This deck is a fun one and can crush solo almost the entire game. The deck works off a fun combo using Path of Need and Word of Command.

Basically you get the various Istari allies to the table and Word of Command for Path of Need. Cast that sucker on a location and safely quest defend and attack. Use Hammersmith and Second Breakfast to pull Path of Need back out of the graveyard at the end of the turn or start of the next turn, so hold onto these cards if you can. Use Stargazer / Gildor to stack the deck so you can draw a ally and place ally on the same turn. Optimal combo is Stargaze / Gildor to draw events, and then place a ally for Vilya.

After you get Path of Need use another tutor for Will of the West. This is used reshuffle the discard into your deck, except unlike the original deck you now you have "X" cards on the table or in your hand. So your draws are more potent with cards you want to play every turn. Vilya / Stargaze / Gildor will all hit better targets faster. This will also cycle your Attachment Fetch cards from the discard as well as Gandalf (Core) who is your threat reduction (also DD and Draw!). I originally had in other threat reduction cards but with Will of the West and zero cost Gandalf (Core) picked up up quickly by Stargaze / Gildor the threat reduction is pretty darn strong as it is. Do not be afraid to do this often and early. Tomb allows this to be cast again and again.

Best to try and get Steward + Resourceful on Sam. This will allow you to cast Path of Need every turn. The other Resourceful goes on Elrond. Not that you will be casting cards often. Most allies will be getting played though Vilya anyway. Do not be strict about these targets as you may need some early lore and chances are you will not have locations in play every turn anyway, so earning 3 a turn can be fine. Just not optimal.

Encounter decks are getting some really aggressive Condition Attachments nowadays. So Miner of the Iron Hills is good to hold in lieu of these bastards. Also Warden of Healing is pretty self explanatory.

Attachment
1 x Path of Need ( Foundations of Stone 103 )
3 x • Steward of Gondor ( Core Set 26 )
2 x • Light of Valinor ( Foundations of Stone 107 )
2 x • Asfaloth ( Foundations of Stone 110 )
1 x • Scroll of Isildur ( The Morgul Vale 142 )
3 x Resourceful ( The Watcher in the Water 62 )
3 x • Vilya ( Shadow and Flame 137 )

Events
3 x Second Breakfast ( Conflict at the Carrock 27 )
3 x A Test of Will ( Core Set 50 )
3 x Dwarven Tomb ( Core Set 53 )
3 x Hasty Stroke ( Core Set 48 )
1 x Will of the West ( Core Set 49 )
3 x Word of Command ( The Long Dark 84 )

A good mod if you wish is this...

Take out:
2 x • Scroll of Isildur ( The Morgul Vale 142 )

Put in:
2 x Master of the Forge ( Shadow and Flame 134 )

When using Imladris Stargazer ( Foundations of Stone 106 ) often you can get in a situation where none of the 5 cards you want are in the que. Now you need to tap her every turn just to draw a single card.

Using Master of the Forge ( Shadow and Flame 134 ) will give you a deck re-order utility. If it pulls a attachment then that is just gravy. The focus is to shuffle the deck when needed.

Good times are after Vilya ( Shadow and Flame 137 ) has triggered and before Imladris Stargazer ( Foundations of Stone 106 ), or after Stargazer has revealed 5 and they all suck before the end of turn. (so reshuffle then check top 5 again next turn)

The extra power of the card draw with this shuffle should offset removing the 2 x • Scroll of Isildur ( The Morgul Vale 142 ). As you can just use the standard cycle as talked about in the original post using Will of the West ( Core Set 49 )

Been having a lot of fun with this deck, I have tweaked it as the combo was to powerful, as in there was many times I wanted to do other things but all it could do was cycle and quest. So I removed some attachment pick up and went full hog with the tutor aspect if the deck, reducing most cards to one copy and putting in "power" cards from ever sphere

Elf Samdwich v2
Total : 50
Deck format Solo

Heroes
Hero 1 : • Glorfindel ( Foundations of Stone 101 )
Hero 2 : • Sam Gamgee ( The Black Riders 2 )
Hero 3 : • Elrond ( Shadow and Flame 128 )

Allies
1 x • Denethor ( Encounter at Amon Dîn 57 )
1 x • Beorn ( Core Set 31 )
2 x Northern Tracker ( Core Set 45 )
3 x Imladris Stargazer ( Foundations of Stone 106 )
2 x Erebor Hammersmith ( Core Set 59 )
2 x Miner of the Iron Hills ( Core Set 61 )
1 x • Haldir of Lórien ( A Journey to Rhosgobel 57 )
1 x • Gildor Inglorion ( The Hills of Emyn Muil 79 )
2 x Warden of Healing ( The Long Dark 83 )
2 x Master of the Forge ( Shadow and Flame 134 )
3 x • Gandalf ( Core Set 73 )
3 x • Radagast ( A Journey to Rhosgobel 59 )

