As the building of mono sphere decks seems to be an integral part of the new cycle, I thought it might be a good idea to get some training here. And, of course, some fun! Additionally, players who have troubles builfing mono sphere decks may get some inspiration. In this Solo Mono Challenge solo players try to beat the "Peril in Pelargir" scenario from the HoN expansion with a mono sphere deck from each of the four spheres.

Here are the rules that you have to follow to participate in the challenge:

1) Players choose a sphere and they build a mono deck for that sphere. Then they get three attempts to beat the scenario. For each victory the players get 3 points. For each victory with a secrecy deck (2 heroes) the players get five points. For each loss the players get minus 1 point. For each dead hero during a victorious game the players get minus 1 point.

2) Killing the "Umbar Assassin" is worth one bonus point (only once per game).

3) During round 1only (!) the players treat the card text of "The Leaping Fish" as if it was empty.

4) Heroes and decks may be changed each game. Decks may include neutral cards, but no cards from any of the other spheres.

5) After the players have done this for each of the four spheres, they tally their points and post their results together with the heroes they used in this thread. The player with the most points is the winner of the first Solo Mono Trophy. In case of a tie the player with the lowest starting threat of a victorious leadership deck wins.

6) All cards that have been published by FFG may be used for this challenge.

7) The challenge ends on May 1st at 8 pm CET. Each player has only one attempt to play this challenge.

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Results:

1) Illeimoen - 16 points

2) Pharmboys2013 - 15 points

3) leptokurt - 10 points

4) You! Yes, YOU!

Sounds fun. *starts to think of decks*

Why take the bite out of The Leaping Fish?

Funny, I just built four mono-sphere decks last night. My intention was to take two of the four (one of them Spirit usually) against any quest. Sitll, I might have a go at this as I really like Pelargir. I still think Spirit will do best though battles are really not its domain.

GrandSpleen said:

Cause the quest is already tough enough. Also, it's an attempt to take a out an early random event which should give each player equal winning chances, no matter if they draw an enemy first or not.

Btw, just lost all my three games with the leadership sphere with Aragorn, Theodred and Boromir. One was close, one was a desaster, and one was quite unlucky. (Of course I won the fourth game…)

leptokurt said:

Wow, I'm picking Boromir, Imrahil, Théodred, I thought I would have a good chance with them especially, Boromir is perhaps the best hero for battles. But I have never played a mono-solo game outside of Spirit. Well, I'll post the results on Monday or when I make it.

And yes, the randomness is a bit strange that early on, especially with more players, it can get you rid of some nasty cards but it can also defeat you right away.

finished a mono spirit attempt with glorfindel, frodo, and dunhere. finished with 3 points.

won game 1 pretty handidly

lost games 2 and 3 thanks to insane threat increases from "local trouble" managed to kill the umbar assassin in each of those two attempts however giving me the bonues points.

onto try leadership now

just finished mono leadership with Theodred, Aragorn, and Boromir. did pretty well winning 2/3 and totaling 6 points.

game 1- ran through, got steward of gondor on the opening hand and was able to play several enemies within the first 2 turns that allowed me to quest through the deck with ease like envoy of pelagrir, citadel guardian, and faramir

game 2- got one of the brigand enemies on the opening staging step who along with the harbor thug never really let me get a chance to get in the game. the brigand's 3 defense pretty much negated aragorn's attack and i had to save the other characters for blocking. just a rough game

game3- got a pretty good opening hand and once again was able to progress through without too much trouble

overall i really liked this deck and with some more gondor support in the upcoming cycle could be a pretty great deck to compete with. i obviously quested each turn with theodred and aragorn who actually had a pretty formidable 5 quest power considering its a battle quest. any time i got the dunedain attachments that raised attack i placed on aragorn to help with questing and his attacking and used the dunedain def attachments on boromir as my main defender. excited what this deck will be able to do after a couple APs

after two spheres my total is:

9 points

Leadership (Boromir, Imrahil, Théodred)

Game 1 - win
Game 2 - loss
Game 3 - win, the assassin killed

Tactics (Bard the Bowman, Thalin, Legolas)

Game 1 - loss
Game 2 - loss, the assassin killed
Game 3 - loss, the assassin killed

Spirit (Dúnhere, Frodo Baggins, Glorfindel)

Game 1 - loss
Game 2 - win, the assassin killed
Game 3 - win

Lore (Aragorn, Beravor, Denethor)

Game 1 loss
Game 2 win
Game 3 win

Total 16 points.

