Return to Mirkwood

This can be a difficult scenario. We have a new threat Attercop, Attercop an 8 attack, 4 defense, 6 HP enemy, he or she will not stay in the staging area automatically engaging the player guarding Gollum. There are two of these enemies in the deck if both are out at the same time you are probably in big trouble.

The split is pretty even between locations and enemies. The locations are mostly benign so we don't have a ton of location control Northern Tracker and The Riddermark's Finest should be sufficient.

In addition to the aforementioned Attercop, Attercop we see the return of The Hill Troll, Hummerhorns, and Ungoliant's Spawn, the plan is to use the Eagle allies to buff Frodo Baggins and Brand son of Bain via Support of the Eagles. We could also "chump block" and/or use Frodo Baggins's ability in a pinch.

Both Song of Wisdom and Song of Battle belong on Frodo Baggins; we'd like to get Support of the Eagles and A Burning Brand on him as soon as possible. These decks can be resource intensive so spread Théodred's love as much as possible. A second Song of Battle can be placed on Éowyn and the second Song of Wisdom likely goes to Aragorn.

I chose Brand son of Bain instead of Legolas or Gimli.

• Locations aren't a big deal in this quest Legolas's ability is not overly useful.
• Brand son of Bain can ready Beravor for card draw or offset Caught in a Web.

This is probably the scenario that is most consistently difficult to date. The hunt for Gollum can kill you on turn 1 if you get a terrible staging and the Trolls at the Carrock can be a real problem if you have to engage them all at once. But this scenario is consistently difficult and the unusual play is the one that ends in 5 turns and a 130ish score (for me anyway).

The two treacheries that probably deserve cancellation are Gollum's Bite and Gollum's Anguish. I'll usually cancel Eyes of the Forest as well if I have the A Test of Will card as I'd have to discard it anyway.

I'll usually use the left side of the table to guard Gollum as much as possible saving threat on the Right for Frodo Baggins. I'll switch if I have to from card effects, threat danger or if I want to draw Attercop, Attercop to Frodo.

Lastly, the target of Steward of Gondor can very depending on card's in hand but you're going to need Tactics and Lore resources and Théodred can only give resources to Brand son of Bain every other turn and only if he quests. So I'll generally place it on Brand son of Bain, or Frodo Baggins if I have Song of Battle.

Mulligan

• Threat Reduction (Gandalf, The Galadhrim's Greeting)
• Steward of Gondor
• Song of Battle
• Eagles of the Misty Mountains