Deck: A Regular Bears’ Meeting

A hazard of keeping up with the news in this game (and preferring not to use proxies) is that you come up with deck ideas and then forget about them by the time you have access to the cards you need to build them. This is why a little while back I found myself thinking I needed to build more decks and realised that I only had to take a cursory glance at the cards (mostly the heroes) released in the Ered Mithrin cycle to recall multiple ideas I just never got around to building. This is the third such idea I’ve pieced together (after “Two wizards” and “Thranduil/Elvenking/action advantage stuff”). This time the basic concept I’m pursuing is “Bears.”

The Line Unbroken – Nightmare Ringmaker Wrap-Up

Well, it is time to wrap up another cycle of Nightmare quests in The Line Unbroken. The Ring-maker cycle didn’t have the best quests to start with in my opinion, and as tends to be the case the Nightmare decks accentuate what’s already there, which can lead to additional frustrations… that said, looking back I’ve still had a decent experience with this Nightmare cycle on the whole, because even in the cases of frustration, it has been the frustration of a challenge I need to work to defeat, which is something I appreciate, though others might not. I do think I would be less appreciative of these quests if I were just bringing in generic prebuilt decks rather than custom building for each one.

The Line Unbroken – N42: Nightmare The Antlered Crown

Alright, I’ve reached the end of the Ringmaker cycle once again, coming to the Nightmare version of the Antlered Crown. Antlered Crown is a quest I’ve always quite liked, with the proviso that it has a lot of effects to keep track of and so it can be very easy to misplay something. This problem has arisen both times I had to record playthroughs of it for The Line Unbroken.

The Line Unbroken – N41: Nightmare Celebrimbor’s Secret

In contrast to the previous quest, Celebrimbor’s Secret I think is generally more accepted by the community at large, but I’ve never really liked it. Between a bit too much Surge and Bellach’s Scour effect, there’s an annoying chance of getting totally flooded with encounter cards, and it just ends up frustrating if you don’t have the right kind of deck(s).
It’s also the quest which in the past I felt suffered the most from the Time mechanics needing to be shoehorned into every single quest in the ring-maker cycle, though a full discussion of why would be a topic for another blog post.

Deck – the Elves Must Take Action

Back when Fire in the Night was originally announced, I had this (among other things) to say about The Elvenking:
“It also potentially fits in nicely with decks that just rely on powerful heroes since it provides action advantage and allows such a deck to recycle Naith Guides or Greenwood Archers for more action advantage – this doesn’t have to be a dedicated Silvan deck so no real need for Celeborn but Thranduil would be right at home. Leadership Imrahil and Tactics Eomer will also love this idea.”
It has taken quite a while, but I finally got round to building the deck. This is it.

The Line Unbroken – N40: Nightmare The Nin-in-Eilph

The Nin-in-Eilph I think would be most commonly described as frustrating, and the descriptor is difficult to argue. The transition to Nightmare certainly does nothing to change that. But at the same time, I’d say I’ve become better disposed towards the Nin-in-Eilph over time and playing it more. As much as it can be frustrating to deal with, for me it’s the kind of frustration which motivates me to keep trying to beat the quest. So it’s not a quest I’d want to play all the time, but I do appreciate the challenge it poses.

The Line Unbroken – N39: Nightmare Trouble in Tharbad

Trouble in Tharbad, like Encounter at Amon Din in Against the Shadow, was very much the easy quest of the cycle. However unlike Amon Din, the Nightmare transition did not turn Tharbad into a complete monster. In fact, while the Nightmare deck throws in some interesting points, the quest ultimately remains on the easier end of things, certainly by Nightmare standards.

Deck: The Wizards’ Champions

Pretty much as soon as hero Radagast was first spoiled I knew I was going to end up putting him with Gandalf for a two wizard deck to see what I could do with that idea. Obviously a fair amount of time has passed since that point, but I recently sat down and actually built the deck as planned. This is that deck.

The Line Unbroken – N38: Nightmare The Three Trials

The Three Trials, while it has its finicky aspects, is definitely my favourite quest from the whole of the Ring-maker cycle. The Nightmare deck accentuates some aspects of it which were less widespread in the original and adds additional enemies so it’s not as much of a pure card game boss rush sort of deal, while still retaining the focus primarily on that aspect of it. So without really playing it, just looking at the cards, it looks pretty good to me.

The Line Unbroken – N37: Nightmare The Dunland Trap

The Dunland Trap was one of my favourite quests from the Ring-maker cycle, though it was also one of the more difficult quests in the cycle, so it’ll be interesting to see how it changes going into Nightmare. Though sometimes the already difficult quests don’t get changed that much in the Nightmare transition, presumably because the difficulty is already there and therefore doesn’t need to be specifically added.