Deck Tech: Revolver 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Hey all, welcome to week 38 of Deck Tech! Last week I brought Unlikely Friendship into a Silvan package to help draw a ton of cards and generate a ton of resources.

And as a little note at the bottom of that Deck Tech, I promised you a deck that drew a lot of cards. And I know I could make a deck that draws even more cards than this, but I think this might just be enough.

I'm calling this one Revolver, because your base draw every round is six cards. You do have to discard one, thanks to Círdan the Shipwright's Forced effect, but that's never been a problem for me.

It's primarily a Noldor deck, with a single copy of Lords of the Eldar to help power up in key rounds and if you happen to stall for a long time.

But the fun doesn't stop there. I've included a few copies of key Lore allies to help deal with locations and enemies. Ghân-buri-Ghân can be one of the strongest questing allies in the game, depending on where you've traveled. And Mablung and Robin Smallburrow help you avoid engaging enemies you'd like to ignore.

Enough talking about the deck, let's see how it plays.

Quest 1: Voyage Across Beleagar

I think this is the fastest I've ever completed any quest that isn't Passage Through Mirkwood. (Or a crushing defeat!)

Round one sees me with a huge hand, of course, drawing 6 more after my opening and discarding a Robin Smallburrow. Then why not play Daeron's Runes, finding myself a Protector of Lórien. Bilbo is named the Protector, and I use To the Sea, to the Sea! to power out a Guardian of Rivendell and an Elven Jeweler. And I've still got an Elrond's Counsel to drop my threat and boost my questing a little bit.

Of course I sail successfully, without using the Dreamchaser, and I make a good chunk of progress on stage 1.

At the beginning of round two, my heroes reload my hand with six fresh cards, including a Song of Travel, Ghân-buri-Ghân, and Lindon Navigator, all of which I play. And a Rumour from the Earth shows me a sailing icon on the top of the encounter deck, so I can sail very lightly.

On to stage 2! And I choose the Cursed Mists, discardin Ghan to travel to a Rolling Seas without having to go off course.

Round three finds me my second copy of Will of the West, but I can count my discard pile and know there's still a Dwarven Tomb to help me out coming later. I build up slightly, mostly saving cards for Lindon Navigators and Protector of Lórien, and quest into the second Stage 2: The Star's Guidance.

I've got a Fog Bank and a Calm Waters in the staging area, because I want to travel to them only when I need their benefits.

And in the following round, I play out the final Lindon Navigator, and quest into stage 3. At this point, without any enemies that I would engage, I travel to Calm Waters to force my sailing through in (hopefully) the last round of the quest.

I just use my Navigators to sail this round, which seems entirely appropriate. Plus two cards for the Calm Waters means I see a good number of icons.

And at that point, I just quest with everyone, including the poor, overworked Navigators. 26 willpower against 12 threat means I make exactly enough progress for the victory.

Final score: 65. 4 full rounds, 32 threat, 2 damage on heroes, 9 vp.

Unfortunately, that's all I've had time for this week, but I think you get a good idea of how this is going to play out overall.

Play Tips:

1. Think very carefully before you discard your first card every round to Círdan the Shipwright. If you figure out your planning, you can often find a card you weren't going to want to play anyway to discard.
2. Rumour from the Earth isn't worth paying to recur, generally, because you can't keep it from round to round in this deck.
3. This deck has two Will of the West and two Dwarven Tomb. Count carefully when you have one or the other in your hand, so you can recycle your discard pile later.
4. But don't always recycle your discard pile, just because you can. Lords of the Eldar is an incredible finisher when you get your deck empty. And it doesn't have a problem with Cirdan's forced discard, because you have to play it from there anyway!
5. You're allowed to pay for Elven Jeweler, if you have the resources. This deck has a lot of other uses for those cards that might be better.

Next week: I'm going to hire people to riot outside FFG headquarters until we get new cards. That way I don't have to work nearly this hard to come up with decks I haven't played before!

Blog: I'm still 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.

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