QotW: Traveling a River with the Kitchen Sink

This week's Quest of the Week, Journey Along the Anduin, was just begging for someone to come along, softlock it, and do something silly. So I decided to build the biggest possible board state, getting into play one of every card that can be gotten into play. The main deck goes into excruciating detail on the "what" and the "how". (The "why" will be left to the reader's imagination.)

But this wasn't a purely academic exercise-- I aimed to actually play an actual game where I played every ally and attachment I possibly could. From my experience building the deck on RingsDB, I knew my greatest enemy would be lag; I doubt DragnCards could handle everything I was about to throw at it, and I likewise lacked a table of sufficient size to achieve this in meatspace. (Besides, my physical collection is two APs shy of complete.)

But I was determined to get as far as I could anyway and report back. To help, I only loaded the first deck into DragnCards, playing along with the second one using actual physical cards. Even still, I had to quickly switch to manually controlling all round transitions because DragnCards would take several minutes to advance a single round with my monster of a deck.

Here's the play report:

Setup-- reveal Massing at Night, Despair, Dol Guldur Orcs, and Necromancer's Reach. (An auspicious start.) When the quest flips, the fellowship fetches a Hill Troll. Quelle surprise.

Round 1-- One With Everything (hence: 1WE) selects Power of Command as its Master card and plays it on Frodo. Just Another Deck (hence: JAD) triggers Gléowine to draw, then plays Celduin Traveler (which sees a Treacherous Fog) and a Timely Aid (which fetches a Northern Tracker).

1WE quests with Frodo Baggins, Thalin, and Thranduil, spending a resource from Frodo's pool to trigger his ability and ready Thranduil. (From now on, 1WE will quest with every character and ready Thranduil in every quest phase unless otherwise noted.) JAD quests with its lone Traveler. Staging reveals Treacherous Fog and Necromancer's Pass, we tie the quest and therefore don't trigger the second part of Frodo's ability and don't drop our threat. This will be the last time all game this happens-- from here on out, 1WE will drop one threat during the quest phase and gain it back during the refresh phase, bouncing between 25 and 26 indefinitely.

The decks travel to the Pass with 1WE discarding Orcrist and a Henneth Annûn Guard at random.

JAD optionally engages the Orcs, defends with Denethor (shadow is Gladden Fields, no damage), then attacks back with Merry and the Northern Tracker, destroying the orc.

During refresh, JAD increases its threat to 18 and plays Peace, and Thought, exhausting Gleowine and Merry.

Round 2-- JAD plays Steward of Gondor on Denethor, plays Timely Aid (which fetches Beorn), and plays A Very Good Tale, exhausting Beorn and the Northern Tracker. It discards Timely Aid, A Very Good Tale, Sneak Attack, Steward of Gondor, and a Wild Stallion (maximum oof), adding the Stallion. 1WE does nothing.

1WE quests with everyone, JAD quests with the Traveler. Staging reveals an Eastern Crow, which Thalin immediately destroys and shuffles back into the deck, plus Chieftan Ufthak (who takes one damage from Thalin). The quest succeeds, four progress is placed, clearing the pass.

During refresh, JAD increases its threat to 19 and plays Peace, and Thought again, exhausting Gleowine and Merry.

Round 3-- 1WE plays nothing. JAD plays Treebeard, reserving one lore and one spirit resource.

1WE quests with everyone, JAD sends a Traveler and a Tracker. Staging reveals a Necromancer's Reach, which JAD cancels with A Test of Will, plus an Enchanted Stream. Quest succeeds. No travel, no engagements. JAD raises its threat to 20 during the refresh phase.

Round 4-- JAD triggers Gleowine, plays a Daeron's Runes (discarding a spare Steward), plays a Drinking Song (shuffling back 12 cards and drawing 13), plays another Daeron's Runes (discarding Glorfindel), plays The Storm Comes, Gandalf (drawing three), and another Celduin Traveler (who sees a copy of Wargs). 1WE does nothing.

