A Modern One Deck (or How Friendship Conquers All) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

1. Premise

2. Playthrough Results

3. The Deck

4. Suggestes Changes

5. Closing Notes

1. Premise

So why make another One Deck? A few years ago, I built a One Deck and took it through all the quests in the game. However it soon became apparent for me that, while a One Deck with three heroes is possible and can post serious numbers, the Bond of Friendship contract is definitely the way to go for a One Deck. The extra heroes, sphere options and stats it provides are just too useful to pass up. Therefore, my “Ultimate Solo Deck” clearly couldn't live up to its name.

There were also a lot of valuable insights brought forth by other players. Most notably (at least for me) was Glamcrist’s “Bester Deck”. It not only ran BoF, it also included great tech for some quests I did not consider before. Definitely check it out!

I ultimately went a different route though as I ran into some minor problems concerning a (relative) lack of early willpower and attack that I found to be an issue against quests that can therefore outrush you (e.g. Encounter at Amon Din, Fortress of Nurn, Under the Ash Mountains, Escape from Dol Guldur, Standalone Mount Doom, Blood of Gondor, Morgul Vale, Battle of the 5 Armies).

Please do not misunderstand me: I respect the hell out of Glamcrist’s effort and cleared this part of my deck description with him beforehand to ensure us being fine with me talking about his effort. It also showed me some weaknesses of my “Ultimate Solo Deck” which contributed to me becoming somewhat dissatisfied with it and attempting another One Deck runthrough.

2. Playthrough Results

My Rules for the playthrough were as follows:

1. Play every quest in the game in its most difficult iteration. This means: Every quest for which a Nightmare mode exists I will play in Nightmare mode. “The Hunt for the Dreadnaught” must be played in Hard mode.
2. If there is an argument for the normal version of the quest being more difficult than the Nightmare, both versions must be played.
3. Do not use a sideboard or swap out cards between scenarios.
4. The deck must be legal according to all deckbuilding and scenario rules.
5. Play the saga quests as a campaign. Why? I played them standalone in my previous playthrough and wanted to change it up :).

All 119 quests were played in total.

“The Siege of Cair Andros” and “The Battle of Carn Dûm” were played in Nightmare and non-Nightmare mode.

• 114 Quests were beaten in the first attempt.

• 5 Quests needed two attempts ("Blood of Gondor Nightmare", “The Nín-In-Eilph Nightmare”, “A Storm on Cobas Haven Nightmare”, "The City of Ulfast", "Mount Doom")

So overall, there were five quests that needed more than one attempt, the same number (or even one more if you are following the latest ruling by Caleb saying that Messenger of the King should be setup before the encounter deck) as in my previous One Deck playthrough.

The two terrible matchups of that deck (Escape from Dol Guldur Nightmare and The Fortress of Nurn) are noticably gone however, so I still consider this deck a major upgrade to my previous one, with it recording fewer total losses.

If you are curious concerning strategy or skeptical about the result of a specific quest (and let's face it, you might very well be right - the chances that I made some mistakes over 124 games are very high), I created this document containing my playthroughs to hopefully provide the needed answers.

My playthroughs overall led me to the conclusion that the five quests that provide the biggest challenge for any kind of One Deck attempt and need to be considered above all else are "Escape from Dol Guldur Nightmare", "Escape from Mount Gram Nightmare", "Under the Ash Mountains", "The Fortress of Nurn" and "Mount Doom". To have an above 70% winrate against them with the same deck in solo is in my mind almost impossible.

This is also true for this deck: While I teched quite a bit for these quests in particular (with good success especially for Mount Gram and Nurn, which are not that hard for this deck I find), Escape from Dol Guldur and Mount Doom remain very tough matchups where I would place the likelihood of victory somewhere in the range of 35-50%. Mount Doom I did lose once of course, and even though I defeated Dol Guldur on the first try, the five subsequent playthroughs (of which only two were won) create a more realistic picture.

I find it quite entertaining that these two quests remain the benchmark, because it is something that has been true since the very first One Deck attempt (that I am aware of) by Seastan. Even a full cardpool doesn't change that fact completely. Nurn and Mount Gram are extremely difficult of course, however both can be countered (not completely but to a certain extent) with a very limited number of cards (Nori+threat control for Nurn, Strider for Mount Gram). Mount Doom and even more so Dol Guldur however remain very hard to counter to the same extent (at least in a solo One Deck setting).

3. The Deck

The Bond of Friendship contract allows you an almost unparalleled tempo advantage in terms of stats, resources and sphere options. I wanted to explore that advantage as soon as possible with a lineup that can post some serious stats early on while not having too high of a threat to start with. The lineup I ended up with can do that to a certain extent I think, being able to quest for 11 without planning, having two decent defenders and being able to kill two tough enemies from the get-go. Starting at 32 also leaves you valuable room in terms of tempo management (questing unsuccessfully and prioritizing combat early on can often be the key to victory).

