Elronds Posse (Solo) 1.0

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• 1.0

Maybe take out Henamarth Riversong to add another Asfaloth and A Burning Brand? Just a thought.

In a multiplayer deck I would agree with that change but for a solo deck I feel Henamarth Riversong is one of the strongest cards in the card pool.

Granted Firyal does similar things but that card requires either a lot of resources to hard cast or a lot of setup with vilya. Henamarth Riversong on the other hands is just a straightforward 1 resource hardcast.

What would be your reasoning that a little more consistency on the attachments would outweigh the benefits of encounter deck prediction? I'm not saying its wrong, just wondering where you are coming from.

The problem is that your attachments are more consistent than Henamarth Riversong anyway. If you're not putting in Daeron's Runes, I think shadow safety and location control is more important than relying on getting a two of unique ally. I suppose you could add Daeron's Runes to increase the consistency and keep the cards you have. In that case, I would take out Word of Command. Just my two cents.

Interesting. Of the options you give I prefer the second one more.

Perhaps I'm overvaluing Henamarth Riversong but i can't quite let go of him yet ☺

The tutor combo doesn't work out that often anyway and i was considering replacing it with something but didn't know what yet. Daeron's Runes might be just the ticket.

I'll have to give it a testplay one of these days.

@goram.browncoat I like the general idea of your deck, I'm sure all those power allies make for a very fun board state once you get it rolling.

I do have some suggestions, if I may:

1. On the subject of Henamarth Riversong, I would absolutely say it's a strong card, but I don't put as much value on it in the type of deck you're using. Aside from the fact that it could reveal a treachery that instantly kills it, i.e. Necromancer's Reach, Firyal is so much better, especially for solo play. As soon as you get a copy on the board, for the most part unless a quest card or card already in the staging area generates more cards from the encounter deck, you essentially will always quest successfully since you'll never reveal additional threat. Her ability is so good I do feel it's worth it even in this desk to include 3 copies just to ensure consistency. Henamarth Riversong in my mind is much more useful in support decks that are completely or most devoted to encounter deck manipulation, and requires additional cards to be at her best.

2. Hand in hand with the above point, I personally feel 3x Light of Valinor is a bit excessive given the fact that you have so many strong allies. I would consider removing at least one copy in favor of another strong unique, such as Jubayr. I do feel hero readying (based on advice from others and my own personal experience) hits diminishing returns at some point. Particularly if, again, you have Firyal in play.

3. Again, this might be personal preference, but I do not find as much use for Hasty Stroke as I do for A Test of Will. I would consider removing it in favor of more card draw, such as Daeron's Runes, or even Peace, and Thought, as I think eventually you'll get to a point where you can quest without your heroes and you'll have the ability to take additional actions with them.

4. Again, in the spirit of your deck, I would replace any open spots you have if you chose to take any of my suggestions with more uniques. If you include multiple copies I don't think it's a bad thing, as Arwen Undómiel can discard them for resources, or you could replace Warden of Healing with Imladris Caregiver for more discard shenanigans and additional healing.

5. My last suggestion would be to consider replacing Glorfindel with Galdor of the Havens or even Círdan the Shipwright. Both heroes are extremely good at filtering your deck to find you the exact card you want, though Cirdan in particular will start you with pretty high threat.

Overall looks like a fun deck man, Elrond is one of my favorites. If you try any of my ideas let me know how it goes. Good luck!

@D4rkWolf10 Some good points for sure. Firyal was a very recent addition to the deck before I posted it. I was not yet fully aware of its power but now several plays later I am indeed inclined to agree with you that it is a much stronger card. The only advantage Henamarth Riversong has is that I don't need Vilya to get him out quickly. Getting Firyal out fast is a matter of luck as I need to have Vilya out first and then either topdeck into her when using it or already have Imladris Stargazer out as well to set her up from the top 5 cards. But she is alot better though so it might be worth it to cut Henamarth Riversong and take the more annoying setup along with it.

Light of Valinor is debatable in my opinion. Yes it hits diminishing returns but a turn 1 or 2 valinor'd up glorfindel really smoothes out the early turns, which is generally the hardest part of the quest for this deck (which, as you stated, gets pretty fun once you manage to get it rolling). And without a third copy that would happen less consistently.

I agree about the Hasty Stroke. I find myself using them relatively rarely as most of the time I am blocking into A Burning Brand. I have this paralysing fear of getting sleeping sentry'd at the wrong time but I'm not sure if that's worth 3 card slots :)

I've contemplated Imladris Caregiver but I'm not sure yet. Some games I get the card draw engine rolling and I end up with cards to burn. Others not so much. Further playtesting is required but its certainly something I am considering.

