The Council of Elrond- In One Deck! 1.0

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• 1.0

Note: The Frodo in the sideboard should be in the main deck, but RingsDB won't let me publish a 4-hero deck. He is, however, essential to forming the entire Council.

With the release of the Sam Gamgee ally, it is now possible to not only make a deck containing the entire Fellowship of the Ring, as @Authraw has done, but it is also possible to make a deck featuring the entire Council of Elrond. (Well, technically, Sam wasn't invited, but he was still there! If you think he doesn't count, then the release of ally Glorfindel enabled it.) Using heroes Gandalf, Elrond, Frodo, and Aragorn with the allies Gloin, Gimli, Legolas, Glorfindel, Sam, Erestor, Galdor of the Havens, Boromir, and Bilbo gives you all the (named) members in attendance there. If you want to include generic wise Elves, use some Imladris Caregivers. Otherwise, get all your big allies out and crush the encounter deck with the Union of the Free Peoples!

There are only two issues with trying to make this work. The first issue is that all of the allies are high-cost, with the exception of Sam, since you're using Frodo. This is solved by including Elrond's ring Vilya to cheat allies into play from the top of your deck, and using Wizard Pipe to put them there. Also, you can put allies into play directly from your hand with Elf-stone.

The second issue is that the deck has a lot of duplicate uniques, because if you want any reasonable chance of seeing all of the allies in your hand, you need to include multiple copies. Luckily, the deck has several ways of helpfully disposing of them. Using Daeron's Runes is one option, with another being ally Glorfindel. You could also put a duplicate on top of your deck and discard it with Flame of Anor for a huge attack boost, or discard it to Erestor to get a new card (two new cards if you have Galdor in play).

The only other issue that might bring the deck down is threat. Starting at 39, it is bound to get very high very fast, so using Elrond's Counsel is not only super thematic but super effective to keep threat at reasonable levels. The Galadhrim's Greeting also keeps threat low.

For card draw, we have Expert Treasure-hunter, which is always fabulous in a Gandalf deck, as well as Mithrandir's Advice (again quite thematic!) and Daeron's Runes. Gandalf's Staff is also an option if it's not being used for resources or shadow removal. Erestor is also used in conjunction with Galdor of the Havens to turn a duplicate unique into two new cards, as mentioned above. Legolas can get you a card when he destroys an enemy. Basically, this deck should never be short on draw.

As a final note, the deck obviously only contains the entire Council so long as you are playing a saga quest with Frodo in it. If you want to have the entire Council regardless of what quest you're playing, you'll have to use OHaUH Gandalf and Frodo, although the deck would need major renovation. Why not Core Gandalf, you might ask? There's probably no real difference except for the fact that I want to keep all of the Council in play at all times. If that doesn't bother you, feel free to use whatever version of Gandalf you want in the non-saga version of the deck.

Enjoy!