There has been a lot of talk about the viability of a Leadership Tactics Dúnedain deck. Here's my version of it. In terms of viability, it does very well in my tests against Into Ithilien, Siege of Cair Andros, Blood of Gondor and Invaders of Chetwood. I've come very close to winning Carn Dum (forgot to add favor of the valar which made it nigh impossible to advance to stage 2 even when only Thaurdir was left and I had a small army ready). I believe it works well against more willpower focussed quests as well, but I have to try it out more. With some side boarding (more Celebrian's stone, Sword that was Broken and Faramir) it should be fairly reliable. I'll play some more to test it's power against willpower heavy quests and to win against Carn Dum and let you know the results.
Tell me what you think of the deck, and if you have any improvements I could use.
Dúnedain Smash v2
Total Cards: 50
Heroes (starting threat: 32)
Amarthiúl (The Battle of Carn Dûm)
Aragorn (The Lost Realm)
Halbarad (The Lost Realm)
Allies (28)
2x Dúnedain Watcher (The Dead Marshes)
3x Erestor (The Long Dark)
1x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Guardian of Arnor (The Battle of Carn Dûm)
3x Defender of Rammas (Heirs of Númenor)
3x Dúnedain Hunter (The Lost Realm)
2x Honour Guard (The Wastes of Eriador)
1x Landroval (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
1x Vassal of the Windlord (The Dead Marshes)
3x Sarn Ford Sentry (The Lost Realm)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
2x Ranger of Cardolan (The Wastes of Eriador)
Attachments (8)
3x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
3x Sword that was Broken (The Watcher in the Water)
2x Gondorian Shield (The Steward's Fear)
Events (14)
2x Rallying Cry (The Wastes of Eriador)
2x Reinforcements (The Treachery of Rhudaur)
3x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
3x Valiant Sacrifice (Core Set)
2x Feint (Core Set)
2x Hour of Wrath (The Dread Realm)
1x Favor of the Valar (The Dread Realm)
Side Board ()
- Northern Tracker (Core Set)
- Celebrían's Stone (Core Set)
- Other copies of above cards
Dúnedain Smash v1
Total Cards: 50
Heroes (starting threat: 32)
Amarthiúl (The Battle of Carn Dûm)
Aragorn (The Lost Realm)
Halbarad (The Lost Realm)
Allies (27)
2x Dúnedain Watcher (The Dead Marshes)
2x Erestor (The Long Dark)
1x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Guardian of Arnor (The Battle of Carn Dûm)
3x Defender of Rammas (Heirs of Númenor)
3x Dúnedain Hunter (The Lost Realm)
2x Honour Guard (The Wastes of Eriador)
1x Landroval (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
2x Vassal of the Windlord (The Dead Marshes)
3x Sarn Ford Sentry (The Lost Realm)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
2x Ranger of Cardolan (The Wastes of Eriador)
Attachments (7)
1x Celebrían's Stone (Core Set)
3x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
1x Sword that was Broken (The Watcher in the Water)
2x Gondorian Shield (The Steward's Fear)
Events (15)
2x Rallying Cry (The Wastes of Eriador)
3x Reinforcements (The Treachery of Rhudaur)
3x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
2x Valiant Sacrifice (Core Set)
2x Feint (Core Set)
2x Hour of Wrath (The Dread Realm)
1x Favor of the Valar (The Dread Realm)
Quests (1)
1x Delay the Enemy (Across the Ettenmoors)
Side Board ()
- Northern Tracker (Core Set)
- Other copies of above cards
General Strategy
Start the game by engaging as many enemies as you can to get them out of the staging area. Get your card draw engine running while engaging more enemies, then when you've gathered enough card draw smash your enemies though action advantage and use your willpower boosts to finish the game. Once you have 20 cards in your hand, a group of high stat allies and are making 5/6 resources each turn, good luck encounter deck.
The heroes
Amarthiúl is the workhorse of the group. He smoothes resources, adds more, defends well and attacks back well if needed. Steward and the Shield of Gondor go on him. Decide when his resource trigger is worth the enemies or when it's too dangerous.
Aragorn is the heart of the deck. I seriously understimated him in solo. His defense reduction 'plays the meta'. With that I mean that 3 attack is the 'maximum' for normal characters so the designers made a lot of enemies with 4 attack required to kill them so they wouldn't get one-shotted. With Aragorn on the table, they now do. This makes crowd control with our heroes and Dúnedain Hunters much easier. His engagement trick sometimes works in certain scenario's.
Halbarad offers the least of the group, but he quests nicely, and can defend a weak attacker with his action advantage.
