A New Alliance of Elves and Men 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck was created for the challenge Tear down the Walls!

To maximize bonus points for the challenge, a deck needs to:

• Beat Attack on Dol Guldur.
• Include Galadriel and Thranduil.
• Include Nenya but not Galadriel's Mirror.
• Not include Gandalf or Celeborn.
• Not include any unique non-elves.
• Have Thranduil participate in an attack destroying an orc.

The beauty of this deck is the opening turn. Thanks to Erestor, you'll start the game with 10 cards. Thanks to Bond of Friendship, you'll start with an extra resource. Mulligan for Legacy of Numenor, and you'll have 8 resources (10 if you draw Captain's Wisdom) to play those cards. Every card in the deck is 2 cost or less, so you can easily get 5+ cards into play on turn one.

The starting threat is high, and it will climb even higher with Legacy of Numenor, but thanks to Galadriel (and the relative lack of threat-increasing treacheries in this quest), it should be manageable. If you have Nenya but don't have Unexpected Courage on Galadriel, you can even choose to take the threat increase from time to time to quest. Likewise, you might get a couple uses out of the Magic Ring.

The deck is also plausibly thematic: all of the heroes are elves, and all of the allies are either elves or men from Gondor (mostly Outlands). It took an alliance of elves and men to defeat Sauron in the Second Age; now the elves lead an attack on Dol Guldur, and they once turn to men for aid. The high starting threat reflects Galadriel, Thranduil, and Glorfindel having revealed their full power as they openly attack the Enemy.

Even with the deck-building restrictions, this deck is relatively strong. But Attack on Dol Guldur is one of the toughest quests in the game, especially for true solo, so luck is needed. During the first 3 stages, the goal is to build up the board and quest enough to recruit the Host of Lorien (don't worry about claiming the Power of Lorien). Thranduil is a dedicated defender. Put Light of Valinor on Glorfindel so he can quest and attack. Thanks to his ability, he can kill some of the enemies on his own. On reaching stage 3, try to knock Dol Guldur down to zero as quick as possible; no turtling. It's actually good to draw enemies, since help to knock it down faster once destroyed. It's important to keep Outlands allies around as long as possible; choose other allies first for chump blocking or discarding.

After several excruciatingly close but failed attempts (and more than one scooped game), the deck finally completed the challenge, winning on turn 11, with threat at 44, all heroes alive and undamaged, no cards left in the player deck, and Thranduil leading the final attack against Chieftan Morlug. He was aided by Erestor, Glorindel, and two Vassals of the Windlord that I had been saving up for the final attack. What could be more thematic than two eagles sweeping in to help at the last minute?