A Knife in the Dark progression

A non-campaign progression fellowship. I'd tried building at least somewhat for the theme, however Brand is just too good to get rid of.

Once again, we build Sam and this time Aragorn as defenders, Aragorn becoming Steward of Gondor and thus hopefully getting a +2 boost from the Shield. Merry and Brand remain the primary attackers often readying each other, getting the Daggers.

Besides the Shield, Aragorn may get the Celebrían's Stone + Unexpected courage to pull some questing double duty and pay for , however that presumes favourable card draw - filling the second restricted slot with a Burning Brand may be a better idea (provided Sam had already got one).

The decks offer quite a few options for dealing with Bill Ferny

• using Son of Arnor (possibly taking advantage of the Prancing Pony effect)
• using Gandalf + another Gandalf or Hail of Stones
• Brand son of Bain + Hands upon the Bow + Black Arrow
• should the other options fail, growing the Support threat to 42, engaging Bill non-optionally, and then dropping back to 27 with Aragorn's ability.

When having Faramir, don't forget to exhaust him and boost your allies willpower prior to the staging, they will mostly get protected from the Power in their terror treachery.

Elf-Stone can help smuggle in Gandalf or the expensive Lore allies (in cases Aragorn has not received the Steward title yet).