary in any practical sense).

This deck is a ton of fun, and it'll mow down enemies all game long, often without ever needing to even throw up a block (because enemies die before they resolve their attacks). Though, in a pinch Thranduil can stick some blocks or you can chump with many of the Silvan allies (Orophin can always get them back).

In 1-Handed Solo it's beaten Into the Pit, The Seventh Level, Foundations of Stone, Fords of Isen, Wastes of Eriador, Across the Ettenmoors, and Escape from Umbar. It'll certainly have some bad matchups, though.

Multiplayer Potential

It's certainly a lot of fun in multiplayer as well. Direct Damage effects tend to get exponentially better the more direct damage options you have. Paired with @Glamchrist's "Storm of Spears" Gondor deck themed around letting the enemies suicide-charge your phalanx formation, thanks to cards like Spears of the Citadel, Gondorian Spearmen, the multiple-defenders events, Ranger Bows, Anborn (LD) ally, Goblin-Cleaver, and Swift Strike. These two decks have beaten quests like NM Battle of Five Armies without ever making an attack and dealing over 80 points of direct damage to enemies (not even counting what would have been "overkill" direct damage beyond the remaining HP of enemies). Of course, you can't really blame the hoards of Bolg for throwing themselves recklessly into spear-walls in a vain effort to escape the storm of arrows raining down upon them. Other multiplayer cards to consider would be things like Infighting, Fresh Tracks, Descendant of Thorondor, and such.

Why let the servants of Sauron reveal shadow cards when you can gut them safely from a distance with your arrows, spears, and other tricks?