This deck sets Aragorn up to basically defend Helm's deep all on his own. He'll quest, defend and attack for over 20 if needed and all in the same round. Of course it takes a bit of setup, but it seems to not take as long as it looks. Gandalf helps move through the deck pretty well and Galadriel is just a fantastic ally for this deck.

In terms of strategy, all I can say is every attachment besides the Gandalf ones go to Aragorn. He'll have like 20 something attachments on him in the end. For the most part Theodred kicks his resource to him every round. Aragorn's ability to ready heroes for 2 resources allows for an absurd amount of action advantage, when he's got a ton of resources on him. All heroes quest every round for the most part.

The biggest threat that i've encountered was archery damage. So, when Galadriel is in play she can soak some up, also Faramir, but the biggest help is Ring of Barahir. Aragorn can get up to 10hp when he's all decked out.

There is just so much ally hate in this scenario, along with the threat increasing burdens i have for destroyed allies, it's more advantageous to play without many.

For the most part, maybe I'm getting lucky, but the last 2 games I've played against the scenario i've dominated it. The active location was never even cleared by the encounter deck and I went directly from stage 2 to 5. Just made sure to hold on to ToW to cancel the treachery that adds 3 progress to the quest if it shows up. I don't even bother taking Poisoned Counsels either.

Anyway, here's the deck. Questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcomed.

Deck Created with CardGameDB.com The Lord of the Rings Deckbuilder

Starting threat: 31 (1 threat penalty acquired last scenario)

Total Cards: (52)

Hero: (4)

1x Aragorn (The Treason of Saruman)

1x Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)

1x Gandalf (The Road Darkens)

1x Theodred (Core Set)

Ally: (6)

3x Galadriel (The Road Darkens)

3x Faramir (Core Set)

Attachment: (37)

3x Dunedain Quest (A Journey to Rhosgobel)

3x Dunedain Warning (Conflict at the Carrock)

3x Dunedain Mark (The Hunt for Gollum)

3x Sword that was Broken (The Watcher in the Water)

3x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)

3x Gandalf Staff (The Road Darkens)

3x Wizard Pipe (The Road Darkens)

3x Celebrian's Stone (Core Set)

2x Heir of Mardil (Celebrimbor's Secret)

3x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)

2x Ring of Barahir (The Steward's Fear)

2x Gondorian Fire (Assault on Osgiliath)

2x Blood of Numenor (Heirs of Numenor)

Boons in Deck:

1x Andúril (The Road Darkens)

1x Glamdring (The Road Darkens)

Event: (9)

3x A Test of Will (Core Set)

3x Lay of Nimrodel (The Morgul Vale)

3x The Three Hunters (The Treason of Saruman)

Boons attached to heroes:

Valiant Warrior (Aragorn)

Three Golden Hairs (Aragorn) not used during quest

Beyond all hope (Gandalf)

Edit removed Fellowship of the Ring Attachment, discovered it was not playable. Deck loses 4 WP. From what i've seen, it should not be problem, but need to play it through again to see.

A deck that actually takes advantage of fellowship heroes? Awesome! I think Aragorn's ability is really good as well.

Same deck trounced Isengard. Did not even bother trying to recruit ents.

Weird scenario. Had to read and re-read the cards to understand what was going on. Not sure I like it.

I'd actualy say the one that was the most challenging was the first scenario. It's probably my favorite of the 3 too. I did not have Gandalf at the time and was using spirit Theoden. So that probably made it more challenging. Helm's deep was cool mechanic, but my deck really stomped it. Must be much more difficult mulitplayer.

I have to agree on the Isengard scenario. I liked what they were trying to do, especially with the discard mechanics and alternative loss condition with an empty hand. Howver, the execution seemed less polished and I found that I could manipulate many quirky loopholes to break the quest. For instance, you can travel to Isengard immediately after advancing to the final stage and put lethal damage on Saruman before even facing one "extra" attack. Then the rest is just questing, which is normally pretty easy. It ended up being the easiest of the three quests because of that.

How do you use Fellowship of the Ring???

Aragorn isn't considered a Ring-bearer just by being in Fellowship sphere... Or am i missing something?

How do you use Fellowship of the Ring???

Aragorn isn't considered a Ring-bearer just by being in Fellowship sphere... Or am i missing something?

No. I think we did. Good point.

You can still use Frodo's Intuition though.

How do you use Fellowship of the Ring???

Aragorn isn't considered a Ring-bearer just by being in Fellowship sphere... Or am i missing something?

Good one. I missed that. Should not be a problem, but when I get a chance I'll go back and run the scenarios again to see if anything changes. Thanks.

The saga Frodo has ring bearer trait, Aragorn does not, thought he could pay for it because of fellowship resources. Did not even notice it was trait specific.

I'll just replace with one more Faramir and a Lay of Nimrodel.

I have to agree on the Isengard scenario. I liked what they were trying to do, especially with the discard mechanics and alternative loss condition with an empty hand. Howver, the execution seemed less polished and I found that I could manipulate many quirky loopholes to break the quest. For instance, you can travel to Isengard immediately after advancing to the final stage and put lethal damage on Saruman before even facing one "extra" attack. Then the rest is just questing, which is normally pretty easy. It ended up being the easiest of the three quests because of that.

You are aware that he attacks any time a player draws a card regardless of whether he is engaged with someone or not.

So even if you do this (which I also do) the following rounds that you are just trying to finish the quest stage in still feature extra attacks from Saruman anytime a player draws a card.

/\Yes

I have to agree on the Isengard scenario. I liked what they were trying to do, especially with the discard mechanics and alternative loss condition with an empty hand. Howver, the execution seemed less polished and I found that I could manipulate many quirky loopholes to break the quest. For instance, you can travel to Isengard immediately after advancing to the final stage and put lethal damage on Saruman before even facing one "extra" attack. Then the rest is just questing, which is normally pretty easy. It ended up being the easiest of the three quests because of that.

Well, if I understand it right, and I think I do, you can do it even better. The way you describe, Saruman still gets to attack on the next round, the lethal damage does not remove him from play since he is indestructible.

The way to do it is clear the fifth location at the beginning of a round (with an Ent), then quest to put all progress needed, then travel to Orthanc and put enough damage on Saruman -- and avoid any additional attack by him.

And yes, once you figure this out, the quest becomes much easier but I still like it.

I think some of you who find some of the quests too easy are selling yourself short by playing a) solo, as many latter quests get way harder (and better) whilst playing coop, and b) with a deck built directly for the scenario in question.

Even though I'm probably never going to play that deck (too lazy to do all that attachement stuff), I love it and the image of Aragorn swirling around like a whirlwind is hilarious.

Btw, my new best friend for this particular scenario is "Ever Onward". Not sure if it's that helpful in a deck that has barely no allies, but the fact that it gives you a turn for free in which you can use all your characters to handle your enemies always brings a smile on my face.