Okay, so many people now have made solo decks using Dunhere and staging-area attacks, but has anyone ever thought of putting Bard and great yew bow to also kill stuff in the staging area? I think it would make for a nice sorta new archetype of Spirit Tactics.

Here's what I've come up with:

Glorfindel (sp)

Dunhere

Bard the Bowman

Defender of Rammas x3

Ethir Swordsman x3

Arwen Undomiel x2

Gandalf (core) x3

Light of Valinor x3

Great Yew Bow x3

Spear of the Mark x3

Rivendell Blade

Dagger of Westernesse

Unexpected Courage x2

Nor am I a Stranger x2

Ancient Mathom x3

Black Arrow

A Light in the Dark x3

A Test of Will x3

Feint x3

Foe-Hammer x3

Dwarven Tonb x2

Elrond's Counsel x3

Hands Upon the Bow x3

The Galadhrim's Greeting

So the first problem this deck has is too few allies. That's the first thing I'd change. As for the rest, Nor am I a Stranger goes on Bard so he can attack with the Spear as well. Great Yew Bow as well of course, the rest is pretty much obvious stuff. What do you think? I tried it against the first quest of the Hobbit (which is maybe the worst quest to try it since one of the trolls makes troll enemies immune to damage while in the staging area) and lost the three times (though I got pretty bad hands).

Nice idea! I will give it a try - when I get Hobbit on the Dorstep.

Nice idea. But I would make it multiplayer deck and included Háma instead of Glorfy to recycle Hands upon the Bow and Forth Eorlingas maybe?

But if you want it as solo deck, include more threat reduction- 3 Galadhrim's greeting

The idea is for it to be a solo deck. Just finished Into the Pit, won in the first attempt. Still, the deck needs more allies. Any suggestions on what to remove? Also yeah, more threat reduction would be nice.

Love the idea for this deck.

It looks like you've fallen into a similar trap that I fall into many times: too many attachments! I love to pump up my heroes, but I think dropping some could help you make room for allies.

I say drop Rivendell Blade and the Dagger and, unless you're going to put in more questy allies, I would drop Mathom and rely on Foe-hammer for card draw. Feint might also be superfluous, as you have Light in the Dark to keep allies off your back and your threat should be very low with Elrond's Counsel and Galadhrim's. If anybody gets through Glorfindel is there as your defensive line. Nor Am I A Stranger is also for the chopping block, as Bard doesn't necessarily need that Spear. If you put in some horsies then it might be worth the space.

But between the Blade, Dagger, Mathom, and Feint you can have up to 21 allies which should put you in a good place and give your heroes some breathing room.

I hope that helps!

Thanks shipwreck!! Yeah I always put too many attachments, I like them so much. Anyway, yeah I think I could drop those attachments, but another thing this deck has problems with is resource generation, for more allies i'd need more resources and especially tactics resources. In the late game they pile up although that would not happen if I have lots of allies. Though I guess I haven't tried it's pretty much my prediction. Also I don't have Voice of Isengard yet sadly so I don't have the warhorse nor the horse breeder with would be perfect. .

Is there a reason for adding "Nor am I a Stranger"?

"Unexpected Courage" also seems to be superfluous to me - the only advantage it gives you is that Bard is able to quest and attack.

"Silvan Refugee" is a nice card to have in a deck that is build around the "no one shall die" principle. Core Gandalf isn't their best friend through (but he could be replaced by more "Greetings".

The rest of my thoughts has been said by shipwreck already.

Hmmh, if you want to approach this from a different angle, you could build the deck around "Support of the Eagles" feat "Vasall of the Windlord" and "Descendant of Thorondor". That'd possibly require a couple "Songs of Battle". The Vasalls also synergize quite nicely with "Hail of Stones".

We've been doing this for a bit in two-player: Dunhere, Sam, Pippin (Lore) on one side, with Bard, Glorfindel (Spirit), and Merry on the other. Both sides end up with 22 starting threat. Originally put the decks together to crack the nut of "Fords of the Isen" by avoiding nasty enemies. They work very well in other quests too, though. Bard is a champ and can attack out-of-order with Great Yew Bow since it is a Combat Action (i.e., doesn't have to wait for Dunhere), so he can apply his -2 defense buff ahead of Dunhere for tougher enemies.

You've approached it a bit differently than I did -- most of our allies are included for questing power, since we try to avoid engaging enemies as much as possible. And of course Master of the Forge on one end and Bofur (tactics) on the other end to fish out the crucial attachments for these decks.

Here's a new, improved version using shipwreck's suggestion:

Dunhere

Bard

Glorfindel

Ethir Swordsman x3

Silvan Refugee x3

Arwen Undomiel x2

The Riddermark's Finest x2

Elfhelm

Guthlaf

Gondorian Spearman x3

Defender of Rammas x3

Gandalf x3

Great Yew Bow x3

Spear of the Mark x3

Unexpected Courage x2

Light of Valinor x3

Black Arrow

Elrond's Counsel x3

Hands Upon the Bow x3

Dwarven Tomb x2

Foe-Hammer x3

A Light in the Dark x3

A Test of Will x3

The Galadhrim's Greeting

Tried it against JDtA and won on the first attempt rather easily. Still don't have a lot of willpower but with these new allies it'll be enough for most scenarios I think.