Ive contemplated using Círdan the Shipwright and have a untested build for the deck with him but I am not so sure about the high starting threat. It's not that I'm afraid of threating out since ive never even gotten close to that (Even return to mirkwood with its +8 threat treacheries didn't push me over 40). But early game it is easier for this deck to overquest enemies in the staging area than it is to handle them in my engagement zone. And as Círdan the Shipwright is less of a fighter than Glorfindel that would be even more the case if I made that change. I'm not sure I could handle the engagement phase consistently if I made that change (which is a shame because I agree that Círdan the Shipwright would add alot to the deck).

Galdor of the Havens I'm less of a fan of since I really like what his ally version does for my deck with Elven-light (play it to draw, discard it with arwen, draw again with ally galdor).

Thanks for the input, I will definitely take it up into my playtesting and am sure that it will result in some positive changes.

@goram.browncoat, happy to help if I can my friend. If you run into more issues please feel free to let me know! Elrond is hilariously strong in a lot of decks and this is one I could definitely enjoy playing across the table from. Please do not take any of my comments, or anyone else's for that matter, in a bad way. Opinions are frankly just that. You need to build your deck in a way that feels right to you or it isn't fun anymore anyway. If we can help that process then great!

I did not have time to mention in my last post, but you should also know when it comes to your deck and its perceived weaknesses:

• A Journey to Rhosgobel is a really annoying quest in my opinion, so don't feel bad if you're struggling to beat it with your current deck form. I'd include Lore of Imladris and Healing Herbs over Waters of Nimrodel so you don't have to pay the doomed cost.

• Siege is not actually as bad as it sounds. You just have to establish your board state first a little.

• Escape from Dol Guldur is hard for almost any deck to play solo, so don't necessarily perceive that as a weakness. Losing a hero is hard enough when you're playing 2 player and have 6 to choose from. It's maddeningly difficult when you're playing solo and have 2 heroes to work with and can only play one ally per round. I've only ever beat that quest once true solo and truthfully I'm not even sure how, as the deck I played was not that good.

Let me know how your testing goes! I'd be excited to hear out any changes you make turn out.

@D4rkWolf10``@The White Wizard If any of my responses came across as having taken something in a bad way, I do apologise as that was certainly not my intention. On the contrary, I actively want feedback to converse and think about :) Even if I did not fully agree or was not sure about a certain feedback, please know that I am grateful for it. Feedback I agree with evolves my deck and gives me new insights into deck building. Feedback I disagree with still challenges my decisions and ultimately strengthens my reasoning. Both are very useful to me as I am still quite new to this game.

I actually managed Journey without sideboarding after @Seastan pointed out what should have been my strategy all along. It was not the deck that was failing, it was me :) The solution was to get Asfaloth out asap to clear rhosgobel without having to travel there. By questing in a calculated manner with Henamarth Riversong or Firyal you can then stay in stage 1 and keep the eagle stabilised with Warden of Healing once you have cleared the location from the staging area but without the stage 2 downside of discaring the healing cards. This allowed me to setup my board completely and collect athelas before powering through stage 2 in one blitz. It's actually rather easy as long as you can get the horse and one of the quest predicters out quickly enough.

Siege will indeed be decided mostly in the early parts before board state is established. Perhaps it will indeed be not as bad as I predicted.

I am actually quite happy about my results against dol guldur, despite mostly failing. As you say, its quite a slog solo. So its a good feeling if you can manage it at all :)

I'm working on a new version of the deck based on suggestions given here and results from playtesting this version. It will likely include more Firyal, less Henamarth Riversong, less Hasty Stroke, some Peace, and Thought and an extra power ally in Jubayr.

@goram.browncoatHow are you using Firyal to calculate your questing? Once you trigger his response all your characters are already committed to the quest.

@SeastanDo characters not commit to the quest one by one? If so that puts the Henamarth Riversong versus Firyal thing in a whole new light and Henamarth Riversong might be back in as questing carefully has been too usefull too often.

It wouldn't have made much of a difference in the journey game as I had both out, but important to know for future games.

@goram.browncoatFrom the FAQ:

Q: Does a player commit his characters to a quest at once, or one character at a time? When can a player trigger responses to committing his characters to a quest?

A: A player commits all characters he wishes to commit to a quest at once. Responses to the characters committing (such as those on Aragorn and Theodred) can then be triggered in the order of that player’s choice. After a player has committed his characters (and triggered any responses to those characters committing), the next player has the opportunity to commit his characters to the quest.

Aha, good to know. Clearly I still have a lot to learn about this game.

Henamarth Riversong is definitely staying in the next version of the deck then.