'And I,' said Aragorn, 'counselled that we should hunt for Gollum, too late though it may seem. And since it seemed fit that Isildur’s heir should labour to repair Isildur’s fault, I went with Gandalf on the long and hopeless search.'

Then Gandalf told how they had explored the whole length of Wilderland, down even to the Mountains of Shadow and the fences of Mordor. 'There we had rumour of him, and we guess that he dwelt there long in the dark hills; but we never found him, and at last I despaired.' -- The Fellowship of the Ring

An Alternate Art Starter Deck

Inspired by AutumnRose's work on her two incredible alt-art starter decks (Flight to the Ford and Where the Stars are Strange), I am releasing my seventh alternate art starter deck, Hope is Born. This deck is inspired by Aragorn's hunt to find Gollum and those who would have aided him on such a task, with a small "what-if" twist of having to track Gollum into Ithilien. This deck includes the Rangers of Gondor and their traps, and reflects the nature of this search with the Secrecy mechanic.

For those keeping track, this deck features four repeat cards. Haldir of Lórien, Mirlonde, and Woodland Sentry were included in my Tales of the Wild Lands deck, and Aragorn is included in my Hope is Born starter deck. All repeated cards feature new artwork.

The Heroes

Aragorn take a backseat here to make sure this deck starts off in Secrecy, which will be discussed later. Idraen is his stand-in Ranger companion that is aiding him on the search for Sméagol. Passing through Wilderland on the way to Ithilien, Aragorn enlists the help of Mirlonde and some Silvans.

Idraen has solid all around stats, and a built in readying mechanic when a location is explored. If any enemies do manage to sneak through and engage you, she should serve as the primary blocker. Mirlonde's ability is the reason this deck begins with 20 threat, but beyond that she is a reliable questing option that can pitch in for attacks when needed. Sméagol is the biggest wildcard here - he has solid stats in every category, but can turn on you at any time. His ability should be avoided until you feel you are done maximizing the bonuses of being in Secrecy (or simply cannot keep your threat low enough to do so), at which point it becomes a solid source of card draw. Make sure you always spend Sméagol's resources first, as you never know when he may attack you!

Rangers of Gondor

If Gollum fled into Ithilien, Aragorn surely would have requested aid from Faramir and the Rangers of Gondor. Anborn can recycle Traps from your discard pile. Faramir deals damage, dishing out even more if they have a Trap attached. Damrod can spread out damage if you start to have too many enemies engaged with you. The Ithilien trio of allies all have various effects - Ithilien Archer pushes an enemy back into the staging area (and possibly onto a trap), Ithilien Lookout can discard an enemy before it ever reaches play, and Ithilien Tracker can reduce the threat in the staging area to help with questing.

The Rangers of Gondor bring some nasty attachments with them, including two Traps . Forest Snare is a very popular Core set attachment that can essentially neutralize an enemy engaged with you - provided you can survive it for one turn. Poisoned Stakes is a constant damage source to whatever enemy it attaches to and can possibly wipe out a big threat before it ever engages you. Ranger Bow can be played on Allies making it a good option to put on Ithilien Lookout to continue splashing damage into the staging area. Once a trap is set up, you can use Forest Patrol to dish out even more damage to that enemy.

Secrecy

For those unaware, Secrecy is almost the opposite of Valor. It triggers when your threat is 20 or below, providing a discount on the cost of a card. It also can be a threshold on event cards that return to your hand after use instead of going into the discard pile if your threat is low enough.

Resourceful is the most important Secrecy card in this deck. Since Sméagol is at risk of flipping at any time leaving you down a hero and their resources, you should hope to play a Resourceful on Mirlonde on turn one. Celduin Traveler becomes a 1 cost 2 ally when in secrecy with a solid ability, which is immense value. Risk Some Light grants you the ability to scry the encounter deck and move one card to the bottom, helping you prepare for what's coming and possibly avoid a nasty card entirely. Out of the Wild can be used to neutralize one card entirely by sending it to the victory display, which would allow you to use Woodland Sentry to avoid that card again in the future. Needful to Know can be used after Risk Some Light to provide guaranteed threat reduction.Island Amid Perils is the only other source of possible threat reduction in this deck, at the cost of bouncing a Silvan ally back to your hand.

Courage Awakened and Noiseless Movement do not directly have Secrecy, but return to your hand after playing them if your threat is 20 or less and can be played as if they did have Secrecy if you have Leaf Brooch in play. A Elbereth! Gilthoniel! and Out of Sight can be rotated in if you are playing a quest that has annoying low- enemies or puts enemies into play directly engaged with you.

There are three Secrecy cards in the sideboard of this deck that are included for completeness but are not playable in this deck as it is constructed. Rivendell Scout is a free ally if you are in Secrecy, Swift and Silent can ready heroes and return to your hand, and Timely Aid is a great way to possibly get an expensive ally into play on turn one for a single resource.

Print this deck

I have set up a Make Playing Cards project with ALeP backs that can be found here. If you wish to use official backs, a PDF of the deck that can be sent to MBPrint can be found here. A photo album with high-res versions of each individual card is available here.