The Passage of the Marshes - Beorn Deck - Specialist Deck Se 1.0

• Versions
• 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 combat focused of the two and brings raw power including hero Beorn and a host of strong allies.

Beorn is here to give us a massive boost in the first quest stage. Having to deal with Gollum attacking twice per round can be crippling to some decks, and he also needs a lot of to take him down. Beorn solves both of those issues, since he can defend every attack for at least a few rounds and then hits back harder than anyone. Later in the game he won't be defending as much, but he'll still be able to take out enemies with ease. Once we get an Honour Guard or two in play, defending becomes a lot safer too.

With Gollum somewhat handled, the first stage of this quest becomes a lot easier and we can focus on the challenges of the later stages. For this reason, we'll be running an Ent focused deck. We can rely on the heroes early on and then our powerful allies will help to push through the rest of the quest.

Bringing Ents means we need a hero. To balance out Beorn's high threat we'll take Pippin, probably my favourite low threat hero. He fills the questing role nicely and gives us a semi-reliable form of card draw. If our threat control plan (in concert with the Partner deck) is successful, his ability will be relevant far into the quest.

Threat really is a big concern in the quest, so for our last hero we'll choose Folco Boffin, since his effective threat cost is 5 and he can also do a decent job in the quest phase. If worst comes to worst he can be an emergency threat reduction as well.

So we'll be running Ents and we'll take the vast majority of the available allies. Treebeard is the most important as not only does he have the best stats, but his resource generation will be key to playing more Ents. In particular, we will likely be very tight on resources, so where possible he will pay for our Ents.

Given the importance of this one card, most of our events are dedicated to card draw in order to find him with an aim to play him on turn 2 and no later. Luckily, we are quite capable of seeing 25+ cards by the Planning phase of turn 2, so our chances are good.

So our strategy is very straightforward, play Ents and use their amazing stats to get to the finish line. With that said, let's talk about the cards:

Beechbone - Our first Ent ally and he comes with some very attractive stats. His main role is as an attacker, but he can certainly pull his weight questing also. As mentioned, we'll be struggling for resources so he's our only 3 cost ally and only 1 copy at that.

Booming Ent - This guy is a great advert for the cost efficiency of the Ents. For only 2 resources he can easily make it to 5 or more and we'll have no problem dealing with the enemies after that.

Derndingle Warrior - Booming Ent's defensive counterpart and he's equally impressive. Sentinel is obviously a huge benefit since the Partner deck doesn't have any really strong defenders. Getting 5 with his ability is also really great since it matches the highest of all the enemies we'll face, up to and including the Nazgul.

Honour Guard - Practically an auto-include in any deck with Beorn. He's going to be our de facto healer, since our only actual healer is limited to Ents. We won't plan on using the Valour Response, but with this quest it might be an option.

Leaflock - He's not the best Ent, but there aren't that many and he is at least playable. The cost is high compared to the other Ents, but like the Booming Ent, it shouldn't be too hard to power up his . Only 1 copy since we'd prefer to draw the other Ents, especially early in the game. His combat stats are also totally acceptable, if unexciting.

Quickbeam - Now this ally makes Leaflock look like a joke. Better stats, lower cost and he can be ready the turn you play him (which he should be every time). He's an easy choice even in a non-Ent deck, so of course we're very glad to have him here.

Treebeard - Treebeard is the glue that holds the Ent deck together. He's hugely powerful in his own right, and his ability is very strong too. We'll need to use his resources to pay for Ent allies early on, but as the game goes on we will be glad of the readying effect too.

Wandering Ent - This is basically the 'generic' Ent ally, but he's still really good. He can be effective during any phase which makes him great to have. The board state will determine his best role, but our default would probably be questing unless we haven't seen our Ents yet.

Wellinghall Preserver - 3 for 3 cost is exceptionally good value and this guy will be the backbone of our questing power. The healing ability is very nice as well, especially for keeping our defenders in the fight.

Ent Draught - The great thing about Ent Draught is that it has the Ent trait, meaning we can find it with Entmoot, effectively for free. There are also several good candidates. Beechbone and Derndingle Warrior both have very obvious needs. If Treebeard is defending a lot he wouldn't mind this also. Finally, there are a lot of Hobbit heroes between the 2 decks, so if things are looking precarious we can give one to them - probably prioritising Frodo.

Entangling Nets - A cheap and effective card for managing combat. It can also give us some action advantage, since it might make Beorn a viable defender. Early game this can be particularly useful before our Ents are ready for combat.

Fellowship of the Ring - The sphere cards all have powerful effects. This one offers a massive boost to our questing ability. We have 3 different cards between the 2 decks. The other 2 are needed much more by the Partner deck, so this one has made room for Fellowship.

Thror's Map - All the locations in this quest have Travel effects we'd rather not pay. Not paying isn't really an option though, since Mire makes the alternative even worse. The main reason for having this card is to allow us to dodge the 'exhaust Sméagol' effects, which we might not always be able to pay for.

Woodmen's Clearing - This is the deck's contribution to threat management. The good news is there will basically always be locations to target. We need to be wary though, since there is at least one encounter card that puts an Undead enemy into play engaged and they all prevent threat reduction.

Beorn's Rage - One of the few ways to give Beorn a boost in combat. The effect is very strong since it can boost defending and attacking in the same round. At it's best when it allows Beorn to defend when it might otherwise have been too risky.

Daeron's Runes - Our first card draw effect, but certainly not the last. There are definitely cards we value more than others, so discarding shouldn't be too much of a problem even though we don't have a huge number of duplicate uniques.

Drinking Song - Our hobbit heroes make this a very attractive proposition. Early game we will be searching for Treebeard and if he's not in hand we should play this 100% if the time to try and find him. It's extremely effective at this in combination with the other card draw effects.

Entmoot - Fully 50% of our deck is made up of Ent cards, so we hope to find at least 2 cards with this every time. This is insane value for a 0 cost card and if we find more, even better.

Feint - Thanks to the nature of our deck, we may find it difficult to defend in the first few turns and so it helps to have an effect like this. Just make sure there's a resource to spend.

Peace, and Thought - There was 1 more space left for card draw and this felt like the best choice. The exhaustion cost does not feel too much in this deck and we really do want to see as many cards as possible.