The draw engine
The heart of this deck is the draw engine. There are two elements to it: cards that put allies into play and allies that draw cards when put into play. The good ol' sneak attack Gandalf combo. Sneak him in, draw some cards, draw a new sneak attack and play him again next turn. But where just sneak attack Gandalf is too unreliable to draw consistently, here we add Reinfocements and the Sarn Ford Sentry to double our chances. So it's easier to get the engine running. And this is where the Dúnedain get into the picture and the card draw engine goes into overdrive. Gandalf 'only' draws you 3 cards. Sarn Ford Sentry draws you 1 for every enemy. As you start building up more enemies, it's not unlikely to draw 4 or 5 cards from Sarn Ford Sentry. And the more cards you have in your hand, the higher the chances are that you can play Reinforcements to put TWO Sarn Ford Sentries into play, drawing you 8 or 10 cards. So the more cards you draw, the better your combo's are going to be, and the more cards you will draw next turn as a result. Once your engine get's rolling, it can really get out of hand!
Jump starting the draw engine
Obviously you won't start every game with the nessecary combo in your hand, so there are several tricks to help you jump start it. Erestor helps run through your deck to get combo pieces quicker and Valiant Sacrifice makes for some good pure card draw. Both can also be added to a combo to draw more cards (Erestor as the second Reinforcement can draw you an extra card if you haven't payed for him yet). You can also play Gandalf the traditional way in an emergency (with rallying cry if nessecary).
Combat
So the goal is to have enemies engaged with us for a few turns. Halbarad can defend against 2 attack enemies, Amarthiúl initially against 3. Defender of Rammas makes a cheap yet reusable defender. Guardian of Arnor starts ok, but quickly becomes the most powerful defender you'll have, capable of dealing with trolls and the like if need be. Feint and sneak attack/reinforcements can also temporary block enemies. If things are going bad, Rallying Cry let's you take all your killed allies back into hand. You'll quickly enter valour mode anyway and with 6 resources each turn, you can handle replaying your defenders. Comboing rallying cry with Reinforcements also let's you use your Sarn Ford Sentries as blockers without losing the opportunity to use them next turn again. Rallying cry may not be card draw, but it's definately card advantage! Descendants of Kings and the Ranger of Cardolan can help in a pinch as well.
Keep enemies alive if possible, but high attack enemies might need to be dealt with. Aragorn, Amarthiúl and the Hunters can counterattack the tough enemies. Choosing when to kill and when to just block will become essential.
The Dúnedain Hunter's help bolster your attack power, and hopefully grap some weak surge enemy while activating your abilities.
Once you've had your fun with drawing cards through Sarn Ford Sentry, or if you find yourself getting overwhelmed, use Hour of Wrath to let your heroes clear the board of enemies. After that, you'll own the board.
Combat support
Honor Guard help deal with shadow card surprises (like direct damage to the defender of Rammas) or sudden fatal damage to your heroes. Dúnedain watcher helps against shadow cards. Make sure you know which shadow cards in the encounter deck are THAT dangerous. Use rallying cry to recycle either ally. Landroval is my favorite emergency card. If you find a shadow card creates a situation that will kill a hero, sneak attack him in to save the hero. It works better than the Dúnedain watcher because you DON'T need to have him on the table yet, as long as you can sneak him in.
Questing power
Obviously tactics weak point. This deck includes three willpower boosting cards that work especially well late game. If you can start your draw engine, build up a bunch of allies before killing off the enemies and got Sword that was Broken and Faramir into play, you'll be able to do some serious power questing. In super location heavy quests, add Northern Trackers and more copies of Celebrian's Stone to put on Aragorn instead. Delay the Enemy is included to turn a quest into a battle quest. This helps early game to keep up with exploring locations without getting location locked.
Making the deck more Dúnedain
Want to use a 'pure' trait deck? Missing the Defender's of Ramas can hurt, but it should still be pretty playable. Add more copies of cards already in the deck or sideboard. Add Dúnedain Signal and Weather Hill Watchmen.
Strenght
The card draw engine works insane once it starts going. And playing Dúnedain feels so powerful in combat. If you can get a Dúnedain Hunter out in turn 1, you're packing 11 attack power right out the gate and through clever use of Aragorn you can use all of it to kill any enemy foolish enough to start the game in play. Blood of Gondor's black Numenorian often get's killed in turn 1 which almost made me feel sorry for him and his 'ambush'.
Known Weaknesses
Obviously with any combo deck, you can have bad luck and not get the combo cards you need or get screwed through discards. Also early willpower will be hard to come by, with only 4 initially not counting Amarthiúl. The real weakness of this deck however is that there is almost NO cancellation. In other words, you are going to have to take every punch the encounter deck throws at you. Now between high power, high HP heroes and allies and enough potential willpower to smash through everything, you should be fine. But sometimes it will feel like you're blocking the encounter deck's punches with your face.
Edited
by DunedainLoreKeeper