For quite a while, I’ve been interested in building “stealth assassin” decks that can maintain low threat, avoid direct encounters, and execute enemies in the staging area. Up until recently, though, the available card pool did not reliably lend itself to this strategy. With the release of “The Hobbit: On the Doorstep”, however, I believe it is now possible to play a pair of decks that can accomplish this and perform well against a variety of scenarios.

The deck pair builds upon the foundation of sirprim’s “Songspiracy” concept as described on Cardgamedb: http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/index.html/_/lord-of-the-rings/of-combos-and-men-4-its-a-songspiracy-r279

The core strategy relies upon the Lore Aragorn/Song of Earendil/Wandering Took combo to decrease players’ collective threat by twenty or more and then transfer threat between the two players as needed to play secrecy cards and control encounters. Bard and Legolas wield Great Yew Bows to strike enemies in the staging area, using Unseen Strike and Black Arrow for massive damage.

Deck #1 includes the Lore variant Aragorn, Glorfindel, and Legolas, while Deck #2 utilizes Bard the Bowman, Eowyn, and Eleanor. You can make many hero substitutions based on the specifics of the quest you are attempting, as long as you keep Aragorn, Bard, and Glorfindel, who are vital to the overall strategy.

To play the decks, attach Song of Earendil to one of each players’ Sprit heroes (Glorfindel and Eowyn, for instance) as soon as possible and put Wandering Took in play. Then, during the Refresh Phase, use Wandering Took’s ability to transfer between players repeatedly, with Player 1 using Song Earendil every time Took goes to Player 2. Do this until Player 1’s threat is 49 46, and then fire off Aragorn’s one-time ability. Voila! You’ll usually be able to reduce the players’ collective threat by about twenty points, depending on how soon you get the key cards in play. Both decks have multiple copies of Took and Earendil, and Player 1 has several cards that help speed through the deck more quickly (Imladris Stargazer, Master of the Forge, Daeron’s Runes), so you can usually do this within the first few turns or so.

Once you have a Wandering Took and two Earendils in play, you can transfer threat between players during any action window, as long as both players stay below 50. This allows you to play secrecy cards at will, ensures Unseen Strike is always playable, and prevents O Elbereth! Gilthonial! from ever increasing your threat. The initial, massive threat reduction, combined with Elrond’s Council and the Galadhrim’s Greeting, should allow you stay under the engagement cost of most enemies, so Legolas and Bard can shoot them in the staging area with impunity with their Great Yew Bows. There are not a lot of combat allies, because the focus is on avoiding direct encounters.

Each deck has a few additional combos that increase their effectiveness. Player 1 can trap tough enemies in the staging area with Ranger Spikes, shoot them with a Great Yew Bow, and then use Infighting to transfer their damage to another enemy at a key moment. Imladris Stargazer and Master of the Forge make a powerful duo for rapidly searching through your deck, so you don’t need multiple copies of key cards like Light of Valinor, Asfaloth, and Black Arrow. Imladris Stargazer and Expert Treasure Hunter allow you to draw an extra card every turn you quest successfully. Burning Brand, Blood of Numenor, and Arwen transform Aragorn into a super defender, for those enemies that do slip under your threat level. For Deck #2, Blade of Gondolin and Foe Hammer give you a significant card draw boost. Hands Upon the Bow allows Bard to dispatch enemies in the staging area before their threat is counted against questing. Vassal of the Windlord is great for Battles, since questing with its attack value won’t trigger its discard stipulation.

As I mentioned previously, you can make several hero substitutions depending on which quest you are attempting. If you need to increase your ability to strike the staging area, substitute Dunhere for Eowyn or Eleanor. If you are running a quest with sieges, substitute Beregond for Eowyn, since her high willpower won’t be as useful. If scrying the encounter deck is vital for the quest, substitute Denethor for Legolas and swap in Henamarth Riversong.

