Total Cards (51)
Hero (3)
Boromir (TDM) x1
Frodo Baggins (CatC) x1
Theodred (Core) x1
Ally (30)
Gandalf (Core) x3
Snowbourn Scout (Core) x3
The Riddermark's Finest (THoEM) x3
Vassal of the Windlord (TDM) x3
West Road Traveller (RtM) x3
Faramir (Core) x1
Radagast (AJtR) x1
Elfhelm (TDM) x1
Eomund (CatC) x1
Northern Tracker (Core) x2
Eagles of the Misty Mountains (RtM) x3
Winged Guardian (THfG) x3
Descendant of Thorondor (THoEM) x3
Attachment (9)
Born Aloft (CatC) x3
Celebrian's Stone (Core) x1
Horn of Gondor (Core) x1
Unexpected Courage (Core) x1
Steward of Gondor (Core) x2
Support of the Eagles (RtM) x1
Event (12)
A Test of Will (Core) x2
Ever Vigilant (Core) x2
Feint (Core) x2
Sneak Attack (Core) x2
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x2
Valiant Sacrifice (Core) x2
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Solo Deck Tactic, Spirit, Leadership
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A solo deck needs to be good in nearly everything. This means the deck must be able to defeat mighty enemies as well as to explore locations. Further when facing an mighty enemy like a troll, a solo player needs the first two rounds to prepare and to act and to finally defeat the mighty monster. This requires a low starting thread and at least one hero having more than 1 willpower.
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Content of Cards
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This deck is build based on 1 core set and each adventure pack.
Core Set (1x), The Hunt for Gollum (1x), Conflict at the Carrock (1x), A Journey to Rhosgobel (1x), The Hills of Emyn Muil (1x) and The Dead Marshes (1x).
Premises
The Tournament rules applies (each Card maximal 3 times) and at least 50 cards.
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The Spheres
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Spirit: will do mainly Questing and provide Characters who have the will power to cope with hard locations combinations like the lock in situation having the east bright being the active location and the brown lands in the staggering area. Those characters are the West Road traveller, Northern tracker, Elfheim and Edmund. The Northern tracker for example can break the lock in situation circle due to his special ability.
Tactic: provides the fighting characters and here I focus on the eagles. The reason is that eagles have two very cheap but effective fighters: the winged guardian and the vassal of the wind lord. Together with the attachment "support of the eagles" the Tactic hero is prepared for a hard fighting enemy like a troll. Support of the eagles and the vassal of the wind lord provide in sum + 6 Attack to the tactic hero (+3 due to the support and +3 due to the eagle himself).
Leadership: Leadership will provide resources and has some good cheap cards like the valiant sacrifice or the ever vigilant. Faramir is an obvious choice as he provides will power what is one key aspect of an solo deck.
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The Heroes
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Frodo (Spirit) is taken because he has 2 will and 2 defense as well as a low thread (7). Further his special ability makes him (similar as Boromir) suitable for a solo deck: in an emergency situation you have an option to increase your thread level. This will gives you an additional dimension to play with what is very handy especially for solo games.
Boromir (Tactics) to cope with the enemies. Spirit will ensure a low thread level and Boromir can act multiple times in an emergency situation which is really required when playing a solo game (similar to Frodo). This allows you to play with an further parameter and provides you an additional option for surviving.
Theodred (Leadership) provided resources due to his special ability and Steward of Gondor. Further he has a low thread level (8).
Starting Thread level is 26.
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Useful Card Combinations
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Emergent abilities are especially required in solo decks. Therefore it is important to have a closer look on the combinations giving an optimal benefit.
Combinations with Gandalf
Gandalf can be used very effective in this deck: sneak attack (the obvious one), born aloft (to bring him back on your hand and ready to be played next round) and Ever Vigilant (to let Gandalf Act twice in a round). Use Gandalf either to kill mighty enemies and or reduce your thread level (the only separation between you and the troll in Journey Down the Anduin is your lower thread level in the beginning).
Combinations with Support of the Eagles
The obvious ones are: vassal of the wind lord (3 Attack) and winged guardian (+4 Defense). But eagles of the misty mountains as working too, especially when you consider the ability to attach lost eagles like the winged guardian and the vassal of the wind lord and providing an enhancement to a hero and to the eagle himself. Having an option to increase the defense of a character with +4 by using the winged guardian is awesome as well has +3 due to the vassal of the wind lord.
Radagast and the creatures
He is actually a very good one. Although he is quite expensive (5 Resources), he can be paid from every sphere; which is very handy especially in a deck with 3 different spheres. Further he provides resources for creatures (either healing or bringing those cards into play). In the deck the vassal of the wing lord, winged guardian, Eagles of the misty mountains and the ridder mark finest are creatures.
The Eagles of the misty mountains
Having the effective and low cost eagles (vassal of the wind lord and winged guardian) in the deck, they will increase the fighting skills of the eagles from the misty mountains for free when they leave play. This is emergent.
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Thread level
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I perceive the "management" of the thread level as very important. Consider this as an additional resource to be played with. Of course it is the best to have a low thread level. But Boromir and Frodo provide you the alternative to play around with the thread level in case an increase of the thread level will be the lesser evil !!! In addition, the deck provides the Galadhrims Greeting as well as to use a Gandalf card multiple times (sneak attack and born aloft). This offers the possibility to play one Gandalf card 2 or 3 times - of course this depends on the cards you have on hand. However the longer the game takes the more the probability.
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Some Card Notifications
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Unique cards
Although Faramir, Radagast, Eomund, Elfhelm are good cards, I only want one card of them in my deck in order to be able to play a card when you want it; instead of having a unique character two times on your hand. I personally think it is better to have other good cards in your hand which can be played regardless of this restriction.
Resource Cards
The deck contains the horn of gondor, steward of gondor and theodreds ability. As the more expensive cards are belonging to tactic and spirit use those cards to provide additional resources to them.
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Optional Cards
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Descendant of Thorondor
I can see that it would make sense to include the Descendant of Thorondor to enhance the eagles in game. However, the question is which tactic cards should be taken out? An further aspect is that the Descendant of Thorondor will make the deck more cost.
