The Dragon is Reborn

Opening Hand: Rand al'Thor[1021] Matrim Cauthon Pull of the Ta'veren Lord Dragon Characters: Mat the Warrior Berelain Thom Merrilin The Prophet Perrin Aybara Young Bull Elyas Hopper Faile Elayne Trakand Elayne the Accepted Moiraine Sedai Lan Mandragoran Loial Rand the King Troops: First Squadron Second Squadron Third Squadron Legion of the Dragon Dragonsworn x 3 Catapults x 3 Wolves x 3 Saboteurs x 3 Light Cavalry x 2 Challenges: Forced Back Seek and Destroy Advantages: Bodyguards Heron-Mark Blade x 2 Raw Recruits Dragonmount Lucky Find x 3 Resupply Saidar Angreal Saidin Angreal Dragonmount Training for War x 3 Events: Personal Growth x 2 Sabotage x 2 Connections x 2

Strategy: This is my first attempt at utilizing the Hero players now incredible ability to fast-start the game (even though it shorts me a card on the first turn). Using Starter Deck Rand, all Dragon and Light Nature characters have a reduced cost to play, and Lord Dragon (who replaces the starter immediately), has the same effect. Using Pull of the Ta'veren, Mat costs only 1 Politics to play, and you may immediately search your deck for Perrin to place him in your hand (and you can play him if you rolled another Politics or One Power Symbol). On your next trun, you can play Perrin (if you didn't on the first turn) and discard Pull of the Ta'veren to retrieve Young Bull or Mat the Warrior; you may play either if you have only two Pattern, due to this cards effect text. Once in play, Young Bull has all of Rand's allegiances, and Mat has all allegiances for recruiting anyway, so Moiraine, Lan, and Elayne should pose no problem in getting out (especially with Rand's modifier for Light Natured characters). Once Faile is played, you need only 6 Pattern to play Rand the King (giving Perrin the Aes Sedai Allegiance), Elayne the Accepted is a freebie, and your characters are now all incredibly strong. Hopper and all Wolves get +1 with Young Bull in play, Dragonsworn get +1 with Elyas in the same challenge (plus you can pull one every turn!). Pump up Saboteurs with Traning for War for some easy kills, and utlize the abilities of Second Squadron and Catapults to kill troops off (or weaken them badly!) before they can roll during a challenge. Resupply should allow you some staying power up front (allowing you to heal, along with the effect text of other troops), and Raw Recruits can recycle your killed troops back to your hand. Lucky Find, Connections, Loial, Elyas (for Wolves), and The Prophet (for Dragonsworn) speed up your card drawing, while Sabotage and Thom force a few key discards from your opponent. With Lan, Mat the Warrior, Rand, and Young Bull in play, you now have 4 good targets for your Heron-Mark Blade's. Use the angreals to buffer your characters, and Dragonmount to reduce the damage done to you in ALL pools by 3 (Dragon, Mercenary, Aes Sedai), or 4 if Elayne has not yet been replaced (she has the Andor Allegiance still). This applies EACH TURN. None of this even touches on the supporting cards (Personal Growth, Bodyguards, etc.) or Challenges, but this should be enough to give you the general idea. I think that this is a good, well rounded deck, and though I have conceived of several possible alternatives, this is the one that stuck with me. Possible Alternates: Assasination Attempt, War of Attrition, Any One Poer damage card (Fireball, Lightning, Incediary Strike, etc.), Balefire (use with caution!), Aiel Allegiance with Rand II, Aes Sedai Allegiance with Rand II, Andor Allegiance with Rand II (to add Two Rivers Archers), Marksmen, Longbow