Seastan's Single Core Set Solo 2.0

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• 2.0
• 1.0

Great advice and tricks. FFG needs to include this in every core box!

Really nice advices there !

Coresets are still a "rape" based on "ffg commercial purpose" so these little strategy tips are very welcome for new players !

Well done.

Thanks a million. I'm very much looking forward to trying this out. I'm TERRIBLE at deckbuilding, but the story told with each attempt at a quest is worth the crushing defeats. Perhaps now I can begin to win! Sometimes.

@Kirha Keep faith ! Coresets are bad, you need to try a lot before beat some of those Anduin and Dol Guldur quests !

We just made a Campain with 13nrv, where we start at the coreset, and do quests in released order. And only with cards avaible at that moment.

Our decks evolve as we advance on quest. it is a pretty funny way of playing !

it's like opening "new box" after wining the quest ! ^^

I recommand this "mod of playing" to everyone ! ;)

keep it up ! For Middle Earth !

@Aorakis I'm doing that too !! But it's hard to find decks here which follows that order. Please share some of your decks so you can help me and others.

@naner

We start with : Eowyn - Aragorn - Theodred and Legolas - Beravor - Thalin

Works quite good. Be aware that we allowed 2 core set for 2 players.

then we swtich later on for : Legolas - Theodred - Aragorn AND Eleanor - Beravor - Eowyn

I have to add those second decks ^^

we made (with a bit of luck on encounters for return to mirkwood) a all shot !

So we succeed all the quest from coreset and cycle 1 !

We have to continue our adventure on Cycle 2 !

Great deck. Just got the core set and have struggled to build a decent solo deck. This seems like a great place to understand some of the strategy needed for a good deck!

@Seastan If you could use 2 core sets to build the deck, which cards you add/replace/change? Thanks in advance!

@CyryC 2x Henamarth, 3x Steward, 3x Test of Will, 3x Sneak Attack, and 2x Unexpected Courage are the main ones to add, in order of importance. I'd also go with 3x Forest Snare if playing Journey Along the Anduin.

Cards to drop: Silverlode Archer, Grim Resolve, Lorien's Wealth, Dwarven Tomb

@Seastan Made the changes and just beat Along the Anduin with 190 Points. Really good deck!

@CyryCNice!

@SeastanFirst try in the custom scenario Old Forest was a win with 132 points. You thinks its possible to beat Escape from Dol Guldur solo? Not even in the "easy mode"? Thanks in advance.

@CyryCPossible with extreme luck, after numerous frustrating attempts. Tri-sphere decks are not suited for it, because of the captive hero.

I'd recommend 2-handing that quest, but if you insist on solo then Aragorn/Theodred/Eowyn is a possible option, because with 2 core sets you can put in 2x Celebrian's stone to give Aragorn a spirit icon if Eowyn gets taken.

@SeastanJust beat everything till Carrock, except Dol Guldur which i 2 handed. Two games and two easy wins over Hunt for Gollum, two games and a messy first win over Carrock. The second win was way more controlled because i knew the mechanics already. Gonna go for Rhosgobel now.

@CyryCHow goes the progress? Are you through the Mirkwood cycle?

Just found this deck. Slayed the core, apart from Dul Guldur, and the Hobbit Saga Expansion part one, all three adventures. Thanks!

@JTHoldermanAwesome! Hope it didn't make the game too easy for you...

@SeastanSorry for the late answer. I ended the Mirkwoord cycle like 2 months ago already. The deck just destroyed that cycle. Thanks again for this amazing deck. Do you recommend any other deck for the second cycle? Thanks in advance!

Wow. I never thought about using Faramir's ability twice in one phase! That makes Ever Vigilant an awesome card!

Really like your decklists. Just putting this together to start using. If I quest with the theodred and eowyn and card draw with beravor. How do I defend attack etc. Is it mostly allies like Gandolf and breon. Also how much change is required when playing past return to mirkwood. Thanks

@dazza33You can defend with allies, sometimes sacrificing them. You want to manage your threat well enough so you don't have to deal with enemies you can't kill in a turn or two. Beravor can also defend if you're in a tight spot, although he becomes a much better defender once he has Unexpected Courage and Protector of Lórien.

The next cycle can also be beaten by this deck. I'd say it remains one of the best decks up until the point when you have both Khazad Dum and The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill. At that point you can build a killer Dwarf deck with Dain Ironfoot. I think there are several examples of such decks on ringsdb.

I've been trying this deck out and been having a terrible time in getting rid of enemies from the board. The first time round I got very unlucky in JatA in that I drew all the hardest enemies, but subsequent 3 tries weren't too bad encounter wise, it just felt there was nothing I could do. Am I just not drawing the allies, did I have terrible luck every time? (I know it's hard to gauge without seeing exactly what was drawn/played)

@Cindres Luck could have something to do with it. Are you keeping your threat down below 30 as suggested? At that level the toughest enemy that will engage you only takes 4 to kill. Sometimes in that situation I'll risk an undefended attack so that Beravor and an ally can join together and kill it off.

@Seastan Yeah I've been doing that wherever possible, only the first time did I really draw the cards I needed to do that I guess. I just found the staging area kept building and I was having a hard time questing through but that was just on the first go. I think I'd need to record properly and review what went wrong because looking back I just can't figure it out. I went back a step last and attempted Passaged Through Mirkwood and ended up within 2 rounds with 3 enemies attacking me and no way of dealing with it.

@Seastanso for the Escape From Dol Guldur scenario, which hero should be prisoner?

