I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that are more qualified than me making better decks than this one could ever hope to be, but I did the best I could with what I had. In the spirit of using only what I have in real life, this deck uses the expansions I physically own (and reflects the fact I only own one core set). Regardless, the focus of this deck is on getting useful and powerful allies out with some heavy heroes to back them up. All of the attachments are only for heroes and most of them are for Elrond.
The typical strategy here is to get a Wizard Pipe on Gandalf and a Steward of Gondor and Vilya on Elrond. The other gadgets and tricks of the deck just flow naturally out of that setup so the earlier you get it the better off you'll be. Manipulate the top card of the deck with the Pipe to pull some heavy allies off with Vilya and use Elrond's ability to pay for any other ally out of your hand. Glorfindel is there to help mainly with combat (and definitely questing if you can find a Light of Valinor for him) and also aid in getting out some threat reduction events (the only events in the deck besides Gandalf's dope spell). Some Wardens of Healing pair nicely with Elrond's passive heal buff and can help you fend off some archery damage or unexpected combat damage. Since pulling the Vilya/Pipe combo off is so important, ally Galadriel makes an appearance to help pull the important items out; it's likely you'll have either the items themselves or a way of digging to get them in your opening hand most of the time.
The difficult part in using this deck is getting it off the ground. A desired opening hand would include a Pipe, Title, and Ring. There are many different ways the first round can go, but usually you will either have to choose between Elrond getting his resource generation or his Ring. However you do it, the second round should start looking pretty good. Keep your threat down with the Counsels and Greetings and try to not take too many enemies too soon. Gildor can help with some card manipulation but it shouldn't be necessary. Load up Gandalf with his steed and staff for mid- to late-game fun, and take advantage of Erestor to trade some dead copies of unique cards for playable ones.
I'm sure there are many tweaks that can be made to this deck to make it much better, but it works well so far and has played well at least against earlier quests (through the Against the Shadow box). Still, it's fun to have some big heroes and seeing a field of huge allies in just a couple of turns is pretty cool.
A Very Good Tale is superb for decks with lots of allies. Maybe get the expansion that includes it next? It helps the deck get off the ground as you put it.