Attachments

1 x • Steward of Gondor ( Core Set 26 )
1 x Path of Need ( Foundations of Stone 103 )
1 x • Light of Valinor ( Foundations of Stone 107 )
1 x • Asfaloth ( Foundations of Stone 110 )
3 x Resourceful ( The Watcher in the Water 62 )
3 x • Vilya ( Shadow and Flame 137 )

Events

2 x Second Breakfast ( Conflict at the Carrock 27 )
3 x A Test of Will ( Core Set 50 )
3 x Hasty Stroke ( Core Set 48 )
2 x Stand and Fight ( Core Set 51 )
2 x Will of the West ( Core Set 49 )
3 x Word of Command ( The Long Dark 84 )
2 x Dwarven Tomb ( Core Set 53 )

This one seams to be doing better in more situations. When I get home from work I think I will see if I can find a slot or the Book Graveyard Fetch, as this is so reliant on tutors now.

Cool decks, Path of need is not a card I have given much attention to, but I will give another look.

The strategy is built heavily on locations being in play, and in some scenarios the encounter deck only has a few locations, or locations show irregularly, how many times per game are you able to pull this off? it seems like it takes a few rounds to set up, are games lasting more than 10 rounds on average?

Also for the same cost of 4 you could play LoV on Glorfindel, Unexpected Courage on Elrond, and Fast Hitch on Sam, and none would be exhausted after the quest. Of course this will not target allies, and maybe this is where the power of the card comes into play.

Why do you only have 1 copy of Path of Need? Why no Sneak Attack?

Also, you use the term "tutor" not sure what that means in relationship to card combos.

The strategy is built heavily on locations being in play, and in some scenarios the encounter deck only has a few locations, or locations show irregularly, how many times per game are you able to pull this off? it seems like it takes a few rounds to set up, are games lasting more than 10 rounds on average?

It seams to work pretty well. It really depend on how you play the game. I like to quest carefully, I am not a big "points" player and have never taken notice of turn counts, I prefer to just win the scenario. The more I feel completely in control the better I think I played. If you are questing in a way to "get out all your cards" so you have a 100% win chance, then it is the perfect card. Still your right, this is why the 2nd version Outder was posted, I think it is in fact a slightly stronger deck than the original. It uses Outlands to boost permanent will and gives you chujmps and stuff for when there are no locations in play. It is also why the 3rd version is more ally focused. Still for Path of Need to really go off you need to quest in measured doses. In fact some encounter deck control would go a long way to maximising this.

Also for the same cost of 4 you could play LoV on Glorfindel, Unexpected Courage on Elrond, and Fast Hitch on Sam, and none would be exhausted after the quest. Of course this will not target allies, and maybe this is where the power of the card comes into play.

The difference being that you need to draw all those cards, and then have multi-copies of them in the deck. Remember Path of Need stops you from tapping to Quest, Attack and Defend. So in a way it is like having 3 untap effects in play per Hero. Still you need to quest correctly, as if the travelled location goes out of play the effects is lost for the combat phase.

Why do you only have 1 copy of Path of Need?

Woot I know I card better than you!! Narr Narr neee Narr Narr!

Path of Need (Condition)

Limit 1 per deck. Attach to a location.

Heroes do not exhaust to attack, defend, or commit to a quest while attached location is the active location.

Why no Sneak Attack?

This is defiantly something I considered. The problem is that Word of Command requires the wizard to tap as part of its cost. This is a problem as often you want to quest defence or attack power. Particularly in the early game. Also, if all is going to plan Vilya should be playing them for zero cost anyway at action speed. Vilya means there is NO shortage of resources, in fact I often have resources coming out of my ears. So much so I am considering some options for steward or 2xResourceful.

Also, you use the term "tutor" not sure what that means in relationship to card combos.

Many TCG terms come from Magic the Gathering. I know MTG is a kind of dirty word to some nowadays, but it can not be denied as the 1st of this genre, the oldest and the largest card pool. Many many terms we take for granted across all games are in fact named after the original MTG cards that introduced the mechanisms, abilities or game states..

Like "Mill" for forcing an opponents to discard from his deck. Leading to a win condition form them running out of cards to draw.

