40 - Trouble in Tharbad (Progression Series)

This is another fellowship continuing on in my goal to play through all of the quests in release order to learn how all (or most) of the cards interact with one another. The first fellowship for the quests in the core set can be found here, and it contains a slightly more detailed overview of what I'm going for with building these decks. As always, any feedback is appreciated so that I can continue to learn more!

Silvans are probably my favorite deck archetype to play with, so I'm glad we got Haldir of Lórien in this pack and can finally put a really good one together. The threat reduction mechanic in the quest really can make it easy to avoid engaging enemies with both decks once you get your footing, so I decided to build a Dúnhere deck to go alongside Haldir and really try to kill everything in the staging area. Since I hadn't used Théoden yet, it seemed like a good time to slot him in, and I rounded off the Rohan deck with Éomer so that both decks can remain fairly thematic.

On the Rohan side of things West Road Traveller can be used to great effect in this quest if timed correctly, giving you an extra round with Tharbad Hideout as the active location if you hold off on playing her until you've traveled to one. Other than that, it's pretty straight forward to play, using Spear of the Mark and Dagger of Westernesse Dunhere can pretty much pick off any of the enemies in the staging area, and you can definitely chump block or defend with Eomer in the early game. Light of Valinor will be played across table to either Celeborn or Haldir depending on the situation. If it comes out early you can give it to Celeborn to let him quest and defend, if it's after your threat is under control it should go onto Haldir to let him add a little extra willpower while still using his ability.

The Silvan deck doesn't really have anything tricky going on, and is already really powerful even without some of the tools that come in the second half of this cycle. Legolas is primarily there just for his Tactics icon, but thanks to Theoden he even quests halfway well in this fellowship. Ideally you'll want to get Haldir a Rivendell Blade and Dagger of Westernesse and then you can be off and running. Protector of Lórien can give you some added defense in the early game, or some Willpower in the final push if you end up with a bunch of extra Silvan event cards in hand (which can happen since this deck is a little light on allies to be able to play all of them).