Look Ma, No Attack or Defense!

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Sackmoney 724

Into Fangorn is not a quest that needs to be built for. If you have a decent deck that can output willpower, you can win. But, that got me thinking, if defending and attacking aren't strictly necessary to win, can I make a deck with 0 attack or defense that can do well? In short, yes, this deck works perfectly fine against Into Fangorn.

Having no attack (and no direct damage, either, this is purely a "turn the other cheek" deck) is certainly a detriment, as the Huorns can and will be annoying. Being able to simply knock one out, even without defending against it, would make things much simpler. But, Ioreth, Magic Ring, Lembas, and The Grey Wanderer, along with the HP-boosting Spare Pipes and Ring of Barahir, are more than enough to shrug off damage from undefended attacks long enough to quest for victory, even when The Forest's Malice causes two huorns to attack at once. Or, you can chump block. If you really want to trivialize it, add The One Ring and Well Preserved, but I don't really like playing with The One Ring, even in a meme deck like this.

Mulligan for Nenya or Mirror of Galadriel. Use The Grey Wanderer to put into play whichever one you don't get. If you get neither, then grab the Mirror on setup, you can find Nenya with it.

Now for the real question: how many quests can this beat? It's theoretically possible to beat Passage Through Mirkwood, though the win-rate will be under 50% due to the random stage advancement. I'm struggling to think of other scenarios it can beat, at least somewhat reliably. If you have anything, let me know!

3 comments

Aug 30, 2026 Mormegil 10171

Really cool idea and experiment! The Dead Marshes is easily winnable as well with this deck (even in nightmare mode), just tried it and I suspect the winrate should be quite decent. If you add some copies of A Elbereth! Gilthoniel! and potentially Dwarven Tomb to recycle it, I suspect you will be able to win a lot more quests since you have a way to get rid of enemies (and therefore will be able to get around a lot of final quest cards)!.

Aug 30, 2026 biglen30 1

i have made a grey wanderer with her its alot of fun only issue with this deck is what enemies do you expect to kill?

Aug 30, 2026 Sackmoney 724

@Mormegil, glad to hear you think this is fun! Looking through the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle, there are a number of other quests it could probably beat. I think it has a decent chance at Journey to Rhosgobel, Hunt for Gollum, and The Hills of Emyn Muil, in addition to The Dead Marshes that you highlighted. And I think you're right, adding A Elbereth! Gilthoniel! would open up a lot more quests, and it wouldn't totally kill the theme either, as it's still not damaging or destroying an enemy, just praying for Elbereth (Varda) to help you. Using The One Ring and Well Preserved in addition would probably give it a good shot of winning Return to Mirkwood, and it would be quite interesting to see how many others it could take on.

@biglen30, I think you missed the point of the deck. The description is pretty clear that it's to beat Into Fangorn without dealing with enemies at all. It's not meant to be competitive or a good deck, but it's fun to see how bad of a deck I can make that can still beat scenarios.