PS. As for the deck, perhaps the biggest difference from what Fingolfin was having, is Stargazer Zigil combo. When Gandalf hero first came out, I also played the Vilya deck without the Stargazer but I find her very useful now. And same for Zigil, even with errata, he is very good, and amazing if you can find Hidden Cache. Getting three resources like that is invaluable. Also, speeding through the deck can be very important.

I only keep one copy of Wild Stallion and this was the first time I had a chance to play it. What a card, especially if you can attach it to someone with a readying ability: Glorfindel or Boromir seem like ideal targets in this deck.

Game 4. By far the hardest so far. I did have Vilya but no great target for it and neither Pipe nor Stargazer. But I think this is what is different about this deck from some other Vilya decks that I have seen, it can do quite well without it thanks to Beregond and Gandalf being able to take care of combat quite well. I had to let two non-Mumak enemies go round 1, which later meant I was engaged with two Mumaks at the same time with all allies exhausted. The threat was much higher too (up to 42 even after Galadhrim) because Beregond was taking hits. Luckily I had two Wardens out, so the damage was never a problem even with archery. The final round (11) Northern Trackers cleared two Southward Roads, Mumaks were on six damage but I never finish them off, and I also had Arwen, Boromir, Faramir (both brothers were amazing, especially Boromir who was able to defend and attack in the same round, and thanks to the healers, he once blocked both the soldier and Mumak and still hit back), Eestor, Bilbo, Quickbeam, Stargazer, Zigil, Wardens, Elfhelm, Gildor, Glorfindel (on Stallion) and Beorn. The final round seemed just a routine but I had to cancel the Dark Lord’s Summons, otherwise it would have put the Mumak under the Black Gate and I would have lost. So I am 4 out of 4 but it really feels like Sauron is coming for it any time.

Game 5 went really well, though it was long, too. 17 allies out in the end includng all the big guns. I will be going away tomorrow where I cannot play, but I hope five games are enough for now to see the deck can work. Once you get familiar with it, and perhaps with the quest against it, you should be able to enjoy it, and win. The best of luck!

ok, I still have yet to try your deck, but I will this weekend coming up or even tonight.

Well, I am very happy to report that I beat it using your deck the very first game! You have some powerful deck here, and from how it plays, I think it's better than "The One Deck." Do you use your deck for every quest? It seems like it's multi-purpose.

In Journey to the Cross-roads, I got Vilya in the very first draw along with Imladris Stargazer. No need to mulligan since this was as perfect a first draw as you can have. I don't know how many rounds it took me to beat, but I ended up with 33 threat, 11 allies out (including Faramir, Arwen, Beorn, Boromir, and some more heavy hitters), and a total of 41 (yes, 41) progress tokens on the main quest card. Gandalf was fully loaded with his Wizard Pipe, Shadowfax, and his Staff. I also used the Frodo from Black Riders, and I only used his ability twice. Two cards were under the Black Gate (both Mumaks...I killed one of them very easily in 3 rounds without even losing a character). I went through the whole encounter deck once, which happened in the very last round when I won. This was on easy mode, non-campaign. I'm sure playing on standard mode wouldn't have made much of a difference since only 4 gold-ring cards would have been removed and you don't get the extra starting resource.

Thank you again, and let me know if you use your deck for every quest (or if it can be used for the majority of them).

Well, I am very happy to be of help, there. I use the deck a lot but I do not play, nor even own, all the quests (especially missing the Harad cycle). I mostly play saga plus some other quests I really like. I believe the deck will do well against majority of quests but I cannot be sure on all. I know some people absolutely dread starting with 37, and I used to as well, but I changed my mind with Beregond, since he reliably keeps the threat there. But of course, there are a few threat punishing quests which will be hard, but not entirelly impossible, I think. And I did beat some with it like Paths of the Dead, repeatedly. Elfhelm can be of help against those, too.

I wish I had the time to make YouTube videos using your deck vs. The One Deck to see which is better on all the quests.

You know, I think there are many decks that are good. And sometimes you need a lot of repetitions to get a good sample. Also, even individual performance may differ, I certainly know that sometimes I make stupid decisions, and sometimes bold moves pay off. It is not chess where the quality of a player shows everything but it is still a game.

