Attack on Dol Guldur (Successful Fellowship)

This fellowship was used to successfully beat Attack on Dol Guldur, although this version is slightly altered based on our experience. This is a tough quest for an unprepared group (almost impossible I'd say), but with proper planning it's pretty manageable. We took a look at the quest beforehand and crafted decks specifically to counter what we considered the hardest cards in the encounter deck. Thanks to Bullroarer Took, esplanades, and DragonReborn for helping to craft and pilot these decks!

Deck 1: Major willpower deck. You should be able to quest for 50+ by the end of the game so that others can focus fully on combat. Watch out for the treachery card in the deck that damages all exhausted characters (make sure you get an Anfalas Herdsman out early or you will lose your Outlands allies). Use Thrór's Key to nullify the Forest Battleground. If you haven't had much experience with Erestor/Denethor burst decks I recommend practicing with this beforehand so you know how to optimize your first few turns.

Decks 2 and 3: Combat decks. The goal here is to load up Brand with Rohan Warhorse and Unexpected Courage. Then just engage and defend one weaker enemy (leave the rest in the staging area if you can) and then have Brand and Aragorn wipe to board clear of enemies (every time Brand and Aragorn attack, Brand readies with an attachment and Aragorn readies from Brand, then Aragorn engages an enemy in the staging area, and repeat). We also had the goal of setting up Haldir with 2x Rivendell Blades early on so that he can use Straight Shot on the biggest enemies before they attack. Adding in the new Open the Armory can help set this up. This is why the two decks each have 3x Rivendell Blade and Straight-shot. Note that Deck 2 can use Straight-shot (exhausting a weapon on Aragorn) during the window that Haldir declares his attack. Deck 3 has a bunch of sentinel allies to play through Hirgon's ability to help Deck 2 defend (Deck 3 wants to avoid engagement because of Haldir).

Deck 4: Encounter deck control. One of the best things this deck can do is play a Turn 1 Out of the Wild (you can do this by using Arwen to put a resource on Galdor) and nabbing either a Power Sevenfold or Necromancer's Rage from the encounter deck. Those two cards are serious game-enders for a lot of groups, and having 1 less in the encounter deck is huge. Canceling the other copy when it comes out with The Door is Closed! is even better. The second major contribution this deck makes is location control with Heirs of Earendil. The primary use is to discard a Forest Battleground after its revealed but before quest resolution. Steward of Gondor is played using A Good Harvest. Lastly, discard your copies of Ethir Swordsman so that Deck 1 can pull them into play with Stand and Fight for truly ridiculous amounts of willpower.

Good luck!