Tactics still not good solo, not even in a battle-oriented quest. I guess I could have meddle with the deck a bit more to give it more willpower but I felt it was going much against the strength of the deck. The first game with Tactics, I completed the first two stages in three rounds, and unscathed (killing the Thug with Hands Upon the Bow on round 1 to finish off the Leaping Fish after revealing Local Trouble). Still I ran out of threat in the end, mostly due to Local Trouble. At least I managed to get rid of the assassin twice in the other games.

Leadership was as good as espected there but it is due two things: battle-oriented quest and lack of terrible when revealed effects. By the stage three, willpower was no longer a problem. I think it could have won all three games with a favourable draw.

Lore, on the other hand, was a bit lucky to get two victories, I feel. I want better hero line-up for that deck. And the sphere, like Tactics, is meant to cooperate with other spheres, or decks. Denethor is great solo but without readying effects, his powers are very limited.

Spirit did as expected, even in battle, they're good enough to stand a chance; were it a quest outside of Heirs of Númenor, the sphere's superiority would have been more pronounced.

I agree with you Pharmboys on the Leadership Gondor deck, with the new Gondor cards coming, it could be great. It was partly why I already played Imrahil though I see Aragorn might have been more effective as of yet. I also didn't want to use Aragorn in two decks; I pretty much discarded the original one once Strider showed up. I wonder what heroes you pick for the other spheres… I only just realized that Trained for War would have won me at least one game with Tactics but since it wasn't officially released yet, it wouldn't have been legal to use it anyways.

had a pretty unsuccesful attempt with lore. went 1 for 3 defeating the assassin none of the times. a whopping 1 point.

my deck was: aragorn, glorfindel, and denethor

i orginally considered the use of beravor for her versatile stats and great ability, but thinking that this was for 1 scenario, Glorfindel's 3 atk and 3 willpower were too good to not use, especially for lore where atk is hard to come by. not being able to efficiently quest or fight really neutered this decks chances as i could either make no progress and kill an enemy…maybe 2 or quest succesfully but have to endure another wave of enemies.

last but not least, tactics

total after 3 spheres:

10 points

Yeah, I think your choice was better again, I guess I totally forgot about Lore Glorfindel after the Spirit one. As I said, I first made these decks to work together (in some combination, two of them at the time), then I needed no doubles.

As I said also, I was lucky with Lore winning twice, once I had a good swarm of allies (having had played Master of Lore round 1, it then helped putting them out cheaper), the other game I won I just got very good draws from the encounter deck. Good Luck with Tactics, if you manage to win a game, I shall applaud.

lleimmoen said:

i agree that master of lore is crucial to solo lore having any kind of success especially since a majority of its allies and events are 3 cost. I mulliganed each time I didn't get him. Also, one thing I noticed is that the mirkwood runner is excellent against the brigand enemy whom damages your allies when he engages you (not in front of my cards and the name currently escapes me)

Zealot Traitor, yes.

It is here that deckbuilding currently gets so difficult. Cards like Gondorian Spearman or Mirkwood Runner are awesome in quests swarming with low hitpoints enemies and obviously useless otherwise. I think the days of the One Deck to Rule Them All are long gone, never to return.

On the note of the Master, I regret he got shafted so much, he is still playable in mono-Lore, little outside of that though.

