I have started out with a standard Spirit/Lore deck, but am considering switching over to a three-sphere format.

The main problem with Spirit/Lore is that I am chronically short on resources (and I refuse to give in to abusing the Zigil Miner combo, before anyone suggests that!). I would like to switch over to Leadership, which with Steward of Gondor generates plenty of resources, and Leadership has much better ability to deal with heavy combat, where Spirit/Lore really falls down. The problem is, I am heavily dependent on a few Spirit and Lore cards - e.g., Northern Tracker, The Galadhrim's Greeting, Henamarth Riversong, Forest Snare, etc. - and can't see Leadership/Lore as being viable, and Leadership/Spirit alone as being only just barely viable.

So I am seriously considering a three-sphere deck, but the question is, what is the best setup for one? I am thinking keeping Heroes in two spheres and using Songs to add the third sphere in, which I suspect is the standard approach (three heroes from different spheres could make the first few turns exceptionally rough). The question then becomes what to make the primary sphere, which the secondary sphere, and which the sphere last to be added. My instinct is to go with Leadership as primary, Spirit as secondary, and Lore the last to be added, but I could just as easily put Spirit first.

Any thoughts on the three-sphere deck, how well it works and what the optimal configuration is?

You didnt say, are you a solo player? That really can effect deck building. I am, so i'll move forward with my solo player suggestions.

1. Bifur - I use this guy a lot. His ability lets you move resources from other heroes to him, which will seriously help pay for lore cards, allowing you to play 2 resource lore cards on turn one, or 4 resource lore cards on turn two.

2. Songs - since you're using lore, you can use the rivendell mistrel. She is cheap (2 lore), is a good quester (2 will power), and lets you search your deck for songs when you play her. This will help you get access to multiple heroes resource pools. I find this works extremely well with bifur again, as you can move resources to him, and then pay for more expensive cards from various spheres.

3. Resourceful - Lore and Spirit both have access to threat reduction. Add in sneak attack and gandalf, and its very easy to build a tri-sphere secrecy deck. You can then use resourceful (costing 1 resource after secrecy) to generate further resources.

4. Gloin/Theodred - Theodred is kinda worthless in my opinion, as I play solo, and a +1 will just isn't great for a quester. But if you play a heavy ally deck, or have access to some good boosts, he can really help pay for his cost, placing an extra resource on any of the 3 spheres per round. Gloin, I have had very good success with. You can play him and bifur, which will justify a few dwarven boots in your deck, and let him soak up damage, then use various healing methods to fix him up. A good build can tell what shadow cards are coming, and you can often let attacks go undefended to bump up his resources, only to heal them during the planning phase of the next round.

Also, if you want to go two sphere heroes, with access to a third sphere, i would say your best bet is to keep lore. Since you're relying on songs, the Rivendel minstrel is a must, and you cant play her without access to lore right off the bat.

I would suggest something like this: Bifur, Glorfindel (spirit) frodo. Bifur can pump his resources from the other two and quest, glorfindel is a good attacker (and quester once you manage to get light of valinor), and frodo is a good quester and defender. That should cover your bases, and let you start in the secrecy range (19 starting threat).

Ran Spirit/Lore/Leadership session not so long ago. Went pretty well. Core set only.

It was Eowyn, Denethor and Theodred. Theodred sometimes helped Eowyn with resources, sometimes he helped himself(depends on the hand situation).

Denethor was a blocker(da best blocker in the core set). If as a result no enemies was engaged - used his ability, or even both, if I was lucky to draw Unexpected Courage.

If I do a deck with two heroes of one sphere, and one hero of another, but want to ultimately have 3 spheres, Leadership is usually just splashed. I'll throw in a couple songs, Steward of Gondor, Sneak Attack, and Celebrian's stone and build from there.

But then, I don't have a great win %, so maybe that's not a good suggestion.

IMO there are two ways to approach a three-sphere-deck:

1) Dwarfs

Take Dáin, Bifur and a third dwarf of your choice. Lore has some pretty cheap dwarfs, and the tactics dwarfs become much more useful combined with Dáin. Narvi`s Belt will give you access to all four spheres. These decks are very flexible, good in both questing and fighting, and resource management is not to hard.

2) Théodred

He's the master of three-sphere-decks. Yes, he only has 1 WP, but the extra resource will quickly buy you allies to improve your total WP. There are also Faramir and Loragorn who can push Théodred's WP up to 3 points. With Théodred you won't ever complain about having not enough resources. I usually take only the most important leadership cards and try to invest more into the other two spheres.

The one big problem is, of course, that you lack WP in the first couple of rounds. Depending on the setup this might cause some major problems. In that case you should have another hero with at least 3 WP and some low cost allies that you can either use as a meat shield tso you can send all three heroes questing (Snowbourn Scouts) or which give you some additional WP (Arwen, Westroad Traveller, Erebor Record Keeper).

Captain Poe said:

I can only support this. I'm currently running this deck against FoS, and it does a pretty good job.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

I do rather like Theodred - he may not be the best Hero long-term, but his real advantage is that he is fast, you can get the resource generation quickly, which means getting critical Allies like Northern Tracker out earlier, which is great (as well as help accelerate an early-game Gandalf in case there are serious problems that need to be taken care of).