Or Ping for DD targest damage. DD, Direct Damage), Board (for current state of the play area), Bomb (big power card drop), Curve (cost / draw probability scale), Bounce sending a player card back to a players hand. Burn (for Damage coming from Fire (Red) Cards), Chump, Clock, Drop, Eat, Fizzle, Hard Cast, Scry, Tap, Wipe. Graveyard (yard), fetch... the list goes on. All these terms were in wide use in MTG way before most other games even existed, and most TCG players in the old days played magic first so took these terms to other games.

Well I know I do anyway.. and I see the terms used by others on this and other LCG forums...

So if I say...

"I SCRYED the encounter deck with Denathor, saw a monster so I DUG for a trap with Master of the Forge, it was a 2 DROP and as I had 2 Lore Heroes could CAST it strait away. Quested, the Patrol came out. It had a when revealed effect that did some DD, but I had Frodo EAT it as threat, then I BURNT him down 3 with forest Patrol, and finally BLED him for 2 more form the spike trap to remove him and now the BOARD looked much better! "

You know what I mean.. even though I sorta forced a lot of slang into that one!

Anyway.. Tutor is from "Diabolic Tutor"

Ha, you got me, It's been awhile since I looked at Path of Need.

It works when the location is active, let's say you attach it to the active location during planning, you quest and clear the location, so then you lose the attack defense portion. Another way is attach it to a location in the staging area, quest with tapped characters, make it the active location, and then you get the benefit of attacking and defending without tapping, but at that point you have already tapped characters, but you do get to quest untapped next round.. The second way is probably the best way to play it. Seems like it would be rare to quest unsuccessfully while using it and then get the benefit of both questing, attacking and defending without tapping all in the same round. Seems like most times it's use will be split between rounds, unless you purposely keep a location active for awhile, but then you are not making progress on the quest. Seems difficult to maximize the full potential of the card all in the same round.

Sorry for thinking out loud, but what is the best way you have found to use this card to maximize its ability? I have never used it.

And thanks for the MTG language lesson.

This is defiantly a thing, though I would say that having all your heroes untapped after questing is still pretty strong.

Also as a Solo player one of the real problems you get is a build up of enemies. A good example of this is Steward Fear (the quest I have refining this deck on recently). With the Underworld Cards, all those surge cards and the plot forcing extra encounter draws you can be nearly garmented at some point to have 2 or 3 or more enemies in play at a single time. Conflict at the Carrock is another easy to show example. This is why Dunhere is becoming so popular again for solo players. As it allows you to deal with enemies in a very easy way.

So a good understanding of the quest can really aid you. Take Steward fear. The arrearage encounter card is 3 threat. So you can quest and pass the quest for no threat gain, maybe placing 1 token on the active, by only tapping a few, say for 6-9 power, leaving all your allies untapped to fight, and all your heroes so they never tap. This is why my current build uses Ear to the Ground (as resources is so bonkers in it at the mo) for encounter deck control to better judge these calculations. Deal with all enemies easily and then you now have a few options.

For example use Asteloth to clear the rest of the location points. Get back the attachment for placement the next turn. You now have a run with no monsters, no active location and the ability to quest very strong for tons of points.

Or place points on something in the staging area with Asteloth. 4 tokens is enough to clear the majority of locations. Now with the attachment still on the active location you quest (untapped), tap Asteloth clear w/e threat that location had in the staging area from that location.. clear the current active, (loose the untap ability) but you have made progress and are in a strong position to deal with a new enemy threat.

There are other situations but I think that quest progression is a little misunderstood. It doesn't matter how little you progress if you progress in a burst during a single turn. Placing no counters for 3 turns with no threat gain, or even with if you have enough reduction, isn't a bad thing if you have the occasional mass placement. This "mass" placement of quest tokens is what Path of Needs excels at. Removing all enemies threats in a very safe and controlled way, and then power questing though for mass placement, possibly even untapped in case of a bad draw. I think this is why the card is called "PATH of need" as you clear a path.

The real problem is much the same as the tactics decks face now. In that there is a TON of powerful "engage" effects. For Path to work you need be engaged so they will all trigger. I am expecting a engagement effect cancel at some point in the future. Maybe even in tactics instead of spirit.

Cool, sounds like well thought out playing, nice.

Just beat Stewards, Duradain Forest and Encounter at Amon Din with this new version of the deck. Steward had some hairy moments as vilya was slow incoming, but once it was out I lucked into Stargazer next turn and soon got everything under control.

