I've always been intrigued by the ranger deck from the Against the Shadow cycle, but they never quite clicked. I had a Faramir, Mirlonde, and Pippin/Denethor deck that relied on songs and Great Yew Bow, but it never quite worked. Everything was too expensive and it was hard to keep enemies in the staging area. But with the addition of a few new cards - mainly Ithilien Lookout and Noiseless Movement - a similar deck with no ranger heroes has become viable. Instead of using only ranger tricks and ranger spikes to keep enemies in the staging area, this deck does that mostly by having low threat. Noiseless Movement is the safety net in case there are enemies that want to engage.

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Total Cards: (54)

Hero: (3) - Starting Threat: 17
1x Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)
1x Mirlonde (The Drúadan Forest)
1x Pippin (The Black Riders)

Ally: (15)
3x Ithilien Lookout (The Dunland Trap)
2x Anborn (The Blood of Gondor)
3x Ithilien Tracker (Heirs of Numenor)
1x Henamarth Riversong (Core Set)
3x Silvan Refugee (The Drúadan Forest)
3x Master of the Forge (Shadow and Flame)

Attachment: (18)
1x Hobbit Pipe (The Black Riders)
1x Leaf Brooch (The Three Trials)
3x Poisoned Stakes (The Blood of Gondor)
3x Ranger Bow (Assault on Osgiliath)
3x Ranger Spikes (Heirs of Numenor)
3x Resourceful (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Light of Valinor (Foundations of Stone)
1x Asfaloth (Foundations of Stone)

Event: (21)
2x A Test of Will (Core Set)
3x Elrond's Counsel (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Needful to Know (The Redhorn Gate)
3x Risk Some Light (Shadow and Flame)
2x The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core Set)
3x Noiseless Movement (The Three Trials)
1x Dwarven Tomb (Core Set)
3x Daeron's Runes (Foundations of Stone)
1x Out of Sight (The Long Dark)

Ideally you will get an Ithilien Lookout and LoV on the first turn. The card peek from the Lookout is incredibly useful for planning your turn. That and other encounter deck manipulation cards (Risk Some Light, Henamarth, Needful to Know) make sure that you can use the right trap for the right enemy. Cave Troll? No Problem! Hit him with poison stakes and let him die over 4 turns. Low engagement cost? Lay down some ranger spikes. Eventually you can get 2 or 3 Ranger Bows in play and snipe most enemies as soon as they come off the deck. In the rare instance that you do have to engage an enemy, the Silvan Refugees make good meat shields. Or if you have Out of Sight, you can probably take down 2 enemies at the same time.

This deck has done very well so far, as long as the quest doesn't have too many doomed cards. It's been a lot of fun to play Seventh Level. Even with the swarm of enemies, I can still usually win without being forced to engage a single enemy. It's so nice to never have to worry about shadow cards. Watcher in the Water was tricky because of the 12 and 18 engagement tentacles. I still won about half the time because the Doors of Durin are really easy when you can peek at the encounter deck.

I love this type of deck. The only unfortunate thing is that Pippin's card draw ability for engaging enemies does not get used, so I often sued Bifur get a good early start on dropping more Lore cards.

With only 1 Riversong, you can add Rumor from the Earth 0 cost event to peek at top of encounter deck if your not getting consistent looks. For 1 resources you can put it back in your hand too. 7th level is one of the ultimate tests for this deck with all the low engagement enemies. Nice work!

Who you attaching Leaf Brooch to? Glorfindel for the the greeting?

hmmmm sounds promising....what about some Nmode scenarios? Can that deck manage some of them?

Thanks! Yeah, Pippin's card draw rarely gets used unless there is a high engagement, low attack enemy like Goblin Scout in the staging area. You really need to get at least one Master of the Forge or at least Hobbit Pipe to help with the card draw.

Rumor from the Earth might be worth adding. If I don't get Hemamarth, I can usually use Risk Some Light and Ithilien Lookouts to see most of the encounter cards. One Risk Some Light can cover three turns in most instances since you aren't drawing shadow cards. I was also thinking about adding Expecting Mischief to take out some enemies before the Ranger Bows start rolling.

The brooch hero has varied. If it's a game where I will be cycling Noiseless Movement, I'll put it on Pippin. If I have greeting and out of sight in hand, I'll put it on Glorfindel. Resourceful always goes on lore first. If I get brooch after a resourceful or two, it just goes on whoever has fewer resources.

I just beat Watcher in the Water by putting 3 poisoned stakes in play right before he showed up. Things like that make me love this game.

hmmmm sounds promising....what about some Nmode scenarios? Can that deck manage some of them?

I don't have any NM scenarios yet since I'm mostly a theme player and when I play with my wife she doesn't like to lose. Feel free to give it a try! Let me know if you make any tweaks.

Just tried it against Morgul Vale and completely dominated. Ithilien Lookouts on each of the first two turns revealed locations, so I was able to safely quest and play Resourceful and Masters of the Forge. Ranger bow on the 2nd turn allowed me to start sniping Murzag. Risk Some Light gave me more encounter deck manipulation so I could drop an Ithilien pit on a bodyguard and kill him in one turn. Another Risk Some Light let me engage Murzag, chump block with a refugee, and get rid of two nasty cards via his attack. I knew Alcaron was coming, so I dropped Ranger Spikes and Poison Stakes in the staging area. Alcaron died in two turns without engagement. Nazgul shows up and runs into 2 waves of double ranger bow (noiseless movement kept him in the staging area). Out of sight let Glorfindel and Anborn finish him off. Finished at 23 threat and only got attacked twice the whole game. It was a very good draw for me, but it felt good to annihilate a fairly difficult quest.