Dream-chaser - dual secrecy with Victory shenanigans
Jimbo76 15
Description
This fellowship was created for the "Voyage across Belegaer", but might be useful for other quests as well. I have just started the journey with the deck.
The initial idea was to avoid all combat, deal with the treacheries and keep up with the archery. But if any enemies surprised me I needed a backup plan.
I play progression-style, so for this fellowship, that I created for Dream-chaser, only cards up to and including the Dream-chaser cycle are used.
(MotK) Galdor of the Havens and of course Messenger of the King are the only exceptions.
The idea:
Dual spi/lor secrecy gives cheap access to cards, that can manipulate the encounter deck Out of the Wild and Risk Some Light as well as cancel treacheries A Test of Will as well as cancel complete encounter cards (requires some setup) The Door is Closed!.
It also gives access to cheap secrecy allies Celduin Traveler Ithilien Lookout, that can be used for sailing and are also ok questers or attackers if need be. The scrying and picking of the encounter deck parts of these allies are not really useful for the sailing quests in the Dreamchaser cycle as the allies are played right before the "sailing phase". But their scrying and encounter manipulation might be good for other quests.
Heroes:
Aragorn/Glorfindel - Aragorn can reset threat once and is ok for defending and Glorfindel with Light of Valinor is low threat and a good quester
Arwen/MotK Galdor - Semi Low Threat - Arwens discard triggers (MotK) Galdor of the Havens, so resource and new card draw for one discard.
Resource generation:
Resourceful are the stable resource generation to pay for things
Arwen Undómiel can put the resources on all heroes including herself.
Questing:
There are a lot of willpower on the characters and with 3 of Northern Tracker, 3 of Rhovanion Outrider and Asfaloth location lock should not be an issue.
Combat:
Not that strong in the beginning, but that is ok as you will not see much with that low threat. Once Ithilien Archer or Ithilien Lookout is setup with Ranger Bow you can begin to pick enemies off from the staging area.
An speaking of the staging area. If you get engaged with an enemy you can send that enemy to staging by wounding it with Ithilien Archer and some other hero or ally.
How to deal with combat before you get setup:
Avoid by cancelling treacheries that bring up enemies
Put enemies in the bottom with Risk Some Light
Put nasty enemies in Victory Display (if not immune to player card effects) if needed with Out of the Wild
If engaged with enemies have them not attack you one phase with Out of Sight
Send to staging area (after enemy attacks substep) by attacking and wounding with Ithilien Archer and a hero or another ally.
Staying in secrecy:
Light of Valinor so Glorfindel can quest without increasing threat.
Gandalf
Elrond's Counsel
Keen as Lances
Aragorn for that deck
How to play:
As soon as you get Out of the Wild use it to both put something unwanted in the Victory Display, but also so that playing Keen as Lances will be 2 resources cheaper. When you have 2 of Out of Sight and 2 encounter cards in the Victory Display Keen as Lances is only 1 resource (and the next one free) and can be used for threat reduction, card draw or resources.
Before questing (and after sailing) use Risk Some Light if in hand to know precisely what comes up from the encounter deck.
Cancel unwanted treacheries with one of your many A Test of Will.
I was unsure if this fellowship would be janky, but I had a very successful victory in "Voyage across Belegaer", where I killed the 2 Corsair Warships and Thunderstrike (played campaign), ended on-course, staging free of ships and all stage 2 quest cards in the victory display. I played it really slow setting up my play area with allies, including rangers with Ranger Bow. And I only engaged the Corsair Warships when I had Out of Sight in hand and therefore the Warship and the 3 corsairs could not attack me in the combat phase. I sent two of the corsairs up in the staging area with Ithilien Archer and friends and let the third corsair be engaged. In the next round I killed of the 2 corsairs in the staging area with my rangers with Ranger Bow and the third I killed with Gandalf. All this I could do before any combat. Gandalf helped me down the Corsair Warship. I did the same with Thunderstrike (although I could not cancel the initial attack from this as it is immune to player card effects). And with the second Corsair Warship I didn't even need to use Out of Sight as I think I killed 2 of the corsairs (they were both Vicious Marauder with only 3 HP each) with my rangers with Ranger Bow before enemy attack (In the last skirmish I had 6 rangers equipped with all copies of Ranger Bow).
For a further description of the individual decks look at the notes for them
looks solid, with Desperate Alliance you can give Aragorn to the other player so he can reduce also (it is once per game for each player if possible)