How to Escape from Dol Guldur...

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Escape from Dol Guldur - 1 Player - 2024-06-22	0 0 0

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Mormegil 4060

... at least 80% of the time. The other 20% of games, be prepared to die a horrible death in an often very spectacular fashion.

This deck beat Nightmare Dol Guldur 8 out of 10 times.

It also beat normal mode 8 out of 10 times (with my luck being much worse there funnily enough).

The prisoner was selected at random, with the worst option (Elrond) imprisoned in 5/20 games (thus being statistically representative).

The playthroughs can be found below. I consider those results a bit atypical though, in general the winrate against NM should be lower than 80% (with me getting a few very lucky playthroughs) while in normal mode I consider the winrate to be slightly higher (since I misplayed one loss).

Introduction

NM Escape from Dol Guldur is (in my humble opinion) the hardest quest in the game, with normal mode being also incredibly rough. It taxes you on almost all fronts, be it enemy, threat or shadow pressure, with the most difficult task of all being the prisoner and ally cap.

Lots of players struggle with this quest so I decided to use the opportunity of the quest being "Quest of the Week" to release what has been my most successful deck against the quest by miles. It took a lot of teching before settling on my specific lineout and card count (this is the 32nd version), but even with all that optimizing there might well be stuff I missed so I am always open for improvements. Here is how it plays:

Of course it is a Bond of Friendship deck, by far the best tech against a quest that imprisons a hero for large portions of the game. It is also a deck that tries to get allies into play by means that don't directly play them, like Vilya or A Very Good Tale, to counter the ally limit on stage 1b/2b.

Heroes

Elrond is your most important hero, the vehicle for Vilya as well as a solid all-round stat machine with very nice smoothing and healing to boot. Frodo Baggins I included for repeatable threat management, something especially NM really asks of you. Éowyn is fantastic to counter the three reveals on setup, since she can often single-handedly wipe the board with her ability early on. Glorfindel pushed your threat down while being a very handy attacker/quester.

Opening Hand

In my opening hand I either like to see Vilya, Gather Information or a very easy access to a great AVGT (e.g. having Elfhelm, AVGT and Sam Gamgee). If neither of these three options is in my hand, I mulligan. Pretty easy!

Further Strategy

The hero you want least to be captured is of course Elrond. One thing I build this deck towards however is still having a fighting chance (even in NM) if Elrond ends up captured. That is ensured by 9 willpower (as well a other cheap willpower options like Sam or Envoy of Pelargir. You will often have enough to turtle and absorb until you reach stage 2, where you can then rescue Elrond to close out the game with Vilya or Steward of Gondor. If Elrond is not captured all the better, try to find Vilya ASAP. Seeing Imladris Stargazer in addition is nice of course, however she is not needed as the density of high-impact cards in the deck is purposefully high to maximize the chance of a good blind Vilya trigger.

Some important thing to keep in mind to ensure not ruining a potentially winning playthrough: Keep in mind which cards (especially which shadow effects) are still in the encounter deck. Having a Hummerhorns show up on an undefended attack will ruin your day, as will a Dol Guldur Spider or an Ungoliants Spawn. Play conservatively and rather sacrifice an ally than risk losing the entire game that way. Having a knowledge of the current encounter deck and making the correct decisions accordingly can push your winrate by several dozen percentages!

Also ensure that you spend your resources the right way. The shadow effect that put your resources on Dol Guldur locations in nm can be a game-ender otherwise. Advance the quest stages only directly before placing progress by grabbing the Objectives in that action window. That prevents the effect on 3A and makes the whole thing more calculable.

Use Frodo almost every round, threat is often the way you lose the quest. Also be prepared to use Éowyn early (even on a small enemy), seeing the least amount of shadows possible is often what wins you the game.

Nightmare Playthroughs

Normal Playthroughs

Please be aware that there might be mistakes in my playthroughs (with 20 games played (some of them very intricate), I am almost positive it happened at some stage). I hopefully corrected most stuff myself during the quest (only allowing for that if that decision could not have been impacted by later reveals of course). If you still do find a mistake however, please reach out, I will be happy to replay the quest.

ENJOY!!!

(And good luck escaping yourself!)

8 comments
Jun 17, 2024 Sfrug 371 Who's your target for Helm of Secrecy? Why not x3 A Very Good Tales instead of only x2?
Jun 17, 2024 Kaspatou 645 Very impressive performance ! I built a deck which looks like yours but i didn't play it yet. `@Sfrug` Bond of Friendship allows x2 max
Jun 17, 2024 davidstievenart.44@gmail.com 1 Is there any other leadership hero besides Frodo that could substitute out? incase someone doesn't have A Shadow in the East deluxe... Really wanna try this deck out
Jun 17, 2024 Mormegil 4060 `@Sfrug` It depends, whatever is needed most. Usually, it was Eowyn -> Galadriel once threat got a little dicey, but that can change. I often didn't play it at all. It is more a failsafe than the gameplan. `@Kaspatou` Thank you! `@davidstievenart.44@gmail.com` Sam Gamgee or Gildor Inglorion are probably the most natural replacements, you will desperately miss Frodos threat reduction however. You will still have a fighting chance without him, however it will be nowhere near 80% I fear, more like 40-60% (depending on Nm/normal)
Jun 17, 2024 davidstievenart.44@gmail.com 1 Thanks for the reply. I don't have NM packs so only normal mode for me. I'll try sam first and test the playthrough and then Gildor after that to see how it goes. Any win against Dol Goldur is something to celebrate and I haven't played it in ages, so your deck has inspired me to try it again
Jun 18, 2024 Thanee 144 Good job! That quest is very difficult to beat consistently. :) Escape from Dol Guldur is likely my most-played quest. I have built a few decks to beat it over time (the latest has a winrate of 95% or so, but havn't tried it against NM, yet; it is really cheesy, and only works with Caleb's ruling on setup order, totally abusing Messenger of the King (to always start with both spheres and Firyal) ;D).
Jun 18, 2024 Mormegil 4060 `@Thanee` Dankeschön, always nice to hear from you! Unfortunately, Caleb has since reversed that ruling ... MOTK is now back to being setup prior to the encounter deck setup, which leads to that strategy not working anymore :(.
Jun 18, 2024 Thanee 144 Aha, good to know! Definitely the more intuitive way to play cards like that (The One Ring as well). :-)

How to Escape from Dol Guldur... 1.0 Versions 1.0

Mormegil 4060

Introduction

Heroes

Opening Hand

Further Strategy

Nightmare Playthroughs

Normal Playthroughs

ENJOY!!!

Jun 17, 2024 Sfrug 371

Jun 17, 2024 Kaspatou 645

Jun 17, 2024 davidstievenart.44@gmail.com 1

Jun 17, 2024 Mormegil 4060

Jun 17, 2024 davidstievenart.44@gmail.com 1

Jun 18, 2024 Thanee 144

Jun 18, 2024 Mormegil 4060

Jun 18, 2024 Thanee 144

How to Escape from Dol Guldur...

Versions

1.0