My Mount Doom Deck 1.0

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• 1.0

Here you have it, the quest I used to beat Mount Doom. The deck still requires a good draw and some luck on behalf of the encounter deck, but I think that is to be expected. I will give some piloting instructions and discuss the quest. The quest beat Mount Doom with 7 resources on the black gate (using my black gate opens deck - http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/7715/my-the-black-gate-opens-deck-saga-1.0 ) though eventually I only needed 6 rounds. Sam started with the Tireless Ranger attachment, while Gandalf had Beyond all hope.

The deck expanded on TheChad's idea of making a superquester ( http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/7523/samwise-the-brave-vs-mt-doom-saga-1.0 ) and using A watchful peace for location management. In this deck though, I do not make one super-quester, but two decent questers. At the beginning (with Frodo in play) we will begin the game with 12 willpower for questing (2 for Frodo, 3 for Sam, 4 from gandalf and 3 from Glorfindel). By turn one, this should be at least 16. Sam and Gandalf should reach 6 and 5 willpower (at least) with several options for boosting. This is combined with several hero readying effects on Sam and Gandalf, to allow them to commit to fortitude tests. Ideally Sam gets several fast hitch, whereas Gandalf gets shadowfax and unexpected courage.

Ideally, we want to clear 1B by round 2, 2B by round 3, 3B by 5-6 leaving 1 or 2 rounds for 4B. Select Old water course as the location to be added to the staging area.

For our opening hand, there are some essential cards for success: Need to have: Fellowship of the ring, Light of Valinor Nice to have: Wizard's Pipe, Steward of Gondor, Frodo's Intuition, Unexpected Courage, Power of Orthanc, Celebrian's Stone

Fellowship is needed to increase willpower to 16. Light of Valinor is great, as it keeps Glorfindel available for fortitude tests or to travel to Old water course. Power of Orthanc is good to remove the game-ending condition attachment, or to remove Heavy Burden+Griveous wound (which begins in play attached due to damage from Brake of Thorns). Steward is great to throw on Gandalf, the Pipe allows you to actually swap in and cast your lore spells if they end up in your hand. Celebrian's stone is great to boost Sam or Gandalf's willpower and unexpected courage is great to slap on Gandalf.

With a willpower of 16 we might crash through 1B in one round. However, we will most likely get 5-6 progress on 1B (with 5 threat + whatever is revealed, we need 11 to progress). . Unless you advance to 2B, you should travel to Old water course. Spend a Cram or Miruvor if necessary.

Form here, steadily build up willpower. Save Frodo's intuition for 3B when you really need to boost willpower. Cast the 0-level spells from your deck whenever they appear to draw cards. On several turns, your committed willpower should reach 22 by the use of various events and attachments. This should give you the punch needed to finish. Travel to locations if you feel you can handle them - plain of Gorgoroth and Brake of thorns should be ok, but avoid the others. Try not to engage enemies - multiple times, the little snuffler turned to be game ending! Besides that, ready heroes whenever you need them for tests and power through the quest. I think this deck stands a decent chance, but it still took me quite a few attempts for success.