Has anyone built a secrecy deck which doesn't rely on an ally swarm? It seems so counter-thematic to me that the main benefit of running in Secrecy is that you can quickly build an army. There are some cards to support non-ally secrey decks, like Leaf Brooch, Strider, a couple of events with Secrecy discounts, and some cards that are general purpose like Resourceful. But many Secrecy cards are actually allies. Almost always, when I see Secrecy in a multi-player game, I can expect high ally counts. Anyone made a deck with a low ally count that you'd consider reliable and powerful enough to bring to a pick-up multiplayer game?

When you play secrecy you usually have little willpower, attack and defense in your hero. So it is way more easy to put allies than put attachment on your your heroes (basically the two ways of getting a board to stand against encounter cards. So I play something like 20 allies in each of my secrecy decks (and I have around 12 of them) BUT one who is all event: http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/61439 . He is fun to play and not pathetic, but not very strong too (there is no secrecy path who lead to one of the best deck of this game anyway).

A deck based on a song mechanic could be a good way to build a secrecy without allies, you will also a lot willpower but only that so be sure to play with a fight deck on the table.

Oh man, strategy talk about secrecy decks in multiplayer games... you're getting me all hot and bothered just thinking about it.

One of the challenges I've run into is that some secrecy decks (like with Argalad or Dunhere) rely on keeping enemies in the staging area. You just can't count on that in multiplayer because someone is likely to have a 30+ threat deck. The other challenge is that it's harder to stay in secrecy in multiplayer because you reveal more cards and will run into more threat raising effects. So, you need to have a deck that can either reliably reduce threat or starts really low threat.

I have two secrecy decks that work in pick-up multiplayer games. The first is a hobbit pipe deck with Glorfindel, Pippin, and Frodo. It draws a bunch of cards (via pipes), reduces a bunch of threat (via Elrond's Council and other events), and quests pretty well (via cheap 2 willpower allies). It provides utility to the table with test of will, threat reduction for everyone (via song of Earendil), and Asfaloth. It can kill enemies with Glorfindel + Ithilien Lookouts and Frodo defending (or taking undefended attacks). Here is a version of the deck that I haven't updated in a while, so it might be missing a card or two from the new packs. http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/3063

The other deck that I've been working on is actually about to get a huge boost when Folco Boffin comes out. It's a Strider deck with Glorfindel, Rossiel, and victory display shenanigans. Having both Strider and Light of Valinor makes Glorfindel more reliable, and when you see both attachments you can put the other on Rossiel to have her quest and defend for 4+. Victory display shenanigans and test of will help neuter the encounter deck and it can quest for ~10 willpower pretty quickly. It can also hold its own in combat once you get Rossiel defending for 4+ (possibly with burning brand) and Glorfindel + Lookouts to attack. http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/19573

Folco will make the deck much more consistent. Worst case scenario (if you just have Strider and no LoV) you can use his turn 1 resource and sacrifice him to give yourself a net -1 threat. Best case scenario (LoV on Glorfindel), he gives you a few turns of extra resources and willpower before you sacrifice him to get back in secrecy.

I also have a solo secrecy deck that uses Traps and Ranger Bows (super cheap with Ithilien Lookouts and Guardian of Ithilien) to kill enemies in the staging area, but it doesn't really work in multiplayer.

You already have some cool ideas here.

I use the following secrecy decks in multiplayer:

http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/23204

http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/80253

These decks can put potentially 10 allies on the table. I don't know if this is swarming for you. Both are a hobbit pipe decks. They are very strong, you can pit them against some nightmare quests. The down side part is their low compatibility with other decks (both decks use Gandalf) and they are a bit slow to start kicking asses.

I thought my low-ally hobbit secrecy deck worked well in my "Dori, Eagles and Hobbits" fellowship, but not sure that'd extend to a pick-up game:

http://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/112

It's attachment heavy meant to buff up the other deck, so features a lot of attachments that were specifically meant to go on Aragorn and Theoden in the other deck (plus King Under the Mountain for Dori). I'm not sure if a useful support deck could be made with more general attachments, enough to carry its own weight.

