The Hammer and The Anvil

@The_Lifetamerwhat quests have you played this fellowship against, and to what degree of success? I have some thoughts/comments, but they may just be personal preference if you’re enjoying a good win rate with what you have here. I like the theme of both decks in any case.

I've played previous (not published) versions of this fellowship up till the end of the Angmar Awaked Cycle, and all previous versions had their teeth smashed at the The Battle of Carn Dum, scoring horrible win/loss ratios (~10-15%) I expect this to fare much better, but it's still untested there.

I've played this version against every non saga scenario from core set Passage Through Mirkwood up to the Trouble in Tharbad of the Ring Maker Cycle , and in the Lord of the Rings Saga Scenarios up to the Passage of the Marches. I've also played this agaist the Old Forest, Fog on the Barrow Downs and Massing at Osgiliath.

This version of the Hammer and the Anvil has lost in total: 1x Into Ithilien, 2x Siege of Cair Adros, 1x Assault on Osgiliath, 1xTo Catch an Orc and wrecked a Lord of the Rings Campaign once at Passage of the Marches when the Anvil threated out before the Hammer finished the quest alone forcing me to concede the campaign.

The fellowship feels strong to me and fares well, but I'm still quite interested in your thoughts/comments.

@The_Lifetamer my comments are just suggestions or perhaps personal preference, I’m not sure. You can take or leave them as you choose. I have thoughts on both decks:

The Hammer

1) A recurring theme I see in both of these decks is a lot of 1x cards, which leads me to question the consistency in which you’ll see/draw things you need or want. Mirror of Galadriel certainly helps you in this deck, but it can’t affect your Anvil deck, which has several 1x cards and no reliable way to fetch them other than a mulligan or sacrificing direct damage from Gandalf to get yourself more cards. I think I would consider trimming out some cards that are more situational, such as Power of Orthanc, and then boarding them in against quests you know they’ll be useful against. In this way, you would be able to include more copies of strong cards, like Arwen Undómiel, who will further your plan of making Beregond into a wall the encounter deck breaks on.

2) Hand in hand with the above, I would consider removing some of your more expensive allies, like Elfhelm, that have a less than stellar effect for their cost, and replace them with additional copies of efficient questing allies that will be more easily played. You have a lot of expensive allies that you will probably never be able to play consistently (Wellinghall Preserver in particular) and I think you’d see more success with cheaper allies since you’re so constrained for resources. The other option would be to consider 3x Elf-stone to give you the chance to play some of those costly allies for free.

3) With regard to attachments, you have several that seem unnecessary (Asfaloth, Light of Valinor, Ranger Bow, Weather-stained Cloak) due to how situational they are. I’d cut them, which would benefit you not only with trimming your deck down a bit but also with making room for something more useful, such as Elf-stone. Especially given the fact that your Lore resources are super tight until you get Nenya on the board, conserving them for the cards you really need is important.

3) I like your selection of events, but I don’t think you need to make room in your deck to recur Fortune or Fate 3 times, or include it at all for that matter. Without even mentioning the super high cost in a deck that really needs every spare resource, you have so many failsafe measures in place to protect your heroes I think you’re limiting yourself from stronger events that could help your board state (The Evening Star is a personal favorite of mine). You would also make room for more draw options to assist you in getting options in your hand. Mirror of Galadriel is one of my all time favorite cards and it’s absolutely underrated in terms of its search capabilities, but 3x Daeron's Runes is never a bad inclusion when you have Lore in your deck.

Apologies for the wall of text, I will stop now and offer up my thoughts on the Anvil deck in a separate comment.

Ok, second deck thoughts/suggestions:

The Anvil

1) I think it’s worth mentioning again that cutting situational cards in order to make room for more copies of your 1x allies and attachments is worth looking at. Particularly, an extra copy of Legolas would help you tremendously by giving a little built in card draw.

2) Your ally selection is nice, but I would recommend at least trying Marksman of Lórien over Galadhon Archer just to see if you like it better. It costs one more resource, but the effect is much more useful to you since you don’t want any enemies engaging the Hammer deck, and that’s the only way you’ll be able to make use of the Archer’s ability. Other than that, I like your choices, though again I’d try to look for cuts elsewhere to improve your draw consistency. Speaking of which...

