As I really liked leptokurt's idea and Pharmboys2013's revival of it(http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/96660-solo-mono-challenge-4-druadan-forest/), I decided to make "Solo Mono Challenge 5"!

In this challenge we will play "Fords of Isen"- the 1st quest of Voice of Isengard box. The players will make 4 mono-sphere decks (1 for each sphere) and play this quest 3 times with each deck.

If you want to join, build 4 mono sphere decks- 1 Spirit, 1 Leadership, 1 Lore and 1 Tactics. As a mono-sphere deck I mean deck that only contains cards of that specific sphere or neutral cards. The deck can't include more than 15 neutral cards. Additionaly, you can't control more than 2 heroes, that share the same Trait (except for Noble and Warrior)=> (e.g. you can not play trio of Thorin, Dáin and Balin, cos they are all dwarves. But you can for example play Beravor, Faramir, Denethor as not a single Trait is shared by 3 different heroes ).

Then, you will record your score for each game and player with smallest total score of the 12 games is the WINNER! If you lose, it counts as score of "250".


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You may also receive special score reduction from this list:
SPIRIT:
-50 for not using spirit Glorfindel.
-30 for using at least one spirit Dwarf hero
TACTICS:
-50 for not using Théoden
-30 for using Elladan
LEADERSHIP:
-30 for using Elrohir
-40 for using Hirluin the Fair
PENALTY +50 for using Dain Ironfoot
LORE:
-80 for using Bilbo Baggins!!! (please, someone try it!)
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Example of scoring system:
I just played 3 games with my mono-leadership deck with Elrohir, Hirluin and Aragorn.
1st game: 124
2nd game: LOSS= 250
3rd game: 97
Special: -70 for using Elrohir and Hirluin.
TOTAL: 401


And under this all you write some awesome story from game.

Post your scores until the end of April!

Yay I will be participating

I'm in

I'm in, as soon as I'm done with my Duel!

I don't have the time to play this, but the bonus points need to go. A penalty for using Dain, but a bonus for using Hirluin?

Mi first sphere: spirit

Heroes: Caldara · Eowyn · Frodo

1st game: win 104

2nd game: win 82

3rd game: win 91

Very very good deck. I hadn't to change any card from my original deck. Only mathom by test of will.

Total score: 277 --> 227 with bonus no-glorfindel

PD: i think it is a very good score, others spheres i think not so much for me

I don't have the time to play this, but the bonus points need to go. A penalty for using Dain, but a bonus for using Hirluin?

Yes, because it is monosphere deck, so Mr. Hirluin is useless.

Useless? He can play every Outland ally in the game and you have access to Lord of Morthrod or how it's called, replacing every out of sphere Outlandie.

I don't have the time to play this, but the bonus points need to go. A penalty for using Dain, but a bonus for using Hirluin?

Yes, because it is monosphere deck, so Mr. Hirluin is useless.

OK. I see your reasoning. Maybe it will work out.

Useless? He can play every Outland ally in the game and you have access to Lord of Morthrod or how it's called, replacing every out of sphere Outlandie.

You can only use Leadership or neutral cards.

Ok, I didn't read the description enough. For me, monosphere deck is a deck with the same printed resource icon on all the heroes.

1st sphere done, Tactics did quite good!

TACTICS
Heroes: Théoden, Merry, Legolas
Bonuses: None
1st game: 103
2nd game: 108

3rd game: 92
TOTAL: 303

I am happy that i had no loss and OK scores. All games were very similar, 6-7 round, no dead heroes, Merry, Théoden questing, Legolas killing and placing progress. I had no problems with enemies and questing went unexpectedly well.

If you are playing LORE, GRÍMA is allowed!

1st sphere: Lore

Heroes: Bifur, Grima, Aragorn

Game 1: won -135

Game 2: won - 127

Game 3: loss - 250

I had this deck made prior to the tournament so I probably could have designed something better suited to get a good score on this quest but really didnt feel like it. The deck was a doomed deck revolved around card draw and the like so I'm actually pleased it won 2/3 considering the card draw hating dunlanders but the deck takes a while to get going and even with Aragorn normally ends with a higher threat which is evident in my scores. Not a ton of attack power either which was the main cause of the loss in the 3rd game.

