Lords of the Eldar

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Yepesnopes 1235

Yepesnopes has a newer deck inspired by this one: Lords of the Eldar

I have been trying to build a deck based on noldor elves for quite a long time now, finally I got something I enjoy playing with.

I have not built it with the idea of having a super optimized deck; rather I tried to stay as thematic as possible around the Lords of the noldors. Nevertheless, to my surprise, the deck is definitely strong. For example, I beat The Dunland Trap on a second attempt, but most important, I have a lot of fun playing with the it.

The idea of the deck spins around drawing and discarding cards and play Lords of the Eldar as much as possible. For this, I have included a lot of drawing/ discarding options and resource generation. Typically, by mid game you will be able to play one or two Lords of the Eldar per turn.

In case some of you want to give it a try, I leave you here some guidelines to play the deck. Please comment if you have ideas, suggestions, or criticisms, I love it.

Disclaimer. I have taken as a personal challenge making fun and functional decks working without Steward of Gondor (unless it fits the theme of the deck of course), so I won’t include it, no way.

What do you want to see in your starting hand. It will depend a lot on the scenario. Typically, cards like Imladris Stargazer, Vilya, Light of Valinor and Elven-Light is what you want to have. Nevertheless, if for example you are playing a scenario like Journey Down the Anduin, which pins you directly against a strong enemy, you want cards like A Burning Brand, Elrond's Counsel, The Galadhrim's Greeting or Treebeard. The deck is flexible enough, despite its high threat, to adapt to different quests.

Resource generation. For such a deck to work, you need to generate a lot of resources. Straight from the beginning you have Arwen Undómiel, which not only generates an extra resource, but by doing so she discards a card, which is the central mechanic of this deck, as you want Elven-Light and Lords of the Eldar in your discard pile.

The other resource generation card is Resourceful (it is thematic because the Nolder are a very resourceful people ;) ). It is a very expensive card, so you want to play it with Elrond-Vilya if possible. It should not be a big problem as you have Imladris Stargazer and Gildor Inglorion to help. In any case, if the card ends in your hand and the game does not allow you to afford it, just discard it and wait for the next re-shuffle of your discard pile with Will of the West.

Card drawing. This deck draws card, a lots! With Círdan you will be drawing two cards per round. You may play Silver Harp to mitigate its effect if you want, but it is not a must. There is also Vilya, which technically is another card drawing engine. There is Galdor of the Havens which works great with Círdan, Erestor and Daeron's Runes. I included the non-thematic Daeron's Runes because it just works too good with this deck. With it, you do both at once, draw and discard cards, perfect.

Finally, in the mater of drawing cards there is the awesome Elven-light. There is nothing too much to say about it, discard it with one of the many effects the deck offers and play it at will. Just one small detail, before playing Will of the West on your discard pile, buy back all the Elven-light cards that you have at that moment in your discard pile!

Card discarding. For this deck discarding cards is as important as drawing them. You can discard cards to ready Glorfindel, to give bonuses to your heroes through Protector of Lórien (arguably thematic), to generate resources through Arwen and to draw more cards through Erestor and Daeron's Runes. Just get those Elven-Light and Lords of the Eldar cards in your discard pile :)

Questing. With a set of Heroes with an initial total willpower of 10, and a bunch of allies with willpowers of 2, questing is no problem for this deck.

Combat and healing. Mainly two heavy weights of the noldor carry the combat task. Gildor (and eventually Elrond) will be defending, while Glorfindel will do the attacking part.

Equip Elrond with Protector of Lórien, Unexpected Courage and Burning Brand, and equip Gildor with Cloak of Lórien and Burning brand. Thanks to Narya, Gildor can defend twice per round with 5+ shields (depending on how many Lords of the Eldar did you played).

For the attack, combine Glorfindel, Lords of the Eldar, Fair and Perilious and Narya to have him attack each round for 7+. Thanks to Narya and Glorfindel’s ability you may use him to attack as many times as you need for a minimum of two each round.

During initial stages of the game, you may use Círdan and Fair and Perilious, or Treebeard and Quickbeam. The two Ents are in this deck for the cheap extra power they provide. They are not really thematic cards, although we know it was the first born who taught the trees to talk :p I would definitely prefer to have these two cards substituted by the ally version of Elrohir and Elladan, but they do not exist so far :(

Healing is done through the Wardens of Healing. They are zero thematic, but their synergy with Elrond’s ability is just too good to be ignored. Shame on me for having fallen into the Dark Side :) My next challenge will be to make decks without Steward of Gondor and without Warden of Healing, promised!

Final considerations. The deck has 55 cards, but with the amount of drawing it has it is not a problem at all. There are some cards that I have included which are not very relevant. Specially Asfaloth and Silver Harp. The deck can be thinned by removing them, or you can substitute them by Dwarven Tomb or Map or Earnil to have more runs on Fair and Perilious or other events before you use Will of the West.

Cheers

4 comments

Dec 07, 2016 Yepesnopes 1235

After a few more trials with the deck, it works way better if one removes Asfaloth and Silver Harp and includes two copies of either Dwarven Tomb or Map of Earnil. Map of Earnil is in general better for this deck, with the exception that Dwarven Tomb allows you to recicle A Test of Will, while the Map does not.

Dec 08, 2016 Gizlivadi 1105

Yep, the Noldor deck is so real it's unbelievable. I personally go with Erestor so I can spot Steward/Good Harvest in my opening hand easier, or at least play one big Noldor ally first round with To the Sea!, but yeah, pretty much any deck playing off these mechanics is amazing. Lords of the Eldar with Narya is one fo the best combinations ever, and Círdan is probably my favorite Spirit hero right now. I'd seriously recommend a couple copies of the Guardian of Rivendell, as he's a powerhouse with all the buffers this deck has.

Dec 08, 2016 Yepesnopes 1235

Indeed, I have been considering including the Guardian of Rivendell and removing Treebeard and Quickbeam.

Dec 09, 2016 Yepesnopes 1235

Beat Peril in Pelargir on the third attempt easily. It seems the deck has more potential that I had ever expected :)