Hey I played Into the pit yesterday and got totally crushed. I've built differant decks but have been having lots of trouble trying to beat it. Can you give me a deck for Into the Pit Quest? I have 1 Core, KD, and RtR.

Thanks!

Hmm, OK. Into the Pit is a fun scenario -- it has a nice variety in its deck (it's not just a ton of enemies or treachery cards). You really want to be able to meet all challenges, which is tough with a limited card pool. How about this:

Hero (3)

Thalin (Core) x1
Dwalin (KD) x1
Eowyn (Core) x1

Ally (24)
Gondorian Spearman (Core) x3
Gandalf (Core) x3
Lorien Guide (Core) x3
Northern Tracker (Core) x2
Veteran Axehand (Core) x3
Zigil Miner (KD) x3
Rider of the Mark (RtR) x3
Gleowine (Core) x2
Miner of the Iron Hills (Core) x2

Attachment (7)
Horn of Gondor (Core) x1
Dwarrowdelf Axe (KD) x3
Unexpected Courage (Core) x1
The Favor of the Lady (Core) x2

Event (19)
Feint (Core) x2
Dwarven Tomb (Core) x1
A Test of Will (Core) x2
Hasty Stroke (Core) x2
Hail of Stones (RtR) x3
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x2
Untroubled by Darkness (KD) x3
Swift Strike (Core) x1
Stand and Fight (Core) x3

Total cards: 50

Goblins tend to swarm: there are a bunch of 2-hp goblins in this scenario, and they will enter play during the Questing phase and during Combat as a shadow effect. With this deck you'll want to quest with Thalin every turn to plunk down 1 damage on all the goblins that come out, then finish them off with a Gondorian Spearman before they can do any damage. Other cards supporting this strategy are Swift Strike (for bigger foes) and Hail of Stones.

The first slog on 1B is the hardest part of this quest in my opinion. Lorien Scouts and Northern Trackers will help here. Thalin isn't a great quester, but he is supported by Eowyn, and there are some Favor of the Lady cards in there to help him out as well. You can also use Untroubled by Darkness for a big questing push once you have some dwarves down (Zigil Miners, Veteran Axehands will benefit).

Watchful Eyes is a card that can really hurt in this scenario. A Test of Will can cancel it, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. I included Miner of the Iron Hills in this deck to help -- he is a Lore ally, so you can't buy him directly. Use Eowyn's discard ability on him, then put him into play via Stand and Fight. Dwarven Tomb can put Stand and Fight back into your hand (or one of the other very valuable Spirit event cards). You can also use the Eowyn/Stand and Fight combo to put Gleowine into play (also a Lore ally), since this deck is lacking in card draw. Gandalf is in there -- if you feel like you don't need Gleowine, you could swap him for some Snowbourn Scouts (for locations), Longbeard Orc Slayers (to support the Thalin strategy), Faramir (for questing), or a tactics/spirit ally of your choice to avoid reliance on Stand and Fight.

Threat management should not be a problem. Dwalin will have plenty of targets-- some will always get by the Thalin/Spearman combo. You might not even need the Galadhrim's Greetings that are in the deck. Put Unexpected Courage on Dwalin for extra attacking duty, or on Thalin if you need more oomph to punch out the Patrol Leader later on. Dwalin will be happy dual-wielding Dwarrowdelf Axes, though, and might not need much help.

There is only one Tactics hero, so the Horn of Gondor might find a good home on Thalin… but most of the Tactics cards are cheap. I would probably put it on a Spirit character. The Zigil Miner can potentially generate some resources, but don't forget to check his errata in the FAQ… the card text is no longer accurate.

Hope this works for you! To be honest, I always play 2-player, and it is much easier to cover all bases when you are working with 2 decks. If you try this deck, let me know how it works against this scenario. Good luck!

Ok! Thank you very much for taing time out of your day to do this! I will let you know how I did. This isnt a 2 player based deck though right? Doesnt really lok like it.

No, this is for one player. I just meant to say that I usually make 2-player decks, so I have less experience making solo decks. Hope it works ok.

