61 - The Dread Realm (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!

After a fun detour through The Land of Shadow, it is time to finish off the Angmar Awakens cycle. There were a fair number of Dunedain, Valour, and Noldor cards that I hadn't really gotten to use much during this cycle, so I decided to use as many of them as I possibly could here in this final quest. Ultimately, it turned out to work fairly well, though I did have some issues with threat and sorcery effects. Like many quests in this cycle, it seemed like surviving the first few rounds was the biggest obstacle. Once the Dunedain deck had a few enemies trapped in front of it and could start pouring out allies for cheap with Heir of Valandil it seemed like it was more or less smooth sailing so long as I could find a Gandalf to drop threat a little bit when needed.

Aragorn gets loaded up with pretty much everything, which allows him to spend his resources for any sphere and have 8 hit points + be swinging for effectively 5 with his ability and Sword of Númenor. He can take a few undefended attacks this way if need be with Glorfindel and Elrond there to help soak up the damage. Hour of Wrath, Horn's Cry, and Descendants of Kings are all great events that can help out if the board gets a little too flooded with enemies.

The Noldor deck is pretty much just there to quest hard and offer some support for the Dunedain. With Light of Valinor Elrond can quest and then still defend a reanimated dead until Aragorn can pull it over to his side of the table. Forest Snare continues to be the best friend of a Dunedain deck, so those should be the priority for the Lore resources, before worrying about getting Gildor Inglorion and Galdor of the Havens out. Deep Knowledge helps both decks dig for some pieces (along with the Imladris Stargazer) plus it helps push the Dunedain to Valour more quickly.

The Lost Realm + Angmar Awakens was definitely my favorite cycle up to this point. It's awesome how quickly both the Silvan and Dunedain traits were developed over the last two cycles. I have not played nearly enough Noldor, and haven't played a single quest in the Dream-Chaser cycle yet, so I'm excited to dive into those.