First Solo Victory on Escape from Dol Guldur with Core 1.0

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• 1.0

This deck was my attempt to develop a deck that would beat Escape from Dol Guldur True Solo.

Caveat: I’m nominally playing the one in three games where Eleanor is prisoner.

Summary: Victory on third attempt with this deck after making a few minor tweaks after second attempt.

Attempt 1: Failure in Round 3.

I got some great attachments (Steward of Gondor, Unexpected Courage, Celebrian Stone). But I had two enemies in the opening. And then Ungoliant’s Spawn. Threat climbed in the opening round. And then Caught in a web made things worse.

Reflections: Bad cards in the opening from the encounter deck are fatal. Steward of Gondor is essential and Celebrian Stone helps a lot, but it’s tough not getting chumps out early.

Attempt 2: Failure in Round 9.

This attempt actually went quite well. I got round 9. I had a nice army of allies. I was basically out of cards with a mountain of resources thanks to Steward of Gondor and no cards to play. I actually just really stuffed up in that I forgot to release the prisoner (Elanor) when I put quest points on in Phase 2. That said, I was only in Round 2 for a maybe 2 or 3 rounds. The the Hummerhorns were coming down. I had a chance to play The Galadhrim's Greeting but thought I’d hold off until I needed and then had to discard all events. Having Nazgul in the Staging area was a lot of threat to deal with. In hindsight, I should have played The Galadhrim's Greeting straight away, turtled for longer in Phase 1, once in Phase 2, engage Nazgul straight away ideally with low threat to keep other enemies away, and then perhaps quested hard to the finishing line.

I also really need card draw from a deck construction perspective. But getting Gléowine in play would require a lot of luck. And its presumably only an issue if I get Steward of Gondor. Let’s give it a go. Stand and fight is till going to be useful for brining allies back. So let’s add 3 Gléowine and an extra Stand and Fight. I also added a 3rd Faramir.

Attempt 3: Victory in Round 11

This was my first true solo victory (albeit with the implication every time I didn’t get Elanor as prisoner, I gave up). I was going to give up after I got Caught in a web in the opening reveal. But I pushed through, got Unexpected Courage which cancelled it out.

I got some nice cards early: Sneak Attack and Gandalf in the opening draw which I used to handle early enemies (and get some much needed cards). I also got Steward of Gondor in Round 3 which I placed on Aragorn. I’d discarded Beorn early and I had Stand and Fight. So I slowly let the rounds go by building up enough spirit resources on Éowyn to be able bring Beorn into play. I also had a few other strong allies in play like Faramir, and Longbeard Orc Slayer as well as a couple of chumps. When I pivoted to Phase 2 in Round 9, the staging area was clear of enemies and locations; I defeated the Nazgul in that round using Beorn’s ability combined with two chumps and a couple of other attackers. Then I played Gandalf (for the third time, after the sneak attack and standard Gandalf) using him for threat reduction and willpower and had enough willpower to get through Phase 2 in the next round (with Faramir, Celebrian Stone (which had just arrived) and other allies). And then quested again in Phase 3 to easily finish the quest holding back Elanor just in case treachery intervened. Éowyn ended with 2 damage; Aragorn with 3 damage, and Eleanor with 1.

Reflections: The main thing that surprised me was that I could get Caught in a Web in the opening reveal and still win.