Here are my results:

Leadership: (Aragorn, Theodred, Boromir)

loss, loss, loss

1x killed Umbar Assassin

= minus 2 points

Tactics: (Beregond, Legolas, Brand)

loss, win, loss

1x killed Umbar Assassin

= plus 2 points

Spirit: (Glorfindel, Frodo, Dunhere)

win, win, loss

= 5 points

Lore: (Glorfindel, Bilbo, Oin)

win, loss, win

= 5 points

End result: 10 points

Leadership was, like I said, a desaster. If you get that traeachery that raises a heroes threat by one point for everything he does at trun 1, Aragorn becomes abslotely useless. The other game I had to discard my whole had on turn 1and got only enemies afterwards. The second game was close, but I lost all my allies at the start of stage 3, still almost made it through, but ran out of threat.

Tactics was quite cool, but threat managment is a huge problem. Still felt I could have done better.

Spirit was stable as usual. Unfortunatly I lost against Collateral Damage during my last turn in my third game, only 2 progress tokens away from victory. Frodo helped a lot, and all thsese 4 cost allies make the game a lot easier.

Lore was surprisingly good. That deck is a card drawing machine once you get through the first 2-3 turns. Bilbo was my defender, equipped with BB, Fast Hitch and PoL. The deck included all lore dwarf allies and Gleowine, so I could draw 4-6 cards each turn. I lost the second game after I got dealt City Streets plus Umbar Assassin on turn 2.

Pharmboys2013 said:

I never used that guy. Spending three resources at the start of the game for an ally that doesn't help immediatly seems to be a waste to me. The first two turns are crucial, and I want my money invested in things that boost my fellowship immediatly. Also, Oin didn't like him because he "is no bloody dwarf".

whelp, finished tactics. went 2 for 3 killing the assassin none of the times for a total of 5 points.

Used Legolas, Beregond, and Thalin

I was actually surprised how well this deck as able to make it through the quest. I always mulliganed for vassal of the windlord which would allow for a quest power of at least 5 on the first turn along with thalin. All the attack let me speed through the first two stages. only the 3rd stage posed difficult, but by that point in my first two games i had at least 2 eagles of the misty mountains in play and Bofur so i could quest for 6-8 each turn which would provide marginal progress, but Legolas along with blade of gondolin made a big difference. I also noticed that hands upon the bow was extrodinarily necessary to ensure the zealous traitor didnt wipe away my allies like vassal and gondorian spearman.

the game i lost was the 3rd and final one where i got land locked on the second stage. Had a city streets come into play which surged into a market square and i didnt have the allies to be able to quest past them. On none of my plays did i have a problem with threat. my 3 hero combo totaled to a modest 28 starting threat and i thankfully never had local trouble get attached.

total after all 4 spheres:

15 points

leptokurt: that was a really good idea going with a dwarf theme for lore. i think i got caught up in the fact that since it was a mono sphere deck, theme had to get pushed aside, but it looked like u really benfitted from it. Infact, i had considered making a mono leadership deck comprised of Dain, Thorin, and Balin, it would be interesting to see how it would handle this challenge .

overall this was a lot of fun…tided me over for a few days while we wait for any news on "the steward's fear" release date

I see you guys did very well with Tactics, congrats. I got a bit tired with the Eagles and didn't go with them, and it was a mistake, I see.

I also see with chose the Spirit line-up all the same. In non-battle-and-siege I prefer Eowyn to Frodo in such a deck, as I don't want to enagage enemies anyways, and the two willpower difference (plus the potential bonus) often proves important.

I obviously do agree first rounds are important but I still find it worth it to play Master of Lore on round 1, sure it will make that round harder but you can only lose on round 1, never win, and having the Master could help later on; though Zealous Traitor takes care of him. Hands Upon the Bow, Fresh Tracks, Ranger Spikes, Expecting Mischief, these cards are important for such threats.

This is such a cool idea. I got started today with Leadership. My heroes were Aragorn, Imrahil, and Theodred for a total of 31 starting threat.

