Rings of Power V2 2.0

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• 3.0
• 2.0
• 1.0

This is the latest version of my Noldor Discard/Vilya Spirit and Lore Deck that is played two-handed alongside the following deck: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/8844/sword-axe-and-bow-v2-1.0

This deck builds up a strong questing army in order to make up for the lack of willpower in the combat deck. It also handles various support roles for both decks such as healing, readying and threat reduction.

Thanks to both the new Wilds of Rhovanion deluxe box and feedback received from the LOTR Deck Test blog: https://lotrdecktest.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/fellowship-2-three-hunters-two-rings/ I have already made several changes to my decks after only publishing new versions about a month ago. To see the overall deck breakdown and explanation visit version 1.0. Here I will be covering the new changes and thought process behind them.

As far as the questing deck, there were certainly areas that could use improving. There are so many ideas and combinations featured in the deck that sometimes things do not really come together or you struggle in the early and mid game before you have a killer board state set up. Some of the feedback I received was really helpful in identifying how I could go about potentially addressing this. There were essentially two main paths suggested; either removing the Vilya card and play style from the deck altogether or doubling down on that aspect and ensuring the deck always draws and Vilya nice and early and utilizes it to its maximum potential.

Now I absolutely love Vilya, even when I am not using it to its full potential and it is only playing 2-3 cost cards for free I still thoroughly enjoy using it and really love the extra layer of strategy and complexity it adds to the game. I also like that it gives Elrond the spirit sphere allowing him to help pay for spirit events and attachments. This mirrors Nenya allowing Galadriel to gain the lore sphere to help pay for lore allies and attachments and just allows for a lot of resource smoothing in the deck. Simply put cutting Vilya from the decks altogether was not an option. The other path of doubling down and making the deck more of an actual Vilya focused and driven deck was something I played around with a little but this was also not very appealing in the end because I like that even when you do not draw either of/one of the rings of power this deck can still very much hold its own and do some very cool things. Elrond can still be an amazing backup defender alongside Gimli, Galadriel can still provide constant card draw and threat reduction for either deck and Arwen's ability ensures you can keep pumping out useful allies and readying attachments like UC and Miruvor.

What I have essentially tried to do instead is increase the amount of willpower the deck can generate both overall but more specifically early game while also increasing the usefulness of Vilya when it does appear, without making the deck less effective when Vilya does not see play. Not exactly an easy task! The main way I plan on doing this is by including more affordable allies in the deck that are great when played normally but are also nice targets for Vilya as well.

Now first and foremost I knew that I needed to be able to get willpower on the table faster and more efficiently within the first few turns. Once this deck gets rolling it can generate fantastic amounts of but early game this is often not the case especially due to all the set-up involved with the various combos and ideas present in the deck. To address this the deck needed more affordable allies with at least two willpower that can be played within the first few turns of the game.

Galadriel's Handmaiden has two , is cheap and even reduces threat of a single deck by 1 point. Bumping the quantity of this ally from 2 to 3 copies was an easy choice. Spirit sphere also helps as all three heroes are capable of paying for this ally. If you wished to on the first turn you could play a two cost spirit ally and a two cost lore ally thanks to Arwen's ability. If that lore ally is Quickbeam thats an additional 4 on the first turn from allies alone! The Handmaiden is also a decent target for Dwarven Tomb and Orophin allowing recursion of the threat reduction and 2 should one be destroyed or wind up in the discard pile.

Quickbeam was the next obvious choice with his 2 and extremely cheap cost of 2 for some really great stats. Three additional on the questing side of the board is really helpful and gives all the Ranged characters on the combat side some support when taking out foes engaged with the questing deck. Lastly Quickbeam combos with Wellinghall Preserver quite well as the Preserver can easily heal the damage Quickbeam takes to enter play ready or any damage he might take as an emergency defender or from effects such as Archery. Lastly because Quickbeam is the only Ent that can enter play ready he is still able to benefit from Galadriel's quest without exhausting ability for allies that have just entered play!

