Hi, I haven't posted a deck in a while so I thought I'd post my Outlander deck, which I've had really great success with. I've played this deck a ton, in 2 and 3 player games. It concentrates on just getting as many Outlanders out as quickly as possible.

Disregarding decks that have been errata'ed, like the Zigil Miner or Master of Lore loop decks, the only deck archetype that I think has been this powerful were Dwarves.

Outlanders just seem really overpowered to me but what's interesting is that everyone seems to have different ideas about how to best use them. Here's my take:

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Hirluin the Fair

Elrond

Balin

Arwen Undomiel 2x

Faramir 2x

Erestor 2x

Gandalf (core) 3x

Forlong (Leadership Super Outlander) 2x

Spirit Wisdom Outlander 3x

Tactics Attack Outlander 3x

Leadership Defense Outlander 3x

Lore Hit Point Outlander 3x

Hunter of Lamedon (Other Lore Card Reveal Outlander) 3x

Steward of Gondor 3x

Vilya 3x

Cram 3x

A Very Good Tale 3x

Sneak Attack 3x

Daeron's Runes 3x

Campfire Tales 3x

Second Breakfast 3x

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Outlanders are great but they do have a couple of weaknesses. Mainly, they are slow/weak the first couple of turns, and the wrong Encounter Cards at a bad time could cripple them. My group took both of these things into account when building together. My teammate(s) ran Beregond for early defense help and Eleanor/Test of Wills to avoid some of those bad treacheries. Scary encounter deck cards was also why I chose Balin as my 3rd hero.

Everything in this deck is pretty self-explanatory. You're job is to get outlanders out as fast as possible. You have 2 heroes who can pay for any of them and Balin can help pay for Leadership ones. A Very Good Tale is super good at getting more Outlanders out, I just like to make sure most times that I have about a total cost of 4 or 5 with the 2 allies you exhaust. Sometimes it might be worth the risk with a lesser total though. The Crams/Second Breakfasts are for Elrond to do his Vilya ring every turn to flip even more Outlanders (or other cool stuff). My teammate ran some Unexpected Courages which sometimes he'd put one on Elrond to really make sure this was working in full-swing.

Other minor tricks are just the simple Gandalf/Sneak Attack, which can save you early in a number of ways, as usual, but also can be more card draws to get Outlanders. Gandalf can also help with A Very Good Tales, especially in refresh step. Arwen can make a decent defense Outlander into a great sentinel blocker for the group, especially great for Forlong because of his better health, or if you get her early game, to help quest and boost Balin into a really competent defender. Another awesome card is Faramir. You can quest so insanely good between him and even 1 or 2 of the Wisdom Outlanders once you get a good amount of Outlanders out.

Other than that, draw cards, play down Outlanders, watch them boost up to crazy power levels and destroy many, many quests! Very quickly you will get Outlander allies with some stats in at least the 3's. It will surprise you how quickly. There's more copies of certain things, like unique cards, than maybe normal but that is because of how fast you will mill through your deck sometimes. With the Very Good Tales, Daeron's Runes, and sometimes Vilya will mill right over these important cards as a byproduct of their speed. There's been many games where I've emptied my deck by about turn 5 or 6.

I played a ton of quests with this deck and I only remember 2 losses. 1 was on Dol Guldur and the other was on The Massing at Osgiliath promo quest.

One of the funniest things is how insane Forlong can be. There was a sequence of actions one game that went like this: Play Forlong on turn 2, he and another outlander exhaust for A Very Good Tale and the deck flips 2 other Outlanders to play which now gives us all four spheres of Outlanders for Forlong, Forlong then readies, Forlong quests with others, Forlong readies, Forlong attacks and crushes a huge enemy by himself. All this after just having 1 Outlander in play the turn before.

Like I said, Outlanders just seem really powerful to me, and my friends and I have been finding other ways to abuse them as well. Like 1 friend the other day pointed out to me that why wouldn't you run the Blue Wisdom Outlander x3 even in a normal non-Outlander Spirit deck instead of, say, West Road Travellers or other cheap questers? They're the same cost, same health, same wisdom, but have the potential to boost each other up higher than 2 wisdom. Crazy.

Anyway, try the deck out and enjoy! Let me know what you think. Maybe I'll post more decks on here if I get good feedback, especially now that these forums are much more usable.

sounds like a very solid powerful deck. Thanks Elrond and vilya and very god tale can even make a Dol-Guldor i suppose with certain luck. Cool very cool

This is a nice deck. Whenever I think about making an Outlands deck, I always resort to maximum card draw immediately. I never really thought about using A Very Good Tale, I guess. I'd be interested to try it out on a couple scenarios. Have you played it against Heirs of Numenor? It would be interesting to know if it could best Into Ithilien.

thanks for posting mattropolis

when i played outlands, a very good tale was THE card to use to get them out as quick as possible, just remember to exhaust two of the 2 cost allies, not the 1 cost ones

another card i found to be good in an outlands deck is good harvest. what i usually do is have hirluin, obviously, then a spirit and a lore hero. that way you can pay for the 2 cost lore/spirit outlands immediatly, as there are more of them then leadership/tactics. however good meal can make this even better by giving you control over who you play and when

rich

This is a nice deck. Whenever I think about making an Outlands deck, I always resort to maximum card draw immediately. I never really thought about using A Very Good Tale, I guess. I'd be interested to try it out on a couple scenarios. Have you played it against Heirs of Numenor? It would be interesting to know if it could best Into Ithilien.

Didn't play it against Into Ithilien yet. That quest is brutal. I imagine this deck would have some trouble early in the game against that, but then again so does most decks! It would just come down to how quickly and how many Outlanders you could get out asap.

Thanks, guys!