Deck Spotlight: Elven Alliance

 

There is something uniquely attractive about Elves as depicted in Tolkien’s works, modern fantasy literature, movies and countless video games. While other fantasy races tend to bash their foes in the face in the most straightforward way possible, Elves are all about stealth and finesse. This is mightily difficult to represent in an abstract card game like LOTR LCG that has an equally abstract combat system based around numbers, but the designers found a magnificent solution with the Silvan archetype. By creating Silvan cards that provide benefits for returning allies of that trait to hand, as well as positive effects for entering play in the first place, players can get the sense of Elves flying into play, ambushing enemies, and then falling back into the trees. While this is mechanically similar to Rohan, it is not the same in terms of theme and how it plays, as that trait is all about sacrifice in order to gain benefits, which matches the Rohirrim’s role at the Battle of Pelennor Fields (as well as Helm’s Deep). Silvan, by contrast, is not about discarding allies, but returning them to hand and playing them as often as possible, which actually feels much different. With the release of O Lorien! in Trouble in Tharbad, I finally felt that it was time to build Silvan decks in earnest. After creating a build around Haldir, Celeborn, and Legolas, as well as Haldir, Celeborn, and Spirit Glorfindel, I started venturing out into other intriguing combinations. Here, I will share a deck focused around an alliance between Noldor and Silvan, seeking out the synergy between the two, all in the service of ultimately uplifting the Silvan archetype.

Deck List:

Hero (3)
1x Celeborn
1x Mirlonde
1x Elrond

Ally (24)
3x Galadhrim Minstrel
1x Gildor Inglorion
1x Haldir of Lórien
2x Henamarth Riversong
3x Mirkwood Runner
3x Silvan Tracker
2x Rivendell Minstrel
3x Naith Guide
2x Silverlode Archer
1x Arwen Undómiel
3x Imladris Stargazer
1x Rumil

Attachment (14)
2x A Burning Brand
3x Lembas
2x Celebrían’s Stone
2x O Lórien!
3x Vilya
2x Light of Valinor

Event (15)
3x The Tree People
3x Daeron’s Runes
3x Valiant Sacrifice
3x Feigned Voices
2x The White Council

Total Deck Size: 53

Expansions Needed (14): 2nd Core Set, The Dunland Trap, The Druadan Forest, Shadow and Flame, Trouble in Tharbad, The Hills of Emyn Muil, A Journey to Rhosgobel, Return to Mirkwood, The Dead Marshes, The Hunt for Gollum, The Watcher in the Water, Foundations of Stone, The Three Trials, Conflict at the Carrock

Theme: Ally Dumping, Ally Retrieval, Healing

Spheres: Lore/Leadership with a Spirit splash and a drop of Tactics

Strategy: The main focus of this deck is the typical Silvan approach of moving allies between the board and hand, with an assist from the Elrond and Vilya combination. Generally, the key cards to draw early are O Lorien! and Vilya. The former allows Silvan allies to be played much more easily and quickly, with one of the best options being for Celeborn to play the Naith Guide for only 1 resource. Fortunately, O Lorien! is a song, so I’ve included Rivendell Minstrell to help fetch it, and with 2 copies of each card in my deck, this works out to effectively 4 copies of O Lorien!. Vilya helps to get allies and key attachments into play, especially the more expensive uniques, such as Haldir and Gildor. In order to get the most out of Elrond, as well as the versatile Celeborn, action advantage is key, and there are quite a few choices in this department: Naith Guide, Light of Valinor (which can be paid for once Elrond has Vilya and a Spirit icon), Lembas, and The White Council. I feel that the latter card is thematically appropriate since both Celeborn and Elrond were members of the Council. Naith Guide is the main target for Silvan cards such as The Tree People and Feigned Voices, as I find her enters play ability, which allows one hero to quest without exhausting, to be greatly useful. Imladris Stargazer, of course, is always key in a deck with Elrond/Vilya, but it also provides a way to check before playing The Tree People whether there are any worthwhile Silvan allies in the top 5 cards.

