d20 Progression - The Hunt for Gollum

My first attempt at deck building beyond the core set. That said, we're playing progression mode and there are only 10 Hunt for Gollum cards added to the pool for me to choose from. Among them I think Song of Kings is the MVP for opening up the possibility to access cards and I think you'll like Winged Guardian (leviosa) too, Adam.

Although I've played this scenario before I've not looked it up to try and keep my recollection of it as vague as possible. This is to try and keep us guessing about the balance of the decks. If we win, we'll all agree I'm a brilliant deck builder. If we get thrashed, we'll all agree that you are rubbish pilots but that we should tweak the decks anyway.

At first glance, judging by the heroes' spheres you might think the decks are mono-sphere. However, with the inclusion of Celebrían's Stone to put on Aragorn and Song of Kings to put on a hero in the other decks, Dan gets access to cards and the rest of us get access to cards. Digging these cards out early is vital to the overall engine. To this end I've built additional copies into decks to increase the probability of them turning up in our opening hands. If they don't show up, we must mulligan for them. Once we've got them in play any spares can be used as duds to pitch to Éowyn's ability and improve her questing stats further. Similarly, I've also included extra copies of Steward of Gondor to chuck to Dan to put on Aragorn quickly and get him paying out like a broken fruit machine.

Once we have them in play we get to work...

Adam and Dan, you are the grunt department. Get your allies out quickly and get bashing. If Thalin, Théodred and Aragorn can be spared to quest to fire their abilities that's great but their bigger priority is to soak up and deliver pain. Adam, I've included Citadel Plate and other toys for Gimli to play with and Dan, I've included A Test of Will and Hasty Stroke to deal with any encounter deck and shadow card shenanigans. You've both got plenty of chump blockers to soak up punishment plus, Adam, you've also got some sentinel defenders in the shape of Gondorian Spearman and Winged Guardian (leviosa) and both of you have some ranged allies too to help us out should me or Lincoln end up engaged with an enemy that we would rather not have to deal with.

Lincoln, you and I provide the subtlety! You are heavy on healing, card draw and threat suppression whilst I am big on and general support. Your healing MVPs are Daughter of the Nimrodel, Self Preservation, Lore of Imladris and, if you have the cash to spare, Beorn's Hospitality. For card draw there's Bilbo Baggins's grey text that will always fire, Beravor's on board ability that you'll need to exhaust her for, Gléowine and Lórien's Wealth. And to keep the under control you've got Secret Paths and Radagast's Cunning to throw in when things are looking dicey in the staging area.

For my part, I'll be pushing hard to get triple The Favor of the Lady on to Éowyn and a bunch of Northern Trackers and Snowbourn Scouts out to help with questing. After that I'll try to gift Unexpected Courage and Ever Vigilant on to hard pressed heroes and allies and support in questing, combat and general threat reduction with the likes of A Test of Will, Hasty Stroke and The Galadhrim's Greeting.

So, gents, what could possibly go wrong?!