Bond of Rangers (MD - Dúnedain Solo) 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, (2-4)

Rating: .5

Premise

Building a Dúnedain deck in solo has always been quite tricky due to the main mechanic of their trait (keeping enemy engaged with you) being very combat-focused with very few decent quest tools. Once the side quest mechanic got introduced to the archetype through characters like Thurindir and Thalion, that focus shifted a little, however these characters provide you more with payoff once you have quested well the first few turns than with really strong initial questing.

The thing that finally revolutionized Dúnedain as a solo archetype in my opinion at long last was Bond of Friendship. The additional hero you gain by the contract enables a whole lot for a variety of decks, and for Dúnedain deck, it enables that they can run their specific tech (centered around Amarthiúl as a hero and "engine"-type player cards like Heir of Valandil or Sarn Ford Sentry) while still having hero slots available for good early quester (in this case Éowyn and Glorfindel).

So overall, while I still see Dúnedain as an archetype primarily geared towards multiplayer, I do really like this deck. It manages to marry both their big themes of keeping enemies engaged and exploring side quests while having some high willpower heroes to ensure some decent questing early on. And in my opinion, the thematic stretch, while being definitely present, is somewhat stomachable, Glorfindel was a frequent ally of the Dúnedain during the third age anyways, being very familiar with the Wilds of Eriador and Aragorn in particular, so I consider him thematically linked to the archetype to a large degree, leaving only Éowyn as a an unthematic option (which I find about as bad as running Erestor in an Outlands deck or Bifur in a Silvans deck, not bad at all that means).

How To Play

You target no particular card early on, the only really important thing I want first round is Peace, and Thought (to often be played in the very first refresh phase), however that can relatively easily be fetched with Gather Information (which is most often the side quest you choose with Thurindir and will likely be explored early on due to your high starting willpower. I therefore usually judge my hand by the general impact early on and mulligan if I deem it to be insufficient.

Concerning the managing of your board state, this deck doesn't really need 4-6 enemies to be engaged with you to reach its full potential (like many of my multiplayer decks), 2-3 enemies are in most cases enough. In that case, both of Amarthiúl's abilities are activated and Sarn Ford Sentry/Heir of Valandil already becomes quite the worthwhile engine.

Considerations

Halfling Bounder is a really good card here but just misses out due to the incredibly tough competition in lore and the fact that for most quests, A Test of Will is sufficient. Guardian of Arnor is of course very good with Dúnedain, however since sentinel is useless in solo and you usually target to have 2-3 enemies engaged (not so much 4-6 as in multiplayer), he got pushed out for better options. Hasty Stroke can be very good in quests with heavy shadow pressure (as is Silver Lamp as an alternative).

Enjoy!!!