Now I *really* can't vouch for the effectiveness of this deck in a pickup game, but it's a secrecy deck designed to stay under the Strider character limits, even though it has a lot of allies in the deck. It does that with allies that mostly don't stick around, either because they go away naturally, can be discarded for some effect, or in the case of Riders of the Mark given away to another player. Since it's designed to never engage in combat (Spirit Pippin and Spirit Merry are the heroes), it requires other decks to handle that part of the game, though two of the three permanent allies are Jubayr and Arwen, so it helps out the defense in that way.

http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/28353

I built this deck a while back to pair with another, and it's main aim is to be a low-ally secrecy deck that uses Strider for that effect. It has a few attachments that are meant to go across to a paired deck, but overall it's quite solid (and provides utility for other decks with some of the side quests).

http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/6113/thurindir-goes-striding-with-a-hobbit-friend-1.0

23 hours ago, Rouxxor said:

A deck based on a song mechanic could be a good way to build a secrecy without allies, you will also a lot willpower but only that so be sure to play with a fight deck on the table.

Funny you should mention that, the reason I was thinking about this is because I was trying to come up with a thematic deck for Mt. Doom. Sam/Galadriel with Fireside Song and willpower-boosting attachments and events seems so nice, but not workable and not viable for the scenario, at least in my experience so far. There are many ways to get extra allies into play with a discount or outside of the planning phase, but attachments don't have the same number of options. So it takes way too long to build up respectable willpower.

I also tried a mono-lore Pippin/Rossiel Strider deck with victory display mechanics (not a solo deck), but again same problem: it takes too long to get the deck to heat up.

Thanks for all the ideas so far, keep them coming if you have more! I love to read about what others have done.

53 minutes ago, GrandSpleen said:

I also tried a mono-lore Pippin/Rossiel Strider deck with victory display mechanics (not a solo deck), but again same problem: it takes too long to get the deck to heat up.

Folco will make this deck a lot more consistent. The extra starting resource and willpower, then ability to drop back into secrecy and activate Strider will help a lot. Not to mention improving the value of Mithrandir's Advice. Then you could get someone else to play Rossiel and you can use Mirlonde for the absurd 16 starting threat with ability to drop to 9.

I'm really excited about Folco's impact on strengthening Strider decks. If only it worked it campaign play (Strider is ruined by the saga hero and Folco would be "fallen" after game 1).

4 hours ago, Teamjimby said:

Folco will make this deck a lot more consistent. The extra starting resource and willpower, then ability to drop back into secrecy and activate Strider will help a lot. Not to mention improving the value of Mithrandir's Advice. Then you could get someone else to play Rossiel and you can use Mirlonde for the absurd 16 starting threat with ability to drop to 9.

I'm really excited about Folco's impact on strengthening Strider decks. If only it worked it campaign play (Strider is ruined by the saga hero and Folco would be "fallen" after game 1).

I normally house rule that the Fellowship hero doesn't count toward Strider and Vanish from Sight. Matt Newman gave his blessing.

With the FAQ limiting Caldara to once per game she doesn't work very well for campaign mode either. I feel like implementing a new house rule where only destroyed heroes get added to the list of fallen heroes.

3 hours ago, Seastan said:

I normally house rule that the Fellowship hero doesn't count toward Strider and Vanish from Sight. Matt Newman gave his blessing.

With the FAQ limiting Caldara to once per game she doesn't work very well for campaign mode either. I feel like implementing a new house rule where only destroyed heroes get added to the list of fallen heroes.

I was just thinking about that today too. Folco and Caldara won't see much play in Campaign mode otherwise.

But I kinda want Boromir's second ability to destroy him, then, if only for thematic reasons.

Since I've already started a campaign with Caldara, I won't be applying errata to her until the campaign is finished. Though honestly applying the errata and Seastan's house rule might be easier than waiting for Fortune and Fate to show up.

Yes it was pretty annoying to raise Caldara before passing every last stage of the quest only to avoid to put her on the fallen heroes list.

12 hours ago, Authraw said:

I was just thinking about that today too. Folco and Caldara won't see much play in Campaign mode otherwise.

But I kinda want Boromir's second ability to destroy him, then, if only for thematic reasons.

Yeah, the house rule isn't perfect. It would lessen the effect of cards like this:

Unless you modify the house rule to only apply to player card effects.