So I build myself a deck a while ago and I’d thought I’d share it with you guys as I really enjoyed it. It is a blast to support your buddies with.

I named the deck: Knockback deck. (for the knocking back of foes into the staging area)

It’s probably still work in progress as the AtS cycle continues delivering great Lore cards though.

I mainly play multiplayer, and it should be heavily modified to play solo; (it’s why there is a lack of willpower boosting like Arwen, as my buddies got this covered) though for multiplayer, here’s the general idea of how to play the deck:

Heroes: Glorfindel (5) & Bifur (7) = Starting threat 12!

Bifur will need the extra resource he can get with his ability from Glorfindel many times as there are few Spirit cards that cost more than 1, and the majority are some more expensive Lore cards. In your opening hand you are looking for 1)Resourceful. 2)Light of Valinor.

You really need both, but you should settle for one or the other.

Then as a bonus look for Risk some light or Out of the wild. Mainly because the 1 ^st few rounds are the most important and difficult, and controlling the encounter deck here can be game changing; yet don’t mulligan for them, as it’s always a gamble using these cards.

1.The plan here is to manipulate the encounter deck with Risk some light & Out of the wild while below 20 threat. Henemarth helps out here a lot too.

2.The next step is to attack the staging area with all trap cards in the game and expecting mischief, and recycling the traps with Anborn (I used proxies, which I hate) with the knowledge from what’s coming of the encounter deck described in step 1.

3.Knock back into the staging area anything that gets bothersome with Ithilien Archers from all over the table as they’re ranged; right into the traps you recycle. Do try to pick off 1 foe at a time for Bifur to block, and attack it with Glorfindel, helped by Anborn if needed.

4.Try to keep your threat low with Elrond’s Council, then use Peace & thought when able for some massive draw power. Also, don’t be afraid to discard a trap when using Daeron’s runes, as Anborn can bring it back. The rest of the cards explain themselves really.

Oh, and we like to use only 1 copy of “power” cards like Unexpected courage & Gandalf in our decks. These are the house rules we play by, as we feel decks get too strong with multiple “power” cards; but it explains why some cards get only 1 copy in my this deck.

Now finally for the deck:

Heroes:

Bifur

Glorfindel (sp)

Spirit:

Elrond’s council x3

Light of Valinor x3

A test of will x3

Imladris stargazer x2

Unexpected courage x1

Lore:

(for the staging area)

Ithilien archer x3

Ithilien pit x3

Ranger spikes x3

Forest snare x2

Anborn x3

Expecting mischief x3

(for the encounter deck)

Henemarth Riversong x2

Out of the wild x3

Risk some light x3

(card draw & support)

Peace & thought x3

Daeron’s rune’s x3

Asfaloth x2

Warden of healing x3

Neutral:

Gandalf x1

Resourceful x3

Hope you enjoy playing it with your buddies all!

And any suggestions on improvement are welcome of course!

Noccus

No one on the whole www has anything to say about this deck? *sniff*

No one on the whole www has anything to say about this deck? *sniff*

Believe me, i know how it feels. I think it usually means that the deck is so good it dosent need any comments!

As for the deck, it sounds interesting. I have no experience with Anborn, so it is neat to hear a bit about how he might work in a deck. The only drawback of having lots of traps and cards like expecting mischief in the staging area is that if there is more than one they will all trigger for the same enemy. So, you might have an enemy get ranger spiked into a pit, while taking 2 damage. And the next enemies get nothing. I think it might also be difficult for Ithillien Archer to reliably knock enimes into traps, since I think any traps played during the planning phase, might be occupied during staging before the archer gets to do his thing this strategy would even be more difficult to pull off in multi player since there could be 2 or more cards coming of tzhe encounter deck each turn.

Hey, but if it's working for you, great. I'll have to try something like it when i get Anborn.

Haha. Great deck. And Tracker1, I'll go to your Return of the King deck right now and comment on it.

indeed-getting comments on decks is often hard due to some decks being well put together, and also players really need to try the deck to get the feel of it

looks interesting!

rich

Bit of a late reply myself, but :Yay! I got replies so I exist! J

Even some compliments of my deck being well put together. Thanks for that.

It’s true though that people might need to try the deck first before they can comment.

Didn’t think of that.

@tracker1:

1 ^st off, thanks for saying my deck seems so good it doesn’t need comments like yours!

I’ll check your deck out too and comment, even if I don’t have anything constructive to say

Though now about your comments on this deck of mine (which I asked for!), as you give a fair point on the trap usage in the staging area when you play with several people, as foes can and will pop up that walk freely. The deck isn’t a brick wall against all danger to be sure.

But I’ll try to clarify here on how it works best, mainly with it’s Ithilien Archers and traps.

I used proxies for Anborn, as I really wanted to try him out in this deck I cooked up.

My advice is to play this deck against a enemy heavy scenario, i.e. not hunt for Gollum or Emyn Muil and so on, with 2-4 players; where the other decks take care of quest pushing, as this deck lacks this entirely.

With a starting threat of 12 it’s handy to use peace & thought to dig up the Ithilien Archers.

Digging is also possible with Daeron’s runes, discarding a trap if needs be, (usually forest snare) only to bring it back later with Anborn. The Archers are core material, as when multiple band together, they can easily damage foes to knock them into a trap.

Even so, it is a response effect, so you don’t have to move the foe into the staging area if you don’t want to. (or they just kill stuff outright when you got all 3 out on the table)

The scrying cards are there to get knowledge of what’s going to be revealed obviously, and so getting you to play the most effective trap; or EM to dispatch low hit point enemies.

Usually I play 1 trap card per turn. If a big bad guy is shown while scrying, you can combine ranger spikes with Ithilien pit to take him out quickly with a combined effort from all players, as it is rooted and a legal target for all characters. (If it’s not immune to attachments that is)

But normally, just play 1 trap into the staging area, especially when playing blindly, as multiple is usually a waste of cards & resources. With 3-4 players, you are very correct in that a 2nd foe might show up revealing cards, the first getting trapped. Any 2 ^nd enemy will not be hindered at all indeed. Yet if no foes show any next turn, the trap I play then stays for the Archers to work with, and you can still shoot any earlier unhindered foe back that’s troublesome. It’s true that it can be a bit of gamble, but we never got overwhelmed really.

Then lastly you only need Anborn after you used a few traps to get them back; this usually being easily possible with your threat being lower then your teammates.

You’re mostly quite free to do what you want anyway with 12 starting threat; except with nasty quest set ups like Into Ithilien, where foes attack right off the bat anyhow.

This deck is certainly not powerful against every quest, nor the most effective; but it works as intended and it’s great fun to play, and that’s what it’s all about in my book. J

The main idea of this deck is to cripple & counter the encounter deck as much as possible, using Test of Will, Out of the Wild & Risk some Light; and at the same time controlling & attacking the staging area while your mates quest push and/or defend mostly.

This idea sounds very interesting. Should to try this one to check how is work.

Cool, I'm looking forward to Anborn, and some other traps. I can see the Legolas's bow deck i put together starting to look something like what you have here when I get them. Although, i dont find the Ithilien archers very useful for solo play, so i probably stick with Legolas for the staging area attacks. I'm warming up to the Ithilien pit, with scrying it is even more useful.

Nice deck, creative.