Overall, these decks are a lot of fun to play. Here they are:

Deck #1

Hero (3)

Aragorn (TWitW) x1

Glorfindel (FoS) x1

Legolas (Core) x1

Ally (13)

Wandering Took (Core) x3

Imladris Stargazer (FoS) x3

Master of the Forge (SaF) x3

Warden of Healing (TLD) x2

Gleowine (Core) x2

Attachment (22)

Resourceful (TWitW) x2

Asfaloth (FoS) x1

Light of Valinor (FoS) x1

Ranger Spikes (HON) x3

Song of Earendil (RtR) x2

A Burning Brand (CatC) x1

Blood of Numenor (HON) x1

Rivendell Blade (RtR) x2

Rivendell Bow (TWitW) x2

Song of Wisdom (CatC) x2

Great Yew Bow (OtD) x2

Expert Treasure Hunter(OtD) x2

Black Arrow (OtD) x1

Event (16)

Risk Some Light (SaF) x2

Out of the Wild (RtR) x2

Daeron's Runes (FoS) x3

Elrond's Counsel (TWitW) x2

The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x2

Infighting (AJtR) x2

Unseen Strike (TRG) x3

Deck #2

Hero (3)

Bard (OtD) x1

Eleanor (Core) x1

Eowyn (Core) x1

Ally (13)

Vassal of the Windlord (TDM) x2

Wandering Took (Core) x3

Arwen Undomiel (TWitW) x3

Bofur (TRG) x2

Defender of Rammas (HON) x3

Attachment (17)

Unexpected Courage (Core) x3

Song of Earendil (RtR) x3

Resourceful (TWitW) x3

Blade of Gondolin (Core) x2

Great Yew Bow (OtD) x3

Thror’s Key (OtD) x3

Event (20)

A Test of Will (Core) x3

Elrond's Counsel (TWitW) x3

The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x3

Unseen Strike (TRG) x3

O Elbereth! Gilthonial! (SaF) x3

Foe-hammer (OHaUH) x2

Hands Upon the Bow (SaF) x3

Very nice! Gonna have to give these a go. Quick note though… You can only do the wandering took / song of earendil thing until the players threat reaches 46, not 49, because you'd have to raise your threat to 50 before reducing it if you went any further

bollywongaloid said:

Good point! Thanks.

No probs… Thanks for the good post I've been wanting to do decks like that for a whole but never knew where to start lol

For a while even lol

why use 3 heroes and not have each player start with 2? It's nice once you get the Earendil/Wandering Took combo out but why not start the game in secrecy?

It's an interesting idea though, maybe I've been too stuck with the idea of using only 2 heroes while attempting secrecy

Narsil0420 said:

I used to always start with two heroes but I found that most of the time, the lower starting threat and discount you get for playing the secrecy cards just isn't worth losing the extra resource a turn, especially if you're unlucky enough not to draw the secrecy cards early, and then out pops a lot of Doomed cards from the encounters…

Narsil0420 said:

2 starting heroes is certainly a viable "hero configuration" option for this deck pair, and might be advisable for some quests. The beauty of the Took/Earendil combo is that you are not forced to use two heroes; you can have secrecy and three heroes (i.e., have your cake and eat it, too).

Deck #2 can stand to lose Eleanor or Eowyn, if you deem the lower starting threat is worth the price you pay in lost abilities and resources. Things become more difficult trying to drop a hero from Deck #1. Legolas is the only one you can spare, since you need Aragorn for the combo and Glorfindel is the only one you can pair him with to stay below twenty threat. Glorfindel's spirit icon is also helpful for getting Earendil in play. But neither Aragorn nor Glorfindel can use the Great Yew Bow, which requires a printed ranged trait and is central to the deck theme of striking the staging area from the shadows. You could try to replicate this with a Song of Battle, Rivendell Bow, and Hands on the Bow, but you'd still be very limited in the number of staging area strikes you can perform.

Overall, I suspect you are usually best off with three heroes per player. The few initial turns you spend above twenty threat are more than offset by the resources and abilities the third heroes bring to the table.