Rings of Power V2 3.0

• Versions
• 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 further complicate things I have made further changes over the last few days hence Version 3 of this deck! To see the overall deck breakdown and explanation visit version 1.0 and for the first set of changes visit version 2.0. Hopefully no further changes will be made for the time being!!

Essentially the latest changes were driven by a core desire; to trim the decks down to 50 cards to give them a little more reliability and efficiency.

After some deliberation I was forced to remove Elladan and Elrohir as there are simply no other cards I could think of removing. Every unique ally adds so much to the decks (except maybe Haldir but he is a great target for spare weapons or a spare elven mail) and every cheap ally serves a very specific purpose. Now Elladan and Elrohir can be fantastic in certain situations but this is usually only if they are both in play and you are playing a quest that features plenty of Orc enemies. Now yes most quests feature Orcs but any time you are playing a quest without them Elladan and Elrohir's usefulness severely drops. Similarly any game where you only get one of them in play severely reduces their usefulness as without their stat boosts they are mediocre at both offense and defense. Simply put they are just not as reliable or powerful as they could or should be in order to remain in the decks.

Now removing both of these guys would put the deck count at 51 cards but because Daeron's Runes x2 is included in the deck it gives the deck a more realistic pseudo card count of 49 cards. To bring the deck back up to 50 not including the copies of Daeron's Runes, Faramir ally has been shifted across from the combat deck to the questing deck. There are a few reasons for this, first off the Questing deck is able to draw and play cards far faster than the combat deck so Faramir has far more chance of seeing play if he is in the questing deck. Secondly and more importantly it is actually a TON easier to play Faramir with this deck as strange as that may sound! Only Elrond can pay for him but unlike Gimli, Elrond can be the recipient of Arwen's ability allowing you to ramp up resources quickly in order to play Faramir. Across two turns you could drop an extra resource on Elrond and play Faramir with ease. Even better you can just play him for free with Vilya! The only reliable way to play him with the combat deck was if Steward of Gondor saw play otherwise he was difficult to pay for especially considering you need Gimli's resources for his readying ability. Ultimately Faramir should see play a lot more often.