QOTW: Deadmen’s Dike

‘In the North after the war and the slaughter of the Gladden Fields the Men of Westernesse were diminished, and their city of Annúminas beside Lake Evendim fell into ruin; and the heirs of Valandil removed and dwelt at Fornost on the high North Downs, and that now too is desolate. Men call it Deadmen’s Dike, and they fear to tread there. For the folk of Arnor dwindled, and their foes devoured them, and their lordship passed, leaving only green mounds in the grassy hills.’
-Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

Deadmen’s Dike Stats

Groups registered: 16
Total attempts: 41
Most attempts: 9
Average attempts per entry: 2.6

Total number of wins: 23
Win-rate: 56%

Average opinion on the quest: 3.6

Campaign Mode

Achievements

Here are the two achievements we had for this quest:

Army of Darkness

Return 4 copies of Cursed Dead from the discard pile when resolving the “when revealed” effect on Cursed Dead.

Time Runs Short

Setup: Each player discards the top 10 cards of their deck.

Encounter card Opinions

There was a two-way tie for favorite card for this quest. Each with 7 votes, they were Cursed Dead and Norbury Tombs. The Cursed Dead is iconic for this cycle and provides lots of fun and memorable moments as players can suddenly quest swarmed with armies of the undead. Norbury Tombs is one of those rare helpful locations that can help offset the ticking clock of your deck running out of cards.

The only card to be nominated as a favorite and least favorite was The Shadow World. If you were playing a Dunedain deck, you probably rated this side quest as one of the worst cards, but if your strategy was to kill every enemy as soon as it showed up, this one probably isn’t too bad.

Compared to the favorites (for which there were only 3 nominees), the title of least-favorite encounter card was much more contested. There was a two-way tie for first place, but each of them only had 3 votes each: Dark Sorcery and Thaurdir’s Damned. Especially in a quest like Deadmen’s Dike where the quest is actively milling your deck, Dark Sorcery can absolutely shred your board state. This single treachery goes a long way to encouraging players to play a deck style more similar to Council of the Wise (with singletons). Thaurdir’s Damned is a such a bae (Big Annoying Enemy): its stats are big and it has an effect that hits you on two fronts. It mills your deck, getting you closer to defeat, and deals direct damage. Ouch!

Things worth sharing from the games

I utilized the forced effect on Thaurdir’s Damned to load Glorfindel with Ruthless up with 4 damage and then attacked back with Glorfindel, using the action on Ruthless to defeat Thaurdir’s Damned in 1 swing. Apart from a 1B reveal that whiffed, I didn’t see a single treachery and never encountered a Cursed Dead (playing 1P). I kind of feel like I didn’t even play the quest. 😆 I also used Protect the Innocent to avoid advancing to stage 2 until I was ready.

Eomer with Firefoot put in a lot of work to clean up the Cursed Dead and Baleful Shades. I had all five cursed dead and Thaurdir engaged in my last round. It was a nail biting quest from beginning to end!

Thaurdir not being immune to player card effects made the quest a little less tricky than I remember. You cam just play Feint! I play tested this quest a lot and for most of the play testing there were three quest stages. To this day, I’ll get past stage 1 and be shocked that Thaurdir is engaging me already, and I’m not ready for it.

Just one shy of earning the Cursed Dead achievement but not super eager to try for it. Had a moment when I could have had all 5 in play (though not all from discard), but chickened out and hit it with Iarion’s Pendant.

The encounter deck managed to give me a victory with Haunted Keep, the surge gave Lanwyn the WP boost she needed to push us over the edge!

It was actually kind of under control, of I was lucky with a few early defense gambles. I got a treachery the phase Thaurdir came out, but then almost only got locations until both he and the quest were defeated.

I was able to snag one of the Baleful Shades in a Forest Snare round 1 and to keep multiple other enemies (Cursed Dead and Dead Lord) stuck in Ranger Spikes. Faramir used Hands Upon the Bow to kill another Dead Lord, and that allowed me to stay on top of the enemies and finish the quest well.

Orophin proved his worth by bouncing in and out of play and rescuing allies from the discard pile, helping to keep Dark Sorcery at bay while simultaneously building out a hand.

The surge train that almost killed me was certainly epic. The Shadow World into Power from Angmar into Thaurdir’s Damned.

Had a satisfying Distant Stars play. I traveled to Haunted Keep, then replaced it with Norbury Tombs before staging. I was then able to shuffle Distant Stars back into my deck. Of course, it was almost immediately discarded from the top of my deck, but the idea was good. My Dunedain appreciated the multitude of enemies. Having multiple cursed dead jump out at me bumped up my Guardians of Arnor enough to tank an attack from Thaurdir without taking any damage.

Got the one and done. I teched for it with some Hidden Cache’s and Ered Luin Miners, but otherwise played the same deck as before. Had to accept 5 damage on Protect the Innocent because I’m not sure I would’ve survived another turn (nearly every character had only one hit point left). Almost got Army of Darkness, but was 1 Cursed Dead short.

Seal the Tomb revealed at setup was too much for me to overcome. By round 3, I had two cursed seat, one Baleful Shade, and 2 Thaurdir’s Damned engaged with me. On my next try, things went more smoothly, though it was funny to not always trigger the response from Expert Treasure-Hunter (and Will of the West was key).

In my first game, all three Will of the West were milled into my discard pile which caused me to push hard to finish fast. Finished with six cards left in my deck! The game felt tense but I felt accomplished when I could ‘beat the clock.’

It was really interesting (and really good) playing things like Hidden Cache and You Cannot Pass through this quest. You Cannot Pass was particularly effective against the Baleful Shades.

Decklists used

BoF – Beravor, Eowyn, Erkenbrand, Glorfindel https://ringdsb.com/deck/view/581051

Ladies and Gentlemen fellowship

Chad’s Single Core Deck – Frodo, Gandalf, Gimli https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/22650/singlecoreseriesdeadmansdike-1.0

Hobbit Pipes, Sidequest Dunedain

Arwen/Elladan/Elrohir (Three Hunters) Galadriel/Celeborn/Thranduil (Into the West)

Scouting Burglars!

Tacrahil, Scorpagorn & bloody Gloin (sorcery-version) + Elrond, Rossiel & Arwen

I used a #RCO two-handed fellowship representing an interrupted double date to Lake Evendim (Aragorn & Arwen: “The Lord & Lady of Evendim” and Faramir & Eowyn: “Date Night Orc Hunt” – https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/56737/qotw-datenightorchuntrco-1.0)

Silvans

Dunedain (T Aragorn, Beravor, Amarthiul)

A Dunedain deck with Amarthiul, Arwen, and Aragorn, with three Will of the West added in as well

Tactics Eowyn, Grimbeorn, Radagast

Eagles! https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/56269/eaglesattheendofallthings-1.0

Aragorn, Gilraen, Thurindir https://ringsdb.com/deck/view/585430

Istari 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️ https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/22070

This week we are getting lost in the wild while we get harried by packs of ferocious wargs. Once you have completed The Wastes of Eriador, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/6QTAz9PUaEguGczKA

And for achievements for this quest, this is what we have: