Ranger Danger (aka Bearavor) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Overview

This is a relatively straightforward The Last Alliance deck that I played a bunch at Con of the Rings this year. I was very happy with its performance so here I am publishing my latest iteration of it. I say it is "straightforward" as there is generally one card The Last Alliance will be targeting.

The core loop will happen once you have Birna and Beorning Skin-changer in play. Use Bearavor every turn to greedily dig for cards and play Beorning Pony's to mill your deck in search of these two combo pieces. Once both allies are in play, you'll likely have other Beornings and Rangers in hand or discard which is the final requirement for the combo:

1. During the combat phase, use The Last Alliance on Beorning Skin-changer
2. Trigger Beorning Skin-changer and put a 3+ cost Ranger into play
3. Trigger Birna, spending 1 resource to bring back that same Beorning Skin-changer
4. Trigger that Beorning Skin-changer once again for another Ranger^ or a Beorning. (Remember this copy of Beorning Skin-changer will get shuffled back into your deck due to Birna's ability.)

To continue doing this loop, keep drawing cards heavily in order to draw back into Beorning Skin-changer. Assuming there are more Rangers in play than Beornings all you need is 2 resources a round. Use Beorn's resource to play a Beorning Skin-changer (at reduced cost due to TLA), then assuming you pull an enemy (or already have one engaged), use Osbera's resource for Birna's ability.

Opening Hand

You're looking for Beorn's Welcome above all else. This is what will allow Osbera to keep flipping into bear form (aka "provide resources") without losing resources in the process. You'll hope to see either Birna or Beorning Skin-changer (preferably skin-changer, as it is cheaper and can be discarded for a Birna in hand/discard later on). Beorning Pony is the other option, as it can start milling your deck for the combo Beornings. Gather Information is also the obvious backup if 1 or more of these pieces are missing right away.

Likely the first round or two will be very sparse on playing cards as you'll be focused on drawing instead and saving up resources in order to get that first Ranger out (Guardian of Ithilien / Ithilien Tracker / Mablung are ideal cheap candidates). While it won't feel like you're contributing much to the quest at this time, your value will come in the form of Beorn being able to handle a lot of the initial defenses while the other decks get set up.

Planning Phase

Ideally you keep at least one more Ranger in play than Beorning so that you can use the TLA ally discount for a 1 cost Beorning Skin-changer or Beorning Pony every round. Some rounds you'll want to keep an enemy engaged so that you have access to additional resources through Osbera.

Guardian of Ithilien is there to be cheap, throwaway allies to keep ahead on the Ranger ally count, do not worry about using their ability. However there are situations where it could be useful, as maybe you want to spend some of Osbera's resources as but also have access to her ability during staging. Similarly, Mablung can work in the opposite way, allowing Osbera to spend resources during a planning phase where you weren't engaged with an enemy (Secret Vigil anyone?). I haven't done this, but heck, you could pull off the double combo of play Mablung -> spend Osbera's resources -> play Guardian of Ithilien so Osbera retains her ability for staging.

Resources can be a bit tight in the early game since there's a few key allies that need to get into play. A Good Harvest is one option to spread some costs to the heroes (mainly Bearavor). Descendants of Beorn is there to help provide a big mid-game push to resources. You can use TLA on a copy in order to gain resources from a big Ranger leaving play, but it's usually best to use on a Beorning anyway. Defend with a [Beorning Skin-changer] hoping to put 2 damage on it. That way you still get the Skin-changer's ability and get 2 resources. Alternatively use Osbera's ability on a Giant Bear (and/or defend with it) until it's defeated and reap 4 resources per Descendants of Beorn you play.

Quest Phase

One of my favorite aspects about this deck as that it contains "surprise Norther Trackers" and once they start coming into play, suddenly this deck makes meaningful contributions to location control alongside the combat it can handle.

Threat can be concerning in quests with a lot of threat-raising effects. I've found that due to the progress placing allies in this deck, it's not too difficult to time a Woodmen's Clearing in your favor (just plop it on a location in the staging area that Northern Trackers or Beorning Guardians will clear on the round you're first player. Secret Vigil is another option for global threat reduction and in case that is not enough, Favor of the Valar is in the sideboard. Replace some Beorning Guardians if threat is going to be that much of an issue.

Combat Phase

Beorn is early game defense for the table. Ideally you get to pull an enemy so that Osbera is on the side during Beorn's defenses (so that she can cancel 2 points of damage from hitting Beorn at some point and increasing her side's reduction.) Depending on how much table-wide defending you want Beorn to do, you may want to swap in another copy of The Houses of Healing as a way to bring him back from the dead. Bearavor will end up with extra resources, between her and possibly A Good Harvest, one should have the resources to pay for a Houses of Healing by mid to late game.

Use the Birna / Beorning Skin-changer combo to put into play two high cost allies. Truly hitting this full combo even just twice in the game goes a long way to having a beefy ally swarm. Sometimes the "half combo" is all one can do, which is use Birna to grab a Beorning Skin-changer out of the discard pile, use TLA on the Skin-changer, and then put 1 Ranger into play.

Prioritize putting Northern Tracker's into play through Beorning Skin-changer once you find them, otherwise Grey Companion and Yazan are the big cost Rangers to be looking for. Once Rangers are ahead of pace on the ally count you can start putting into play the big Bears and Guardians.

Once Giant Bear is in play, they will often become your own defensive option, while Beorn can be held back to sentinel for other players (using Osbera to reduce damage). Depending on just how much you want to depend on Beorn defending the table, you may want to add/remove copies of The Houses of Healing. (At the con, I had no copies in the deck, so eventually you just stop sentinel defending. Beorn's value was in letting other decks get set up over the first two rounds by not having to worry about defending anything.) Beorn's Rage in the sideboard is another way to "extend" his life by reducing the enemy's .

In higher player counts, get Grey Companions into play in order to sentinel defend for other players once Beorn is tapped out. In lower player counts, I'd swap the companions for Ranger of Cardolan (in the sideboard) so that you can better contribute to the quest.

Other Last Alliance Tricks

A brief summary of other effects TLA is situationally good for.

• Target Osbera in the post-staging action window, in order for your damaged Ranger characters to also contribute to the reduction. Usually only good early-game as later on you'll have plenty of damaged Beornings to hit that 5 limit.
• Target Osbera in the combat action windows right before or after revealing shadow cards so that you can place the damage from her ability on a Ranger character instead of a Beorning. This is also more useful early game until you have a plethora of Beornings to choose from.
• In a pinch, target Birna so that she can put someone like Grey Companion into play for an emergency sentinel defense. This can all be done in the first action window of an "immediate [additional] attack", right before one would declare a defender. Consider putting in Mablung during the player attacks in order to grab and kill an enemy that was stuck in the staging area without needing a defense.

^Note: I posit the used copy of Beorning Skin-changer will still have the "Ranger or Beorning" text after leaving and re-entering play due to rulings such as this one - third post on the page. However, I have also played the deck such that TLA only works for the first discarding of the Skin-changer, and so any secondary use requires the Skin-changer to bring in a Beorning ally. This works pretty well, but it may mean a little more finagling in order to keep more Rangers in play than Beornings.