Location Busters 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

For several years we asked for more options to prevent location lock and the game designers certainly delivered! We have so many options at this point that you can't even fit it all in a devoted location-control deck.The new Backtrack and Heirs of Earendil have really increased the effectiveness of the deck style, especially with new locations that stop progress being placed into the staging area.

I created this deck to help manage locations in a four-player game of The Ruins of Belegost and it did major work even far surpassing the utility of the Dwarf deck I was running before.

While this is primarily a location control/support deck, it can handle some combat as well. Tale of Tinúviel can even help defend and counterattack against a large enemy.

• Bifur helps us start at a nice low 23 threat and helps with resource smoothing. Ideally another player at the table can send a few resources your way as well.

• Both Glorfindel and Idraen can quest and manage the combat phase with their action advantage. Their combined traits give them access to both Heirs of Earendil and Tale of Tinúviel.The Steed of Imladris can go on either/both of them so you can use Elven-light for card draw as needed. Idraen can puff away those dupes with her trusty pipe delivered by Bilbo Baggins.

• Idrean could possibly ready during the combat phase using Backtrack, Asfaloth or the Mirkwood Explorer's action.

• Both Heirs of Earendil and the Eryn Galen Settler can get rid of extra troublesome locations that prevent progress being placed on them while in the staging area. The Settler is also a nice boost to your attack while he waits to settle down to a domestic life.

• The Northern Tracker is still one of the most powerful location control cards out there, but he can be hard to get out. Ideally you can get him into play with the Elf-Stone, but if you can't your other options should help keep the location pileup at bay until you can afford to pay full price.

• Asfaloth is so good it's worth including a couple Westfold Horse-breeders to find it. She can be a nice chump blocker or target for ally hate that might come off the encounter deck. She's basically an insurance policy for the "useful allies" after she's fetched that mount.

• With plenty of strong Spirit events in the deck, the Dwarven Tomb lends flexibility.

• If you wanted to try this as a solo deck, bringing the Dunedain Pathfinder in from the sideboard would be a good call. The Ranger of Cardolan can be a good combat phase card for a solo game as well.

• With 7 starting traits found on the heroes, including a copy of The Free Peoples off the sideboard might be worth it. The Free Peoples is the ultimate "support card" and even one play of this event can turn a game around. The Warden of Healing provides the 8th and 9th traits needed to play it. Woodman, Rohan, Hobbit will also help you get to 9 traits.

Don't underestimate the power of location control! In that four player game of Ruins of Belegost I mentioned earlier, this deck reduced the needed willpower from around 40 to around 15 and it freed everyone up so they were able to kill enemies instead of quest to the maximum.

I played a few solo games with this deck since and I was able to beat Passage Through Mirkwood, Hills of Emen Muil (of course), Foundations of Stone and even Escape from Umbar with it.

For solo play remove the Almanac and Backtrack and add the third copy of Tale of Tinuviel, Quickbeam, the Pathfinders and one or two Rangers of Cardolan.

I intend to bring this to an event focusing on the Harad cycle quests this weekend and I expect it to make life much easier for the other players at the table. While this deck is a support deck, it's still fun to play and you can still contribute to the combat phase. Give it a try at your next 3-4 player game and let me know how it performs!