With a starting threat of 13 and more threat reduction cards to come this deck will strike enemies down in the staging area without ever being noticed. Since there is no tactics hero to provide Dunhere with the tools of his trade, extreme measures have been taking to ensure he gets them. This includes running 3 Song of Battle and 3 A good Harvest, and in the rare case you have those in hand and no weapons are showing up, Tactics Bofur can go digging in your deck to get them. Threat reduction cards and strong questing power should keep your heroes hidden while Dunhere gets geared up. Here is the deck with more strategy below.

Hero (2)

Dunhere (Core) x1

Glorfindel (FoS) x1

Ally (10)

Arwen Undomiel (TWitW) x2

Bofur (OHaUH) x2

Ethir Swordsman (TSF) x3

Gandalf (Core) x3

Attachment (21)

Ancient Mathom (AJtR) x3

Dagger of Westernesse (TBR) x3

Light of Valinor (FoS) x3

Resourceful (TWitW) x3

Song of Battle (TDM) x3

Spear of the Mark (TMV) x3

Unexpected Courage (Core) x3

Event (19)

A Good Harvest (TSF) x3

A Test of Will (Core) x2

Dwarven Tomb (Core) x3

Elrond's Counsel (TWitW) x3

Foe-hammer (OHaUH) x3

Lay of Nimrodel (TMV) x2

The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x3

Strategy is pretty straight forward, weapons go on Dunhere with all copies of Unexpected Courage. Copies of resourceful go on Glorfindel, lay of Nimrodel become useful after they have accumulated a number of resources. The key as mentioned before is getting Dunhere the weapons, and could be a stalling point for the deck.

Expect the game to take awhile. For instance I had one game against seventh level that took 26 rounds but when the game ended i was at only 6 threat. I had to finish off two cave trolls in the staging area, granted I did not have Lay of Nimrodel in the deck at that point, which would have easily finished off the quest. It handled JAtA just fine,, and also had a Victory on Morgul Vale, had to chump block Nazgul in the end with allies since i took Light in the Dark out of the deck, because i was never using it on other quests.

It is a pretty fun deck, playing with such a low threat with 2 heroes is really cool. Just a bit on the deck evolution. At first I was trying Glorfindel and Legolas with Great yew bow, problem was only one attack with the bow each round, so enemies that were not finished off accumulated in the staging area. Then I went to Glorfindel/Dunhere, but tried some other heroes instead of Glorfindel. Eowyn was a no go, no immediate threat reduction and she was a bit fragile. I tried Dunhere and Theoden for 20 starting threat, worked horribly, secrecy was gone first turn and was a distant memory for the rest of the game. I tried Merry, no way, to fragile. How about Frodo, not enough will power and his extra 2 threat made a difference, and no immediate access to Galadhrim's Greeting. Goode meal was a bonus though. So, I settled with Glorfindel, but i did my best to give the other heroes a fair shake. But if you want the deck to work, he's your man, he just looks so good standing there with Light of Valinor in the background. That's all he has to do to make the deck work. But Dunhere is the real star of the deck, mowing down enemies in the staging area has never been so fun!

Just the first thing that pops in my head:

No stargazer to fish out those tactics attachments faster?

Just the first thing that pops in my head:

No stargazer to fish out those tactics attachments faster?

Good point. I did not consider it. Could work good, and be a good chump blacker if needed. Thanks I'll have to try it.

How about Frodo, not enough will power and his extra 2 threat made a difference, and no immediate access to Galadhrim's Greeting.

You meant Elrond's Counsel, didn't you?

Nice one (as your decks usually are), but not really usable against any quest that contains enemies engaging due to their card effects or attacking directly from the staging area.

I haven't been able to pull off a successful secrecy deck, and I always use a ton of allies. I keep seeing posted decks wiht almost NO allies though! Which quests has this bested?

I haven't been able to pull off a successful secrecy deck, and I always use a ton of allies. I keep seeing posted decks wiht almost NO allies though! Which quests has this bested?

JAtA, 7th level, Morgul Vale and a few other easier quests. It's not going to deal with Battle or Siege though. It's limited, but it does win most of the time on these easier scenarios. It's not a deck to rule them all. Mostly just an experiment with secrecy and Dunhere.

First, I want to thank you, Tracker, for your contribution to the quality of the LoTR LCG forum discussions.

Your decks are solid enough to at least highlight some new unexplored paths, and I would not be surprised if they had not brought some interesting ideas to a bunch of players, even among experienced ones.

For this deck, I think going the songs of battle and good harvest is just too painfull.

This deck clearly would not use Merry at his full potential, but he 'd keep you one point below the Secrecy threshold, bringing 2 willpower every turn, and this crazy important tactics resource.