Elrond: Another decision I made was running Elrond and Vilya. However, compared to my other One Deck at least, this deck is far less reliant on Vilya. Sure, seeing it early is great, but there are a lot of other ways to ensure victory (e.g. Steward or gaining a tempo advantage through your raw starting stats or efficient low-cost allies). Elrond himself is still an amazing hero even without Vilya, his resource smoothing ability being peerless even in a modern cardpool (and especially useful in a deck utilizing Steward and relying on four different spheres). His healing is also insanely good (one Warden any kind of damage pressure is almost completely nullified) while his versatile stats always come in handy. His 13 can even be useful since it opens up the entire pool of heroes (bar Gandalf) to have at your disposal with Helm of Secrecy (most notably (Aragorn of course). I very rarely used Helm of Secrecy, but it is always nice having the option!

Denethor: Starting with four resources through BoF is already amazing, having six available in your first planning phase is just insane. Being able to play Steward, Gandalf or a fully powered Heed the Dream round 1 often sets you on a very comfortable path towards victory. Also a serviceable defender who can even be sacrificed for more tempo after getting you those starting resources.

Éowyn: Peak efficiency. 6 , stats focussed on what is usually the most important stat () and that ability … there are a lot of very tricky quests whose main hurdles consist of either a big enemy early on or starting in battle mode. Éowyn is almost a cheat code for those quests and early enemy pressure in general. I often don’t even commit her to the quest round 1 and just clear the board with her ability, ensuring a major tempo advantage over the encounter deck.

Glorfindel: Another efficiency monster, I briefly considered Arwen Undómiel as my hero but Glorfindel’s and for 5 is just too good to pass on. His 5 also proved invaluable as it often allows you to take undefended attacks early on which leads to you attcking for more, killing quicker and therefore gathering more momentum.

Angbor the Fearless, Steward of Gondor, Sneak Attack, Armored Destrier, Faramir and Merry are self-explanatory, the latter two being especially useful against Mount Doom. Mount Doom is also the reason for Rosie Cotton and Celebrían's Stone making the cut. Steward almost exclusively goes on Elrond, Sneak Attack can also be used without Gandalf, especially sneaking in Meneldor proved often very useful.

Beorn, Boromir, Déorwine, Meneldor, Pippin, Gondorian Shield and Feint are just generally really good staples and were always going to make the cut, especially in a deck running Vilya. Warrior Sword scales very nicely with the challenge you are currently facing which is why I preferred it over Rivendell Blade. I originally had The Red Arrow instead of a weapon in the deck, but with attack being generally your weakest stat (at least post-Éowyn's ability), one more option in that department was needed. Nori I run twice as a silver bullet for Fortress of Nurn, a very difficult quest to beat without him (for this deck at least).

Arwen Undómiel, Imladris Stargazer, Jubayr, Light of Valinor, Unexpected Courage and A Test of Will I hardly think need to be explained in great detail, they are all fantastic. Silver Circlet is included because of Mount Doom (even though 2 for 2 resources is of course useful in a lot of other quests as well).

Hardest pool to pick. Extremely useful cards like Quickbeam, Gléowine or a second Peace, and Thought would definitely make the cut in the other 4 "sphere pools", but Lore was just too congested in the end. Daeron's Runes is the best card in the game in my opinion, Henamarth Riversong the best ally in solo play, Firyal probably the best Vilya-target in solo, Asfaloth unparalleled location control for lower player counts, Warden of Healing in combination with Elrond by far the best healing option, Heed the Dream great for teching against a quest or finding your missing combopieces, Peace, and Thought an awesome drawing option, especially when having access to four heroes. What to remove???

Gandalf and Gather Information are auto-includes. Envoy of Pelargir is extremely good here as well, being a cheap, disposable character that ensures a high amount of resource smoothing with all 4 heroes being noble. Helm of Secrecy I very rarely used (even though I arguably should have used it more), with it mostly being an emergency/consistent threat reduction card in the form of Aragorn, Galadriel, Folco Boffin or Fastred. I recommend using it to swap into Denethor way more than I did, it might have saved me one or two losses. Strider is specifically in here for Escape from Mount Gram, even though I did use it as an early boost or as protection for effects like “discard one attachment you control” as well. Favor of the Valar is always a nice tool to have at your disposal, especially if you consider tanking on questing early on.

4. Suggested Changes

As outlined above, a few player cards are only in there to tech for specific quests, with the quests which require specific teching most notably Mount Doom, Escape from Mount Gram and Fortress of Nurn. Outside of these specific quests, if you don’t play this deck in a One Deck setting, I would suggest to make the following changes:

-1 Celebrían's Stone

-1 Rosie Cotton

-1 Nori

-1 Silver Circlet

-1 Strider

+2 We Are Not Idle

+1 Gondorian Shield

+1 Hasty Stroke

+1 Thorongil

5. Closing Notes

Thank you for your time, I am looking forward to your comments, questions and suggestions! As always, please be patient with my English skills which (I fear) are often reflective of me being a non-native speaker.

I also want to specifically thank Glamcrist, Jban and Rouxxor for providing inspiration and advice.

My biggest thank you is for the people behind ringsdb.com and dragncards.com however - I am aware of some of the great work done by Seastan, Beorn and Alsciende in that regard, but I am probably missing a few people here. Without the immense timesaver that especially dragncards is, I would simply not have had the time for this project!

ENJOY!!!