Leadership:

Aragorn

Imrahil

Theodred

3-0 with 0 assassin kills for a total of 9 points.

A pretty good start.

son_of_horus said:

Well done!

Although you're not supposed to best my score. I need at least one person that helps me to get away from last place…

*shakes fist at community*

Sorry about that lepto. I guess I shouldnt talk about my tactics and spirit so far then… I'm on a bit of a roll with this one. My spirit deck is a POWERHOUSE against this. Started at only 20 threat and just controlled deck the entire time.

Finally finished up today. Before I post my scores I have to say that I had an absolute blast with this challenge and I really think we should have one of these Solo Challenges going on all the time. That being said, here are my scores.

Leadership

Aragorn, Prince Imrahil, Theodred (31 threat)

3-0 in games

0 Assassin kills

9 pts total

Spirit

Glorfindel, Dunhere, Eleanor (20 threat)

3-0 in games

3 Assassin kills

12 pts total

A quick note on this. I feel like I could have played this deck against any quest (except maybe Return to Mirkwood) and won. Such a low starting threat made it able for me to have complete and total control at all times. I had Light of Valinor, Imladris Stargazer, and Unexpected Courage at the beginning of all 3 games. I did get super lucky by not flipping Local Trouble during staging at all though.

Tactics

Legolas, Thalin, Hama (27 threat)

3-0 in games

2 Assassin kills

11 pts total

Lore

Aragorn, Glorfindel, Bilbo (33 threat)

1-2 in games

0 Assassin kills

3 pts total

35 total points

My hero MVP was easily Dunhere. My MVP ally was Imladris Stargazer. MVP non-character was Hands upon the Bow.

I was on cruise control up until my Lore games. I lost the first 2 games on the 1st leg of the quest because I just couldn't get through the battle part fast enough. In game 3 I was able to hit a Haldir and he got me through the worst of it. I was able to keep everyone healed up and safe from dying but I just couldn't get the strength going.

Overall this was one of the most fun and challenging experiences I've had in a while and I can't wait for the next one.

Boromir, Imrahil, Théodred for Leadership, winning 3 out of 3, killing the assassin once

Dúnhere, Eleanor, Glorfindel for Spirit, winning 3 out of 3, killing the assassin once

Glorfindel, Beravor, Aragorn for Lore, winning 3 out of 3, killing the assassin once

Beorn, Boromir, Legolas for Tactics, winning 3 out of 3, killing the assassin twice

Total 41 points.

ps: Decks made for this only, would not succeed much elsewhere but that was the idea, right?

Well done, Ana and Horus! To be honest, I'd never expected such a high win-loss ratio for this scenario. Winning 12 games in a row is superb! And yes, Ana, it was all about building decks against this scenario specifically. Would be great if both of you could post some of your decks as an inspiratioj for those who still struggle with PiP.

As the cursed board here doesn't allow me to edit the first post ATM (sometimes I can do it, but most of the time not - WTF?), I'm posting the rankings here. There are still 11 hours to go…

RESULTS

1) Ana - 41 points

2) son_of_horus - 35 points

3) Ileimoen - 16 points

4) Pharmboys2013 - 15 points

5) leptokurt - 10 points

6) players who don't do competions on principle

I too could not edit my post, there is a minor mistake, I didn't use Imrahil in the end, it was Aragorn instead together with Théodred and Boromir in the Leadership deck. I don't think I did anything special, maybe it was just luck. In the Leadership deck, there were all Gondorian allies available to boost attack, and later willpower with Faramir, Citadel Custodian proved much better than I had thought, he indeed works well for A Very Good Tale. I will post the decks later if anyone is interested. The Tactics had almost all the Eagles and Bofur for the willpower in the end. Spirit was good with Zigil Stargazer combo (shafted, of course) and Out of Sight to aid defence. Having 8 hero attack strength with Lore was the key for the early stages. I did use Master of Lore and many 2 and 3-cost allies there. Protector of Lórien and Asfaloth were also instrumental.