Peril in Pelargir - Progression

This time around we thought we try out the elf brothers for a change. We only took them once in the past and it seemed fitting that they could "Battle Quest" or regular quest competently if need be but also serve as great attack defense options against multiple enemies as this encounter deck can throw a lot at you from the start. We also never took Beorn in the first Hobbit box as we went for Dwarf decks so this playthrough had a new feel to it.

Here are a few things we kept in mind. Ditch Alcaron's Scroll as fast as possible and only pick it up to proceed to Quest Phase 3 and to win the game and ditch it whenever you have it and don't need it. It just makes things harder for you when you have it. We choose to start it on Beravor and let her take one defense at the start of the game to lose it. After that you really want her for questing, battle questing and her card draw (get unexpected courage on her).

Beorn is an amazing hero for stabilizing in the early game when you have many enemies. He can take several attacks before depleting his health pool and doesn't have to exhaust to do it. Use his health as a resource and defend a bunch early so you have more character available for battle questing and attacking. Also, after several defenses he can still attack with a hefty 5 and later once you stabilize he can battle quest better than anyone with 5 attack.

Glorfindel with Light of Valinor is a powerhouse, much like Beorn giving a lot of flexibility with battle questing (and normal questing) and outputting some damage.

We didn't really need spirit; much of the cards are forced effect, not when revealed, so A Test of Will not needed. A lot of the shadow effects care about Alcaron's Scroll but you should ditch it ASAP. There are only 3 shadow card that buff attack damage so most defenses are fairly safe even without cancellation. Light of Valinor and Unexpected Courage are great but nothing else is needed so just slap a Song of Battle on Glorfindel.

The other bad effects in this scenario discard resources but with Steward of Gondor and Horn of Gondor you gain a bunch (we put Steward on Beravor for more lore). Also, we choose a lot of low cost cards so the plan is not to save resources and spend it all on the low cost cards so you don't lose the resources. Maybe save a resource here and there on the brothers to ready them.

Another bad effect in discarding cards but if you get Bervaor with Unexpected courage you can replenish you hands.

The deal 1 damage to all allies can hurt in this deck as a lot of our low cost allies with 1 health. Just try and use your Warden of Healing before questing and try and have the enemies engage the player who does not currently have 1 health allies out.

We actually didn't get to play with Beravor much because she got neutralized by the condition attachment which would have moved Katherine's threat too high to use her (Prince Imrahil got one too). Even though we have 3 Miner of the Iron Hills in the deck, we didn't draw a single copy. This also ultimately lead to Katherine threating out but with just my board 2 rounds later I was about to surmount the scenario.