Deck Tech: Treebeard, Lord of the Eldar 1.0

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• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 36 of Deck Tech! Last week we took advantage of the Glóin Dwarven Shield synergy, and this week we're going to explore the jankiest combo I've ever put together.

Treebeard's ability gives him willpower and attack, so the plan is to take advantage of that double stat boost. Fair and Perilous is pretty much the only card that cares about both stats, and fortunately it's not too difficult to name Treebeard Elf-friend.

There are a few more pieces that can come together to make for more boosting, like Lords of the Eldar and Star Brooch. And Ent Draught to give Treebeard enough health to potentially trigger his ability five times without having to weave in healing. And once Treebeard is an Elf-friend, Arwen Undómiel can pass him resources!

Quest 1: Journey Along the Anduin

My opening hand here has threat reduction, Asfaloth, and a Star Brooch, which seems pretty solid. And my opening draw gets me an Elf-friend, which I'm happy about.

I nearly run out of cards in my opening hand in the first few round, but that's okay. And I've been holding back from questing with Glorfindel because he doesn't have Light of Valinor, and because I need my heroes to be ready in order to fight some low threat orcs.

Round 5, I'm forced to engage the troll before I'm really ready, and chump blocking his attack boosts my threat just a little bit. I also only manage to do 6 damage, despite hitting Treebeard pretty hard.

Next round, I draw the first of my set of draw cards, Deep Knowledge. Deep Knowledge gets me an Elven-light and a Gandalf, who draws me even more cards. A wizard is never late, indeed. I do have enough damage to kill the Hill Troll, but not enough progress to advance! I think that's honestly the first time that's ever happened to me accidentally.

It takes me until round 8 to make it past stage 1, and then until round 15 to get past stage 2. I also have the worst ambush I've ever had, and end up with six enemies in the staging area. Those enemies include an annoying Wargs and an even more annoying Goblin Sniper.

Fortunately, it only takes two tries to clear the Wargs without them bouncing back to the staging area. And then the next round I can finally engage the Goblin Sniper. And I unleash a big chunk of the combo to have Treebeard attack that Sniper for 24 attack. He deserved it.

Final score: 195. 16 full rounds, 43 threat, 6 damage on heroes, 14 vp.

Quest 2: Celebrimbor's Secret

This time I mulligan hard for Elven-light, because I don't want to be stuck without draw again. And the encounter deck surges out four cards in turn one. One of them a treachery that doesn't do anything, the rest because I don't want to strip time counters until I can get things more under control.

I do make enough progress to travel to the Secret Chamber, at least! And Treebeard can use Lembas to defend and then kill an Orc.

I want to use a second Lembas for the same thing in the following round, but Treebeard has to defend two Orcs this time. Fortunately, in the next round I play another Unexpected Courage and a Guardian of Rivendell to help keep Treebeard from having to just tank all the time.

The Guardians end up doing a ton of work for me in this scenario, defending at first and then switching to attack once they get too much damage on them. Luckily, I manage to get all the Scour effects under control every time the quest runs out of time counters.

Things go pretty smoothly from here, with only one possible bad turn when a location re-summons a 5 attack enemy from the discard pile. But I chump block him and Treebeard can swing back with enough for the kill.

I finally make it to stage 2 in round 13, and then follow that up with an emergency Gandalf to kill an enemy in the staging area and boost up our questing power. We make all the progress we need, and I engage Bellach.

Lords of the Eldar, with the Star Brooch, and two Fair and Perilous lets us smack Bellach for 24 (again) with just Treebeard.

Final Score: 163. 13 full rounds, 38 threat, 3 damage on heroes, 8 vp.

Play Tips:

1. Elf-friend on Treebeard is a priority, so you can shuffle resources around. It means you can play Self Preservation on turn two, if you need it.
2. Questing is a bit tough if you don't start with all your staples, but building up the combat power will help you keep the staging area clear in many quests.
3. Don't forget you can weave Treebeard's ability in with healing, allowing you to enrage him five times in a phase without running out of hit points.
4. Star Brooch makes your math way easier! With it on, if you're going for the combo attack, Treebeard has the same attack and willpower.

Next week: A surprise (to you and to me!), because I haven't come up with it yet.

Blog: I'm planning on doing a visual revamp of the blog, (and it has an RSS feed if that's your thing). Once that's done, I'll start sharing other players' decks again with the occasional spotlight.

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