I'd also make some room for Silvan refugee - because you rarely defend, you rarely have characters leaving play. His 2 willpower could prevent you from not questing unsuccessfully a few times.

And with Merry, you could bring feints and maybe Defender of Ramas for the few minions with very low engagement costs.

First, I want to thank you, Tracker, for your contribution to the quality of the LoTR LCG forum discussions.

Your decks are solid enough to at least highlight some new unexplored paths, and I would not be surprised if they had not brought some interesting ideas to a bunch of players, even among experienced ones.

For this deck, I think going the songs of battle and good harvest is just too painfull.

This deck clearly would not use Merry at his full potential, but he 'd keep you one point below the Secrecy threshold, bringing 2 willpower every turn, and this crazy important tactics resource.

I'd also make some room for Silvan refugee - because you rarely defend, you rarely have characters leaving play. His 2 willpower could prevent you from not questing unsuccessfully a few times.

And with Merry, you could bring feints and maybe Defender of Ramas for the few minions with very low engagement costs.

Thanks, those are some good points.

The reason I opted against merry, was i already used him in a deck with Dunhere and Frodo, and experimented with Glorfindel in that setup.

For this deck i wanted to see how far into secrecy this deck could go, and still be successful, so a more solid deck is definetly the one you describe, but I kind of felt like I already explored that territory, with some success.

The starting 13 threat is great, and when I was testing this out I was playing 7th level a lot. Lots of low engagment cost goblins 15 and 20. A few of them showing up with a deck with 19 threat can be problamatic without a great defender, and then the Dunhere strategy can just go out the window in a struggle to stay allive. i preferred frodo on this quest over Glorfindel in the other deck I created. So 13 threat would safely keep me under the 15 threat threshold. Many other quests dont have this concern though.

Also waiting for the Song of Battle or AGH is not so bad, and it is a pretty good chance one will show up in the opening hand. The best is when AVG and 2 weapons show up in the opening hand. Then I can play both imediately. Then the rest of the cards to pull to get the wapons into play are pretty much useless other than bringing Bofur in for questing, but they were necesary to see the waepons played early. Its a doble edged spear I guess that can go either way. From awesome set up to painful wait, but i would say it leans more towards a good set up then down right awful, although certainly not ideal, but fun nonetheless.

I just beat the 1st Black Riders scenario with Eowyn/Merry/Dunhere. Great fun!

Way back, a year ago, when Great Yew Bow first came out, I got Glorfindel/Legolas to win against The Battle of Five Armies.

Pretty fun.

It really bugs me when I see all these awesome decks you make and I only have 1 core set. Changes can be made, but it just isn't quite the same...... If I could have the all the Spirit cards I'm missing, (FoF, DT, AToW, HS, UC, GG) than I would be fine. The Lore, Tactics and Leadership cards that only have 1 or 2 copies I can get along without. But those spirit cards......

Nice deck. I'm sure you've gotten you're money's worth out of 7th Level and JDtA as your test quests.

I have only one core set too, but I use sleeves and proxies.

@Khamul, you should seriously consider buying a new core. You can pick them up pretty cheap now as many players are selling them off and even if they are not, it is not much more expansive than getting a new deluxe and you get a ton of cards in it. At BGG there is 5 people selling Core for 20 -25 bucks... imo that is totally worth it.. in fact I would get 2 sets

It really bugs me when I see all these awesome decks you make and I only have 1 core set. Changes can be made, but it just isn't quite the same...... If I could have the all the Spirit cards I'm missing, (FoF, DT, AToW, HS, UC, GG) than I would be fine. The Lore, Tactics and Leadership cards that only have 1 or 2 copies I can get along without. But those spirit cards......

Nice deck. I'm sure you've gotten you're money's worth out of 7th Level and JDtA as your test quests.

Yes, i'm sorry many of my decks require 3 core, but usually it amounts to a few cards. To take full advantage of some of these strategies those missing cards can really limit the decks potential. Like you said the spirit cards are the most important. I do have 3 cores, but I use proxies all the time for cards that are spoiled before I get my hands on them. Yes I would love to see the artwork, but if I want to try out a new idea with a card I will have to wait months to get, I just get a card that is the same cost of the same sphere, with similar stats and use it. It's really the easiest solution on a small scale, but in the end it will start to get confusing with multiple decks and stand in cards, so an extra core comes in handy. It's also nice to have more encounter sets for Shadow of Mirkwood ready to play, most good decks can get by with 2 copies of the super rare cards like UC, FoF and it is really nice to have 3 copies of TGG, Feint etc. i was happy with 2 core for a long time, and it opened up a lot of new deck options. You can often find a copy for less then what a deluxe expansion costs. I highly recommend it if you're taking this game seriously and want to get into it more. It's not cheating at all, it just sucks that FFG set it up this way for players to get the most out of the game.