Further, I for one care mostly about the theme and enjoyment even though I really want to win. I find the crazy combo decks the most tedious, saw a few vids and would never play one. I was watching a video where after five minutes the guy said ‘and now it becomes tedious’ whilst I said to myself ‘it was just that until now’. But that is me, I know others here like to come up with new ways to generate tons of resources and draw all cards on round 2; I could not care less.

Ok, so I'm using your deck on Shelob's Lair, standard mode. The first time I had to forfeit because of the stupid shadow card that said "enemy makes an additional attack after this one." All of my characters were exhausted at that point, so one of my heroes would have died. I forget if I had 1 damage or not already on hero Gandalf, but if there wasn't damage on him, I probably would have still forfeited because I hate losing a hero that early in the game.

Second time I played, I got much farther...into the last stage of the quest. Everything was going fine until then. What nailed me were all those resource tokens that Shelob got, and I said "to **** with this sh**" and forfeited the game. The worst part of that stage is this: "While Shelob has at least 1 resource on her, she gains: Forced:When Shelob is dealt any amount of damage, cancel that damage and discard 1 resource from Shelob instead."

This is the worst thing because it doesn't matter how many damage you deal to the SOB. It just removes 1 resource token. So I had 7 tokens on her. This means that it would take 7 ROUNDS until I could possibly attack her and cause damage. That is insanely ridiculous. Those resource tokens should just be treated as extra hit points on her (which I actually might house rule this because that Forced effect is way too unbalanced).

Before I do that, however, I'm going to switch to "easy" mode and take out the gold-ringed cards. I don't even know why I bother playing this entire game on "standard" mode. From now on, everything will be on "easy." In my 100+ plays so far, it is a fact that "easy" is really "standard", and "standard" is expert (probably just a tad below nightmare mode). FFG is extremely inept when it comes to establishing difficulty levels of things, and I'm sure they know this.

Ranger Bow, Bow of Yew and the like are your friend here.

10 hours ago, gpd924 said:

This is the worst thing because it doesn't matter how many damage you deal to the SOB. It just removes 1 resource token. So I had 7 tokens on her. This means that it would take 7 ROUNDS until I could possibly attack her and cause damage. That is insanely ridiculous. Those resource tokens should just be treated as extra hit points on her (which I actually might house rule this because that Forced effect is way too unbalanced).

You should start trying to find ways to damage her with cards effect and not just through your attacks, since even an instance of a single damage will take away one of her resources.

It only works in campaign style play (or with the new Sting card, I suppose), but I tried using a buffed frodo with the Sting boon to add damage each time he defended. Even a single point knocks a resource off! Plus with readying Frodo could take several attacks per round.

The resource to cancel damage effect must be a design to prevent power combat decks taking out Shelob in one hit and making the big boss fight not hard. There are *many* quests where the bosses don't have this bonus, and it's not too hard to power through in one turn (even Saruman in the saga is like that, if you play it right). It makes Shelob hard, but I always felt that it added to the feeling of desperation in the quest.

Also, keep it up! I think I took about 4 tries when I first took on this quest, with decks I'd run through the whole campaign. I rejigged quite a bit to fit in more direct damage effects to take off those resource tokens. It's a tough old fight, as befits Ungoliant's spawn!

Well, I think that "new one deck" isn't a cure-all after all. It can't beat Shelob's Lair. It's such a long, drawn-out slog. It isn't the most effective or ideal deck to get through this quest whatsoever. I'm going to look for a more efficient deck, and I think Haldir would be the guy to go to maybe. You really have to nail Shelob while the SOB is in the staging area and account for Underground location control.

This is ending up being another Journey to the Cross-roads-type quest. I don't think it's easier or harder than that. Same level of insanely hard difficulty. I don't believe that one deck is good for every quest, but I do believe that each quest has a specific deck that can beat it easily. The key is to find out which deck will do it.

From what I remember, Shelob's Lair needs to be managed carefully to prevent too many resources from piling up on Shelob. As others have said, any direct damage is good (so dwarf allies with Dwarrodelf Axe is handy and I think how my brother and I got some extra resources off).

It's been a while, but I don't remember Shelob's Lair being as hard as some of the other saga quests. But that's just how my brother and I experienced it.