Sailing to the End of Dale…things 1.0

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• 1.0

Seastan built an excellent deck some time ago named "Dale Force Wins".(https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/12498/daleforcewins-1.0)

Dale is a powerhouse archetype once up and running, but it typically takes Steward grade resource acceleration and a few rounds to build its formidable board state. In Seastan's build, he aptly addressed Dale's inherent early game weakness by including Beregond to handle early game attacks and Círdan the Shipwright to find your "Win" pieces more efficiently. Those Win pieces are essentially the “Guardian Package”:

Narya + Guardian of Esgaroth + Hauberk of Mail + Valiant Determination + Wild Stallion

This is now a well known set-up, but for those who are unfamiliar with Dale/Narya, you'll be giddy to see your Guardian now quests for 6 without exhausting, can defend an attack with 7 DEF after a timely defense-action-window ready from Narya, and is now available to attack for 6. Devastating!

I think At the End of All Things enables this classic Dale build to be even more efficient and reliable. The downside of this contract can be boiled down to the inability to use Steward of Gondor - King of Dale provides an effective counter to this deficiency and the hero resource icon sharing enables it to be played round 1. The One Ring + Inner Strength and the Contract’s stat bonuses promote Brand to the role Beregond had been filling for early game defense. (And the contract raises your threat by 8 compared to Beregond’s 10). Plus, The One Ring on Brand feeds King of Dale’s resource engine for allies.

You really just need to survive the first 3 rounds and flip the contract round 4, so Strider for Círdan the Shipwright is a hard mulligan for early Willpower and action advantage. King of Dale is also nice to see, but I’ve found Strider to be more essential early game.

By round 4, between Círdan and Brand’s card draw abilities you’ll typically have a couple pieces of your Guardian Package either in play or in your hand.

Once you flip, add your 6 resources, grab your 1 copy of Narya and the missing piece of your Guardian package and play your whole hand FTW.

Dale Messenger should be played via King of Dale or Sneak Attack after you flip the contract to start healing your heroes after any damage sustained during the first 3 rounds.

Same ol’ North Realm Lookout /Spare Hood and Cloak trick here to ready your Guardian of Esgaroth for another defense or attack. Move the Spare Hood and Cloak back with Long Lake Trader for next round.

Expertly manage your threat with Sneak Attack Gandalf and Elrond's Counsel and you’re in good shape.

Arwen Undómiel or Armor of Erebor would make nice considerations in Multiplayer for Sentinel defenses.

I included Salvaged Supplies over Traffic from Dale as my resource generating event for its ability to add resources round 1 or 2 (whereas Traffic isn't effective until your board is already set up with multiple allies already equipped). Salvaged Supplies also just fits nicely in this deck because Dale typically has some left over ready characters at the end of combat so you can semi-reliably pull it out of your discard.

I’ve taken this deck through several Nightmare scenarios and it’s been very fun and effective!