Galdor’s Secrecy 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Galdor of the Havens found 2 Hobbits on the side of the road. He gave them a Good Meal and not only did they become Resourceful, they also began to inspire an entire legion of discarded people to Stand and Fight for them. Then Folco Boffin left because his belly was full, but his lore was no longer needed. Prince Imrahil took his place, and then another one (Sword-thain).

Concept: This deck combines Galdor’s fast start with some of the game’s best bargains to afford the best allies in the game. The deck plays in 2 phases:

• Phase 1: Build up strong economy in the first 2 turns (6-7 resources per turn). Secrecy protects you while doing this.
• Phase 2: Play out your costly allies, and, thanks to your strong economy, draw out your deck with Elven-light.

Galdor’s sprint: Galdor’s abilities are highly leveraged. Using Galdor’s special mulligan, discard all cards from your starting hand that you couldn’t play on turn 1. The goal is to empty your hand as soon as turn 1 or 2 in order to trigger Galdor’s action. (Important: try not to lose all copies of Will of the West). There are many cards that allow you to do that, either because they’re free to play (Emery, Good Meal, Elrond's Counsel, etc.), or because they help you discard cards (Elven Jeweler, To the Sea, to the Sea!, Imladris Caregiver). Losing big allies to the discard is not a problem. In fact it is very desirable because of the Stand and Fight trick (see below). There are a couple of 1-cost cards I would keep in my opening hand: Song of Travel, Fast Hitch (for Merry), To the Sea, to the Sea!, and of course Resourceful, are among them.

Bargains: The deck’s economy thrives on a couple of powerful tricks:

• Lower the cost of Stand and Fight with Good Meal (one of the main reasons for using Hobbit heroes) to buy big juicy allies on the cheap.
• Play Sword-thain for free by Bartering for Resourceful, then play Resourceful back for 1 resource. Emery is turn 1 target for Sword-thain. I would also include the new Galion ally if I had him.

Flexibility with out-of-sphere allies and side-boarding: The deck has a solid core of attachments and events, but most of the allies (apart from Elven Jeweler, Imladris Caregiver and Emery) can be swapped in and out. The deck is obviously Noldor-friendly, but it works well with many archetypes and even with out-of-sphere allies, since you’ll get them primarily through Stand and Fight. I mostly played the Khazad-Dum quests, so I played Elrohir and Elladan, but if the quest doesn’t have many Orcs, you can replace them with Gamling and Háma for example.

All these things add up to a pleasant, fluid and well-rounded deck that is, I believe, a very good introduction to the super-powers of Galdor of the Havens. Have fun!