Fastred+Dunhere

By GrandSpleen, in Strategy and deck-building

This is a natural combo but I have some roadblocks in building a deck. What are your thoughts on the following:

1) First and foremost is card draw. Dunhere wants his Spears of the Mark so the natural 3rd choice for a hero is tactics. That leaves us with Legolas (often unavailable in multiplayer games, also very expensive and conditional card draw) and Foe-hammer. Foe-hammer is a must include, but it's not enough. I thought about recycling with Hama, but he would need to attack, so that means leaving an enemy engaged with me-- in other words, not using Fastred's response, or engaging multiple enemies. Either it defeats the purpose of the deck, or it is also conditional. How would you work draw into this deck?

2) 2nd is setting up Dunhere for multiple attacks. Although Fastred can only return 1 enemy to the staging area per turn, you're surely going to find yourself in a situation where you want Dunhere to be attacking more than once per round. Maybe you have more than 1 enemy in the staging area, or maybe you have Hama like I suggested above, and you want Dunhere to help in attacking an enemy engaged with you. Rohan Warhorse is good, but it takes up a restricted slot, and you'll want Dunhere to be at full attack strength since he'll have to kill enemies alone. Maybe Rohan Warhorse + Spear of the Mark, and also put a Spear of the Citadel on Fastred? That would soften up the enemy, but it requires a tactics icon on Fastred, so then you need a Song of Battle, and it's a 4-card, 5 resource setup now.

Dunhere and Fastred have such a natural synergy. What are your practical solutions for getting these two heroes to work together?

Edited by GrandSpleen

I've always felt the best card draw in Spirit was Ancient Mathom. And while I like Foe Hammer, it's agonizing to have a couple in hand and no weapons on board. Valient Sacrifice is an option if you are going to have chump blockers.

Regarding 2, that's the road block I think the combination faces. Good luck.

Also I should state that I'll probably only use this deck in a 3- or 4-player game (so Ancient Mathom also has significant limitations).

For multiple Dunhere attacks, why not Unexpected Courage? Unrestricted, same sphere, non-unique. The only problem is that they only come one per core set.

With 3-4 player games, I wouldn't think there would often be multiples in staging, so maybe Firefoot would be a good alternative to Rohan Warhorse -- it provides spill over to engaged enemies (maybe not as good as another attack), but it also boosts your attack.

Unexpected Courage is probably the best choice for multiple attacks off of Dunhere.

Steward of Orthanc would be a decent choice for card draw. Seastan has his take on the core Fastred/Dunhere synergy here . It's got steward, foe hammer, and ancient mathom for draw.

There is that new Gleowine (?), it gives +2 atk. With Dunheres 3 it is a constant attack with 5, that is why I'd instinctly go with leadership.

Imho 3 cards which provide card draw are not enough to get at least one of them into your hands. That is why I'd use both Ancient Mathom and Foe-Hammer. (when going blue/red)

Steward of Orthanc would be great for draw in a solo Fastred/Dunhere deck. With 3-4 players it might make him unpopular.

Yeah Unexpected Courage is in there, but I only have one core set and I'm not fond of proxies. Same goes for what the other gentleman is referring to, I believe that is Guthwine, the leadership sword. It is not yet released. Perhaps I am best off doing Beravor or some other off-sphere option for card draw. Make it tri-sphere and buy access to weapon attachments through songs or A Good Harvest.

Here is a skeleton, any thoughts? Access to tactics thru Aragon and Roheryn. Draw the horse through draw with various leadership events and/or Gandalf. Or with a horse-breeder.

Hero (3)
Aragorn (Core Set)
DĂșnhere (Core Set)
Fastred (The Black Serpent)

Ally (9)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
3x Westfold Horse-Breaker (The Hunt for Gollum)
3x Westfold Horse-breeder (The Voice of Isengard)

Attachment (15)
1x CelebrĂ­an's Stone (Core Set)
3x Dagger of Westernesse (The Black Riders)
1x Golden Shield (The Flame of the West)
3x Gondorian Shield (The Steward's Fear)
3x Roheryn (The Flame of the West)
3x Spear of the Mark (The Morgul Vale)
1x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)

Event (12)
3x Campfire Tales (The Hunt for Gollum)
3x Foe-hammer (Over Hill and Under Hill)
3x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
3x Valiant Sacrifice (Core Set)

Is Arwen ally not an option for your multiplayer games? She's great Fastred support.

Personally, this is how I'd solve your dilemma: just let other people use your Ancient Mathom, then get compensated by someone else's Gleowine/Galadriel/Heed the Dream/Campfire Tales. Yay teamwork!

You could also use Elven-light for card draw, which you can get into your discard by using Elven Jeweler, Guardian of Rivendell, and Glorfindel ally, or by having a partner play Protector of Lorien on Fastred.

Or a Eowyn hero ^^.

Better than a long speech here is my absolutely not original Dunhere list: http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/67115

This is a solo list since I don't believe in this kind of deck in multiplayer. Good luck :).

Well yeah you could use Spirit Eowyn and elven light but then you don't have tactics access for the weapons.

I think about having a partner who play Eowin spirit. But this also require that you our own version wasn't playing eowyn tactics so it seem complicated ^^.

Thanks for the suggestions, I followed Seastan's advice and put some Elven-light and discarding cards in there. I also made a second Fastred deck with Fastred, Tactigorn, and Mablung that looks to engage multiple enemies or make use of Fastred to push an enemy back, kill a different enemy and re-engage the first enemy to get multiple triggers on Mablung's effect (once in Encounter phase and once in Combat).

The upcoming Open the Armoury card will probably help with your card draw woes, especially since the cards you likely are looking to draw are going to be weapons.

Hama/Elven Light?