I've tried it and it is very easy to win with this deck. Ok.

Always enemies have 2 points of life, Thalin and Gondorian Spearman are letal.

And i used Swift Strike also, with Thalin and GS to kill Patrol Leader at the same round he's displayed.

It's a good deck to play in Into the Pit.

Patrol Leader can be a tough nut to crack -- don't forget to resolve his ability for every point of damage that comes from a different source. (Thalin + Gondorian Spearman + Citadel Spear + Swift Strike = resolve his ability 4 separate times!). For that reason, I prefer to try to take him out in one fell swoop. A powered-up Gimli works best for this.

@Mndela Those are good ideas for destroying Patrol and 2hp orcs. @GrandSpleen Do you reallly think that the Glowine is worth having in there? I could think of a lot better Lore cards than glowine. And what kind of stratagy is kinda the best for into the pit? Build up allies? Power through as fast as you can questing? And Zigil Mineshaft…. how do you deal with that guy?

Thanks

When Zigil Mineshaft comes out I usually just take the threat hit to explore it right away, or just raise threat by 2 and risk using the torch to explore it the rest of the way.

You can replace Gleowine with Ancient Mathom or Foe-hammer, which match the spheres of the heroes I suggested -- but I think you don't own those cards. I wouldn't put any other Lore cards in there because the deck can't generate Lore resources. The deck just really needs some card draw or it'll be sluggish to build up. Gandalf can help.

When I play Into the Pit it usually takes me awhile to get through stage 1, not by choice but because you have to explore all those locations one by one. Then typically I fly through the rest of the quest in just a few turns. It's nice to have a bunch of allies on the table so you can quickly dispatch the enemies that come out on 2B (if memory serves). Because you can expect that patrol, it's nice to finish 1B without having to commit a lot of characters to the quest. You may be able to finish 2B in the same turn by eliminating all enemies on the table.

Ok! Thanks! I will prob be playing Into the Pit today and I will let you know how I do. I'm hoping to get THfG, CatC, JtR and 1 of the last 3. But its hard to find them cause its out of stock almost anywere or its way too expensive. I heard that FFG will be reprinting……….when?

Sorry, no idea about that one. :

So I played Into the Pit and was pretty unlucky. I'm not like a really bad player who plays everything the wrong way and stuff but I got a score of 162 using 12 turns, and I had 3/4 damage on dwalin and thalin and 1/3 on Eowen. Ended with 40 threat. I ended upi defeting 12 enemies in the 1st quest phase and there are a total of 14 enemies in the deck. If thats not bad enough i got watching eyes on 2nd turn and never had a miner of iron hills in the game. I was able to use Gleowine but she died when i was against 4 enemies on the same turn…. Then i got all 3 of the 'doomed 2 surge' cards (cant remember the name) And during the whole game i drew only 1 attachment and 3 events. THe rest were allies. I played 2 Gandalfs that saved me many times by lowering my threat. and i always had to use them to defend b/c all my heroes were 3/4 damage. So a very rough game but i beat it. Do you think 12 turns is a Very large amount of turns in a ggame? And do you think this deck would beat seventh lvel? Prob not Flight from moria right?

Thanks

At least you won! I keep track of score too, but still use the old system because I hate counting rounds. Yes, I think 12 rounds is a long game. Some quests are over in 4-5 rounds.

If you want to own Into the Pit, try Glaurung's Thorin & Company deck, which just stomps everything. (You'll need a lot more expansion packs to build it, though).

This deck should be able to handle The Seventh Level, which is just an easier quest. Flight from Moria is completely different. I have never played it solo, and I think it's much harder with more players. Boromir is an "I Win" button on that quest. I don't have much good advice for Flight from Moria… the deck is something like 50% treachery, so be prepared to weather a storm.

How many rounds does it usualy take you to win Into the Pit?

Like I said, I usually don't count rounds. But players who are serious about their scores do. Here is a thread in the Living Tournament system for Into the Pit. You can see some other players' round counts in there.