Deck Tech: House of Knives 1.0

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Hey all, welcome to week 39 of Deck Tech! Last week, we paired up Bilbo Baggins, Círdan the Shipwright, and Erestor to draw entirely too many cards.

Entirely too many cards. And some Noldor synergy to go along with it.

But this week, we're doing something I'm not sure how I missed. Na'asiyah's ability is very useful for a general purpose deck, but I want to kick it into high gear with Steward of Gondor and Unexpected Courage.

More than one Unexpected Courage is a bit counter-productive, because Na'asiyah doesn't have access to that many resources normally, but they can sometimes come in handy.

Backing all of this up, I've got Arwen Undómiel and Théodred for more draw and resource acceleration. And a good number of allies that really bring the willpower that Na'asiyah can't.

Quest 1: The Hunt For Gollum

I haven't played this one in a while, but I figure Na'asiyah is more than a match for the Hunters from Mordor.

This quest starts out with a Gladden Fields in the staging area, which might be more than I can easily quest past right away. But at least it's not the horrible start Mitch and Matthew got in the progression series a long time ago. I've got Elven-light for draw, and a Silvan Refugee to use for some willpower early.

I do quest successfully, and that trigger reveals a Banks of the Anduin. Great, more locations.

A Galadriel in round two gets a Steward of Gondor for Na'asiyah, and she's going to take the Refugree with her when she flees. But we definitely make a lot of progress while she's on the table.

In round four, I've got a Gondorian Fire on Na'asiyah, so I choose to explicitly pull a Hunters from Mordor from the encounter deck. Tired of all these locations when I've got a hero all ready to stomp some orcs. Which she does, no problem, of course.

In round six, I play Blood of Númenor on Na'asiyah, but I have to quest with her because we made so little progress in the previous round. Because of that, she's forced to take an undefended attack from a Hunters, but that just makes her angry as she strikes back.

And in round eight, I finally grab my first clue! Which means the Hunter I engage is extra beefy. But Na'asiyah has been building up resources for a little bit, so she's just fine.

And then it takes two more rounds to get through stage 2 and on to stage 3. At which point I Sneak Attack in a Gandalf for threat reduction and play my last Elrond's Counsel to reduce my score. Obviously important plays, right there.

Final score: 123. 10 full rounds, 26 threat, 0 damage on heroes, 3 vp.

Quest 2: The Steward's Fear

I start this one off discarding Glorfindel to play Unexpected Courage on Na'asiyah. We're way more likely to have to fight it out here than in the last scenario.

And my first staging card is Local Trouble, which shuts Arwen down a little bit.

Round two, I play Galadriel again, and find Steward of Gondor for Na'asiyah. And I play Gondorian Fire on her immediately. Then a treachery forces me to face two enemies this round. So I have to take one undefended attack, and hit back hard with Na'asiyah.

In round four, I've cleared out all the bandits, and I play Dúnedain Remedy to start healing up my undefended attack damage. I find a clue that will add resource tokens to a quest stage, which I always save for stage two. Being able to power to the final stage while the Plot is ticking away is really handy.

Unfortunately, speaking of hands, I've got almost nothing left. So I pay two resources to heal one damage from Theodred. And find the other clue that places resource tokens. Just need to find and clear one location in the next stage, now.

But there are no more locations for stage 1 until round 8. At which point I've built up a Rod of the Steward to help draw and Súlien to help quest. Thanks to a second Galadriel, I even know what I'm going to draw with the Rod for a little bit.

Then, instead of just one location, I find City Streets and Houses of the Dead at the same time. Which does lock out a few Underworld cards (including the Umbar Assassin!), because I have no desire to travel to the Houses of the Dead.

So I finally make it to stage 2 in round nine. And my plot is Unholy Alliance, which is a hell of a lot better than the one that raises threat every round. Unfortunately, Theodred is also having Local Trouble, and I didn't have A Test of Will to cancel it.

Round eleven, I decide to grab a clue to move on to stage 3 before combat, so I can maybe kill the villain right away. And my encounter deck is empty! So the stage 3 effect that adds Underworld cards into it is just going to guarantee I have no shadows to worry about. My Villain is Daughter of Beruthiel, who I can't kill this round. But I need to do it soon because her threat pump is going to destroy me.

I have to tank undefended attacks that first round, which puts a lot of damage on my heroes. But Na'asiyah can kill the other enemy I'm engaged with, no problems. It takes two more rounds to build up enough to destroy the Daughter of Beruthiel, which I do.

And then I quest hard with everyone, including Arwen with her Local Trouble, raising my threat just to the breaking point. But I succeed with just one progress to spare.

Final Score: 186. 13 full rounds, 49 total threat, 8 damage on heroes, 1 vp.

Play Tips:

1. Galadriel messes up the Silvan Refugee willpower boost, but it's still often worth it. There are a lot of attachments you can pull, and knowing the order of your draws can be very helpful. Try to put things you can't play yet deeper in the deck.
2. Galadriel also helps you plan out where Théodred's resources go during the quest phase.
3. Na'asiyah can fight just fine without Blood of Númenor and Gondorian Fire, so don't be afraid of enemies before you get them out.
4. You can also quest with Na'asiyah and Théodred to help get her extra resources early. Especially if you can reduce your threat in your opening hand.
5. Discard Glorfindel for resources early, and then don't forget he's in your discard pile. I know I forget that a lot.
6. Elven-light is your bread and butter, as always. I'd consider a mulligan very strongly if you start without one. Even if the hand looks pretty good.

Next week: So ready to play a Kahliel deck, but I'm guessing those cards aren't going to make it to my hands before I have to come up with something new. I'll figure it out.

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!