QotW: The King's Quest (Date Night Dragon Hunt)

This is a semi-thematic pairing of a ranger/trap deck (featuring the Lord and Lady of Ithilien) with Woods(wo)men who are well-suited to dealing with pesky locations. With 4 out of 6 heroes representing the sphere, this fellowship deals with the challenges of the encounter in a more nuanced/indirect way than by just brute-force questing or attack. As a result, I have found it quite enjoyable to pilot, even if it lacks some of the efficiency or power of other builds (plus, I have a soft spot for Faramir, and like having a deck in which he can contribute). Here's how it goes:

Deck 1 (Date Night Dragon Hunt)

The primary goal of this deck is to play a trap each round to strategically...uh...trap enemies in staging and weaken them for combat. Damrod keeps your costs low and the card draw coming. Other than the Stone Troll, each enemy is susceptible to Ranger Spikes (and even if you just get a pesky bat, it keeps those surgy devils out of the encounter deck). It is not uncommon to have three enemies stuck in staging by the end of the game (really nice if they are Werewolves) so that Faramir is attacking for a base of 5.

Your allies are mostly present to support this goal. Master of the Forge is great to see early as he will keep your traps coming, and Erebor Hammersmith (and Anborn) can retrieve your spent traps. Others provide necessary support, be that healing (Warden of Healing and [Honour Guard]), Condition Removal, questing (Mablung, Pippin, Meneldor, Ithilien Tracker), or just cheap bodies on the table for when enemies slip through (Guardian of Ithilien. There are also a handful of ranged characters (Haldir of Lórien and Ithilien Archer) to support Faramir when enemies must be attacked.

In addition to your traps, other attachments serve to prepare Faramir for the final attack (Black Arrow, Glamdring, Ranger Spear, Dagger of Westernesse), to keep your threat under control (Secret Vigil), to grant extra resource generation/smoothing (Necklace of Girion and Song of Wisdom), or to provide all-around useful support (The Long Defeat). Remember that all of these are eligible targets for Master of the Forge and/or Erebor Hammersmith!

The events are few, but effective. Feint remains one of the most clutch cards in the game (the Fire-Drake is not immune to this!), Hands Upon the Bow combos nicely with Faramir's innate attack boost, and Daeron's Runes is just a great card. The Great Hunt makes an appearance for those times when you really need to get ride of a Stone Troll.

I wouldn't recommend this as a solo deck, but I greatly enjoy it in the right fellowship. And when you are able to load Faramir up with boosts and trigger Éowyn's ability, the Fire-Drake doesn't stand much of a chance :).

Deck 2 (Into the Woods)

This deck is there to handle locations, which is really useful when the quest both spits out locations (stage 1) and forces you to go through the Caves deck. Unlike most Woods(wo)man builds, the best play is usually to spread the location attachments out, thereby neutralizing locations in staging (not all that unlike trapping enemies). As long as you can keep at least one attachment on the active location, each of your heroes should be triggering each round: Haldan questing for free and drawing cards, Idraen readying herself for combat, and (MotK) Haleth pulling attachments continually from your deck.

The allies are designed to fit the theme, while each bringing a useful contribution to the table. Mirkwood Explorer and Súlien help you to control locations (Súlien can be especially potent in the late stages, sometimes reducing up to 6 by herself), Ghân-buri-Ghân is fantastic tech against the caves deck, Miner of the Iron Hills can nuke Dragon Breath (or Scales) when the Fire-Drake appears, and Forest Road Traveler brings solid all-around stats that can easily get boosted to the table for just 2 resources (and don't overlook his 2 !). Ranger of Cardolan is an awesome panic button (enable by the presence of Idraen), and Mirkwood Hunter provides ranged at a discount (I've had games where I was able to drop 2 of these on the same round for 0 or 1 resource each!). Last but not least, Erebor Hammersmith is efficient and recycles your location attachments.

Other than Song of Wisdom and The Long Defeat, each attachment goes onto a location. Woodmen's Clearing and Woodmen's Path are probably the two most important, with the former helping to keep your threat down and the latter helping you to navigate places like Frozen Lake and Lightless Grotto quickly (use Reforged to bring them back, unless you are playing with the errata-d version). Put Off Pursuit is a great way to deal with Stone Trolls (double it up with Woodmen's Path to avoid the +2 drawback). For locations you don't plan on traveling to, you can drop Guarded Ceaselessly, Explorer's Almanac, or Thrór's Key on them in staging (the latter is great for countering Contested Depths). Not only does spreading these out set up a big quest push with Familiar Lands, but it allows for some fun shenanigans: using Expert Trackers with Idraen to nuke a location while negating the cost of exhausting her, grabbing a guarded attachment via the Almanac without having to travel, holding back your Woodman characters from the quest to decide whether you want them to contribute a pseudo 2 (via Guarded Ceaselessly) or to stay ready for combat, or making an all-out questing push -> readying everyone with Woodman Lore -> using Guarded Ceaselessly or Súlien for extra progress. None of these are the most efficient ways of overcoming the staging area, but they provide a nice change-of-pace and give lots of fun decision points.

Several of the events have been mentioned, but I will say that I enjoy getting to showcase some of the lesser-used cards that rarely see play (Familiar Lands, Woodman Lore, Expert Trackers). Gildor's Counsel is a great card for gaining tempo against the encounter deck, A Test of Will is self-explanatory, and Strider's Path can be clutch in avoiding a high threat location (or a nasty travel effect). The side quests are awesome for stage 1 of King's Quest and provide answers to two of the biggest challenges you will face (especially if you can get a Stone Troll into the victory display via Scout Ahead).

General Strategy Tips

Both decks start with relatively low threat, so you can afford to eat some threat to discard locations at stage 1 (especially if you can clear Double Back). Your goal should be to travel as often as possible (the nastiest Cave locations just get worse as the game continues), while strategically "trapping" both enemies (via Ranger Spikes) and locations (via Guarded Ceaselessly in the staging area. Use the flexibility of Woodmen's Clearing, Ancient Mathom, and Elf-stone to support whichever deck is most in need. Meanwhile, you want to be getting Faramir powered up for the late game (although don't be afraid to burn Black Arrow if you need to eliminate a Stone Troll in the early game). The guarded attachments (especially Necklace of Girion and Stone of Elostirion) are helpful enough to where I deem them worth the risk (but you can also wait to grab them via Dragon Hoard for a fun and thematic play). Use Hands Upon the Bow when you have the chance to kill an enemy that would otherwise engage you and do your best to accumulate allies on both sides of the table (although Miner of the Iron Hills is often worth holding in hand as a counter to Dragon Breath).

Once you get to stage 2, you will hopefully have enough low-cost allies to soak up Fire-Drake's attacks until you can get to stage 3 (use your various tools to neutralize staging area threat and use Woodmen's Path so that you only have to make one progress to clear the active location). Familiar Lands and Súlien are for making huge pushes when you need them. If all goes to plan, you should arrive at stage 3 with Faramir and Éowyn ready to go.

At stage 3 you will need to: make a large questing push to clear Dragon Hoard -> attack the Fire-Drake for at least 4 (to get rid of Dragon Scales) -> quest hard enough to place at least 2 progress on stage 3 -> attack with Faramir and Éowyn for the win (you need a total of 20 to fell the beast: Faramir with Black Arrow and two weapons can attack for up to 12-13 and Éowyn contributes 10 ). And there you have it :).

Who knew that the Lord and Lady of Ithilien spent their married days chasing down dragons in the far north? ;)