Dúnedain: for solo plays (Revised Core + Angmar Awakened)

Questlogs using this decklist
None.
Fellowships using this decklist
Two decks for owners of Revised Core & Angmar Awakened
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Dúnedain: Jogo Base Revisado + Despertar de Angmar (Sam's G 1 1 0 1.0
Dúnedain: for solo plays (Revised Core + Angmar Awakened) 0 0 0 1.0
Dúnedain: for solo plays (Revised Core + Angmar Awakened) 0 0 0 1.0
Dúnedain: for solo plays (Revised Core + Angmar Awakened) 0 0 0 1.0
One of them Rangers 0 0 0 1.0
Dúnedain: Angmar Awakened 0 0 0 1.0
Dúnedain 0 0 0 1.0
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warlock000 4167

INTRODUCTION

Many of you are just starting to explore the wonderful universe of LotR LCG with the brand new repackaged releases of the Revised Core Set and the Angmar Awakened box. If you feel a bit overwhelmed by all the deckbuilding possibilities, here's my suggestion of a pretty thematic Dúnedain deck that you can build with cardpool from just those two products.

If you want to play a two-player game with it, see my complementary deck: Aragorn & Arwen

STRATEGY

The idea for this deck (and the whole Dúnedain archetype in general) is simple: keep your enemies engaged for maximum benefits. It's risky, but that's the whole point. There are three fantastic allies in this deck: Fornost Bowman, Guardian of Arnor and Sarn Ford Sentry. They all get stronger with each enemy engaged with you. Amarthiúl needs two enemies engaged in order to reach his full potential and at least one to gain access to sphere (remember, this means that you can't play Dúnedain Hunter with no enemies engaged, even though he's technically free!). Try to keep weaker and less threatening enemies engaged for longer and kill all the nasty ones.

With a few enemies engaged, Heir of Valandil will allow you to quickly build-up your army of otherwise expensive allies.

With Celebrían's Stone attached and an enemy engaged Halbarad will quest for 4 without exhaustion!

Forest Snare is your best friend. If you manage to play it on two-three enemies during the game, you'll receive massive boosts for your allies and heroes while being completely safe from harm. Just remember to keep giving each ensnared enemy a shadow card (at the end of the combat phase you just discard those shadow cards without effect).

Use Feint in those dire situations when enemies overwhelm you or are too powerful to handle. Descendants of Kings is also extremely powerful and versatile readying effect!

Expert Trackers is probably optional, but it's a cool alternative way of making use of a Snowbourn Scout (usually they are just chump blockers for enemies, but you can also use them as "ammo" for Faramir and For Gondor!). It helps you with location control, but it might be a bit too unreliable and tricky to use. Still, it's a fun thematic card and unlike e.g. Secret Paths it doesn't consume resources.

As for Gandalf, you will probably want to use him for reduction most of the time.

SIDEBOARD

Feel free to use those cards as you need them. If you feel that you have enough firepower in the deck, swap e.g. For Gondor! for additional card draw (Gléowine) or quest phase boost (Secret Paths or Radagast's Cunning). Nothing is set in stone here. Experiment and have fun!

Since you start with 30 , you will probably need a few tweaks to this deck to beat A Journey Along the Anduin and survive the first round with a Hill Troll engaging you. I won it on the first time without making any changes, but I was lucky to draw Protector of Lórien on turn one (you may want to have 3 copies of it instead of e.g. Expert Trackers). You just need something to help you survive that first round swing (a Feint, a Protector of Lórien or a response from Ranger of Cardolan will do the job). It will be hard, but see what your initial hand offers you and hope for the best! ;). If you still struggle, consider swapping Halbarad for Théodred, you'll get two rounds for all the necessary preparations.

17 comments

Sep 21, 2022 Wittebaard 91

Thanks a lot for this write up. As a new player myself, this helps me get in the right mindset for making my own decks. I have a lot of experience with making decks for Marvel Champions and some experience for making Arkham Horror decks but I find all 3 games require a total different way of making them. While scanning through the cards of the Angmar Awakened Hero set, I've seen a pretty recurring theme of spending cards and cards being played from your discard pile and it seemed to mainly connect to Elves. I like this theme and am thinking of building a deck around it. With your experience, is there a certain card or set of cards that you can think of that match really well with the discard mechanic?

