#RCO Dunedain in Mirkwood Solo 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Here is a deck I built with trying to keep 3 things in mind, use just cards from the revised core only (#RCO), make it a deck that could operate solo and have a Dunedain theme to it.

I have taken it through most of the Mirkwood quests so far (including Shadows of Mirkwood quests) though I have yet to try it on Escape from Dul Guldur. So far it has dealt with the other 4 quest very effectively, with me beating them all on standard on my first attempt.

I would say this is probably not a good beginner’s deck as there are a few moving parts to make it work effectively. For example, it is not as straight forward as the Dwarves of Durin and Defenders of Gondor starter decks. Though, after a few plays with those types of deck and I think this would be no problem to grasp.

The Duneadin archetype works on wanting to have enemies engaged with you, these boosting Heroes abilities and allies’ stats. This deck leans into this aspect making it a deck where you are trying to balance the number of enemies you can handle without being overwhelmed, Forest Snare becomes essential in helping to manage this

I went with Amarthiúl, as he is a good solid defender early on, while he also helps buy cards and gains extra resources when we start engaging enemies. I then decided to use Aragorn as he helps make enemies a little weaker when we are engaged with them, this being helpful when we start getting engaged with more enemies than we would like. He will also become one of our main questers. Lastly, Beravor is there as she is a good all-rounder, though her card draw ability is her main role in this deck. Unexpected Courage is a very versatile card in this deck that is useful on all Heroes, depending on your priorities. Need Amarthiúl duirng the combat phase multiple times, having Aragorn ready after the questing phase, or having Beravor able to draw cards after using her for one of her stats.

As you can see we don’t have any Heroes, though there are some cards. The idea here is to use Celebrían's Stone on Aragorn this boosting his and giving him the sphere. If you end up in a position where you cant use cards they can always be used to power up Protector of Lórien. I found on most of my playthroughs Steward of Gondor is also best used on Aragorn Where he can then pay for , and cards. Speaking of resources, Heir of Valandil also become very useful where by mid game I found I was able to get an ally into play for almost nothing every round.

As for the allies, there are options to help cover most bases, Dúnedain Hunter and Fornost Bowman are great attackers, with Dúnedain Hunter helping engage enemies early on. We have some good defenders in Guardian of Arnor and Ranger of Cardolan who also has a good emergency response if needed to drop in. While for questing Sarn Ford Sentry, Ranger of Cardolan and Northern Tracker all help out here, all also with other helpful effects.

I have also provided a sideboard of cards that are also useful depending on what quest you are facing. The Galadhrim's Greeting helps with threat reduction if needed, though i found Gandalf was fine to deal with it in my plays. Star Brooch is another option to boost Aragorn willpower and also get around some treacheries that play with your . I listed Errand-rider as an option for resource smoothing, although not Dunedain it could be useful. I also listed the 3rd copies of the two allies which you could replace Northern Tracker with if you wanted more attacking allies in the deck. While I also listed Sword of Númenor which could replace the 3 copies of Blade of Gondolin depending on the situation. Blade of Gondolin is great where there are lots of Orc enemies and the extra progress on a quest is handy. Though, if you are facing a more varied encounter deck of enemies Sword of Númenor might be more handy, as well as its extra resource generation. If needing cards to remove to make room for others I would start with Ranger Summons as this was there mainly for its fun factor, hardly a reliable card. While Northern Tracker I found to be least useful out of all the allies so far.

Anyway these are a few thoughts around this deck, but there are more options within the deck beyond what I have described. I'm looking forward to seeing how it might go against some of the Angmar quests.