Samless Elvdwich

Deck format Solo
Total : 50

Heroes
Hero 1 : • Glorfindel ( Foundations of Stone 101 )
Hero 2 : • Balin ( The Hobbit - On the Doorstep 2 )
Hero 3 : • Elrond ( Shadow and Flame 128 )

Allies
1 x • Denethor ( Encounter at Amon Dîn 57 )
1 x • Faramir ( Core Set 14 )
1 x • Beorn ( Core Set 31 )
3 x Imladris Stargazer ( Foundations of Stone 106 )
2 x Northern Tracker ( Core Set 45 )
1 x • Anborn ( The Blood of Gondor 114 )
2 x • Dori ( The Hobbit - Over Hill and Under Hill 9 )
1 x • Gildor Inglorion ( The Hills of Emyn Muil 79 )
1 x • Haldir of Lórien ( A Journey to Rhosgobel 57 )
2 x Ithilien Tracker ( Heirs of Númenor 15 )
2 x Master of the Forge ( Shadow and Flame 134 )
2 x Miner of the Iron Hills ( Core Set 61 )
2 x Warden of Healing ( The Long Dark 83 )
3 x • Gandalf ( Core Set 73 )
3 x • Radagast ( A Journey to Rhosgobel 59 )
1 x • Steward of Gondor ( Core Set 26 )

Attachments

1 x • Light of Valinor ( Foundations of Stone 107 )
1 x A Burning Brand ( Conflict at the Carrock 33 )
1 x • Asfaloth ( Foundations of Stone 110 )
2 x Poisoned Stakes ( The Blood of Gondor 115 )
2 x Resourceful ( The Watcher in the Water 62 )
3 x • Vilya ( Shadow and Flame 137 )

Events

3 x A Test of Will ( Core Set 50 )
2 x Dwarven Tomb ( Core Set 53 )
1 x Stand and Fight ( Core Set 51 )
2 x Will of the West ( Core Set 49 )
1 x Rumour from the Earth ( Return to Mirkwood 124 )
3 x Word of Command ( The Long Dark 84 )

This is one of the modifications of this deck that is doing VERY well. A while back I added Rumour from the Earth and swapped Sam for Balin. You loose a point of questing but this hasn't shown to be a problem yet and the shadow card protection is rally cool, and also frees a bunch of slots taken up by Hasty Stroke. The resource glut in this deck as almost everything is free put into play with Vilya makes Rumour from the Earth really work well. The extra start threat hasn't been a issue either what with continual Gandalf's the entire game. One match in Duradain Forest I got to 9 threat!

Anyway, even after that mod (witch I didn't post) THIS deck I just simply removed Path of Need. This in turn mean I could loose the attachment discard fetches freeing up a bunch of slots and well as the Stand and Fights for recasting Hammersmith.

So I added instead...

2 x • Dori - for some undefended dmg protection... seams to be working fine, though I have so many allies out I may drop him.. but he makes me feel safe.

2 x Ithilien Tracker - These guys are worth there weight in gold for a solo player. Your only drawing 1 card normally for the staging.. ANY enemy draw, even if it is draw form a surge.. as it hits the 1st to enter, not the first card draw... has zero threat? That is BONKERS! This card helps quest power massively. It feel broken, and obviously made for multiplayer.. but man it is a strong card for solo.

1 x • Anborn / 2 x Poisoned Stakes - With so many resources and allies flying about, tapping him every turn and putting the spikes back in the staging area is all good. Still not sure witch trap is the best.. but Spikes seams to be doing the job well so far.

1 x • Faramir - Quest God.

So yeah the original combo is kinda falling away but the driving force of Word of Command as a utility fetch for what ever card I need at the time and Will of the West for mass recycling still works very well it seams, as dose having over 50% of the deck Allies, as you hardly pay for anything, so you have resources for anything you need.

I had very similar deck to this one that ran a lot of unique allies This is pretty much now a Vilya deck. The use of Word of Command is great i don't use it much.

3 copies of Radigast in the deck seems to be a bit much, and you don't even have a creature in the deck. But I guess you want him for WoC. Since he will accumulate resources, you might as well through in 1 copy of Landroval, and when you see stargazer set up cards for Vilya you can bring in another different ally and let Landroval be drawn for radigast to play.

That was something I did to make use of those resources. I did include a few other high cost eagles for that deck too.

yeah the original focus has gone.. but this happens all the time to me. I make a deck using a "cool card" then as I try to make it more and more powerful those "cool cards" get dropped.

I saw you do the same thing with a deck recently using keeping count at teh start of it all. So I know you know what I mean hehe. The original idea still works as a deck though. I beat most of darowdelf with it on 1st try. I did do a mod though I havn;t posted adding rumors of the earth.