Deadmen’s Dike (solo progression) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

A deck that is purpose built to beat Deadmen's Dike solo, using only cards released until the Angmar Awakened cycle, no saga cards and one Core set.

The deck has met my goal of winning the scenario three times in a row. That was more difficult than expected, the scenario is harder solo than its official rating.

Deadmen's Dike has shadow cards that add x attack = cost of revealed player card. That's the reason no card in the deck costs more than two. Playing a "normal" deck with Gandalf in it is not worth the risk. A lot of encounter cards and shadow effects also punish you for playing allies, in particular multiples of the same ally. That's the reason for the singleton allies.

For a long time (dozens of games) I tried building a no allies deck - the scenario points you in that direction. I got that version of the deck up to two wins in a row but never three. It couldn't generate enough power consistently enough. That version played Boromir instead of Beregond to have enough actions and more attack, but that hurt consistency in defending. Once I added the allies I also needed a more consistent defender (because of the Baleful Shade that starts engaged), so in went Beregond. He needs more actions, so he gets UC, Miruvor and Behind Strong Walls. Defender of Rammas and Derndingle Warrior can also be considered extra defense actions, hopefully repeatable ones.

Apart from a good defender you need to front-load WP to avoid potential location lock from the start, and Eowyn is the best hero for this. Eowyn is also a good fit for a scenario that mills your deck. The mill helps you find Elven-light more consistently, to start looping it with her ability. Steed of Imladris is even more location control (that you will absolutely need) and lets you trigger Elven-light more often. The horses go on Eowyn.

GlOPfindel is your primary attacker. He gets Rivendell Blade and Fair and Perilous to attack for eight when you need it, like for the boss monster. The hero config is still a bit light on attacking, so for that I added a few more tactics allies than I would usually like to have in the cost curve. Miruvor helps a bit with the resource smoothing, but they do get stuck in your hand sometimes.

You don't have to worry about threat, Elrond's Counsel is enough to make you lose to milling your deck before you hit 50. You don't have to worry to much about milling out either, the deck is fast enough to win before that happens. That's why there's 51 cards in the deck though.

For a long time I had Power of Orthanc in the deck to counter Heavy Curse. I concluded that it wasn't worth the deck space. It was only really useful when Heavy Curse hit early on stage one, and in that case you need three copies of Power of Orthanc to draw it consistently early. If Heavy Curse hits late on stage one you can just quest through it, and if it hits on stage two you have already played all your important stuff, so in those cases Power of Orthanc often ended up as a dead card (as well as if Heavy Curse doesn't come up at all).

Try to stay on stage one until you can deal enough damage to the boss monster with one swing (13 attack). You don't want to stay on stage two long, preferably only two turns. (One turn would be even better, but I never managed that.) Try to save Feint and Wizard's Voice for the boss monster, and Test of Will for a late-game Cursed Dead.

The worst card in the encounter deck is Seal the Tomb. If you can't get rid of it in one turn, you're probably dead. There's no counter to this apart from having a lot of WP.