Sep 21, 2022 warlock000 4167

@Wittebaard - there is! And even though it's not as much prominent in the Angmar Awakened cycle, I'll try to post another deck that uses Aragorn, Arwen Undómiel and Éowyn with some discard pile shenanigans. You could treat it as a companion deck to this one - they should complement each other rather well ;).

Sep 21, 2022 Wittebaard 91

Can't wait :)

Sep 25, 2022 raddoc16 1

Looking forward to trying this, are there any cards from the newly released starter decks that could make the deck even better?

Sep 25, 2022 warlock000 4167

@raddoc16 you could experiment with adding Coney in a Trap, Wait no Longer, Wingfoot or even Errand-rider ;). I love Ranger Spikes, but you might lack resources and you want to engage enemies with this deck (although I wouldn't mind trapping a few nasty ones :)).

Oct 16, 2022 Jreilly89 384

I like this deck! If I wanted to cut Steward of Gondor for thematic reasons, what cards would you add or bump?

Oct 16, 2022 warlock000 4167

@Jreilly89 Ranger Provisions and/or Sword of Númenor as an alternative resource acceleration ;)

Oct 16, 2022 Jreilly89 384

Love it! Thank you :)

Nov 04, 2022 hoernchen 1

Thanks for this fun guide. For all the revised people, do we have any upgrade in the recently published fellowship Saga box? Thanks

May 15, 2023 Duze 1

I made it through the first scenario of the Angmar campaign with this deck. And wow was it a tough match. Some of those shadow effects, after having gotten used to the core set and mirkwood cycle, were just absolutely insane. I got really lucky one turn that I randomly decided not to block with two of my heroes, as they would both have died from a single attack each.

The deck absolutely works, but you still have to think, and it isn't exactly easy until you get Faramir down. He kind of switches the tempo entirely on his own.

I don't know about For Gondor. I'll try it a bit more, but it seemed very dead, and I would rather have had the extra Feint:)

May 15, 2023 ahez20 120

@Wittebaard The soon to be released Dream-Chaser Expansion will expand on the discard pile mechanic. If you like that idea then I would definitely consider getting that when it is released. Discarding cards for benefits is the main strategy of “Noldor” decks. The new expansion will give you access to heroes like Círdan the Shipwright and Galdor of the Havens. I use those two plus Arwen Undómiel to make a very thematic and effective Noldor deck.

May 20, 2023 Duze 1

Okay, having played a few games with this, I don't know that I really like it. It seems very much like a "draw Faramir or lose" kinda deck. I don't struggle with the enemies, I don't struggle with treacheries that much (Although the Angmar campaign has some absolutely silly shadow effects), but I just cannot quest at all. The amount of side quests and locations that are in these scenarios is just not possible to keep up with when most of your allies have 0 questing ability.

I'm not even sure what I would change, cause I feel like adressing this would take it a bit too far away from being a Dunedain deck:/ And I am sure the deck is fine in other campaigns, especially the core set. I just do not recommend it for Angmar:/

May 20, 2023 NERD 859

You could definitely at least add another Faramir. Secret Paths could help.

Aug 30, 2024 celsomalvar 1

How do I play tactics cards (feint) if there are no tactics heroes?

Aug 30, 2024 Duze 1

@celsomalvar

Closely read Amarthiúl again:)

Aug 30, 2024 celsomalvar 1

Ok, I understand. The problem is that I play in campaign mode and in Angmar I can't start with Amarthiul. My idea was to replace him with Aragorn or Theodred (leadership). HE Can you think of a better alternative? thanks!

Aug 30, 2024 Duze 1

If you want to use this specific deck, then you need to select a martial hero. But I have to say, this deck works well specifically because of how Amarthiul tanks for you while starting your econ. I'm not sure replacing with Aragon is going to work, as he is more of an attacking hero.

You could find another leadership hero that can tank possibly, but then you'd have to take the martial cards out, at which point the whole number of enemies engaged with you theme is much less effective. Maybe better to simply find another deck?