Elves of the Woods - Multiplayer 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck is one half of an Elven fellowship designed to tackle some of the more challenging quests this game has to offer with a combination of the martial progress of Elven archery and the questing support of Galadriel's entourage.

Elves of the Woods

Hero Lineup

• Celeborn is self-explanatory in any Silvan build. He will be almost exclusively questing and providing his enters play boost.

• (MotK) Legolas is the key to this deck's success because he immediately solves the problem of card draw that plagues most / builds. Once he is equipped with a Bow of the Galadhrim and/or Rivendell Blade, he can mow down enemies across the table. As a result, this deck practically never lacks for cards to play.

• Thranduil remains my favorite hero in the game, mainly because he allows you to wait until the combat phase to decide which Silvan ally you need to drop into play. Short on defense on your side of the board? Bring in Greenwood Defender! Need to bail out the questing deck from an attack? Summon the Defender of the Naith! Need more attack power? The options are almost endless. And in doing so, Thranduil provides a near-constant source of resource smoothing, which will keep this deck running efficiently. As the game goes on, you can even give him whatever combination of Ancestral Armor, Armored Destrier, Elven Mail, and/or Round Shield show up first to turn him into a decent late game defense option.

Another advantage of starting with two heroes is first turn access to Naith Guide (or to O Lórien! and then Naith Guide), as well as first turn access to Steward of Gondor in quests that call for pure power (looking at you, Carn Dum).

Questing

Aside from Celeborn's 3 , this deck is not going to shoulder much of the load in willpower questing. However, between Naith Guide, Orophin, Hands Upon the Bow, and the trusty Sneak Attack/Gandalf combo, there are plenty of ways to provide support to the questing deck.

However, one of the hidden strengths of this deck is the ability to handle Battle questing quite well. This proved key in dealing with the Accursed Battlefield against Carn Dum, and allows for success in the Against the Shadow cycle.

Defense

Thranduil does a decent job of holding down the fort in the early game, but between Feigned Voices and Feint, you should have plenty of tools to deal with the nastiest enemies. For anything that is immune to player cards, you may find yourself having to chump, but the good news is that you can usually muster up enough raw to take out the enemies that engage with you during the same round. Defender of the Naith provides sentinel support across the table, and eventually Thranduil should gain sentinel from either Elven Mail or from the ability of Arwen Undómiel from the questing deck.

Attack

The plethora of ranged characters allows you to pepper any foe with arrows and to lend your martial prowess wherever it is most needed. Between (MotK) Legolas and Haldir of Lórien on the other side of the table, you have the ability to bring at minimum 6 to bear upon any enemy from turn 1 (9 in Angmar quests with Amarthiul ally!). Once Legolas is armed up, he can use Hands Upon the Bow and Goblin-cleaver to great effect. For tougher enemies, there's always Gandalf or a late game Rúmil bomb. Rivendell Bow is for Glorfindel in the other deck for even more ranged options.

Resources

I prefer relying upon a combination of O Lórien!, Tighten Our Belts, and Thranduil's smoothing ability to avoid just defaulting to Steward of Gondor. However, I unashamedly swapped in Steward of Gondor for Carn Dum :).

Miscellaneous Strategy

Since you start off with a source of card draw and solid attack powe, look for some combination of a weapon, attack cancellation, and Naith Guide in your opening hand. Questing will be slowest during the first few rounds, so the more enemies you can engage and dispatch, the better you can keep tempo with the encounter deck (and the more cards you can draw). Try to time Tighten Our Belts strategically to get the full three resources.

Final Thoughts

I have had a lot of fun piloting this deck two-handed through the Angmar cycle, the ALeP Oaths of the Rohirrim cycle, and miscellaneous other quests (Battle of Five Armies, Morgul Vale, Three Trials, The River Running, Wrath and Ruin). It can certainly struggle against quests that are heavy on direct damage, especially if its counterpart deck is slow to find Silvan Trackers, but it handles enemy swarms and enemy bosses very successfully. Add to that a consistent source of card draw and the ability to make numerous decisions with events throughout a quest, and I find a recipe for great enjoyment.