The Passage of the Marshes - Pipe Deck - Specialist Deck Ser 1.0

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• 1.0

This deck is one of two that make up the Fellowship designed to beat The Passage of the Marshes for my Specialist Deck Series. This deck is the more questing focuses of the two, and also features plenty of threat reduction and location control.

This quest holds to a characteristic of many quests, which is that having sufficient is key to winning. Even more so here, because failing to travel to locations can be a death sentence. On top of this, it puts a lot of pressure on our threat.

So, our first hero choice is Galadriel, who boasts 4 and has built in threat reduction that can benefit either deck. Her other ability can allow for some strong questing rounds as well, for example by playing Rosie Cotton we can get double value from her for that turn.

Sam Gamgee also has good and a low threat as well. Sam will also allow us to get some value out of all the threat reduction we'll be using thanks to Hobbit Pipe. The final hero choice is Idraen. This quest is somewhat location focused so we can expect good value from her ability. She'll also be our primary attacker.

This deck will focus on building , while combat will be dealt with primarily by the Partner deck thanks to Beorn and the Ents. We also have some location control and plenty of threat reduction.

An in-depth description of the cards is below:

Angbor the Fearless - Angbor is a very efficient ally and a good quester. If our threat rises to 40, we'll be hoping to finish off the quest in short order, at which point Angbor becomes even more amazing.

Arwen Undómiel - Another good quester, in our deck the defensive counterpart to Angbor's offense. There are a number of good targets for her ability, including the Ents in the Partner deck, and possibly Idraen as well. Be aware that Galadriel prevents the triggering of Arwen's ability on her first turn of questing.

Bilbo Baggins - Bilbo is here to fetch our Hobbit Pipes, which we can use to benefit even more from our threat reducing events. He's also another decent quester.

Bill the Pony - Bill is an easy inclusion with Sam as a hero. We also have a number of other Hobbits, so there could be some value in his ability.

Ceorl - Ceorl will give us a bit more attacking ability, which we are generally light on. We do have the option of triggering his ability. The readying could be useful, but considering the Partner deck should have no problems in combat, it's unlikely we would want to pass him over.

Faramir - High is the name of the game and Faramir is one of the best ways to achieve it. The last quest stage in particular is something we would like to clear as soon as possible, so having Faramir's boost will be a big help.

North Realm Lookout - North Realm Lookout's primary job is to carry a Mariner's Compass, which we'll cover later. This will turn the Lookout into a very respectable 2 quester who doesn't exhaust, allowing us to either trigger the Compass or use him to attack.

Rhovanion Outrider - The Outrider can be either a quester or attacker. The nature of the Mire keyword means he is unlikely to be exploring any locations, but even cutting down the quest points by 1 or 2 can be very helpful. Note that the second quest stage shuts off his ability.

Rosie Cotton - We pretty much always want Rosie if we have Sam, as he can become a very respectable attacker or defender with her boost. On this occasion, we can also combo with Speak Your Promise! and other boosting effects (including Frodo's own) to completely shut down an enemy for a turn.

Súlien - Súlien is another high ally. With the Mire keyword we shouldn't see too many locations building up, but it's nice to have the ability available as an option all the same.

Celebrían's Stone - More help for us in the quest phase. It's not too important who it goes on, but it's another combo with Speak Your Promise, so Frodo is a sensible choice.

Hobbit Pipe - We have several threat reduction events and Bilbo can fetch one of the pipes for free, so they are a decent inclusion. They can be played on the heroes in the Partner deck too, though they may not need the help.

Mariner's Compass - This was one of the first cards chosen for this deck. If we have one in play, it takes a lot of the sting out of Mire, since we can just swap a location that is about to be discarded from play, giving us more choice about where we travel, rather than needing to prioritise based on Mire tokens. Ideally we will have a North Realm Lookout to attach this too, although if not, most of the characters in the deck are eligible targets.

Mirror of Galadriel - One of the many benefits of having Galadriel in the deck. There are any number of cards we might want depending on the board state. Don't be afraid of the discard, but consider that having more cards in hand reduces the chance of discarding the card you want to keep the most.

Nenya - A pretty key card and one we should try to find first with the Mirror. We'd actually prefer not to have to use it very often, since Galadriel's ability is so valuable. However, it's an important option to have since we can't afford to get stalled on a location.

Steward of Gondor - The resources generated by Steward are always useful. Thankfully we have a decently low cost curve, so it's not as essential as can be in other decks. is the resource we probably need the most, although it could just as easily go on Sam or one of the heroes in the Partner deck, depending on the needs at the time. There's plenty of card draw to make use of those extra resources.

Thrór's Key - Our other key (no pun intended) card for combating the Mire keyword. Thror's Key will just completely shut down the one location it is attached to, which can give us a big breather. It helpfully removes the Travel cost too, so we can clear the away when the opportunity arises.

A Test of Will - Most of the Treacheries in this quest can be disastrous, in one way or another, so this card easily makes the cut. The challenge will be to decide what is most important to cancel. Note that there are Treacheries with Peril, so we can't cancel them if drawn by the Partner deck.

Elrond's Counsel - One of our threat reductions events. Always useful to have, but ideally we'll have a Hobbit Pipe in play when we use it. This isn't a Quest Action, so we can combo the boost with Speak Your Promise! in the Combat phase. This is a nice option to have, since often the will go to waste in the Quest phase anyway.

Frodo's Intuition - An excellent card to bring in just about any eligible quest. Having Sam as one of our heroes definitely makes this worth the resource cost and we should get use out of most or all of the boost too. Note that the boost lasts for the whole round, so it's another combo with Speak Your Promise!

Hasty Stroke - Most of the Shadow Effects in this quest can be worth cancelling. An unexpected threat raise is never pleasant, but the most annoying might be the one that prevents the attacking enemy from taking damage. In Stage 3 this can also mean we are prevented from making quest progress so we really want to avoid it.

Speak Your Promise! - This card has been mentioned a lot already. Since it's in the sphere it's very limited in application, but we have several compelling reasons to use it. Firstly, it's the only player card that works on Gollum and it can make dealing with him much easier for a turn. More broadly, since it lowers the enemy's attack, it makes the prospect of defending with Beorn much more attractive. It also helps to have the effect in this deck since it is weaker on the combat side. Lastly, there are tons of boosting effects we can use to make this card better. Among the best ones are Rosie and Celebrian's Stone, and of course it works with Frodo's own ability, assuming you chose the Land of Shadow version. This effect even works on the Nazgul, although not if you use the Ring since that makes them immune to player card effects.

The Galadhrim's Greeting - Last but certainly not least we have another threat reduction effect. This time we can use it on the Partner deck as well which boosts it's usefulness. We might also choose the target based on the number of Hobbit Pipes in play. We should fire this off whenever possible, since the enemies can make it difficult to use.