Three Wise Men 2.0

• Versions
• 3.0
• 2.0
• 1.0

I've played so many variants on this thing, I wanted to establish a baseline for, what is THE essential Three Wise Men deck? Here it is, one-player edition. After playing it now and again, there are some slight changes from 1.0: removed The Long Defeat and Erebor Hammersmith, in favor of Expert Treasure-hunter and a third Unexpected Courage.

The basics are what they've always been. Vilya accelerates by playing anything that costs 3 or more (six of them, hopefully one per turn), and Elrond eventually becomes the main blocker with A Burning Brand. Gandalf lets you see it before you Vilya it, and also plays cheap events (and occasionally, cheap allies and attachments). He himself is the jack-of-all-trades, helping out with quests or defense or attack as needed, with Flame of Anor in tight spots. Glorfindel is low threat to balance the other two, and with Light of Valinor becomes quester and attacker, also doubling Asfaloth's ability to clear location jams.

Most of your extra money is fed to Elrond, from Steward of Gondor and from Zigil Miner. He plays all the 2-cost allies, and occasionally a 4-cost if the Vilya pipeline gets jammed with too many targets. Keep one or two resources handy on Gandalf, for the flexibility he brings when playing off the top, but don't overdo it. Heir of Mardil is definitely for Elrond.

A Reliable Start??

In a nutshell: No. This deck contains many specific tools for various purposes, and they come up in random order. Most of them have more than one purpose, but sometimes you have all your questing tools and none of your attacking tools, or vice-versa, and the best you can do is break even while you look for what you need.

Obviously, mulligan to start with a Vilya in hand or on top of the deck - remember, you get to see it with Gandalf! The main thing after that is to keep drawing or discarding cards, so that you see as many different cards on top as possible. That's why there's no Peace, and Thought, no Ancient Mathom, etcetera. This deck actually doesn't want to draw a ton of cards, but rather have many ways to draw one or two.

You don't need all three Zigil Miners, but you definitely want one early. It cycles cards while making money, and thins the deck so that you eventually find everything. Don't worry too much about losing important cards, because every card is important eventually. As long as you draw Will of the West or Dwarven Tomb, you're fine. (You also don't need three Unexpected Courage, although they can never really hurt.)

Ideally your Zigil Miners are throwing away Hidden Caches and extra Vilyas, but don't be afraid to do something weird. Every so often you need that one extra resource more than you need, say, Faramir for the next several turns. The flexibility and multi-purposing of the Zigil Miners is why I can run this deck with only one Steward of Gondor.

The other great tools for cycling the deck are Gléowine and Gandalf's Staff, because they can draw you a card at any time. Don't like what's on top? Draw it and see something new! Wizard Pipe is also effectively a card draw, because you swap the top card out for something you'll immediately play or Vilya or Zigil Miner away. Gildor Inglorion can do the same, although sometimes he needs to be questing or fighting instead.

When all else fails, changing the top card out for a random card will do. (Or at least, it beats stalling out.) Master of the Forge can be very nice early on, although sometimes all it does is reshuffle your deck. Playing Bilbo Baggins also causes a reshuffle, and finds the Wizard Pipe which is important enough to want early, but not important enough to run multiple copies. Imladris Stargazer will let you plan your next few plays and Zigil Miners, but it's important to note it does not draw anything, so it doesn't move you forward. Sometimes it just sees junk you don't need, at which point Master of the Forge is your best friend.

Last but not least, Daeron's Runes is fantastic in a Gandalf deck. Normally you would play it, draw two, then discard one: you've lost two cards and gained two. In this deck, playing it off the top of the deck is like drawing an extra card for free. (As, in fact, is any time you play the top card of your deck.) It's also nice to see a Flame of Anor on top right when the combat phase starts: cycle two cards by playing it off the top, plus ready Gandalf and get a random bonus to his attack.

