59 - Journey to the Cross-Roads (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!

This quest has a bit of a reputation for being incredibly difficult in true solo (though I haven't played it that way), but I didn't find it to be too ridiculously challenging two-handed (I definitely had more issues with Shelob in this box). However, I am playing standalone instead of in campaign mode, so if an occasional enemy did slip through the cracks in my attempts it wasn't the end of the world. I still did try to play as if I would have to deal with the enemies later and did everything I could to prevent them from reaching The Black Gate.

The engagement deck wants to try to snag as many enemies as possible from the staging area, relying on Halbarad to try to make sure none stay up and make it to The Black Gate. Son of Arnor can be useful to pull one down during Planning before they make it to the gate, which will also give Sam Gamgee a boost to questing that round. Sam and Halbarad work incredibly well together, boosting Sam's defense and attack multiple times means that he and Beregond should be able to handle all of the attacks that come on down (even the Mumaks shouldn't be too much of an issue). Elf-friend can go on Beregond to allow him to get some healing from the Silvan Tracker, who is also there to allow the Silvan heroes to absorb all of the archery damage without much worry at all.

The Silvan deck is there to handle the enemies, either in Staging with Hands Upon the Bow or through ranged attacks with Legolas and Haldir of Lórien. Unfortunately, since this is a progression style play through it is a little bit harder to get the Mumaks discarded with Straight Shot, but it can be done after Haldir's Combat Action with Rivendell Blade equipped. If the Engagement deck has to tank the elephant for 3 turns, it certainly can (and since there are enough pieces needed to make the combo work, you will probably have to either deal with the first one normally, or just be resigned to it going to The Black Gate).

I used Frodo Baggins from The Land of Shadow box as another way to potentially reduce the Mumak's armor to 0. Once he has Fellowship of the Ring attached his action will boost him up to 5. At that point, Speak Your Promise! will reduce the Mumak's defense to 0. Follow Me! can be used to take control of Frodo so that this can be done even if the Silvan's are first player in a round where the Mumak is revealed.