Wellinghall Preserver is the final new ally. Now Wellinghall Preserver is an interesting inclusion. He is not playable first turn (unless you Vilya him in or get Nenya out first turn with Arwen's resource) so he does not directly help with the issue on say the first or second turn. Once you do get him in play however and he is ready and able to quest he has a whopping 3 ! The Wellinghall Preserver also makes the Derndingle Warriors in the Combat Deck far more useful as they can constantly heal for free if there is a Wellinghall Preserver in play. You can also stack direct damage or archery damage onto the Preserver himself as they are fully capable of healing themselves as well. Now even if you don't use Vilya to get these guys in play they are still very cheap at 3 lore resources and although you have to wait a turn to actually make use of their stats once you are using them each and every turn they are insanely helpful to your overall board state thanks to high , high , decent and and constant healing for Ent characters. I have actually been using the Wellinghall Preservers for a little while now and they were the first change I made to the latest iterations of the decks replacing the two copies of Northern Tracker.

Now let's discuss the cards that were removed as this has just as much of an impact as the new cards included.

First to go were the two copies of Northern Tracker who as mentioned above were actually replaced some weeks ago. The Northern Tracker filled such a weird spot in the deck. He was the only location control card featured not only in the questing deck but in the entire fellowship, unless you count Legolas himself. I have not really encountered location lock or much of a need to specifically tech against locations in a long time with these decks (I am inclined to believe this is mainly thanks to Legolas). Yes on occasion due to slow starts locations can be problematic but once the decks get rolling this is never really too much of an issue. Further reducing the usefulness of his ability there are also plenty of new encounter effects that punish you for having progress on locations in the staging area or prevent you from placing progress on locations in the staging area to begin with! Northern Tracker is simply not the powerhouse he used to be.

There are many issues with Northern Tracker that extend beyond the fact that his fantastic location oriented effect is rarely needed or even useful anymore. First off the 1 point of is painful because it is so little for his cost of 4 resources but you need to quest with him to actually trigger his ability. If you are questing with him you can't then utilize his 2 or 2 and 3. On the turn he enters play he can do both thanks to Galadriel but from then on he is either being used purely for his ability or purely for combat. Now even when he is used for combat he doesn't really pull his weight for his resource cost. Orophin can attack for just as much and has Ranged for less resources (although admittedly only Elrond can pay for Orophin), Elladan and Elrohir who are both cheaper are certainly both far better at combat so long as their brother is in play and Haldir has the same combat stats but has Ranged AND Sentinel for the same resource cost (and he has higher !). Another core issue with the Trackers is how rarely I would actually play them and how often they would be used as discard fodder instead. If you don't NEED to play a Tracker to immediately address location lock just about any other ally or card is going to be more useful and worthwhile playing instead. This meant they would sit in my hand for the duration of most games while other more useful cards are played each round and I would eventually play them in the last few turns or would simply discard them to provide some healing or resources instead.

The other card removed from the deck is Elrond's Counsel. Unlike Northern Tracker who I say good riddance to, I am quite sad to see Elrond's Counsel go. It is an extremely useful event that provides 3 threat reduction and a point of willpower for no cost!! Now there are a few reasons why I had to remove this card so bear with me as I explain. First off there was simply nothing else from the deck that could be cut without strongly impacting how the deck performs and operates, every card has its place and role and removing almost anything else would have had a far higher impact on the way the actual deck works. Secondly Elrond's Counsel is one of the only cards in the deck that does not work very well when blindly revealed by Vilya during the planning phase. The threat reduction is still handy but the willpower boost is only until end of phase and additional willpower is of no use to this deck during the planning phase. Lastly I hope that the threat reduction it provides can be somewhat offset and replaced by that additional copy of Galadriel's Handmaiden. Yes the ally only reduces threat by 1 instead of 3 but with three copies you are likely to see at least 2 of them throughout a game. Now that the deck has a higher overall concentration of especially during earlier rounds I also hope that Galadriel will not be quite so necessary for questing as often allowing me to get more use out of her ability providing additional threat reduction this way.

Ultimately while I have actually brought up the overall resource curve of the deck I have included more two cost two allies in the deck to provide a much needed boost to earlier rounds. I have also added a few three cost high allies to provide a boost to mid and late game as well. All of these allies are playable with or without Vilya while also providing more worthwhile targets for Vilya at the same time. There is even more healing going on now and some of it is completely free of any real cost (although only for Ents). Even the combat potential of this deck has increased with Quickbeam providing his potent 3. I hope that these changes allow the deck a little more consistency in both the early and late game and I am confident that these changes have only further improved the deck and its capabilities.