Beyond that, I'm torn between either Glorfindel or Aragorn; once I get that ironed out, choosing a third should be fairly straightforward. I like 2/1 Heros rather than 1/1/1; too many games where I've seen only one color in my opening hand, even after a mulligan, and I don't like the feeling of being nearly helpless for the first couple of turns.

I'm fairly new to the game, and only have the core set. I've mostly played co-op, and was using 2-sphere decks. However, when I switched to solo play, my Spirit/Lore deck just wasn't cutting it. I switched to a Spirit/Leadership/Lore deck, and had surprisingly good results. I was able to beat Journey Along the Anduin solo on my first try with only 34 threat. Unfortunately, I'm finding that Escape From Dol Guldur is quite another matter. Here's the deck that I used - any comments or advice would be helpful. The biggest weakness that I am painfully aware of is my starting round. It's nearly impossible to play anything, and my heroes take a beating at the start. I only have the core set, and am not planning on getting the expansions until I beat Dol Guldur.

Theodred

Eowyn

Denethor

Spirit

Lorien Guide x3

Northern Tracker x2

The Favor of the Lady x2

Unexpected Courage x1

The Galadhrim's Greeting x2

Hasty Stroke x2

A Test of Will x2

Stand and Fight x3

Leadership

Guard of the Citadel x3

Faramir x2

Son of Arnor x2

Snowbourn Scout x3

Longbeard Orc Slayer x2 (expensive, thinking about switching this for 2 Silverlode Archers)

Steward of Gondor x2

Celebrian's Stone x1

Ever Vigilant x2

Sneak Attack x2

Lore

Daughter of the Nimrodel x3

Henamarth Riversong x1

Miner of the Iron Hills x2

Gleowine x2

Forest Snare x2

Dark Knowledge x1

Neutral

Gandalf x3

Buddha, apparently you missed those half a dozen threats out there which all explain why Dol Guldur is (almost) impossible to beat with he core set only. That means you will never get any of the expansions.

So: forget about Dol Guldur or play it in a simulated two-player version, but don't try this one solo until you have at least half a dozen expansions + KD. Even then it's very, very hard to get a victory.

Perhaps I should have clarified. I'm not really expecting to beat Dol Guldur on my own. I was merely wondering what people thought of the deck I had made and how it might fare in general.

mechabuddha said:

That's a tough choice. I think that it would take two turns to get one of them either way. The question is whether you need questing more or defense more. If you need the questing, the archer is better, but I think it would be nice to have an ally that can take a hit from a Dol Guldur Orc and survive. Plus, Longbeard Orc Slayer's ability could come in handy. Personally, I'd go for the dwarf.

I'm working on this quest at the moment because I just finished my last scenario in Khazad-Dum. Escape From Dol Guldur is the last scenario I have to beat, but I must say I don't feel any more capable with an expanded card pool as I did with the Core. Good luck to you!

mechabuddha said:

I see. Well, your deck is the best you can make out of the core set, except that you should include 2x "Protector of Lórien" for, say "Dark Knowledge" and "Stand and Fight". Keep the Orcslayer for the reasons stated by Budgernaut. You need an extra hand infighting as long as one of your heroes is prisoner. As for strategy, if Èowyn gets imprisoned, you're lost. In all other cases, try to get Gléowine ASAP so you can play "Protector of Lórien" later in the game to defend agaisnt the Nazgûl or to get some extra WP.

Thank you all for your assistance. I eventually put together a three-sphere deck, and have started trying it out, and so far, so good . . . sort of.

The one thing I am finding is that I am heavily dependent on getting critical attachments out for the heroes. Basically, if I can get Steward of Gondor and/or Celebrian's Stone onto Aragorn, it's smooth sailing; if not, it's very rough going. I find that the first few turns are absolutely critical (one of my complaints with this game, but I'll set that aside for now), so I tried to tilt the character balance toward cheap Lore and Leadership characters that I could get out to hold the line before the critical attachments come into play.

The first few turns are always heart-wrenching. But once Steward/Celebrian/Unexpected Courage/Burning Brand are up, it's a virtual cakewalk. I could probably tighten it up by removing situational cards like Fortune or Fate and Miner of the Iron Hills, but I wanted to design a general-purpose deck and only resort to specializing it if absolutely necessary given the scenario.

If the early game proves to be too challenging, I may eventually retool with Theodred/Eowyn/Denethor.

Aragorn, Heir of Gondor

Hero (3)
Aragorn (Core) x1
Denethor (Core) x1
Bilbo Baggins (THFG) x1

Ally (23)
Henamarth Riversong (Core) x2
Snowbourn Scout (Core) x3
Erebor Hammersmith (Core) x2
West Road Traveller (RtM) x2
Miner of the Iron Hills (Core) x2
Daughter of the Nimrodel (Core) x2
Rivendell Minstrel (THFG) x2
Faramir (Core) x1
Northern Tracker (Core) x2
Elfhelm (TDM) x1
Gildor Inglorion (THoEM) x1
Gandalf (Core) x3

Attachment (15)
Song of Travel (THoEM) x2
Protector of Lorien (Core) x2
Celebrian's Stone (Core) x2
Steward of Gondor (Core) x2
A Burning Brand (CatC) x2
Unexpected Courage (Core) x2
Forest Snare (Core) x3

Event (12)
Sneak Attack (Core) x3
Dwarven Tomb (Core) x2
A Test of Will (Core) x3
Will of the West (Core) x1
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x2
Fortune or Fate (Core) x1