Deck Tech: Harad Starter Deck 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 33 of Deck Tech! Last week's deck was a Rohan themed Mounted Voltron deck with Eowyn, Theodred, and Elfhelm.

And this week I'm sharing the easiest starter deck buy in yet: Just a single core set and the latest deluxe expansion, The Sands of Harad! And it's such an awesome expansion, with some great synergy built into the player cards. It feels a bit more like a saga expansion in that way.

Contest: I've also got an extra copy of The Sands of Harad that I'm going to give away a week after this post! Head over to twitter after you read this for the details.

The Rules:

It's been a while for me, so here's a refresher.

1. No adventure packs included without also including the previous deluxe. This way you get to use all the cards you've bought, including the scenarios.
2. Only one core set, so you aren't buying any cards you basically can't use.
3. The decks are meant for solo so they're more easy to try by yourself. (And I mostly play solo.)
4. And the writeups are different from the other deck techs, with more focus on basic strategies.

How to Play:

Fortunately for new players, this deck is more straightforward than most in the beginning stages of the game. Depending on how much threat is in the staging area, you'll be questing with either all of your heroes or just Legolas and Gimli. I like to commit at least 3 willpower more than the threats laid out against me in general, though some specific scenarios will require more.

(For the first quest in The Sands of Harad, send everyone! You need to make some progress round one or you will lose immediately.)

And when you commit characters to the quest, unless you know you aren't going to face any combat this round, you want to ready Gimli for the extra willpower and to enable Gimli's ability.

You will probably also have to "tank" an enemy for a round to build up resources on Gimli, though. Steward of Gondor definitely should go on Gimli so he can pay for his readying effect and also some of the great cards in his sphere. I also would generally play Unlikely Friendship to put resources on Gimli for the same reason, but if he's already got a Steward of Gondor attached you can move it as you need.

Greenwood Archer is a cool ally from the new expansion that fits in here very well. You can exhaust Beravor to draw you some cards in the planning phase, then play the Greenwood Archer to ready her for questing or combat later in the round.

Sneak Attack and Gandalf is in this deck, too, because it lets you trigger Gandalf's powerful effects very cheaply. You should probably expect this in every Starter Deck, honestly, because it's tremendously powerful.

So with those tips in hand, let's set off into the desert! (I know that's not exactly what happens to our heroes to set up this cycle, but you'll just have to deal!)

Quest 1: Escape from Umbar

I choose to start off with a Narrow Alleyway as my location for the first round of this quest. I want to be sure I don't have to fight two enemies at once if I can help it.

And my starting hand has both Dwarven Shield and Mirkwood Long-knife, plus Unlikely Friendship, so I feel like we're in good shape. And playing Unlikely Friendship draws a second copy! This gets us a solid bit of deck filtering and lets me play the Shield on Gimli.

I quest with everyone, readying Gimli with an extra card. (It's a copy of Well Warned, which I haven't played at all while testing this deck. But they're potentially useful, so keep them in for now.) The encounter deck reveals a treachery, raising my threat, and I make a few points of progress. That means I won't lose on the first turn!

And I travel to the Narrow Alleyway, temporarily removing my engaged enemy and allowing me to build up a bit more before we have to fight.

In round two, I play a Mirkwood Long-knife on Legolas, boosting his two most useful stats, and quest a bit lightly in case we can avoid clearing the Alleyway and avoid a bit of fighting. No such luck, and now there are two enemies in play and a decent amount of archery damage I have no great way to soak. So the archery goes on Beravor and Legolas.

Gimli successfully defends the first attack by the Umbar Sentry, but he gets to make another one (removing an extra point of progress!) that I have to take undefended. Fortunately, Legolas has enough attack to clear the Sentry in one turn.

In round three, since I saved so many resources the previous round, I use Beravor to draw cards. She finds Steward of Gondor, and I play it on Gimli immediately. I then play Gandalf the hard way, killing the enemy in the staging area to avoid more archery damage. With nothing in the staging area, I can quest lightly, and leave Gandalf up for fighting.

I reveal two enemies, thanks to Umbar Sentry's surge effect, and Gimli has to take one of them undefended, gaining a resource. And Gandalf with Legolas is enough to clean up.

The quest proceeds like this for a few rounds. If enemies pop up, Gimli and Legolas is generally enough to take them down. Especially once I start playing Greenwood Archers to ready Beravor and contribute some more attack.

By round 8, all of my heroes are pretty seriously damaged thanks to archery and undefended Umbar Sentry attacks. But I finally draw into a Daughter of the Nimrodel and have enough resources to pay for her. Which I do, and immediately start pulling damage off Gimli. If he goes down, the whole deck's strategy is going to fall apart.

We're on stage 2 at this point, and the deck's ability to easily pull and kill one enemy every round is keeping us triggering the quest effect that spawns extra enemies every round. Conveniently, the quest effect doesn't reveal the enemies, so each Umbar Sentry that spawns this way doesn't surge!

In round 10, sensing the victory, I quest with everyone and use Faramir (who I just played) to boost my willpower to just about as high as it can go in this deck. The quest and staging step reveal a Southron Soldier and Southron Captain, but I make more than enough progress to clear stage 2 before I have to engage either one of them! And since there are no enemies engaged with me, I escape from the pursuing Harad forces and win the quest.

Final Score: 131. 9 full rounds, 38 threat, 0 vp, 3 damage on heroes.

Play Tips:

1. All the resources go on Gimli. You want his ability available as often as possible, and he needs to have resources to pay for Sneak Attack and some very useful allies.
2. Unexpected Courage would probably go on Beravor or Legolas, though. If you're facing a combat heavy quest, I'd favor the extra attack that Legolas gives you. If not, or you feel like you have things well in hand, getting to use Beravor's draw and her stats is a nice bonus.
3. Erebor Guard should always be played for two. Discarding the top two cards of your deck is about the same as putting them on the bottom of your deck, or having them randomly ending up there thanks to your original shuffle. And he's great if you only pay two for him.
4. Greenwood Archer readies Beravor after she draws you cards during planning. I know I said this already, but it's important.

Packs Needed

1. 1 Core Set
2. The Sands of Harad

Recommended Additions

1. Elven-light for days
2. Théodred or Arwen Undómiel once you've added Elven-light
3. Signals. Dúnedain Remedy, Dúnedain Warning, Dúnedain Mark.
4. Elf-friend
5. Song of Kings

If you follow this advice, you'll end up removing Beravor and all of the Lore cards for better access to spirit and leadership utility. Song of Kings helps pay for the leadership toys, especially if you go with Arwen as your third hero, and Elf-friend lets your other questers use the Mirkwood Long-knife.

Next week: I'm going to play a full pool Legolas/Gimli deck, though probably not the one you'd get by following my advice above.

Blog: Look for a community spotlight most Thursdays on the blog, and it has an RSS feed if that's your thing.

Twitter: Follow @LOTRDeckTech to get notifications whenever I post a new deck, new blog post, or something random on the twitter feed!

Contest: Again, there's a copy of The Sands of Harad that I'm giving away on twitter this week, so if you're interested go there for details!