This a pair of decks designed to work well together for two player games.

I decided to share them since I believe that, combo decks aside, they are easily amongst the most powerful decks around, so I wanted to know how they would perform for someone else, if there's anyone who's willing to try them.

Being 'power decks' they are not built with theme in mind, even if they are not completely unthematic. They are capable of dealing with most challenges the encounter deck can throw at you, Nightmare versions included.

For those interested in the 'One [two in this case of course] deck to rule them all approach', with just a few minor adjustments they should be able to take on the vast majority of quests.

I also have to say I'm currently tweaking them to develop the best version, as I think there's still room for improvement.

Firm Souls

Hero [27 starting Threat]

1x Elrond

1x Arwen Undómiel

1x Glorfindel

Ally (13)

1x Bilbo Baggins

1x Lindir

1x Gléowine

1x Mablung

3x Warden of Healing

3x Erebor Hammersmith

3x Galadriel's Handmaiden

Attachment (17)

3x Light of Valinor

3x Ancient Mathom

2x Asfaloth

3x Lembas

3x Unexpected Courage

3x Miruvor

Event (20)

3x Dwarven Tomb

3x A Test of Will

3x Elrond's Counsel

3x Daeron's Runes

3x Peace, and Thought

3x Deep Knowledge

2x Elven-light

The Tree and the Bulwark

Hero [29 starting Threat]

1x Treebeard

1x Mirlonde

1x Erkenbrand

Ally (13)

3x Warden of Healing

2x Wellinghall Preserver

3x Gandalf

2x Quickbeam

3x Erebor Hammersmith

Attachment (23)

3x Lembas

3x Ranger Provisions

3x Steward of Gondor

3x Ent Draught

3x Dúnedain Warning

3x Armored Destrier

2x Dúnedain Cache

3x Cram

Event (14)

2x A Good Harvest

3x Peace, and Thought

3x Daeron's Runes

3x Sneak Attack

3x Deep Knowledge

Decks Analysis

Very Strong Points

• Healing

• Killing high defense/HP enemies

• Very High Initial Willpower

• Shadow Cancellation

Strong Points

• Treachery Cancellation

• Card Draw

• Defense

Weak Points

• Lack of in-built ranged might be a problem in some quests

• Moderately high starting threat

Strategy

In 2-player games it usually isn't very difficult to keep the staging area rather empty, so a massive amount of willpower (20+) is usually not needed. This is why both decks are rather low on allies.

On the other hand, initial willpower is particularly important to overcome the early stages of a quest. In fact, the willpower of all the heroes in play is so high – and can be agumented via Treebeard's ability in a pinch – that only a handful of allies are needed to progress swiftly through the quest stages.

Due to this, in the 'Firm Souls' deck most of the space is devoted to support abilities: readying, treachery cancellation (Test of Will + Dwarven Tomb) and healing, in addition to a couple of copies of the ever-present Asfaloth to deal with any particularly troublesome location and the card draw to fetch them when needed (and fuel Arwen's ability).

What presents the most difficult challenge for the players however, especially in the hardest scenarios, are the enemies. The most important aspects are being able to cancel shadow effects – which are often devastating, especially in NM quests – and dealing with enemies as quickly as possible, to avoid being swarmed to death.

The best way to do this is, I think, having a dedicated defender with in-built Shadow Cancellation on one hand (Erkenbrand, of course) and a powerful attacker that does not require a setup to be able to deal with big enemies (HP+Def = 7+), that is Treebeard. Both benefit heavily from healing effects, which are plentiful in these decks and further boosted by Elrond's presence.

Lembas in particular is a key card, flexibly providing either a + 6 WP (questing Treebeard), a couple of swings for 7/8 ATK (again, with Treebeard) or a couple of safe Defenses (Erkenbrand can take two attacks for 5 and cancel shadows, if you're able to provide him with some additional healing afterwards).

There is a lot of redundancy between the two decks to ensure all phases of the game are covered: in the early game, the readying one-time attachments (and the Hammersmiths to play them multiple times) allow these decks to survive the initial onslaught, whereas later on a few copies of Unexpected Courage and Armored Destrier usually ensure enemies won't be a problem anymore.

Peace and Thought is particularly critical under this respect: being able to time it properly (usually at the end of the second round, but depends on board state of course) allows you to draw both into more disposable reayding to offset the exhaustion cost and possibly at least one of the 'repeatable' attachments.

Warden of Healings are also very important of course, and high on the list of the priorities. To protect them in quests that hit allies with direct damage it's usually a good idea to play a Ent Draught on them (the first one usually goes on Erkenbrand however).

The Steward of Gondor too usually goes on Erkenbrand, with Good Harvest to help out when it's needed.

Mulligan – What to look for

Firm Souls: Unexpected Courage, Light of Valinor, Warden of Healing, Peace and Thought.

The Tree and the Bulwark: Steward of Gondor, Armored Destrier, Dunedain Warning, Warden of Healing, Peace and Thought.

I have a solo 2 handed deck with Erkenbrand and with the destrier, he's quite a superb defender. Nice decks!!!

Thanks!

How's your deck looking like, Lecitadin?

On another not, I've just recently checked out the heroes ranking published on the Hall of Beorn, and Erekenbrand and Treebeard both feature in the spot for the 'overrated hero'. I think that's very very far from my experience since, simply put, they're specialist heroes who need some dedicated deck space to shine (especially Erkenbrand) but when they have it, they really work *disproportionately* well.

Treebeard made Tactics completely obsolete for me in 2-players games - in the sense that there's nothing important I want Tactics for that other spheres can't perform: his ability to ramp up your attacking strength quickly really is invaluable in my experience.

Erkenbrand synergises very well with the Destrier (in that he usually has both restricted slots free), the 'shadow discard' is a nice added bonus that can allow you to take an undefended with no risks. His only weakness is that he really needs at least a +1 defense but if/when we'll get another attachment that reliably boosts defense outside of Tactics (that can be played on Erk, unlike the Lorien Cloak), he will become even stronger.

Cancelling Shadows at will without the need for a setup has saved so many of my games that it's hard for me to even consider the possibility that Erkenbrand isn't the best defending hero in the game - but I guess it depends on what you're playing: some (easier) quests don't have that many punishing SE, while others have so many that not having cancellation is like asking for trouble.

You could consider Dúnedain Warning for Erkenbrand's defense boost, it's in-sphere.