Heirs of the Mariner 1.0

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• 1.0

I designed this deck for a purely thematic play-through of the three The Grey Havens quests. What better heroes to take sailing than the master shipwright and two direct descendants of Eärendil himself? Especially since you've got 10 right out of the gate! Nonetheless, I was surprised to see only one other deck on RingsDB with this hero lineup (using Ents!), which makes this a unique, pure thematic deck capable of beating all three quests.

The basic idea is to get maximum use of Círdan's and Elrond's stats, which you'll need starting at 34 threat. Hence dropping an early Light of Valinor and Unexpected Courage is ideal. Daeron's Runes and the Masters of the Forge were generally sufficient for me to find one of the two copies of each, but I've included a third copy of both in the sideboard if you need more consistency. Also look for an early Silver Harp, which can strongly boost your card draw.

After that, start spamming Noldor allies. Lindon Navigator is particularly useful for sailing tests, and you'll find you need the attack stats of Mithlond Sea-watcher in nearly every quest. Protector of Lórien, Elven Jeweler, and Arwen allow you to control which card is on top of the discard, generally either to power the Sea-watchers or the Sailors of Lune. Narya will help you put whatever allies you have in play to good use whatever your need.

As a final general note, given my card pool limitations I did not include Elladan, Elrohir, Eregion Survivor, or Imladris Caregiver. The Survivor, in particular, would be a very strong card in this deck, and a good replacement for the Trollshaw Scout, Watcher of the Bruinen, or Warden of the Havens.

I was able to get by almost entirely without any healing, but you can always add in the Caregivers (or even some Wardens of Healing as part of Calphon's retinue) to help. Lembas is another good option, which I put to excellent use in Raid on the Grey Havens.

Below I include some quest-specific notes.

Voyage Across Belegaer: Maximize the number of allies in your deck for this quest, to help with sailing tests. Take Naralenya as your second ship, and you'll be consistently putting out 2 allies a turn. Protector of Lórien is less necessary here, but some healing could be useful. Lindon Navigators are especially useful. Make sure to always stay on course, and your questing power should see you through easily.

The Fate of Númenor: I found it easiest to just take all of the low-cost card hate. It wasn't that painful in the games I played. Your generally strong will carry you through this quest without much difficulty.

Raid on the Grey Havens: Per tradition, definitely the hardest quest. Look for an early Elrond's Counsel to give you a bit of extra time to take on the initial Sahir's Ravager, which you'll want to kill in one turn (I used Fair and Perilous with Círdan). Take your time building up the board state, and control questing as much as possible with Protector of Lórien, Elrond's Counsel, Narya, and Sailor of Lune to keep the Aflame locations in play just long enough to protect The Dream Chaser. Once you've cleared the staging area (shouldn't be too much trouble once you've got some Mithlond Sea-watchers out) and have a ready Lords of the Eldar in your discard pile, quest through and try to take out Sahir in one or two rounds. On my first successful go at this quest, I had 10 damage on The Dream-chaser when Sahir and Na'asiyah dropped, which seemed like the end, but with a couple valorous Jewelers to chump block and some vengeful Sea-watchers to retaliate, I was able to finish the quest next turn with my remaining ally army and Lords of the Eldar. Note that you also should control your hero resources to minimize the effects of Umbar Raider and Raid Leader -- I was able to take on and eliminate two Raid Leaders on one particularly memorable turn through careful resource planning and manipulation of my top discard pile.