RCO Players: Welcome to Dale 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck is part of Mormegil’s Deckbox, an effort to create an extensive catalogue of decks for the different archetypes, themes and playing styles available to players. Click here to check out the whole project.

Preferred Player Count: 1-4

Rating:

Premise

Welcome to Dale RCO players. You are going to have an absolute blast with this archetype!

Today, the Ered Mithrin hero expansion is finally being released. With it comes one of the most fun archetypes (maybe the most fun archetype and certainly a personal favorite) this game has to offer - Dale. Dale's whole theme is based around attachments attaching to you Dale characters (including your allies), making them stronger and building them up to be quite formidable. Mid- to lategame, your are often questing for 20+ willpower without exhausting, have a whole host of potent combat options and will hardly ever threat out due to Galadriel. As I said, Dale might be my favorite archetype and I am extremely excited for newer players to it them out now!

Due to having most of their key cards being part of the RCO pool (aside from Spare Hood and Cloak), Dale is actually one of the most powerful archetypes of the revised content. The idea is pretty simple - get King of Dale out ASAP (and Steward of Gondor if possible too) since they allow for a very strong ally swarm. Play your many attachments on your Dale characters, thus boosting them and drawing you cards with Brand son of Bain. Galadriel further helps with draw while allowing you to get double usage out of your allies.

How To Play

I usually mulligan for King of Dale (with Steward being a nice alternative) to have potent resource acceleration online from round 1 onwards. From there on, you play down your deck as quickly as possible. As with all my Dale decks, I believe you should usually prioritize giving each Dale character an attachment before loading them up with multiple ones (to maximize your drawing and willpower boost).

Your allies fall into different categories - you have allies like Redwater Sentry or North Realm Lookout that fulfil a very particular role, you have swiss-army type options (like Guardian of Esgaroth, a fantastic card and maybe the most important ally in the deck) and more support-minded options (like Long Lake Fisherman to draw you cards or Long Lake Trader to move around your attachments however you want to spread them).

Your attachments (other than King of Dale and Steward, which are your resource engine) are your main drawing tools and provide nice benefits in terms of stats (willpower through Brand and other stats through their textbox). Mid- to lategame, a Valiant Determination on Guardian of Esgaroth creates quite the absurd stat-machine. Your events provide you with more resources, cancelling and deck thinning (through We Are Not Idle). Gather Information is always great.

Considerations

Warrior of Dale, Nenya, Man the Walls and Double Back all get a lot more attractive in higher player counts, especially Double Back is a card I always play here as soon as I abandon solo and Man the Walls is a card that I usually replace Captain's Wisdom with in higher player counts. Squire's Helm is always a nice substitution as well, even more so in a quest that focuses on combat more than on anything else.

Enjoy!!!