Questing against The Storm Comes, 1WE sends everyone, JAD sends 2 Travelers, a Tracker (which pings the Enchanted Stream for one progress), Treebeard, and Gandalf. Staging reveals a Wargs (which takes one damage from Thalin; JAD triggers Merry to drop its threat to 18) and a Gladden Fields, 6 progress is placed on The Storm Comes, which is added to the victory display.

JAD optionally engages the Wargs and defends with Denethor. Wargs get Brown Lands as a shadow, dealing no damage but returning to staging. JAD raises its threat to 19 during the refresh phase, then plays A Very Good Tale with Gandalf and Beorn, discarding Anborn, a Wild Stallion, a Northern Tracker, a Daeron's Runes, and another Gandalf; Anborn and the Tracker are saved.

Round 5-- 1WE plays a Sarn Ford Sentry, drawing zero. JAD uses Gleowine to draw, then plays a Halfling Bounder.

1WE quests with everyone, JAD quests with 2x Travelers, 1x Treebeard, and 2x Trackers (which blow up the Enchanted Stream and place two progress on the Gladden Fields). Staging reveals our first Banks of the Anduin and a Misty Mountain Goblin (Thalin and Anborn add two damage, Merry drops JAD's threat to 17). 4 progress is placed on the main quest.

JAD optionally engages the Goblins, 1WE automatically engages the Wargs. 1WE defends with Thranduil, the shadow is East Bight, the Wargs deal no damage but return to staging. JAD defends with Denethor, the shadow is Dol Guldur Orcs (no damage), counterattacks with Beorn to destroy the Goblins.

During refresh, JAD raises its threat to 18 and plays Peace, and Thought, exhausting Merry and Gleowine.

Round 6-- JAD plays Legolas and and Celduin Traveler, who sees another Misty Mountain Goblins. 1WE plays Háma. Henceforth, Frodo will use his ability every round to ready Hama instead of Thranduil.

1WE quests with everyone, JAD quests with 3x Travelers, 2x Trackers (blowing up the Gladden Fields and placing two progress on Banks of the Anduin), and Treebeard. Staging reveals a Misty Mountain Goblin (which takes damage from Thalin and Anborn while Merry drops JAD's threat to 16) and Evil Storm, which whiffs.

JAD optionally engages the goblins and automatically engages the Wargs. Denethor defends against the Wargs, which receive Marsh Adder as a shadow and return to staging. Beorn defends the Goblins, which get Goblin Sniper as a shadow, dealing no damage. A Halfling Bounder and Wild Stallion counterattack, killing the goblins. During refresh, JAD raises its threat to 17.

Round 7-- 1WE plays nothing, JAD plays Yazan and another Halfling Bounder. 1WE quests with everyone, JAD quests with 3x Travelers, 2x Bounders, Treebeard, and (now that its deck is empty), Gleowine. Reveal Eastern Crows (killed by Thalin and shuffled back) and Despair. JAD optionally engages the Wargs and defends with Denethor. Pursued by Shadow is the shadow, so JAD returns a Celduin Traveler to hand, then counterattacks with Beorn to (finally) kill the Wargs. During refresh, it raises its threat to 18.

Round 8-- JAD plays Firyal, 1WE plays nothing. 1WE quests with everything, JAD quests with Gleowine, 2x Traveler, 2x Bounder, Treebeard, and Firyal, who sees Pursued by Shadow and, on a whim, opts to keep it. Reveal Pursued by Shadow, raising JAD's threat to 28, and Dol Guldur Orcs, killing Gleowine (Thalin and Anborn each deal one damage, Merry drops threat to 26).