2) Again, in my personal opinion, you have a nice selection of attachments, but several of them are situational and could be replaced with more copies of something else stronger, or to improve your ally consistency. Personally, I’d cut Arod, Born Aloft, Celebrían's Stone, Spear of the Citadel x1, and Raven-winged Helm. All of them are good for various things, but I think you’d be better served upping your count on some allies and other attachments. Additionally, if it was me, I think I would test the deck running Armored Destrier on Beregond over Spear of the Citadel and see if you like that better. I think you’ll be surprised. Built in readying in tandem with discarding shadow cards is really strong.

3) Your events in this deck do exactly what you need them to do, but there is one event at least that I think would really make this deck shine that you haven’t included: The Hammer-stroke. I have never built a deck that used this card well, and I’ve always wanted to play it. It would fit this deck perfectly. Saving it for a horde of enemies that you want to keep away from the Hammer deck and then defending everything with Beregond would be a super cool moment for you.

Lastly, the thing I would 100% recommend is removing the side quests from both decks unless you have found through playtesting that you regularly complete them without issue. With no way to search for them besides natural draw, I would think they’ll just clog your deck and not be as useful as you’d like. Additionally, it frees up two slots in each deck for potential additions or changes.

All in all, this is a super cool duo of decks you’ve developed. I love how they’re supposed to go. What I mentioned above is just stuff I think might make your play more consistent. I hope it helps. If you do try anything I suggest, let me know, I’d be happy to hear how things turn out for you.

Thank you very much for your comments, D4rkWolf10, they're accute and well put! I'll reply per deck, because I think it's very useful for those who actually want to better comprehend or tune the fellowship to their liking.

I fully agree on most cards that you consider situational! My personal "reserve" list is:

1xElfhelm: For quests heavy in doom and continuous threat increasing.

1xWarden of Healing: For quests heavy in archery or direct damage.

1xWellinghall Preserver: For quests heavy in archery.

1xEnt Draught: For quests that may bypass completely the defense of Beregond by shadow.

1xWeather Stained Cloak: For quests heavy in direct damage.

1xA Test Will: For quests that have "nuke" treacheries.

1xPower of Orthanc: For quests that have condition attachments.

1xWill of the West: For quests that force you to discard cards from hand or deck.

I initially had these "reserve" cards off deck and put them in per quest demand, but eventually I made mistakes in choosing that made me angry mid quest. So I decided to throw everything I need to cover all problems in and see what happens. It apparently didn't affect the fellowship win ratio at all, though it does slow it down a bit. Most importantly, I play at peace now! But you're absolutely right, the decks will be de facto better if you tune them per quest.

You make some good suggestions, especially Daeron's Runes, but I don't have access to the full card pool unfortunatelly, and thus can't use them all, like Evening Star for example. Elfstone is great card but I've found it not working with this fellowship, as you can neither affort a lore resource on the early rounds where resource accelaration really matters, nor reliably trigger it when you want.

Other than the above you make some very perceptive comments. The Ranger bow is indeed a personal favourite, Fortune or Fate is a staple for me ever since I started playing the Lotr Saga Campaign quests in "Iron Man" mode, and cutting down non essensial unique cards like Arwen as much as possible is indeed a personal preference. The only thing I am wondering why do you find the Light of Valinor situational?

As for the Anvil:

Card draw in the Anvil is not an issue due to Galadriel. The general early game vibe is, if you're having trouble with combat use her at the Anvil, if not use her at the Hammer. After you'll set up some extra card draw at the Hammer, you can return Galadriel to helping the Anvil for the rest of the game if needed. Gathering Information, The Long Defeat and Gleowine help as well (even Legolas once in a while). Old Gandalf is indeed, among other things, a failsafe in card draw, good catch there, but one I've never actually had to use in practice.

The Galadhon Archer and the Armored Destrier seem like solid suggestions for those who have access on them, though if you choose to replace the Spear of the Citadel keep in mind that the deck can no longer kill half as much with direct damage.

About Legolas, consider that he is tricky to trigger in this fellowship, as you'll kill most enemies with Haldir or Direct Damage so you won't be attacking with him half as much as you'd like.

