Built with 2 core sets and every thing up to and including HoN.

this is pretty much the same deck as the one I used to beat laketown with just a few modifications. I gave some strategy tips in the post a Sucessful solo deck for laketown so check that out too. I'll describe some additional strategies of this deck below

Glorfindel (spirit)

Frodo

Aragorn (lore)

Starting threat: 24

Allies: (12)

Gleowine x 3

Master of the forge x3

Arwen Undomiel x3

Gandalf (OHaUH) x3

Attachments: (29)

A Burning Brand x3

Thror’s Map x2

Fast hitch x3

Asfaloth x3

Protector of Lorien x3

Unexpected courage x2

Light of Valinor x3

Ancient Mathom x3

Song of Wisdom x3

Good Meal x3

Resoueceful x1

Evants: (12)

The Galadhrim's Greeting x3

A test of will x3

Elrond's Counsel x3

total (50)

Strategy:

the only major difference between this and the laketown deck I one copy of Resourceful and 3 copies of Protector of Lorien.

I decided to use PoL to discard cards similar to Old Thrush in Laketown. I've had a copy of PoL on each hero and discarded 3 cards for each hero to increase questing power by 9. This is awesome for for siege quests too.

Resourceful was added. The best way to get this card into play is after Aragorn reduces the threat to 24. At that point I usually also have a good meal and galadhrim's greeting to get my threat down to 18. Then I put resourceful into play for one resource on Aragorn. I've considered ditching the other 2 copies of Thror's map, but that card comes in handy, not sure if I really need resourceful since it is usually later in the game, but it is kind of a neat way to get it into play.

So, this deck beat al three HoN scenarios, and I certainly had some losses. Since there is no healing cards in the deck, that's sometimes an issue, but Frodo can take a lot of damage and turn into threat.

i suspect this deck will do well on almost all the other scenarios. I ran it through Return to Mirkwood which i found to be pretty brutal solo, but it handled it no problem. I'll start working thorough all the other scenarios. Rhsgobel i assume will be a problem. I'll keep you posted.

Mirkwood is suppose to easy for this deck right. For Rosgobel just add 4 healing herbs and you will have a good chance to win. My version of this deck is called master Frodo and working also very fine against second cycle and khazad-dum.

I would like to know if there are too few allies? With just 12 total in your deck, it seems that you may have difficulty in putting allies into play. So if the quest have a few enemies, how do you handle?

Angus Lee said:

Easy,

Fast Hitch on Frodo and raise threat.

And Gandalf, has it may remain on play

Angus Lee said:

This deck does not rely on the chump blocker. Once an ally is in play they usually stay in play, unless a treachery does them in. Usually I get one copy of each of allies in play. Arwen, Gandalf, Master of the forge and Gleowine.

How do I deal with multiple engaged enemies? Well whe Frodo is all decked out it is no problem. Here is what I usually try to attach to him. At least 2 Fast Hitch's, protector of Lorien, song of wisdom and burning brand. He can defend against 3 engaged enemies like this. If Arwen is in play he has 3 def. If i can discard up to 3 cards on PoL, giving him 6 def on each attack. With burning brand shadow cards are no issue. Of course it takes a while to set up, but not as long as you think. If I have song of wisdom and burning brand on my opening hand it will go on him right away. It will not take to long to get a fast hitch especially if master of the forge and Gleowine are doing ther thing.

On a side note, this deck beat Dol Gulder 3 times in a row. Each time a different hero was captured. Although two of the victories ended with 49 threat.

So far I'm up to Rhosgobel, and no issues with any of the quests except Rhosgobel. Even with healing herbs and lore of imladris I only won 1 out of 3. Rhosgobel may be more difficult then Dol Gulder. Ha! It is such a frustrating quest, most of the time I feel like I'm just sitting around waiting for healing cards only to see one discarded as a shadow card, or attached to an enemy that can only be attacked with ranged. Even though I had six cards for healing in my deck I was still having trouble drawing them.

I like seeing a deck that doesn't have 30 allies. You mentioned that you went through all the HoN scenarios; how did you handle the Siege of Cair Andros enemies with 7-8 attack? I feel like this quest needs a deck that plays very strong on turn 1, and it looks like yours needs a lot of setup time.