In my other Silvan decks, defense has traditionally been a concern and a weak point of the trait. I’ve introduced a few elements here that help to shore up that area. First, is Elrond himself, with 3 defense and access to A Burning Brand. Second is an added focus on healing, which is the normal Silvan response to defense, basically substituting hit points and regeneration for high defense values. Silvan Tracker plays a key role in this, and while Elrond is in play, each Silvan character can heal an amazing 2 hit points when they ready during the refresh phase. This is great fun in practice, as you watch your Silvan characters shed damage like stray water drops. When this works well, Celeborn can actually serve as a great defender, as he can soak up damage and heal it at the end of the round. Arwen is as useful as ever, and represents another key Noldor character in this Elven Alliance deck, as she can boost the defense of either Elrond or Celeborn, depending on who will defend in a given turn. Having this added flexibility is great, as I can often use Celeborn to both quest and defend, as he is the usual target of Light of Valinor, while Elrond remains free to use Vilya or defend, as needed based on the situation. With the help of Naith Guide, Lembas, and The White Council, Elrond can also participate in questing as well. The only marked weakness of this hero lineup is a lack of attack power, but fortunately allies like Mirkwood Runner and Silverlode Archer, especially when benefiting from Celeborn’s stat boosts, can make up the difference, especially since each hero has at least 2 attack strength.

In order to make all this work, I wanted to include at least 2 different card draw effects. Daeron’s Runes is often a no-brainer in many decks and so it is here. I then was tempted to include Mithrandir’s Advice, which would provide 2 cards for 1 resource in this deck, but I decided to opt for Valiant Sacrifice in order to make more use of the Leadership resources, as there is definitely a greater slant towards Lore in this deck. Valiant Sacrifice can also give 2 cards for 1 resource, although it is keyed to an ally leaving play. Still, with allies leaving play often due to the Silvan events, the synergy seemed too good to pass up. Finally, The White Council is a flexible card that can draw a card and “thin” the deck, if all else fails.

How It Was Constructed: Although I quite enjoyed the more exclusively Silvan decks that I built, I was searching for something a little different that could key in on some of the natural strengths of the trait and compensate for some of the weaknesses. I wanted to do this without completely disregarding theme, so while I was interested in trying out Grima, in order to make use of his discount combined with O Lorien! to drop in 3-cost Silvan allies for 1, I ultimately was drawn to Elrond. Both Silvan peoples in Middle-earth were ruled by non-Silvan leaders, and there seemed to be much cooperation between the various Elven strands in the Third Age (the same could not be said of the First Age!) and so a deck focused on an alliance between Silvan and Noldor seemed thematically appropriate. Beyond theme, Elrond brings some key points of synergy to a Silvan build. First, he strengthens healing effects, which makes Silvan Tracker into a magnificent healing force in a Silven deck. Second, he can pay for allies of any sphere. Previously, I was really tied into the idea of Silvan as a tri-sphere deck, as while Leadership and Lore seemed the key spheres, there were also cards in Spirit and Tactics that helped the trait function better. Including Elrond, as well as the Spirit icon from Vilya, allowed for easy splashing of some crucial Spirit cards in a dual-sphere build, as well as Rumil from Tactics. Finally, since Silvan strategy is all about being able to play allies easily and repeatedly, Vilya seemed to provide yet another way of accomplishing this goal. After deciding to include Elrond, his high threat meant that Mirlonde became the easy choice for second Lore hero, as Haldir would place my starting threat at 33 (Celeborn was a given for the stat boost he provides in a Silvan deck), wheareas this version clocks in at 30. It was a shame to leave out Haldir, as I do love this new hero, but it did open up the opportunity to include the ally version. Once the hero selection was complete, the few key other Noldor elements (Arwen, Rivendell Minstrel, Gildor, and Imladris Stargazer) all suggested themselves rather quickly. Even a card like Celebrian’s Stone, which might seem like an odd fit at first, actually represents the theme of this deck perfectly, as Celebrian was the wife of Elrond and daughter of Celeborn, known as both a Lady of Lothlorien and Lady of Rivendell, just as this deck represents a blending of those two regions and peoples.