And yes 7th level and JAtA sleeves are starting to wear away. They are really very fun scenarios, that are pretty straight forward. Do you have another test scenario you like? I don't really like to test decks against Shadow and Flame or Lake town, since they require a certain build which really limits deck creativity. If i come up with one of these experimental decks that I think has a shot at those scenarios then I will give it a try. I feel the same way about HoN quests, they are not to difficult with the right build, but most of these experimental decks don't stand a chance. i did try the deck in this post against Into Ithilien. Never made it out of the first round on a number of tries. Big problem, Ithillien Road will never be cleared first turn, and a 5 attack Southern engages first round. So, it is waste of time to play this type of fun deck on that quest. Sure i have decks that beat II, but that gets old after awhile. I like some quests that give me a little breathing room to work on different play styles and have fun. So, for me 7th level and JAtA are perfect for that.

Do you have another test scenario you like?

I'd have to say my test scenarios are:

Into the Pit - Really fun and has a nice test enemy in Patrol Leader

7th Level - Good Variety

Dead Marshes - A good quest tester and IMO a fun quest

The Hunt for Gollum - Good Variety but can get very annoying

My testing Decks are... (not in any order)

The Watcher in the Water.

Fun quest and has a good mix of combat and questing. Also has the door of Duriin thing witch you can basically test your deck draw, as you can draw tons of cards to open the door.

The 7th Level

Great quest and the getting lost thing means the length can vary a ton, so you get an idea of long and short draw timing in your deck as well as threat reduction needs.

The Redhorn Gate

Fun fast quest, with lots of high threat locations and nasty but not crazy nasty monsters. Great for making sure you have a really strong start to your decks.

The Stewards Fear

This is defiantly one of my fav quests at the moment. Tons of combat, high quest requirement and no outrageous encounter cards that just seam unfair. If you get a deck that can get a high win ratio on this one you can beat most in the entire game.

Here is my version... It is 100% Trackers deck. I just threw in some small changes...

Guides are really underrated, imo. They massively help burn through locations and put those points on the quest cards where they belong. Northern Tracker needs no explanations. I cut down the weapons attachments to 4, 3 daggers, 1 Spear.. as daggers can go on Glorfindel (not that this should happen, but why not) Having 4 isn't a bad draw. I also put in Stargazer who is so broken she should be a 6 drop and reduced Bofur to 2 as he is now really just used to shuffle the deck between digs.

Dunhere's Super Secret Ride (Booored Edition)

Format : Solo

Threat : 13

Deck : 50

Heroes
Hero 1 : • Glorfindel ( Foundations of Stone 101 )
Hero 2 : • Dúnhere ( Core Set 9 )

Allies
2 x • Bofur ( The Hobbit - Over Hill and Under Hill 8 )
1 x • Arwen Undómiel ( The Watcher in the Water 58 )
3 x Ethir Swordsman ( The Steward's Fear 6 )
3 x Imladris Stargazer ( Foundations of Stone 106 )
2 x Lórien Guide ( Core Set 44 )
2 x Northern Tracker ( Core Set 45 )

Attachments
3 x Dagger of Westernesse ( The Black Riders 14 )
1 x Spear of the Mark ( The Morgul Vale 137 )
3 x Ancient Mathom ( A Journey to Rhosgobel 56 )
3 x • Light of Valinor ( Foundations of Stone 107 )
3 x Unexpected Courage ( Core Set 57 )
3 x Resourceful ( The Watcher in the Water 62 )
3 x Song of Battle ( The Dead Marshes 104 )

Events

3 x Foe-hammer ( The Hobbit - Over Hill and Under Hill 15 )
3 x A Test of Will ( Core Set 50 )
3 x Dwarven Tomb ( Core Set 53 )
3 x Elrond's Counsel ( The Watcher in the Water 59 )
3 x The Galadhrim's Greeting ( Core Set 46 )
3 x A Good Harvest ( The Steward's Fear 10 )

Nice modifications, i have not played withe Guides is a long time. Your changes for location managment will probably make a big difference, since location lock was a problem. And cutting down the unsuable weapons probably a good idea.

You mention quest 7th level above, but I think you are describing The Long Dark, with the Lost mechanic.

Just started playing Stewards Fear again, the only thing I dont like about it is the one plot that hit's you on card draw, simce it could mean game over quickly for some decks, but it does make me try to work on a deck that can work efficently without tons of draw.

Nice willpower, good attack, can cancel, .... simply and good. Yeah

Only need defense (and cancel shadows), if a low threat enemy engages you..., maybe dificult. I'd change any copy (of any weapon?) for White Tower Watchman (also, you could risk with undefended attacks and if nasty shadow, you have this bodyguard), he is enough for 1 or 2 enemies in the game that could engage you.