Deck Tech: Arwen and Elessar 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 24 of Deck Tech! Last week I used Denethor and Elrond to ramp up into a healthy Ent swarm, but it got buried in the Ruins of Belegost because it couldn't find the last location it needed. And I owe a big thanks to AtaruSlash from COTR for playing the deck on stream to great success.

This week, I'm focusing on Aragorn's journey through the books and beyond. Strider, Sword that was Broken, Tale of Tinúviel, and the Song of Kings take us from an Aragorn who "might prove useful" to an Aragorn who is the King.

Mechanically, the deck is designed to maximize the benefits available from Strider by focusing on our heroes and big allies with built in action advantage. Strider and Sword that was Broken bring Arwen and Aragorn up to nine willpower with just the two of them, and Gandalf takes that to a pretty good place.

In support of this, ideally the Ranger of Cardolan will keep bouncing in and out of play, but in some cases you may want to play them out permanently to get more willpower out of the Sword than you would get from Strider.

So, let's try some quests.

Quest 1: Passage Through Mirkwood

I know, this one's pretty easy, but I wasn't entirely sure the deck would all flow as well as most others. Low ally count is weird for me. And the quest ended up more interesting than it normally does, so I'm keeping this as one of the three.

This time, the quest starts off with Ungoliant Spawn on round one, causing a quest tie. And in round two, a King Spider that forces a second quest tie and an undefended attack.

But round three I used A Good Harvest to play out Steward of Gondor and Sword that was Broken, plus Gandalf. And that more or less lets us mop up the spider engaged with us and power quest through the first two stages.

I didn't see Light of Valinor, though, so I held Arwen back a round for defense.

And stage 3 turned out to be the questing stage. 10 progress wasn't too bad, and I ambushed in a Ranger of Cardolan to soak up the attack from Ungoliant Spawn. Aragorn, Treebeard, and Gandalf made short work of it after that.

Final score: 86. 6 full rounds, 23 threat, 3 damage on heroes, 0 vp.

Quest 2: Journey Along the Anduin

Setup flips a Necromancer's Reach, and I'm definitely glad to see that go, even if it's not so bad in this deck. And I start off with Strider and Light of Valinor in my opening hand, so we're questing for 7 right off the bat.

I am forced to use Aragorn's ability early to avoid the troll, though, since I haven't seen Treebeard and Gandalf is just ramping things up. Fortunately, the encounter deck sets up a double Banks of the Anduin combo to help stall.

All told, I ended up with 44 progress on stage 1 before I engaged the troll.

Stage two was pretty easy, since I was questing for 17 and had resources to ready Treebeard if I needed it.

But then the encounter deck set up the other obnoxious loop: double Goblin Sniper. My threat was pretty high at that point, thanks to Gandalf, so I stalled a bit and used my Doomed events to get to 49 and engage them both.

My low threat style makes me hate those little goblins.

Final Score: 172. 13 full rounds, 49 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 7 vp.

Quest 3: Escape from Dol Guldur

Hahaha, nope. Though I briefly thought about it after doing the other two. I don't think I'll ever have a two hero deck that can reliably solo that one, even if my three hero secrecy deck did.

Quest 3: Encounter at Amon Din

I have to admit I'm really tempted when playing this quest to let Lord Alcaron bite it for his betrayal.

I get Song of Kings and Strider out early, followed by Steward and Celebrian's Stone on the second turn. I didn't get out the Sword, but Celebrian's Stone is a similar boost.

I took a lot of undefended attacks this game, or used Lembas to defend with Aragorn and ready afterwards. Fortunately, Aragorn and Arwen's 4 attack total is enough to clear out a lot of little enemies.

Which is mostly how I got through this one, only playing Gandalf and Treebeard in the final two rounds.

Final score: 78. 6 full rounds, 23 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 5 vp.

Play Tips:

1. A Good Harvest for Leadership lets you play Steward of Gondor and Sword that was Broken with three resources. It's a good deal.
2. Song of Kings is here mostly as backup to guarantee you'll be able to play Steward and the willpower boosts.
3. It's nice to play all the attachments early, but the allies are more important. It's tough to kill anything even remotely big without Gandalf and Treebeard.
4. Don't forget about Aragorn's threat reduction. I know I do all the time, but it means you can safely play the Doomed cards. Or reset just before you're about to have to engage an annoying enemy.

Next Week: I've got an entirely different take on a Strider deck brewing, as well as a return to Dwarves now that the Sellsword is a real thing. And something with Na'asiyah once the next pack is released. Really curious about her ability.

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