Zero Threat Challenge 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck is my answer to Sudsywolf's "low threat" community challenge. You can find his excellent videos on his YouTube channel and the Steam community pages. I strongly recommend you check them out.

The idea of the challenge is to win a quest with the lowest final threat possible.

Sudsywolf posted this challenge before the update that brought us multiplayer. This means that the challenge is a lot tougher now for a few reasons:

*We only draw 1 card per turn

*A lot of Sauron cards are cheaper now

*Looming Threat is a thing (eek)

Despite those difficulties, I was able to get down to a final threat of 10 on solo. I was pretty pleased with that! I chose a slightly different route to Sudsywolf by picking "On the Trail" as my quest of choice.

I also wanted to take the challenge a step further and made a (foolish?) prediction on steam forums that in multiplayer mode it's possible to get the threat meter down to zero with the current card pool! In theory 2 players can pack enough threat reduction in to get there, but it's no guarantee as the dynamics of multiplayer are so different.

I've yet to make the attempt at multiplayer but will post results here once I've found someone to make the attempt with!

Thanks again to Sudsywolf for a great challenge!

**Notes for those interested in making the attempt:

Basically we're looking to spin out the game long enough to draw the entire deck and then play all our threat reducers at optimal times. The deck breaks down to three components:

REDUCE THREAT (obvs): Study the Scrolls should be used to recur A Watchful Peace (Careful Planning in a pinch) because it only costs 1 to play. Borne Aloft should be played in such a way to only get back Galadriel's Handmaiden

DRAW YOUR DECK: We need to draw through our deck as rapidly as possible. Hence Erebor Record Keeper, Mithrandir's Advice and Lock Shields. You really want to be dropping an Erebor Record Keeper in the first few rounds.

STAY ALIVE (kind of important!): Tom Took is pretty key to this. Forest Snare is also particularly effective and should be reserved for hard-to-kill enemies, anything with Stalwart or Goblin Warlord. You want some allies early to stabilise the board. Westfold Outrider, Forest Protector and Ithilien Lookout are all valuable early while you build the board but are ultimately expendable. Star Brooch goes on Legolas early to help you clear enemies, but on Arwen late to help you clear hazards/objectives.

Why “On the Trail”?

• By choosing “Follow the Caravan” it’s possible to closely control when you travel on every stage and so avoid Looming Threat.

• It gives us By Day or Dark – a handy resource boost for playing out all our cards.

• We can pull clever tricks on the penultimate stage with the Stealth-granting fate event.

• The other fate events help tremendously, particularly the global +1 attack boost.

• There is a hazard on the final stage which lets us reduce threat by 2 when we clear it. This is very handy!