Another Bizarre Haldir Cameo 1.0

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• 1.0

As if showing up at Helm's Deep wasn't bad enough, Haldir is up to his old tricks and has decided to show up at another iconic battle...

I built this deck specifically for an upcoming game against The Siege of Annúminas at our local Austin LotR group. It might not be the most original idea to load Haldir up with weapons and let him kill things, but this is probably the most focused version of such a strategy I've ever built.

Most of this list should be unsurprising, but there are a few cards worth mentioning. Thror's Map is an absolute must for surviving the Siege. Almost every single location in this quest has a nasty travel cost, so avoiding these is going to make your life much easier. It is nice having the option of traveling somewhere based on it's quest points or threat, or other passive effects, rather than worrying about paying the travel cost.

Ghân-buri-Ghân is likewise included to help quest through these high-threat locations. In a pinch, you can even use him as a replacement to Thror's Map, made easier if you have another copy in hand. The only Tactics cards in the deck cost 1 resource (or 0, in the case of the Black Arrow), so you will often be sending Éowyn's resource over to Bifur to help pay for Lore cards. Like any self-respecting Lore deck, there is a bounty of card draw effects, with a focus on getting Haldir armed for battle as quickly as possible.

Once upon a time it would be unheard of for a Lore/Tactics deck to excel at questing, but this deck manages to deliver in that department. Since the aim is to avoid enemy engagement, Bifur and Éowyn are questing on most turns. Any ally that isn't healing or drawing cards should be questing. In the late game, feel free to hold back Éowyn so that you get two attacks (or even 3 with Lembas) with her Witch-king killing ability. There are plenty of huge enemies in this quest, so you should have multiple targets to choose from. Assuming Haldir already has two weapons, you might even want to equip her with a Dagger or two in anticipation.

Siege of Annúminas presents many challenges, and this deck does not claim to solve all of them. However, it should fill a welcome role of sniping the smaller enemies so that the dedicated defenders (Beregond, Elrohir, Erkenbrand) controlled by other players can focus on the larger enemies. I had originally considered using Straight Shot to try and discard enemies. Two reasons ultimately swayed me to leaving it in the sideboard. First of all, both the Lieutenant of Angmar and Host of Angmar are immune to player card effects, so this card is useless against them.

While there are enemies like the Vanguard which are valid targets, my other concern is one of consistency. With 3 defense, I would need 2 copies of Rivendell Blade to lower that enemy to 0 defense. Without Leadership to pay for the kicker on Heed the Dream, I worry that this is not consistently attainable with this deck - at least not quickly. With this build it ultimately doesn't matter which two weapons you give to Haldir, as along as he has two and he finds them quickly. The goal here is to be killing one enemy before combat every single round. Once the sheer number of enemies in play has been reduced, Haldir (and later Éowyn) can then contribute to the team effort to overcome the larger armies which pose the greatest challenge in this quest. Good luck!