The Fellowship of the Arkenstone 1.0

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• 1.0

I know who took the Arkenstone - we did!

Ridiculous Questing Power

This is a multiplayer deck that is going to turn up and do pretty much all of the questing needed itself. It's not unusual to be generating 25+ questing in turn 2, and by turn 3 or turn 4, you can be generating high 30s or even 40s.

Sure, it can make the odd block and kill, can do a bit of healing, readying of other people's cards, can cancel treacheries, all that good stuff. But really it's about the questing. Let's talk through it...

Fellowship is ... Online

Your setup includes Estel on Aragorn and The Arkenstone on Beravor (though actually it doesn't matter who holds the Arkenstone, it's a community asset). Note that Aragorn is now Blue.

You start turn 1 by exhausting Beravor. Don't wait until the end of the turn or anything, just exhaust her and get the cards in the bank. Then, if you can, put down Elessar or The Renewer on Aragorn to give him an additional colour, but more importantly to boost the power of Estel. Use Estel once, probably twice (with Aragorn's ability) to filter your hand, and start playing stuff.

Your initial goal is to get the Fellowship online. You're going to need probably around 8 resources for this. You start with 5, thanks to Denethor. You can get the others, either through some of the purple acceleration cards (Captain's Wisdom, Gaining Strength, Wealth of Gondor, Tighten Our Belts, or Legacy of Númenor), or just waiting until turn 2. If Elessar is on Aragorn, then you can move Denethor's resource to him as well.

Turn 2 will also get you 3 more cards, 3 more resources, and two more uses of Estel, and is usually the aim. On a bad day, you might have to wait until turn 3 for Fellowship, that's also normally fine.

The Gang

The actual allies you play don't matter hugely. They're mainly in here for a good spread of abilities, and cost to questing ratio. Let's take a look at them.

• Galion and Ioreth, Henamarth Riversong, Young Tom - These are your cheap accelerators. You're probably going to want 3 of them, at least 2 certainly to help get Fellowship up. Mostly they will just quest. Ioreth is probably the best and can throw out heals as well as questing. Note that she can also be readied (maybe even twice) with The Renewer. You can do that for a double-heal if needed. We run duplicates of all of these, which can be pitched to Estel.

• Angbor the Fearless, Arwen Undómiel, Ghân-buri-Ghân, Bilbo Baggins, Mablung, Orophin, Merry, Quickbeam, Rosie Cotton, Théodwyn - These make up the rest of the gang, and are pretty interchangeable. The primary decision between who to take with Estel is really just who you can play quickly. For the most part, there is just one of each. Some of them are slightly better, as noted:

• Arwen Undómiel is just good in multiplayer. She's always been good. We take 2 of her, and prioritise her pretty highly.

• Théodwyn is cost 3 but really cost 2. Her printed cost helps with The Riddle-game as discussed below. Hence 2 of her.

• Merry is the best other one. Completing the Fellowship with him adds a huge amount of questing on the turn he lands. We've only got 1 at the moment, though he's been making a strong case for doubling up as well.

• Rosie Cotton is powerful with another Hobbit in play, as she will frequently be 4 or 5 willpower. Anyone else with a Hero hobbit could get a significant boost to their stats. We've seen decks with a few ready options for their hobbit clear the board this way. Note we also have Unexpected Courage and Cram ourselves which could help here.

The Rest of the Plan

After Fellowship, the next priority is Sword that was Broken. In fact, it's not uncommon to get this out turn 2 (before Fellowship), with the knowledge that more cheap allies will be coming soon.

Arkenstone, Fellowship, and Sword is +3 across the board. (This is the gang's motto).

Finally we have some finishing touches. Andúril is a late game option for Aragorn, as well as helping with The Riddle-game.

Cram and Unexpected Courage also help with riddling, and generally go onto other players to assist them. (You could probably cut these two for other interesting choices if you wanted)

Our main threat reduction here is Thorongil for a Green Aragorn reset. If threat isn't an issue, we can use this for Red Aragorn, who will not only give his fighting buff, but will also make Aragorn a Warrior, which sometimes works very well with Elessar. Is a Dale deck at the table? Their Warrior allies just got two additional blocks.

Finally we have Will of the West, which is really just a panic button if everything goes wrong, and to encourage you to throw away things early and hard with Estel. Frankly, in dozens of games, we've never once needed it, but it's nice all the same.

A Test of Will is of course A Test of Will.

And the Riddles?

Oh yes, there is Gollum, sorry, Hungry Creature. To be honest, he's largely a non-issue. The most common threat is zero, and there is a ton of zeros to throw away. You can wait until you see the card, and Estel or double-Estel to find a match. Generally you've got quite a fat opening hand anyway with Berevor each round.

You should have no problem completing Gollum in 3 or 4 turns. Occasionally we've seen him go up to 5 turns and everyone gets excited - will he eat Berevor? But by that time, you've probably got a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 in your hand to win the final riddle.