I can beat the first scenario solo with every other deck but not this one. It starts off with 30 threat so there is a lot of combat, but the best fighter is also the best questing character and unlike Aragorn you get 1 use of him!

The deck gives lots of draw and delaying abilities but either locations or monsters eventually overwhelm it. It feels like it's missing something as there is no point in lots of draw if you are not getting useful cards (except Gandalf of course.) The first chapter pack will have Bilbo for this deck but he has terrible stats and 9 threat (2 cards a turn though may be too hard to give up.)

Is there something I am missing or should I avoid soloing with this deck?

Probably missing Protector of Lorien. That card has no limit in how many times can be used per round (usually overlooked). Since Lore deck has also quite a few ways to draw more cards, combine with Glorfindel and run through quests like crazy.

Forest Snare also helps a lot.

Hard deck to play solo though. But not useless at all.

I've not managed to solo the Lore deck either. At present it's also just feels like a support faction in multiplay as well which doesn't make it all that interesting.

Well, I just played a game with solo Lore deck against Escape from Dol Guldur and made it the furthest so far out of quite a few tries (managed to rescue poor old Denethor). Trapping the Nazgul helps a lot. So does Protector of Lorien. Allies are quite nice in this deck as well.

Better think twice before overlooking this deck! ;-)

The_Big_Show said:

Thats how i feel about it too, it does seem like a great support deck.

I'm determined to give it another go solo though until i have managed to work out the specifics of the deck. Each deck has its own strengths and I'd hate to think any of them aren't viable in solo play

The Lore deck is the only one I have tried so far in this game. Have not gotten far though. I would add that my failure to complete is more due to uncertainty in rule interactions than anything else.

I actually think Lore is the strongest deck.

Protector of Lorien is (IMO) broken, and no other deck can produce combos or "power cards" so reliably.  

Acererak said:

Forest Snare is good.

But I must admit that I also overlooked that Protector Of Lorien can be used more than once per turn.  Lore appears to be more about board control, and will take time to learn how to use this Sphere properly.

I just had my first success, Protector of Lorien was the MVP of the deck! I was trying to keep too many cards before, now using Loriens Wealth to draw I was throwing all my cards away to make huge progress on quests. I put it on Beravor so that I still had an attacking and defending character to keep the spiders away.

The diffent play styles of each deck is what amazes me about this game.

SJBenoist said:

Broken because it isn't limited to one use per round/phase?

Pretty much. 

It would not be so bad if not for Lore's ability to produce so many cards so easily.  Being able to drop 7 cards on Glorfindel and have him Quest at a Willpower of 10 every other turn is just too good (IMO).

I'm going to try the deck again, now I've seen PoL in a new light, but I wonder if this card will get updated via the FAQ to be use once per phase or something (which could tame it alot without making it an exhaust to use), but to be honest other than forest snare, without PoL this deck doesn't seem to have much going for it and that card almost seems to be critical to successful questing with the deck.

I actually had the easiest time playing the Lore deck. The Spirit and Tactics decks are the ones that didn't work well for me.

Spirit has too few allies, so if you get many enemies, you'll lose.

Tactics has too little willpower, so you have to rely on Legolas to get your progress tokens which means it's pure luck if you win.

I've since put together different, two-sphere decks which all work a lot better for solo play than the pre-built ones.

5 important generalizations to remember with Lore: 

• Don't try to block or kill every Enemy.
• Focus on gathering Progress tokens as quickly as possible.
• Use healing to offset the damage you are taking from Engagements.
• Let Denethor stop the nastiest thing on the board, and let the rest by.  (Use Forest Snare if it is too strong for him).
• Use Breavor to draw cards. 

I put Protector of Lorien on Beravor and sent her questing. If the board was clear I also sent Glorfindel to help. However if there was something I needed to kill then I kept Glorfindel in reserve. He has both a Willpower and Attack of 3 so he is very versatile. Block with Denethor and then kill the monster with Glorfindel. If there are multiple enemies don't be afraid to let some of the damage through, you have lots of ways of healing damage.

This is probably slower then putting Protector of Lorien on Glorfindel and doing super questing but you can probably deal with Enemies better.

pumpkin said:

Tactics is not at all viable in solo play. If you have a LOT of luck with Legolas you can get through the intro scenario, but that's only if you're lucky, and it doesn't stand a chance in the other scenarios (not that any of the decks have good chances against them solo). Having 0 Allies with any willpower is just brutal. Hopefully a few expansions changes that.