Possible Combos:

1) Naith Guide + The Tree People/Feigned Voices: Naith Guide has perhaps the best enters play effect of Silvan allies, and thus she is the main target for The Tree People and Feigned Voices. Generally, she enters play, quests for 2 (with Celeborn’s boost), and also allows either Celeborn or Elrond to quest without exhausting. This is a base willpower of 5 for the quest phase with only 1 character exhausted. Then, I can return her to hand to either cancel an attack or bring another Silvan ally into play for the combat phase. This means she is in hand to be played next turn for the whole process to be repeated again.

2) Imladris Stargazer/Gildor Inglorion + Elrond/Vilya: There’s nothing new here and this is a tried and true combination by now, but Imladris helps Elrond to dump Silvan allies into play exactly when they are needed, and makes sure that the right Silvan for the job is available. Gildor’s ability to switch a card from hand to the top of the player deck is also more useful than usual here, as you could move a Silvan ally that has been returned to hand to the top of the deck just in time for Vilya to put it into play again for free!

3) Silvan Tracker + Elrond: The Silvan Tracker heals 1 damage from a Silvan character when they ready during the refresh phase. Elrond bumps this up to 2. This means that someone like Celeborn can take 2 damage from a 5 attack enemy, then heal during the refresh phase and be ready to defend again next round!

4) Rumil + Silverlode Archer + Vilya: Elrond can drop Rumil into play either with Vilya or using his ability to pay for allies of any sphere. Although none of the heroes have ranged, if you can get 1 or 2 copies of Silverlode Archer into play, then Rumil can make use of his ability to deal 2 or 3 damage.

Variations: It’s possible to cut out the 2 copies of The White Council to trim this deck down to a lean 51 cards. However, The White Council does provide some flexibility in terms of resource transfer, deck thinning, and, most importantly, readying. I’d even consider using it to try to recycle one of the key Silvan events back into my deck, although this would be a bit of a gamble and only if I was feeling either completely desperate or assured of my position. The most obvious variation on this deck, though, would be to eliminate Elrond and Vilya and go for a more straightforward Silvan build. Haldir, Legolas, and Celeborn can be quite an enjoyable deck, as it introduces Tactics cards into the mix in a big way. This means that Haldir can benefit from a Rivendell Blade, while Rumil can enter the fray with a consistent total of at least 3 ranged characters on the board. This is definitely a more combat-focused variation that does better overall in multiplayer than solo. It is a nice option for those that have used Elrond/Vilya too much in the past, and want to use more of the available Silvan cards. The other variation on this theme that I’ve used is Haldir, Celeborn, and Glorfindel. This trades out Tactics for Spirit, which means that Haldir doesn’t have access to weapons, but this is compensated for by a lower threat. Glorfindel doesn’t quite fit the Silvan theme, and is more overused than thrice-eaten Cram, but he does make a good fit for the deck, with high willpower and high attack to contribute. More importantly, Spirit brings in the Silvan Refugee, who is a fantastic candidate for triggering cards like The Tree People and Feigned Voices, and quests for 3 during the first turn it enters play. I also love the opportunity to bring in Children of the Sea, which boosts up the Refugee to 5 willpower during its first turn.

Final Thoughts: While I was initially hesitant to bring in Elrond and Vilya for fear of diluting the Silvan theme and strategy, I find that the Silvan and Noldor elements actually complement each other rather well. Celeborn and Elrond are a dynamic duo with high stats and can fill in for every role. Mirlonde quite understandably doesn’t get as much attention here, but plays a valuable role in lowering the starting threat and has 2 willpower and 2 attack to contribute. Overall, while the Elrond/Vilya combination still plays an important part in the deck, I find myself still able to enjoy all the Silvan shenanigans. This deck can work well in both solo play and multiplayer and has the balance to face off against a variety of quests.