1 - Core Set (Progression Series)

Description

I recently got into the game, and loved it enough that I invested into a second hand collection from a local player looking to move on. As a result, I got an overwhelming amount of cards in a short period of time and haven't gotten to fully explore them very well. Since then I've mostly been net-decking and playing around with some archetypes that sounded fun to me (Dwarf Swarm, Outlands, Silvan, Noldor, Hobbit, Dunedain, etc).

My goal for this progression series is to make a two handed fellowship to handle each quest in the game and play through them on OCTGN. Hopefully by doing this I can not only familiarize myself with the cards in the game and see their interactions with other cards, but I will also improve at building my own decks so that I don't have to be so reliant on some of the more brilliant minds of the community or overly reliant on some of the most powerful cards in the game.

My goal for each cycle is to try to build a unique fellowship for each quest/box (I ran this combo through all 3 quests in the core set), and to hopefully use every single hero included in at least one deck over the course of either the cycle it is released, or the following cycle. As a result of purchasing a second hand collection, I did end up with 3 core sets, but all of these decks could be fairly easily adjusted by reducing the number of Unexpected Courages or Henamarths. A lot of progression series that I've seen allow for multiple "purchases" of the same adventure pack (for example: both players running 3 copies of Daeron's Runes). Since I only own one copy of each physical deluxe/AP I will be limiting these decks to something I could build by myself.

I'm going into most of these quests fairly blind, and will be tweaking my decks around a bit (or a lot) and only publishing them after I have managed to beat the quest a few times with it, without it seeming like a fluke victory. Any pointers that anyone might have while looking these over would be greatly appreciated, as I am brand new to trying to craft my own decks.

This deck combo was fairly easy to pilot, using Steward on Aragorn/Eowyn depending on the situation, and having Theodred toss resources to the other allowed for a lot of action advantage and resource smoothing. Denethor as a blocker and Gimli as a damage soak with Citadel pretty much handled everything that came my way, including the Hill Troll and Nazgul. This deck (or maybe its pilot) struggles a bit on Escape from Dul Goldur, depending on which hero is captured. The two games that I managed to win on that scenario were when I lost Gimli and Legolas, while losing Eowyn was fairly catastrophic.

2 comments

Dec 14, 2018 Wandalf the Gizzard 2415

I'm excited to watch your progress with this. Have fun with the game! You might end up needing to use different decks for the three different quests in a box.

As for pointers, I would add Wandering Took, Hasty Stroke (which is a staple even in today's full card pool), and one more Blade of Gondolin to the Tactics/Spirit deck. I would take out a Lorien Guide, a Favor of the Lady, a Dwarven Axe, a Horn of Gondor, both copies of Blade Mastery, and a Quick Strike.

For the other deck, I would run three Daughters and only one Self Preservation because you can chose the target, take out one copy of Gleowine, Guard of the Citadel, Celebrian's Stone, and every copy of Common Cause, Lore of Imladris, and Lorien's Wealth for a third Henamarth, Erebor Hammersmith, Valiant Sacrifice, two copies of Protector of Lorien. and three copies each of Radagast's Cunning and Secret Paths.

Sorry if you wanted tips on how to build decks rather than me just straight up telling you what cards you should include. Teach a man to fish instead of handing him one, right? Also, don't be afraid of using less than fifty cards in each deck until you have a slightly larger card pool if you fell like it.

Dec 14, 2018 ShellinProgression 4866

I appreciate all of the tips! I think those are some good ideas for changes, as you pretty much told me to junk all of the cards that i usually ended up tossing to Eowyn anyways. I've already started building and testing some of the decks for the early Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle, so I will definitely keep a lot of those ideas in mind for crafting those!