And finally, last and sort of least, one Expert Treasure-hunter, and Legolas. They lose out to other options because you can't control the timing of them, but one is a good attacker with a bonus, and the other is free, especially on Glorfindel who will always quest with Light of Valinor. Remember, all Responses are optional, so you don't have to take the card if it messes up a beautiful plan.

And finally... actually least. As your very last resort, you can play Hidden Cache if you don't have a Zigil Miner yet - from the top of the deck, or from hand - to draw the next card and see something different. It costs one resource, but it's still better than stalling.

About Blocking

1. Elrond is the best. He can have A Burning Brand, and with a boost from Arwen Undómiel he blocks for 4. If you need more than that, chump with someone unimportant.
2. Beorn is usually next, with his bazillion hit points. Mostly he wants to kill things and shuffle back into the deck and be played again with Vilya, but often he can soak up some damage first. Shuffling in is like healing him for free.
3. Gimli is like a pressure release valve, because he pops up as a blocker exactly when you need him most. For that reason, he's my favorite blocker for little stuff. (He and Zigil Miners can also make money from We Are Not Idle.)
4. Gildor Inglorion is here to help get what you need on top, but he also makes a good blocker (or a decent attacker) in a pinch. Especially with Narya, so he gets the same 4 defense as Elrond, except you don't care if he dies.
5. Jubayr is a fantastic blocker, but that's all he does. I prefer cards with multiple uses.
6. Eldahir is also a pretty good blocker, and spends green money to peek at shadows and gain +2 defense. By the time you have the extra money to mess around with that, you won't need it much.
7. Déorwine is a slightly better blocker than Eldahir, but not in this deck, because he depends on Narya being out before he can cancel shadows.
8. Boromir is usually pretty bad for this deck. Early on, threat is high, and later he's just not needed. Taking damage to ready lets him one-two-chump, but that requires some luck.

About the Rest of the Sideboard

• Power of Orthanc: the ONE card in here that's truly a sideboard for swapping in and out. Sometimes Conditions are just that bad.
• Beorn, Imladris Stargazer, Warden of Healing, Flame of Anor: at times I've run more copies of these than are in this version. The current balance seems best.
• Hasty Stroke also fits into that category, but the current balance has zero of them. Occasionally they can save you before you have A Burning Brand up, but mostly they just get in the way.
• Landroval, Fortune or Fate: I don't like to include cards that are only useful if I'm already dying. At some point, I may as well just resign and start over.
• Grim Resolve, Elf-stone, The Long Defeat: likewise, at some point if I'm already winning, there's only so much I can do with these. I don't need them to win, they just make me win bigger. Rather than use up space on these, I'd rather run cards that make the difference between win and not-win. The Long Defeat has been useful for extra healing in rare situations, but is limited in its timing, and Narya with Warden of Healing is usually enough of a boost.
• Firyal: similarly, a useful effect that's hard to get from any other card. But, I don't really need it, and the deck already has just about the right balance of Vilya targets to cheap events.
• Word of Command: searching for the crucial card only goes so far in this deck, because it cycles through itself so fast. Also, frequently an untapped Gandalf is worth more.
• Erebor Hammersmith: this was a tricky decision, but it should be cut. The number of times that I've lost an attachment I wanted early and then Hammersmithed it is some large-ish number, but certainly not nearly half the time. It depends on having the Hammersmith in hand already, because sometimes a spare copy of Vilya gets discarded in between, etcetera. Other than that, Hammersmith is just a minor archery soak and chump. More events and Unexpected Courages makes for a better start, most of the time.
• Shadowfax: this is only relevant when adapting the deck for multiplayer, at which point it's pretty awesome.
• Eleanor: you may want her in place of Glorfindel for certain Saga quests.
• Sword-thain: in theory a great Vilya target, it mostly comes in too late to do much good. It makes a great combo with Gildor Inglorion and Unexpected Courage, and maybe even A Burning Brand, but with Narya available to untap him, that specific combo is no longer worth the effort.