Raid on the Grey Havens (solo progression) 1.0

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• 1.0

A deck that is purpose built to beat Raid on the Grey Havens in true solo, using only cards released until the Dream-Chaser cycle, no saga cards and one Core set.

I played the scenario in campaign mode. For thematic reasons, I refuse to play Ents, Mounts and some other stuff in the Dream-Chaser campaign, so no Asfaloth or Treebeard here. Both would have been great in this scenario.

My goal, as usual, was to build a deck that beats the scenario three times in a row. This deck has managed that. It was a hard scenario to build for and the deck went through many iterations to get to three wins in a row.

The scenario imperative is to keep the number of enemies in play after combat low. 0 is great, 1 is Ok, 2 is bad and 3 are probably going to burn the Dream-Chaser before you can clear stage 1. Mono Spirit decks aren't great at killing things, but Saruman and Fair and Perilous help a lot. The last change I made to the deck was to add the Ithilien Lookouts and Knights of the Swan for more attack power, and this seemed to bring the attacking consistency high enough.

With 6 attack at the ready, the deck can engage and kill the 3 smaller enemies when they appear. Their attacks can be defended by Shipwrights, Arwen, Bofur or the Campaign Objective ally, or go undefended, all of which are fine as there are no shadow cards that boost enemy attacks (unless there is an active, damaged Aflame location, so be aware.) The two larger enemies I usually leave in staging. If I need to kill them, I do so with Saruman or Fair and Perilous.

The scenario puts a lot of pressure on from the start, no turtling on stage 1. Ideally, I'd like to quest for 11 and attack for 6 on the first turn. Cards that I like to see in the starting hand are Swordsmen, Shipwrights, Saruman, Light of Valinor, Nenya, Harp and Fair and Perilous.

From there I get all of my stuff out as fast as possible. Galadriel and her Mirror help find everything, and Arwen and her Harp help pay for it. Elven Light is usually great with Arwen, but I took it out because I found I never had resources to spare to play it anyway. I use Arwen's ability every turn regardless.

The all-important turn is then the transition from stage 1, when Sahir and Na'asiyah appear. They have to be dealt with immediately. The deck uses chumps to defend them, and then Forest Snare for Sahir and Gandalf to kill Na'asiyah. Mirror is great for finding the silver bullets in time. Na'asiyah will discard every event without an action window in between, that's why Test of Will and Hasty Stroke are out of the deck in favor of more allies.

Stage 2 is much easier, as there is no time pressure and Sahir is Snared. WP is key and the deck has lots of it. As long as the transition went fine, it's mostly a matter of patience to grind the scenario down.

Apart from the cards already mentioned, there are a couple of one-ofs that bring something special (Elfhelm, Jeweler, Henamarth, Healing, Watchman). I don't think I played the Rivendell Blade in any of the three wins, so if something should go out that's probably it.

Have you made a progression deck that beats this scenario three times in a row? Please share in the comments!