Simple Silvan: Core + Elves of Lorien

These decks have been designed for people with a limited cardpool and can be played with just a single old core set and the Elves or Lorien starter deck. Ideally this would have all-elven heroes to be fully thematic, but it was more important to me that this be something that could be played with only a couple of products and still be effective.

As these aren't purely Silvan decks, they don't fully utilise the 'bounce' mechanic of returning allies to your hand and replaying them as much as I'd like. However, the passive effects from Galadriel and Celeborn are still great for getting a big punch out of allies when they enter play. Éowyn is there for pure questing power while Beravor is a swiss-army-knife who can fill every role while also providing card-draw. I like to think of those two as guests among the Elves: Eowyn is a noble and is visiting nobility, while Berevor is exchanging skills with the warriors and scouts. Lastly we have Haldir of Lórien and Legolas whose primary task is to kill anything that moves, thanks to the ranged keyword.

Unsurprisingly, the Spirit/Leadership does most of the questing, but the Lore/Tactics allies can help on the first round thanks to Galadriel and Celeborn's abilities. I've also found that this deck engages and defends most enemies, as this allows Haldir's ability to come into play, as well as getting the most out of Bow of the Galadhrim. There's loads of threat reduction built into this deck so I try to share the love and in fact, ideally keep the other deck at a lower threat so they have to engage fewer enemies.

The Lore/Tactics deck is brilliant for killing enemies while earning progress tokens through Legolas' ability. It's got powerful combat attachments and events to trip up enemies and pepper them with arrows. This deck also has excellent card-draw, which again, can be shared with the other deck as needed.

So far I've played all three original core scenarios with these decks. We beat the first two with ease and 'half-beat' Escape from Dol Guldur (we beat it, but realised the Nazgul should have entered the staging area earlier). I think they use fun mechanics, have a nice theme based on a tight cardpool, and are pretty powerful all things considered.

Comments and suggestions welcome!