Pawns of the White Wizard (Progression: VoI)

Note: Originally published on BoardGameGeek (http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1170355/two-decks-designed-beat-voice-isengard)

Design

These decks were built progression-style to tackle Voice of Isengard deluxe expansion.

You'll notice a lack of Lore in these decks. Since these quests either come packed with card-hate or punish you severely for questing unsuccessfully, I opted for a mono-spirit deck instead of a lore-spirit dual-sphere deck.

Strategy

Since you won't be drawing a lot of cards, specific strategies will change from game to game. In general, Vengeful Riders is built around making the most of Éomer's and Prince Imrahil's abilities. Defensive boosts go on Prince Imrahil. Rohan Warhorses go on Éomer and Legolas. Legolas is awesome for helping to bring down opponents that engage the Spirit team. All allies are expendable, and are used primarily as chump blockers to beef up counter-attacks. The spirit deck is used almost entirely for questing. If you can get resource acceleration going on Éowyn, then Lay of Nimrodel can usually help you to beat stage 3 in one go. Mugash won't be going anywhere!

In the later two scenarios, Fatty Bolger steals the show. His ability to negate high-threat opponents can mean the difference between a short game and a long, tiresome hunt for Mugash. I know he's not a fan-favorite, but being able to utilize his ability after encounter cards are revealed is immensely powerful. In a pinch, he can equate up to three willpower, and if you don't need him during the quest phase, you can use him as exhaust fodder (carrying Mugash, engaging Orc Hound, etc) or for defending against weaker enemies.

I recognize that a lot of you would do things differently. What's great about these decks is that there is room to give. The Imladris Stargazer/Zigil Miner/Hidden Cache resource engine is present, but it's not essential to the overall strategy. White Tower Watchman and Hasty Stroke could make nice additions, but it depends on your play style. Have fun, and feel free to comment. I like these decks, but I'm always interested to see how others approach the game.

Performance

• These decks make short work of all three quests from Voice of Isengard.
• With some modifications from the sideboard (mainly the inclusion of Valiant Sacrifice), they can also handle Celebrimbor's Secret.