JAD optionally engages Chieftan Ufthak and automatically engages the Orcs. It defends Ufthak with Beorn, revealing Eastern Crows as a shadow and taking one damage. It defends the Orcs with Denethor, revealing Wargs as a shadow, taking no damage. It attacks Ufthak with 2x Trackers, Legolas, and Yazan, who pings the Orcs with one damage to kill them before Ufthak is destroyed; the Eastern Crows shadow card is placed on top of the encounter discard. JAD raises its threat to 27 in the refresh, then plays Shadow of the Past at the start of the next round to put the Eastern Crows back in the encounter deck.

Rounds 9-21-- With the encounter well in hand, Rounds 9-21 are spent setting up the softlock. During this time, JAD plays Jubayr for insurance and Sneak Attack + Gandalf and triggers Merry to remain under the Hill Troll's engagement threshold, while 1WE plays a Ravenhill Scout for shenanigans; no other cards are played by either deck. 1WE quests with everything except the Scout every round (readying Hama), JAD quests with its Travelers, Bounders, and Firyal. If there are locations in staging to blow up, it also sends its Trackers. Here are the reveals by round:

• 9-- Eastern Crows (shuffled back) and Driven by Shadow (whiffs)
• 10-- Enchanted Stream (discarded to Firyal), Eastern Crows (shuffled back), Eastern Crows (shuffled back)
• 11-- Misty Mountain Goblins, Dol Guldur Beastmaster. During combat, the Beastmaster received The Brown Lands and Evil Storm as Shadows while the Goblins received Banks of the Anduin. Both are destroyed and Shadows of the Past puts the Banks of the Anduin back in the deck.
• 12-- Banks of the Anduin and Gladden Fields
• 13-- Gladden Fields and 1x Banks of the Anduin are blown up by Northern Trackers, staging reveals Banks of the Anduin + Eastern Crows (shuffled back)
• 14-- Necromancers Pass (discarded by Firyal), one Banks of the Anduin is blown up by Northern Trackers and revealed along with The East Bight, which is traveled to (and cleared the next round).
• 15-- Hill Troll (discarded to Firyal), Eastern Crows (shuffled back), and Eastern Crows (shuffled back).
• 16-- Necromancer's Reach (discarded to Firyal), Eastern Crows (shuffled back), and Goblin Sniper (killed immediately with Thalin and Anborn)
• 17-- Eastern Crows (shuffled back) and Eastern Crows (shuffled back).
• 18-- Evil Storm (discarded to Firyal), Eastern Crows (shuffled back), Eastern Crows (shuffled back)
• 19-- Eastern Crows (shuffled back) and Eastern Crows (shuffled back).
• 20-- Eastern Crows (shuffled back), Wolf Rider (immediately killed by Thalin and Anborn), which surges into another Eastern Crows (shuffled back).

The softlock is now achieved; the encounter deck consists entirely of three copies of Eastern Crows, while staging contains one Hill Troll and two Banks of the Anduin, each with two progress on them. 1WE uses its Ravenhill Scout to move one progress from one Banks of the Anduin to the other, exploring it and placing it on top of the deck. JAD engages the Hill Troll and takes its attack undefended; the shadow is Banks of the Anduin, the damage is placed on Denethor, and JAD raises its threat by three.

21-- Staging reveals Eastern Crows (shuffled back) and Eastern Crows (shuffled back). The Hill Troll's attack is again taken undefended; its shadow is an Eastern Crow. JAD places the damage on Merry and is eliminated. The Hill Troll returns to staging, joining the Banks of the Anduin that remains there.

Rounds 22-1222-- 1WE quests with Frodo, Thranduil, Thalin, Sarn Ford Sentry, and Hama for 8, paying one resource to ready Hama and drop its threat by one, revealing an Eastern Crow (and shuffling it back), and placing 6 progress.

Rounds 1223-1300-- 1WE plays everything (in the manner and order described in its deck description).

Was I successful in my quest? Well, yes and no. The first 1222 rounds went off without a hitch, but as predicted, DragnCards gave up the ghost once I tried to play every ally and attachment in the game; I got about 200 cards in before it stopped letting me attach cards, then hung up, then crashed.

Still, I'm calling this a qualified success.