Annuminas Stage E/F

Seastan 41852

Description

The E/F stage of Annuminas is extra combat-heavy, and this group of decks successfully handled the challenge. They were built with the goal of defeating all enemies in play and getting 10 progress on stage 1 each turn. They were also designed to still function with 3 players by dropping the Legolas deck.

Mulligans:

Denethor deck: Steward of Gondor Brand deck: Blade of Gondolin Aragorn deck: Hour of Wrath Legolas deck: Blade of Gondolin

The most important pieces are Steward and Wrath, so use Heed the Dream to grab them if you need to. Steward goes on Aragorn, so now the Aragorn deck produces 4 tactics resources a turn, and with Hama it can keep playing Hour of Wrath every combat phase.

During the combat phase, the Aragorn player engages an enemy (generally in stage 1 this is a warg, and in stage 2 it's the Hosts of Angmar because they are immune to Aragorn's ability). Leave everything else in the staging area. This is possible thanks to everybody's low threat, and threat-reducing cards like The Galadhrim's Greeting, Song of Eärendil, Secret Vigil, and Double Back.

After defending or chump blocking the one enemy, Brand gets targeted with Hour of Wrath and he and Aragorn sweep the table. Every time an enemy is killed, Brand readies Aragorn, Aragorn engages an enemy from the staging area, Pippin draws a card, and the Blades of Gondolin trigger. Hama joins in for one of the attacks and pulls back Hour of Wrath for next turn.

Important note: Stage 1 starts with a Vanguard in the staging area, preventing more than 5 progress from being placed on the quest. The key to getting to 10 progress on turn 1 relies on choosing the Vanguard as the first target to pull down with Aragorn after you kill the first enemy, and using the Blades of Gondolin and Legolas on the following enemies to place the needed progress. Putting Cram on Legolas can help here. I think if we were to do this again we'd also include some Miruvor and Rohan Warhorses in the Spirit/Tactics decks to make this even more reliable.

A good time to do Double Back is in stage 2, but only after you already have some progress on the main quest.

Edit: The errata to Hama now limits his ability to 3 times per game, but even assuming you don't draw into another copy of Wrath, you at least get to trigger it on the first 4 consecutive turns, which is more than enough to get the board into a state where it is no longer needed.

8 comments

Nov 17, 2016 Kakita_Shiro 40

Thanks for coming out!

Nov 17, 2016 Seastan 41852

@Kakita_ShiroIt was a pleasure! Thanks for keeping C/D in check!

Nov 17, 2016 mithril ring mail 53

WOW

Nov 18, 2016 pokie 85

Cool Hour of Wrath/Háma/Brand son of Bain combo. I have always liked Brand with Courage for extra untapping. This fellowship brings that idea to its logical conclusion.

Apr 27, 2017 Stavo343 1

We played this fellowship at a 12-player event Saturday, and it rocked! We swapped out Lanwyn for Glorfindel and a few attachments for Light of Valinor and Elrond's Counsel, though. The Hour of Wrath combo just felt like cheating at times. Thanks for the share :)

Apr 27, 2017 Seastan 41852

@Stavo343That's awesome! I am glad the decks worked for you. I think the swaps you made sound pretty good.

And yes, the combo is meant to be OP! It's a hard quest :).

May 09, 2018 thanatopsis 6

Just browsing some older decks hand happened upon this fellowship. With the Hama errata, the Hour of Wrath trick is now limited to three times per game. Those three times could of course be saved for the three worst turns. But on the turns it is not used, can this deck still make it through? I think the answer is "absolutely": there's good good action advantage, well rounded stats, etc. But I'd like to hear is Seastan has anything specific to say.

May 09, 2018 Seastan 41852

@thanatopsisAbsolutely. I don't think we had to use Hour of Wrath more than three times. And keep in mind Hama's ability being limited to three times per game actually means you get to play the event 4 times (assuming you don't draw into other copies).