2nd sphere: tactics

Heroes: Legolas, Beorn, Merry

Game 1: won - 112

Game 2: loss - 250

Game 3: won - 146

Made this deck out of the desire to really just use Beorn who I've never really utilized efficiently even though I like the card (especially the art). Merry was used solely for questing and Legolas helped a bit in that regard too with his ability. First match went very smoothly. 2nd was the opposite, was pretty much over before it began with a dunland captain being revealed during the first turn of staging. 3rd quest was a hard fought victory, took a lot of turns because of the overall low will power I could contribute, and all my heroes had only 1 HP left due to Beorn defending a lot and the time effect triggering on stage 2B twice. All the damage on my heroes contributed to a pretty high score during 3 as well (an extra 13 being added). So probably not going to win the competition by any means, but still having fun.

K, started with lore first:

Heroes: Glorfindel, Mirlonde, Pippin (starting threat: 23)

game 1: win - 141

game 2: win - 99

game 3 - win 137

total: 377

Stories:

First game I started with Asfaloth in my starting hand (huzzah) and Elf-stone right next to it. I got a location on turn 2 and could play Hobbit Gandalf for free on turn 3. After that I had the upper hand, but unfortunatly I still had to kill some trapped enemies which turned out to be more difficult as expected, as I had a streak of three enemies in a row drawn from the encounter deck during stage 3.

Game 2 saw neither Gandalf nor Asfaloth, but a couple of harmless encounter cards when I was about to finish stage 1 and 2. Only a few enemies popped up, everything went according to Glorfindel's plan and Pippin plus Protector of Lorien plus two Masters of Lore reuced my hand size to a bare minimum.

Game 3 was pretty much standard. I had to suffer a ot of damage before Silvan tracker popped up to take off some of the heat. Again no Gandalf and Asfaloth. I guess these two were hanging out together somewhere...

The deck:

Full of elven allies and stuff plus lots of rangers and traps, traps, traps. I love traps!

Hello guys,

First of all, let me say that I love the game. Second, I am very interesting in this sort of challenges that are precisely the way I (and my friends) are approaching the game.

I tried yesterday night to start the challenge. Due to time constraint, I was only able to do just one time the Ford of Isen with Grima, Mirlonde, Loragorn.

Score 96 (7x10+27-1).

Except the fact to have double Grima (objectif ally and Hero) that seems to be acceptable for this challenge (according to Scroll Lock post #13), I really appreciated the game as it was my first test of my Grima deck.

Here is my build, feel free to comment :

The Heros seems for me auto-include for a mono sphere build as intention to diminish the doom effect generated by Grima. I build the deck based on the master of the forge engine with key attachments.

1 Dori

1 Gleowine

2 Erebor Hammersmith

3 Master of the Forge

3 Warden of Healing

2 Daughter of the Nimrodel

2 Haldir of Lorien

2 Gildor Inglorion

3 Gandalf

19 allies

3 Daeron's Rune

3 Deep Knowledge

3 Mithrandir's Advice

9 Events

3 Asfaloth

3 Keys of Orthanc

3 Elf-stone

3 Scroll of Isildur

2 Healing Herbs

3 Ranger Spikes

2 A burning Brand

3 Protector of Lorien

22 Attachments

The design of this deck was, of course, not made for this precise quest.

For last night game, the deck and I took some time to be set (5 rounds for the 1^st phase) but it went incredibly fast after (thanks to cards drawing and Protector of Loriens) : 2 rounds for phase 2 and just 1 questing session for the last phase (discarding 3x3cards to my protectors). I did go through the whole player deck by the end of the game. Protector of Lorien was, of course, MVP as it enabled me to get my hand size at the optimum level each time.

The first intent of the deck was to be played in multiplayer to bring a good support in questing (traps and protector), blocking foes (Loragorn, Haldir and burning brands) and most of all in healing. Normally, it should go with a Glorfindel, Caldara, Eowyn mono spirit and a Beregond, Legolas, Merry mono tactics.

I will try to finish the challenge, but not tonight as I will play multiplayer.

My lore deck for it doesnt run so good, but ok:

Glorfindel · Mirlonde · Pippin:

1s game: 121

2nd game: 167

3rd game: 146

Total score-lore: 434

Bad luck with enemies, a lot of hard them were revealed. It delays me for the win. But i won without so many problems, only i needed time.

Leadership!