As for the Hammer Stroke... unfortunately these decks are in my humble opinion not the place for it to shine! Consider the following: 1) Beregond is already Sentinel, 2) all the attacking allies in the Anvil are chosen to be Ranged, 3) the Hammer will even have some reserve allies ready to champ block or help attack if needed thanks to its support nature and Galadriel's passive ability, 4) in practice you'll never engage enemies in the Hammer thanks to Halbarad unless the Quest through effect or treachery directly drives them there, 5) after the enemies engage the Hammer you no longer care if they stay or if they go or even how many they are, they've already ruined Haldir's ability for that round and that's it.

Finally about side quests, I can 100% reccomend not to remove them from the fellowship! They may be situational and lukewarm in solo play, but, in my opinion, in anything from 2p and above they are shockingly good! In this fellowship all that are drawn are almost always completed, on average 2-3 per game. I consider them some of the best cards you can draw, even though they are not always mindless in their use, as timing is essensial in many quests. Still, the only quest I would consider them superfluous is the "To Catch an Orc". On the other hand, there are far more quests where I actually mulligan for them (like Into Ithilien, Siege of Cair Adros or Conflict at Carrock to name a few), they're that good in my opinion. I guess here we can agree that we disagree!

Overall it was very enjoyable to read your thorough comments and suggestions! I'll definately try some of the newest (for me) cards you suggest in the future. I'm glad you like the fellowship, and hopefully it won't dissapoint you in practice!

@The_LifetamerI'm glad I could at least get the wheels turning in your head. I think I may have misunderstood some of your intent with these decks, particularly whether or not you wish to use Haldir of Lórien for his Ranged keyword or his ability. If you are looking to use his ability more, I would think The Hammer-stroke would be a pretty nice encounter phase play for you to prevent anything from engaging that deck. It would be particularly nice to be able to resolve an attack with his ability prior to defending taking place, ready through Unexpected Courage, and then kill another enemy in the combat phase after Beregond defends. I think that's what I thought you were trying to do.

With regards to Light of Valinor, I meant it is situational in the sense that you only have one viable target in Haldir of Lórien, and I think you have enough quest power that typically you shouldn't need his extra 2 willpower. I would think Unexpected Courage would be a more important attachment for him so he can attack multiple targets, and I'd bump the count to 3 and lose Light of Valinor for it.

I have to say, in a strategy that favors buffing defense on one character, I'm surprised you don't value Arwen Undómiel more and only have one copy of her. Do you find yourself not using her ability that often? 2 willpower with that ability for 2 cost is very rarely unused in my experience, but with not testing your decks myself I guess I can't speak to her necessity.

In short, I appreciate your openness to my comments/suggestions. If you're having fun and it's working without any changes, then great! Playing in a way you enjoy is what matters. If you ever use OCTGN and need someone to play one of the decks (or a variant of one :D) let me know, I'd be happy to hook up and play sometime.

@D4rkWolf10 Only partly misunderstood! Haldir of Lórien is indeed meant to trigger his ability as much as possible. The Hammer-stroke does indeed fit well with the "spirit" of the fellowship, it's just that in practice I found it never used. But hey, it might work better for you (or someone else) than it did for me!

Regarding the Light of Valinor, I find it trully amazing how variably people approach this game and its deckbuilding, and it's great! If I understand well your mindset, you approach deckbuilding stronly by type of card. Therefore for you it compares directly with other possible attachments for Haldir of Lórien, like the Unexpected Courage you mention. In that light, it's definately not a necessary card, as the hero definately doesn't need it to function. In my mindset, I approach deckbuilding strongly by role of card, and so for me it compares directly with cards like Galadriel's Handmaiden or Ethir Swordsman. In that light, it's definately one of the best cards you can draw if you want to permanently boost your questing prowess, as it's cheaper and more reliable than any ally.

I do use OCTGN to test and finetune decks, but I've found it lacking when I tried to use it for actual play with other people. I'm lucky enough to be able to (multi)play the game normally, but that spoils me enough so that I can't really enjoy it in OCTGN. Still, I really appreciate the invitation, and if you ever find yourself in Thessaloniki(Greece), definately do notify me to hook you up with the local community and set up some quests together!

Finally thank you very much for the quality format of your comments. You pretty much opened my eyes on how to make my own comments and descriptions better!

@The_Lifetamer Glad I could help in some way! Thanks for being receptive to my thoughts!