Troll Killers 1.0

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• 2.0
• 1.0

This is a weird deck that I put together specifically to beat We Must Away Ere Break of Day in Standard and Nightmare mode. I've beat it fairly consistently in solo games and I plan to use it as a two player deck as well (The Wizards's Voice and Rivendell Bow are primarily multiplayer only cards).

The Quest

We Must Away is a strange quest that doesn't have many enemies and goes from a easy stroll of a first stage to a troll-fest in the second stage. There are several terrible treacheries that ruin most decks. Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em destroys your allies and Wind-Whipped Rain discards all your attachments. The other very strange part of this quest is the passive effect on Tom that restricts you to attacking Trolls with a single character at a time.

The Deck

Galadriel is here to keep your threat low and find crucial cards with her mirror. Arwen keep the cards and resources flowing and Na'asiyah is the best Troll-killer out there! The basic strategy is to turtle at stage 1 until you can get enough resources/weapons on Na'asiyah to kill the trolls one by one in single strikes.

Opening Hand

A Test of Will is your top priority for the Nightmare game since there's a treachery that propels you straight to stage 2 which basically means death if you draw it with no way to cancel on turn 1.

The Galadhrim Weaver and Dwarven Tomb help recur A Test of Will and the Halfling Bounder provides you more cancellation. All told you have 12 opportunities to cancel When Revealed effects. Nenya is your other important card although it isn't necessary unless you reveal some high threat locations early.

Basic Play

Use Galadriel as often as possible, start getting your attachments out after you have Test of Will in hand (to protect them against Wind-whipped Rain), draw lots of cards with Elven-Light and build up resources on Na'asiyah so you can destroy the trolls. Try to play a Galadhrim Weaver after you play Test of Will so you can put it right back into your deck.

Attach an Unexpected Courage courage to Galadriel first, then Na'asiyah, then Bilbo do he can eventually remove two sacks in a turn.

Try to keep the staging area clear, but don't overquest. Move on to stage 2 when you're down near 22 threat, you have 1 Troll Camp in the staging area and you know you can muster a 12 out of Na'asiyah (between Dagger of Westernesse, Unseen Strike and her ability, it isn't too hard to get there.

From there on you can engage a troll every turn, use Feint or The Wizards's Voice to stop it's attack, then kill it off in one mighty blow from Na'asiyah. You can always defend with Na'asiyah by using her ability, but you don't want to drain more resources than necessary.

More Tricks

• The Sailor of Lune is excellent here because it won't get destroyed by the Roast 'Em or Boil 'Em? treachery.
• I find the Murder of Crows is the best card to put in the Victory Display if you're able to clear Scout Ahead.
• Elf-Friend will let Arwen pass resources to Na'asiyah, and in multiplayer games, you can give her Ranged with the Rivendell Bow.
• In a two-player game you can stop two trolls' attacks with The Wizard's Voice (very thematic!), then Na'asiyah could potentially take out two trolls if she has UC, enough Daggers, events and resources.
• There are several ways you can manipulate your willpower numbers after the staging step. Using Galadriel/Nenya is the most obvious method, but there are more precise and subtle tricks. You can increase or decrease the of the Sailors by either discarding a card to Arwen or playing an event before quest resolution. Elrond's Counsel can move up up 1 as well and it's always good to keep your threat down.
• Elfhelm will help mitigate the Doomed cards, but it may be better to just pay for a Greeting depending on how your game is going.
• Quest conservatively at stage 1 so you aren't thrown into the Troll battle prematurely. It's nice to get a sidequest down just to protect you from actually getting too much progress out. The encounter deck in the nightmare version is very inconsistent as far as how much it will give you every turn, so be careful!
• Trade one copy of the Mirror of Galadriel for the Rivendell Bow in a multiplayer game.
• There are a lot of treacheries you will want to cancel, so be careful with your Test of Will/Dwarven Tomb/Weaver/Bounder management.

It's a turtley deck, but you kind of need to turtle a bit if you want to survive this quest! I enjoyed seeing Na'asiyah destroy these trolls! This has been pretty consistent for me, but let me know how it play for you if you give it a try.