WAB Series #6: No Dogs Go to Heaven 1.0

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• 1.0

_At a redditor's suggestion, I included a copy of the post here in the description. If you are interested in reading about the other decks I have created in the series, I will direct you here_

So this is my first time experimenting with the Into the West contract. It probably would have done me some good to play around with it in isolation first, because admittedly (1) I have not played the Scouring of the Shire and (2) I didn't really understand what the contract was doing for a while.

At first, I thought the contract was essentially a free ally and then the contract leaves the game. Upon closer inspection, what the contract does is send away your allies one at a time. This seems somewhat detrimental, but not if you deck-build the right way. Vision of Palantir has a great breakdown of the pros and cons of the contract, and I urge anyone who might want to run this contract (doubled up or in isolation) to read it here first.

So, per usual, I tried to build the deck first and would decide on my hero about halfway through. Since allies are leaving play anyway, I'd like to include allies with big one turn boons. Like Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel. So that excludes a good chunk of heroes, and also leaves something a little problematic -- 3 allies in and we are running up against a dual sphere restriction with The Grey Wanderer, which doesn't allow unique out of sphere play without extra shenanigans.

I had just created a Radagast deck, and through this series I am trying to limit the amount of repeat heroes within the same contract. To my knowledge there is one published deck attempting to tie together The Grey Wanderer and Into the West, which uses Harad allies with Kahliel (it looks like the author, AutumnRose, is tying together a lot Into the West/Bargain decks as well, so I will try to be unique here!). There are other ways to carry multiple spheres, but I kept coming back to "what would be a hero that I could quickly add spheres to?" And the answer hit me like a truck: The new, fancy, fan-created Aragorn.

I had a couple of principle thoughts with this deck -- first, I needed to get spheres on a sphere-less Aragorn as fast as possible. Luckily, between his and the contract's setup, he can essentially starts dual sphere. I still find myself selecting Strider, but in an ideal draw where I see Strider in my hand, I am picking Elessar and Protector of Lórien.

Second thought -- The Grey Wanderer lends itself to secrecy. Thus, perhaps the most potent card in this deck is Timely Aid. Though Into the West bans any reduction of cost >2, it does not say anything about putting allies into play. Gandalf comes in for the round for 1 cost and leaves the round providing 5 resources, to say nothing about his stats and ability. Dúnedain Wanderer also becomes a favorite card to draw early (though keep in mind he is essentially secrecy 2 now, not 3).

Final thought -- Something kept nagging me about attaching the contract to allies. It is forced. The contract is immune. But I read on an FAQ 1.14 that the word "cannot" is absolute. Hero Beorn cannot get "Sacked!" Period. Cannot have attachments. So what if I had some allies like that? Well the ents and the eagles only say no restricted attachments. But the Dogs... yes the dogs, all of the dogs have the print "Cannot have attachments." Someone feel free to overrule me on this -- but I read these dogs as essentially being immune to the contract. Since we cannot select Bill as a Messenger for the King, we shall not, then, send the dogs to heaven. Hence the name. (One side note -- in play testing, these dogs became somewhat inconsequential, until I realized that since I am running Aragorn, I absolutely ought to run The Sword that was Broken. Now suddenly these dogs are questing masters!)

What other shenanigans emerged? Well, if Thalion can avoid be snagged by the contract, he becomes a hero after clearing the three side quests included in this deck. Thorongil can be used (hopefully for free with Galadriel!) to go fetch TactAragorn to round out the spheres. You'll need some trick to play the red dogs, with either Herald of Anórien, Timely Aid, Into the West, Send for Aid, or A Good Harvest (seriously, its a lot easier than it sounds. Once one is in, you've got the rest, if you have the cash).

I play tested this shockingly quickly. Like 20-30 minutes per scenario. It's a pretty easy deck to run and boy, is it powerful. After I ended 3 consecutive sessions with 15+ resources, I went back and added Blood of Númenor and Gondorian Fire. I tested this versus Passage, Anduin, Pit, and Umbar, and it seriously had no trouble at any stage. I was blown away by how potent this deck was, to the point I was worried I misplayed. As long as my interpretation of the dogs is right (and really, even if it isn't, it doesn't make a huge difference long term), this deck has solid card draw, massive resource generation, a quick start, crazy abilities, low starting threat, multisphere play, fun, fan-created titles, and an army of dogs. What's not to love??