2P Gloin Pipes - Blood in the Isen (ALEP) 1.0

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• 1.0

Quest: Blood in the Isen (ALEP)

INTRODUCTION

This quest has some rather brutal restrictions and a nasty encounter deck. At every stage you have an escalating threat penalty if you put too much stuff in play (thus we will use lots of events and zero-cost cards). The first boss reduces threat reduction to one per round (thus Galadriel is wonderful) and deals damage to your characters if you want to maximize your allowable board state (thus Gloin, who thrives on small damage). The final stage (which appears immediately after the first boss without allowing an action window) deals damage equal to threat reduction, thus thwarting the normal Handmaid Pipe combo until we add Galadhrim Healer to the loop and while we're at it we'll let Gloin take the damage for free extra money.

The build assumes our Partner deck is combat focused and has Beregond or Beregond (for our Behind Strong Walls events). Partner having Dáin Ironfoot also helps, for Gloin questing. If you want to run this solo, swap Galadriel for Beregond. You'll also want to change out some of the deck for your need to cover blocking (Round Shield replace Revealed in Wrath, for example). For solo play, Steward of Gondor and Rod of the Steward may be a nice touch, both on Beregond to fuel the passing of Remedy back and forth with Gloin.

SETUP

Play through until Stage 2B and 15 tokens on the objective, which allows each player up to $15 of stuff in play. Allocate your $15 thus:

• Dunedain $0-2: Bowmaster &/or Hunter, at least two
• Silvans $8: Weaver x2, Minstrel x2, Handmaid
• Up to $7 for survival: likely a Warden of Healing and/or Ioreth, Round Shield, Dunedain Remedy, maybe questing, combat, or utility. Example: Boots, Orophin, Warden x2, Remedy.

In hand: Spare Pipe x2, Dunedain Pipe x2, Galadhrim Healer, Think, Host x2, The White Council. All other cards are available to use along the way because you can recover them later if needed.

In deck: at most 6 cards.

Anywhere (hand, deck, discard, potentially other players): payoff cards like Risk Some Light, Helm of Secrecy, Woodland Courier, Meneldor + Born Aloft, Grim Resolve, Merry + Born Aloft, Hail of Stones, Elrond's Counsel, Blade Mastery, etc.

Once all this is ready, clear 2B and head to 3A then 3B. Play your Dunedain Pipes and activate them to put event cards in your deck. Play your Spare Pipes to get your events back. Play Galadhrim Healer then proceed to COMBO A.

COMBO A: Gloin's Gains

Host loop (play Think then Host):

• Weaver + Minstrel recover Think
• Weaver + Minstrel recover (prior) Host
• Galadhrim Healer heals all of one player's heroes
• Handmaid lower threat by one on a player (trigger quest damage)

Deal one quest damage to one of the chosen player's characters.

• If on Gloin, gain $1.

Repeat for all players' threat to zero and unlimited $ on Gloin.

COMBO B: Gloin Shares the Wealth

Continue as in COMBO A but replace Think with any Leadership or Neutral event. For example, loop The White Council to: give $ to all heroes, ready all heroes, recover all discards, and draw all cards. With unlimited money, card draw, and recursion, you should easily win.

COMBO C: Denethor's Secret

Helm of Secrecy lets you get Denethor and completely control the encounter deck. A Test of Will cancels every treachery. Hasty Stroke cancels every shadow. Galadhon Archer kills everything. If something survives somehow, Revealed in Wrath blanks every non-boss enemy and Feint prevents its attack. Behind Strong Walls gives Beregond unlimited shields. Woodland Courier instantly explores every location. Warden of Healing clears all damage. The Free Peoples readies everyone and gives unlimited willpower. COMBO A keeps threat at zero.

Note: You can mostly ignore the sideboard. It's just a pile up from long evolution of this deck on prior quests.