Rivendell Minstrel

Ally. Cost: 3. 2   0   0   1  

Noldor.

Response: After you play Rivendell Minstrel from your hand, search your deck for 1 Song card and add it to your hand. Shuffle your deck.

As Elrond entered and went towards the seat prepared for him, Elvish minstrels began to make sweet music. The Fellowship of the Ring
Katherine Dinger

The Hunt for Gollum #8. Lore.

Rivendell Minstrel
Reviews

This has been one of my staple favorites since the core set days, and one I still use often. It might be one of the most underrated and under utilized cards in the game. She basically makes it extremely easy to splash other spheres into mono lore decks while scratching the willpower itch at the same time. I will typically include 3x in any mono-lore deck I make, and then 1x of either one or two other song cards for whatever sphere or spheres best compliments whatever particular build I'm working on.

As the cardpool has progressed, her cost/stat ratio has been overshadowed by many of the more recent allies, and she is no longer the lone go-to source of willpower in Lore, but the minstrel/song combo is still a legit way to easily splash lore decks and is still great for resource smoothing even in dual sphere decks (although a bit pricey for tri sphere).

Definitely a great utilitarian card

She is also somehow not a Minstrel by trait... HMMM? — LEGOlas 128

Still great for searching out To the Sea, to the Sea! to make the whole Noldor archetype more consistent. Considering you draw a card with her, she's basically 2 cost for 2 willpower + 1 cost for 1 card, which is pretty good when you compare her to other cards.

Seastan 41834
She is also the keystone of making mono lore decks the most versatile mono decks in the game. I have been using her to splash other spheres into straight lore decks since the Core set. — MDuckworth83 3506
I've used her so much for that purpose for so long, it never occurred to me that she can search non sphere granting songs! — MDuckworth83 3506
Also key for Fall of Gilgalad shenanigans — WolfOfWinter 1

At first I was really sceptical about this card. Paying 3 resources just to find song which I needed, not much good stats...I was basically forced to use it, because of the songs....but it turns out that this minstrel is actually really good card. 2 don't look good enough at first sight but actually it's truly helping. And even more, when you use her in 3 copies and impact on quest is really visible. She become quite fast one of my favourite ally cards which I sometime use even without songs. However her song searching ability is a game changer, that's for sure. Mainly when the list of song's is getting wider. Really good ally with really nice artwork. Verdict: 4/5.

matrosh 527