GrandSpleen said:

When I saw you post this in the Lake-town thread, I was amazed at how few allies you've got in the deck. But with HoN, you've got me completely stumped as to how you've been able to handle the quests! And since none of your allies have any attack power (except for Gandalf), I'm also curious how you managed the Battle quests. How did you even escape the Leaping Fish at Peril in Pelargir?

I wrote the following at the BGG site to answer some questions. It answers some of your questions, at the bottom I'll give you more of an answer.

How I handle the leaping fish is like this.
First off, if I draw two enemies and have three in the staging area, It's probably going to be a loss. Two I can handle but three I've never won.

So, the leaping fish only gets the additional card draw if the scroll is attached to a hero. So, I allow an undefended attack risking whatever the shadow card may be. I take the damage and get rid of the scroll on the first turn. The next turn I will not have to deal with the potential of an additional enemy in the staging area. If I'm only engaged by one enemy, great, that's easy. If there are two, I have Frodo there to take the damage of one of them.

For the opening round I'll quest with Glorfindel and Aragon which is 6 battlepower. I've also experimented with no one questing too. A great opening hand would be to have both light of valinor, which i will play first round, and Gandalf. I'll make sure I have 5 resources to bring Gandalf in next round. Then I'll quest with Gandalf, Glorfindel, both of which will not exhaust for 7 battlepower, sometimes Aragorn will quest to if I'm only engaged one enemy. Then I'll start clearing out the engaged enemies. That's an Ideal start.

THe other quests are more of the same, but the seige scenarios are a little tougher. I'll try to quest with Frodo if he has some Fast Hitches, Arwen will quest and add 1 def to a quester, Gandalf and aragorn will also quest. These quests are where Protector of Lorien and card draw come in to play. SInce this is the best way to increase defense during the quest for this deck. In some cases I'll Put Protector of Lorien on GLorfindel if he has Light of valinor. Discarding three cards will give him 4 defense. If I have cards to spare I'll put another Protector on Fordo or Aragorn, or both. With two Heroes and six cards to spare and the other allies I've mentioned, I could be be siege questing for 17 points in an ideal situation, and I've done it before with three copies of PoL and three more cards, can we say 20 def.

As for battle and low attack that was mentioned in another post. It's not as bad as it looks. If Unexpected courage is on Aragorn, Light of valinor on Glorfindel, Gandalf is ready, and even Frodo with his Fast Hitches can get in on the action, then they can be attacking for 11 damage, which takes out most enemies except for the few that need 12 damage.

as for a good opening hand that varies on the scenario. I've already mentioned one good hand. Another good opening combo, is having a song of wisdom, which Glorfindel will put on Frodo, and then having two lore resources to play either Asfaloth, Burning Brand, Master of the forge, or Gleowine. I'll play the card that makes the most sense for the scenario. I like to see Ancient Mathom in the opening hand to if there are alot of locations.

The three song of wisdoms are mostly to ensure I can get one on Frodo and get him Burning Brand. Really important for the third HoN scenario. It is usually not worth given one to Glorfindel, so the other two are used to Power Pol. I will also put resourceful on Frodo after aragorn has lowered my threat and i've played Galadhrim's greeting to get it for secrecy cost. It makes the most sense on him since he can use his resources for lore and spirit cards.

Your answer:

For a 8 attack enemy. Frodo will turn it into 6 threat. If ther are two of these beasts and it's early in the game one will have to go undefended and damage a battle ground location. Later in the game if I have Arwen in play, burning brand, fast hitches, and protector of Lorien on Frodo, he can block an 8 attack enemy increase only increase my threat by 2 assuming i cand discard 3 cards for PoL, he could also then block a lesser enemy in the same round.

in terms of the deck's speed, I mentioned a few opening hands above that are pretty good. For the third scenario having a song of wisdom and either burning brand or asfaloth in the opening hand is great. If I can get asfaloth on glorfindel first round he can have it cleared when asfaloth refreshes at the end of the round, so I will move the approach to the active location, and start working on that. Its also key to get gandalf in early, as well as Arwen for siege questing. Its not a guaranteed win every time, but it usually works out pretty good most.