Gandalf the Cyan 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

It's my understanding that Vilya Decks are back in vogue, so I though I'd try a new version of my old Gandalf-Elrond Deck. It's updated with newer player cards, and replaces Glorfindel with Arwen Undómiel.

This deck focuses on giving its heroes a bunch of toys and readying effects, while exploiting Gandalf's player deck scrying and Wizard Pipe to allow Elrond to churn out free cards using Vilya. Arwen Undómiel gives the modern take on this deck a nice boost since she can put resources onto Elrond to pay for off-sphere allies.

For the two-handed player, this deck covers enough of the basic requirements (healing, treachery cancellation, shadow cancellation, etc.) to allow for the selection of a fun, experimental, or thematic pairing deck. I have personally been enjoying playing this alongside my trap deck: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/7970/it-s-a-trap-deck-v2-2.0

Tips and Strategies

-During mulligan, keep an eye out for Vilya, Wizard Pipe, or Expert Treasure-hunter. They are not critical at first, but can give you an early boost.

-Using Gandalf's ability, Expert Treasure-hunter is guaranteed card draw. All three heroes will usually be questing/readying, so there's a copy for each. The first copy goes onto Arwen Undómiel.

-Combine Gandalf and Elrond's resource smoothing abilities together or separately in order to pay for allies. Arwen Undómiel should usually grant resources to Elrond, especially after he gets his ring.

-Rearranging the top of the deck for both Vilya and Gandalf is important. Use Wizard Pipe to place the expensive allies on top for Vilya to play for free. If there's something useless sitting there, play Elven-light to draw or Galadhrim Weaver for a shuffle.

-If you're saving Vilya for after the Quest Phase, remember that you can optionally activate any number of your Expert Treasure-hunters in order to draw to a top card you wish to Vilya into play.

-I just recently found out that Gandalf can play A Burning Brand on himself as long as it's played from the top of the deck because he is considered to have the Lore icon when playing it this way. He becomes an amazing defender, especially after he gets Sentinel and Ranged from Shadowfax.

-Threat seems a little high early on, but there are enough reduction cards to make it manageable over time. You can shuffle those cards back into the deck using either Will of the West or Galadhrim Weaver.

-Don't forget that Magic Ring gets a healing boost from Elrond (but you'll never really need it with three copies of Warden of Healing).

-Be sure to check out that sideboard. I only excluded these allies because they're used by my accompanying trap deck. Mix and match as you wish.