Heroes: Boromir (Gondor), Balin (Dwarf, Shadow killer)

Sam Gamgee (Hobbit, Cook)

1st game: 250, loss

2nd game: 94

3rd game: 96

Bonuses: Nah, who needs bonuses when you have prince, king and the most important hobbit in the fictional world.

Total: 440

If you want to have some card draw, go for King under the Mountain. It is like drawing 2 cards, but it has awesome wording cos you TAKE the card to your hand instead of drawing.

I am satisfied with my deck. That loss was because of 2 dunland chieftains and that nasty one with a bow and just could not hold it.

Lets go for lore with Bilbo!

Leadership

Heroes: Boromir, Balin, Sam

Game 1- win - 103

Game 2 - loss- 250

Game 3 - win - 123

Loss came the way many do in this game, just an initial terrible staging step that was beyond repair

My leadership: Aragorn · Imrahil · Sam

1st game: 97

2nd game: 250 lost

3rd game: 109

Total: 456

If it is revealed a chieftain dunlendan, you must be in a very good situation or you lose, lol; lets try with my last sphere: tactics...

I'm done ^^.

Tactics: Theoden · Merry · Boromir

1st game: 116

2nd game: 131

3rd game: 102

Total: 349.

Lets add all the scores: 227 spirit; 434 lore; 456 leadership; 349 tactics --> total: 1466

I think it is a good score. Note: leadership is the hardest for me. Tactics easy with Theoden (no bonus ^^) and spirit very good if you know how to use Caldara.

Next stop: SPIRIT

Heroes: Eowyn, Frodo Baggins, Caldara (starting threat: 24)

game 1: win - 134

game 2: win - 127

game 3: win - 99

total: 360 - 50 (for not using GlorfindeI) = 310

Stories:

I had big problems to build a successful spirit deck (partly because I somehow missed the trait restriction and desperatly tried to make an all Hobbit deck work... ). I came eventually up with the same combo as Mndala.

The first game was the closest of the three. The Zigil Miner / Stargazer Combo fed me with enough resources to play some allies plus Hobbit Gandalf, plus twice Saruman. That way I could defeat some of the tougher enemies. In my last turn I used Caldara's ability to play Elfhelm and the Northern tracker tpo defeat the remaining enemies.

The second and third game were easier, thanks to kind draws from the encounter deck (and again the Miner/Stargazer combo). In my last game I could have finished one turn earlier, but I decided to give up Hobbit Gandalf tio play another version from my hand. I was one resource short, however, but hoped to get one more resource from Zigil Miner's ability. I had Stargazer sacrificed earlier, and of course I guessed wrongly, couldn't play Gandalf and had thus to add another turn.

Caldara is powerful: you can put into game, 1 damrod, 1 elfhelm and several trackers... all joined has 10attack (poor chieftain dunland . Even you can do undefendeds with some enemies with 2 attacks, if shadow is nothing, Caldara deals the damages and after you clean her with his hability and Fate and Destiny, if shadow has + attack, Frodo takes.

With Eowyn you discard the hard allies; only with 1 Zigil in first hand is enough. You are discarding lots of cards each round by Eowyn and Zigil, and you recycle the ones you want: allies with Caldara or Stand and Fight; events (Fate and Destiny) with Map or Dwarf Tomb... even Will of West is good! You play with hand, with deck and with discard pile... all joined! Lol, really amazing.

PD: hidden cache! dont forget. Powerful here.

Oh my: leadership!

Heroes: Balin, Boromir, Sam Gamgee (starting threat: 28)

game 1: loss - 250

game 2: loss - 250

game 3: win - 111

total: 610 - 30 (for using Elrohir) = 580

Stories:

I used my mono leadership that crushed To Ctach an orc multiple times, but had to switch a hero to fullfill the requirements. Prince Imrahil thus left for Elrohir (just because of the bonus, otherwise it would have been Balin). That's why I didn#t make any play testing and jumped into the cold water. A terrible mistake, as it turned out!

The first to games went down quickly. In both games my threat had been raised over 35 after three turns, with a Ciieftain waiting in the staging area and my hand full of cards.

The third game went like it was supposed to be. Sneak Gandalf lowered my threat multiple times and helped to defeat all enemies. I had lots of willpower due to Faramir and Visionary Leadership, but during stage 3 I got two bandits in a row wna di didn't have the ATT points to kill them instantly. That#s why it took my one more turn to complete the scenario.

P.S.: ****, I totally forgot about Hidden Cache for my spirit deck. Good call!