@pd187540In my opinion Escape from Dol Guldur was not meant to be played solo. If you can't find a partner I recommend building 2 decks and playing it two-handed.

@Seastanreally? That's very depressing news and FFG should be shamed for that, seriously. I give the core set 1 star out of 5 just for that. Simply awful.

I think is the best deck using Beravor, Eowyn, and Theodred: ringsdb.com

@pd187540The decklists are similar, but that one has less than the required 50 cards so I would of expect it to perform better. My decklist is for those who may want to play with an official deck. And while it's true that the mono-sphere starter decks are only 30 cards, building a small tri-sphere deck and then taking advantage of its smallness with Will of the West seems disingenuous, and teachers players to use a strategy that is not very applicable to other decks.

Winning JAtA 99 out of 100 times is a joke. I played 3 games with this deck and got 0 wins. Must say, if I play another 10 with full understanding of the player deck and encounter deck I might win around 5 if lucky enough.

@JoostHoppenbrouwerYes, 99 out of 100 is an exaggeration, but it's true that I almost never lose against JatA with this deck.

Seastan - Been following you for sometime. Thanks for your contribution to the game. Just tried this deck (was on Passage to Mirkwood because I was short on time and needed something fast). Got 2nd lowest score I've ever gotten. Nice!

@stryder011098 Awesome, glad to hear it! And you're very welcome!

I'm a bit late but this is a brilliant deck so thank you. 3 wins out of 4 on JatA. The only loss was due to bad luck with a Despair shadow effect when Beravor was defending which killed her. Too bad I didn't have a Hasty Stroke ready.

@Bencoates70 Thanks for the feedback! Glad it worked for you.

@SeastanI'm using your deck to beat all the first cycle. For that I'm allowed to use all the card pool in that cycle. I'm starting a progression cycle by cycle. Any ideas what to adjust with that pool to improve the posted deck?. At the moment added Éomund and Elfhelm instead Silverlode Archer. Grim Resolve and Lórien's Wealth out and 2 For Gondor! in. What do you think? And also, do you think this deck will be better than a dwarf deck for the next cycle?. Many thans for your contribution and help to all of us and excuse my english m8.

@clandsl Elfhelm is decent, but the best cards in the first cycle for this deck are probably West Road Traveller and Ancient Mathom. The cards you've dropped are the weakest in the deck, so good call there.

Dwarves really hit their stride once you get the the Over Hill and Under Hill pack in your progression. The BET (Beravor/Eowyn/Theodred) lineup can handle the second cycle pretty well, but a solid alternative is the flight to the ford lineup (Aragorn/Glorfindel/Frodo Baggins) as Glorfindel with Asfaloth and Light of Valinor is just a beast, and Frodo becomes a tank with Aragorn's threat reset.

@SeastanI will reply in your ford lineup deck about your suggestion. Thanks

I am pretty new to the game, just started playing with DragnCards. After a few days of intense addiction I was going to reply that I didn't understand why not using x3 Sneak Attack because with Gandalf it is the most OP combo I am experiencing right now. But I realized that it is a single core deck, and you already recommend it above for 2 cores decks. Neat!

@SickBoy Welcome to the game! Hope you enjoy!

Fantastic deck, used it on Journey Down The Anduin and flew through the quest, but failed miserably on Escape from Don Guldor, but that was down to an awful set of card draws, but it won’t stop me trying again, this deck has got legs to run through a quest, the secret is card drawing, so don’t worry if you have a huge hand of cards

@Deanydotcom Thanks! And I don't recommend using this deck, or any solo deck for that matter, against Escape from Dol Guldur. That quest is best at 2 players (or 2-handed play).

did u mention it? Ever Vigilant with Faramir can give doubleboost for willpower.

Thanks for the reply @Seastan I’ll try it again with a second hand, I can see your thinking on this, as your threat level can swirl out of control with this quest!

I have no idea how to play opening rounds of this deck. Quest with Theodore and Eowyn. Then if you draw an enemy (like another Forest spider) you now have two enemies engaged with you. So assuming you have an ally in you block with the ally and then maybe Beravor? If then on the next round you pull another enemy (like I typically do) you now have 3 enemies. To me it always feels like the game is already over at that time. You just don't have enough board state to make any progress. I don't know how to play this unless maybe I get lucky enough to pull locations the first few rounds. (It sure would be nice to get the card draw from Beravor but that means undefended attacks). Perhaps if you can get two 1 cost allies in on first round but that still only provides blockers and there's no one to attach. I guess I'm going back to two handed solo.

Of course, as soon as I post my comment I get a better start. In the encounter phase on round 1 I pulled a treachery that didn't hurt much. Travlled to Old First Road to ready Theodred Then the forest spider engaged. I had 2 allies. Blocked with 1, and then killed the spider with Henamarth, Theodore and Beravor. Now I have a clear stating area and have some hope.

@Seastan: thanks for this deck and for DragnCards! I hve been struggling with an Aragorn-Theodred-Eowyn deck in JatA, but even though Aragorn can ready, Beravor's card draw, plus the ability to apply Forest Snare trumps Aragorns readying and combat ability, assuming you get Steward of Gondor out to pay for your wealth. I also appreciate your words of wisdom. Here are some minor pearls for consideration:

1. If you have enough chump blockers to defend, consider questing with one, just to have a chump to bear the #Dol Guldur Orcs when-revealed damage.
2. If you can afford it, after you have attached Steward of Gondor or Celebrían's Stone, put some cheap attachment out (like Protector of Lórien as a buffer against the #Forest Spider shadow effect.

@Seastan Muchas gracias por el mazo, felicidades