Bonding in the Staging Area 1.0

• Versions
• 3.0
• 2.0
• 1.0

Introduction

I always wanted to build a deck with a lot of staging area attacks and a deck which interacts with the guarded mechanic a lot. This finally does the trick combining both into a Single deck. The core idea is to kill enemies guarding valuable attachments in the staging area with the combined damage from Bilbo, Argalad and Eomer. There is almost no allies in this deck, so your heroes are here to shine with interesting abilities and pure Action Advantage.

Here is how to distribute the attachments on your heroes:

Fastred Attachments (Defender)

Shining Shield, try to freeze your threat at 40

Dúnedain Warning

Armored Destrier

Unexpected Courage

Elendilmir if threat is a problem in the quest, otherwise give it to Argalad

Lembas

Eomer Attachments (Quest & Attack)

Firefoot try to overkill enemies weakened by Argalad and Bilbo

Spear of the Mark

Durin's Axe

Orcrist

Glamdring

Golden Belt

Steward of Gondor

Argalad Attachments (Quest & Attack)

Mirkwood Long-knife

Light of Valinor

Leather Boots

Unexpected Courage if Fastred can ready often enough and you have Elendilmir

Leftover weapons from Eomer

Bilbo Attachments (Quest)

Stone of Elostirion

Opening Hand

These are cards you want to see in your opening hand:

Light of Valinor for Argalad

Turn 1 playable Weapon or Steward of Gondor/Orcrist for Eomer

Defense Buff for Fastred: Arwen Undómiel, Shining Shield or Dúnedain Warning

Some readying effects like Armored Destrier or Unexpected Courage

Action Advantage & Playstyle

All heroes but Fastred have abilities with great action advantage, especially once all the attachments are in play.

Bilbo quests for 2 AND effectively ignores the threat of an enemy AND deals damage to that enemy.

Argalad can quest without exhausting with Light of Valinor and potentially ignore the threat of up to two more enemies with his ability(Elendilmir + Leather Boots) also dealing damage. Do not use him on the same enemy as Frodo though, that is a bit of a NOMBO for the threat at least, as Argalad reduces Bilbos additional willpower to 0 - damage still stacks. Keep in mind he can also be triggered on freshly revealed enemies in contrast to Bilbo and Eomer.

Eomer quests and attacks an enemy in the staging area, potentially destroying 1 or more enemies with Firefoot overkilling a weak enemy and having damage overflow to another enemy, both of which have likely been weakened by Bilbo and Argalad.

Lastly if an enemy is not dying in the staging area you still have Fastred as a back-up who will happily push it back to the Staging Area after defending for the other three to deal with it the next round in exchange for a threat reduction.

Hope you enjoy this deck. Let me know what you think in the comments :)