Bad Encounter Deck! No Biscuit!

Heroes

• Denethor Core Set 10
• Éowyn Core Set 7
• Eleanor Core Set 8

DECK

Allies

3x Daughter of the Nimrodel (Core Set 58)
2x Erebor Hammersmith (Core Set 59)
1x • Henamarth Riversong (Core Set 60)
2x Miner of the Iron Hills (Core Set 61)
2x • Gléowine (Core Set 62)

3x • Gandalf (Core Set 73)
2x Wandering Took (Core Set 43)
3x Lórien Guide (Core Set 44)
2x Northern Tracker (Core Set 45)

Events

1x Lore of Imladris (Core Set 63)
1x Lórien's Wealth (Core Set 64)
2x Radagast's Cunning (Core Set 65)
2x Secret Paths (Core Set 66)

2x The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core Set 46)
2x Strength of Will (Core Set 47)
2x Hasty Stroke (Core Set 48)
1x Will of the West (Core Set 49)
2x A Test of Will (Core Set 50)
3x Stand and Fight (Core Set 51)
2x A Light in the Dark (Core Set 52)
1x Dwarven Tomb (Core Set 53)
1x Fortune or Fate (Core Set 54)

Attachments

2x Forest Snare (Core Set 69)
1x Dark Knowledge (Core Set 71)
1x Self Preservation (Core Set 72)
2x The Favor of the Lady (Core Set 55)
1x Power in the Earth (Core Set 56)
1x Unexpected Courage (Core Set 57)

Total 50

I've only played two games so far. Solo Mirkwood, one loss, and one win with 36. I was surprised at how often using Denethor's ability paid off even though he is the only decent defender. The deck is designed to try and control the encounter deck as much as possible. At first I was skeptical of Henmarth Riversong because it's like Denethor except way worse because you wind up exhausting both of them if you use Henmarth first and then need to control it. However, he had two uses: 1) Keep him ready until the end of the turn as an extra "in case" blocker or attacker. If he winds up being unused, use his ability at the end of combat. 2) Knowing what's coming up can still help even if you can't control it. On the last turn of the game (with Beorn's Path up) I revealed Caught. There was nothing in the staging area so I knew I could commit everyone without worrying about whatever Reveal effect that deals one damage to all of my fragile questers.

Obviously this deck would be better in coop, since a tougher deck could take on the monsters, but it was pretty good at stalling too (esp with Eleanor having Courage and being able to double block Forest Spiders).

I thought about including Gandalf's Search, but with Lore as the minor sphere it didn't seem like I would ever have enough resources to be able to dig deep enough for it to be better than Gleowine or Gandalf.

When you are designing a tournament deck, how do you consider costs? Basically I try and make the cost distribution reflect the hero distribution, and make sure the minor sphere plays more of it's low cost cards.

Also: when do you mulligan? So far I've usually mulliganned when the sphere distribution in my hand doesn't match my sphere distribution on my heroes. And also when I don't seem to have any cards that will be immediately useful.

You lost in Mirkwood? That's not a good thing since that quest is EXTREMELY easy...

I haven't done much with double-sphere decks yet. Your method of building double-sphere decks is similar to mine when I have played around with deck building though.

Regarding the mulligan question: My one rule for calling a mulligan is: If I don't have allies in my hand, I mulligan. That is because I find that I usually lose if I don't have any allies to bring out in the first or second turn.

As to losing in Mirkwood, I'm not very good at this game even though I like it a lot My technical play is pretty bad, I'm too loosey-goosey.

But hopefully improving my deckbuilding will help account for that. Also when you build a deck I think it gives you a better head for tactics.