Noldor 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Overview

I've decided to share some of the decks me and my friend group play with for particular cycles. This is Deck #1 in a 2-player fellowship, given to a friend of mine, while myself I'm playing the other deck. For more in-depth overhaul regarding structure and thought behind those decks please check out the fellowship description! (e.g. no shared cards in Decks #1, sticking strictly to the theme).

Dreamchaser cycle revolves around Elves and while the Noldor archetype was introduced during Angmar Awakened cycle, it's here when it have achieved it's peak. So the gameplay with the Noldors is quite unique. It feels more "gamey", so players who had enjoyed other card games should be more familiar with this type of deck. In simple terms, cards on your hand serve a sort of secondary resources required to trigger certain abilities. So the main decision while playing this deck is to figure out wheter you want to actually play given card or discard it to fuel another effect. Obviously to maintain such an economy you need a powerful card draw engine which is fortunately provided by cards such as Erestor or Elven-light. From a macro perspective, this deck provides huge amounts of early . It can also quickly and efficiently put many cards on the board. What it lacks though is definitely in combat. It might seem that Guardian of Rivendell and Glorfindel are your only real options here. Frankly yes, but that's enough with Narya that can beef up those already good allies. In mid to late game this deck can manage fine on its own, just don't expect it go in guns blazing during the early game.

Starting Hand

Since this deck can draw huge amount of cards very quickly it doesn't seem that seeking particular cards in you starting hand is crucial. Still there are a few you would rather see sooner than later. The most important one is To the Sea, to the Sea! and is espiecially helpful first round when your hand consists of 10 cards. After that both Light of Valinor and Narya are key components that will be helpful later. While attempting sailing quests some cheap allies will be good like Elven Jeweler or Lindon Navigator.

Heroes

Arwen Undómiel can help you massively with your economy. Discarding a card for her effect shouldn't be a problem with all these cards, espiecially when it's Elven-light. Apart from that she should obviously only quest with her 3 . You can give her Steed of Imladris or Silver Circlet to boost her questing even more or maybe a Silver Harp.

Círdan the Shipwright lets you draw 2 cards per round with a caveat that you have to discard one of them. But since Erestor grants 3 more cards per round then you can choose and discard one of those 5 cards. That ability allows you to mill through your deck more efficiently and allows to place certain cards like Elven-light or Lords of the Eldar in the discard pile. Statwise, his 4 is very impressive and should mainly quest for that reason. However with 2 and 2 he can help in battle so he is a primary target for Light of Valinor. Of course he also wields his ring, Narya, as well as Stone of Elostirion if you manage to pull it off. Lastly, you can put Silver Circlet on him so with all attachments he will quest for monstrous 8 .

Lastly we have Erestor. While not a fan of his statline, his ability really makes this deck. You draw 3 additional cards a round, making that 4. You have to discard them at the end of the round but that doesn't seem like much problem at all. With all the discard effects going on you will be getting rid off those cards anyways. All of this make you appreciate how effective a Noldor deck can be, making every single card count. I usually either quest with Erestor or leave him to help in combat a little bit.

The Deck

In ally section we have Noldors that have varying effects revolving around discarding cards. Elven Jeweler can be cheaply put into play and Eregion Survivor rewards you for dumping your hand. Imladris Caregiver grants some small healing effect and Sailor of Lune requires careful planning about discarding cards in order. Lindon Navigator is quite an underappreciated ally that shines in sailing quests. You probably don't want to have more than one though since they require constant card discard. Guardian of Rivendell make the backbone of your army with impressive stats that you should boost even more with Narya. Lindir can be quite good if you play around playing him and Galdor of the Havens has a fantastic ability and statline. Lastly there is Glorfindel which is widely regarded as a best ally in the game, to which I agree. The fact that you can play him from discard play is an icing on the cake. That makes for a fun combo when you can discard him to decrease his cost via To the Sea, to the Sea! and then play him.

Three big attachments - Light of Valinor, Narya and To the Sea, to the Sea! were described above. Rest of them are there to even boost questing capabilites even more. Silver Circlet gives raw and Steed of Imladris places progress directly on locations. Stone of Elostirion is a guarded attachment, which I'm not a fun of, however it makes a really good card here for several reasons. Firstly it grants you another card during resource phase, meaning you will be drawing 6 of them (and discarding one of them), which is crazy. Secondly it only attaches to locations which already eases pain of being guarded. In this particular cycle it makes it even better since in some quest you have only a few locations and they are generally not problematic. Even funnier, in The Temple of the Deceived, there are you no locations in the encounter deck. Meaning you can just ignore guarded keyword and straight up put it on Círdan the Shipwright. Lastly, we have Silver Harp. Handy attachment that can keep a card for more discarding shenaginans following round or to hold on to Will of the West.

For the events we have a few that will tie up Noldor archetype nicely. Elven-light grants even more card draw. The Evening Star can be a great tool for location control. Elrond's Counsel isn't crucial since quests in this cycle don't punish threat that much but it's free and grants extra willpower. Lords of the Eldar is a card I don't find using that often, however during the late game it can make your Noldors even more resilient. Finally we have Will of the West. Granted, this card isn't 100% thematic as it depicts more Gondor-esque theme. But it's really crucial to this deck functioning and you can imagine it's depicting will of all the Free People in the Middle Earth. The deal with this card is that you have to keep count on how many you have diggen through. While on the last one play it to reset your deck. In most quests here one reset it's what you will typically get, maybe 2 if the scenario is dragging on. Safe to say though, without this card you can be in a lot of trouble when your deck runs out, since Noldors depend heavily on card draw and discard.

Conclusion

That pretty much covers the basics of this deck. Please keep in mind it is designed to play with the other deck in a fellowship and for a particular cycle in a game. This decks is meant to represent most powerful combination of cards in a given archetype, but feel free to leave a comment regarding them, as even after some years of using them I change them slightly after some thought :) Feel free to try them, even with new players as I did!