Slippery Silvans

Questlogs using this decklist
Journey Along the Anduin - 1 Player - 2018-12-26
The King's Quest - 1 Player - 2019-01-19
Passage Through Mirkwood - 1 Player - 2018-12-26
Win*-Shadow and Flame - 2 Players - 2020-05-09
Loss - Murder at the Prancing Pony - 2 Players - 2020-11-07
Fellowships using this decklist
None.
Derived from
Slippery Silvans 6 6 3 2.0
Inspiration for
Lord, Lady, & King 0 0 0 1.0
Mazo 3 Palma 0 0 0 1.0
IN-N-OUT Eldar 0 0 0 1.0
Slippery Silvans 0 0 0 1.0
Waldelben Flicker Deck 0 0 0 1.0
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Deck
Discard Pile

Card Talk 1182

This deck is designed to make the most of the Silvan trait where they are moving in and out of play through the entire game. The deck is thematic in that it uses Celeborn and Galadriel, the Lord and Lady of Lothlorien and also takes advantage of Thranduil, the Elven King of the Mirkwood Silvans.

Even though the deck is slightly above the 50 card minimum that some seasoned veterans like to play with, the deck itself gets its consistency from Galadriel's card drawing action early on and, if you use The Tree People with a lucky draw, from Legolas. The other sub theme within the deck that makes it very effective is the use of Rúmil and many ranged Silvans within the deck itself. With the possibility of having up to 9 ranged characters in play, Rúmil has the potential to direct damage almost any target out of the game. Couple that with Thranduil's ability to bring a Silvan in during the combat phase, it's possible that Rúmil to eliminate an enemy before even having it attack you, matching his brother's, Haldir of Lórien, hero ability.

To start the game, you will want to see either of the leadership resource accelerators, Steward of Gondor or O Lórien!, or Galadriel's ring, Nenya in your opening hand. Many times, if I get one of them in the first hand I draw, I won't mulligan at all. Steward of Gondor and O Lórien! help to bring out the allies by giving you resources. Nenya helps you out because without it, you can't use The Tree People which accelerates your board state in a different way. If you get two of these cards in the first hand, it would be amazing.

When playing O Lórien!, there isn't any benefit or drawback on playing it on a particular hero except that in some cases a nasty treachery or a shadow effect may cause it to be discarded if the hero is exhausted. To eliminate this concern, it's best to play it on Galadriel. Deciding on which character to play Steward of Gondor is a bit trickier situation. It's almost a toss up between the heroes and Galadriel. I think that Galadriel is the early game target to ensure you have access to A Test of Will. The heroes should get it mid- to late game if that's when it comes out.

When The Elvenking comes out, it makes the most sense to put it on Celeborn because of his stat line, but I can see cases where Thranduil would get it if you need a beefy defender more than once per attack phase.

One of the beauties of this deck in true solo play is that you can make a few mistakes with it and it can be forgiving. But, as you play it you will find out that there is real value in making the most out of your action windows and the enter play effects of your Silvans. A prime example of this is how to use Thranduil's action most effectively. If you have the resources, pay for Rúmil and do the direct damage. Or use the action to pay for other out of sphere allies like the Galadhon Archer. Be careful though, Rúmil's ability is only good when you play him from your hand, so you can't use The Tree People to cheat him in AND still do the direct damage.

Another "know your action windows" card is Galadriel. Don't use her action during the planning phase. With Thranduil's action, you can pay for an ally later so that card draw can happen in one of many places throughout the turn and you will still be able to use the card drawn. A few situational alternatives to using Galadriel in the planning phase is to use her before the engagement phase to lower your threat by 1 to avoid having to engage the big bad guy or using the card draw at the beginning of combat with the hopes of drawing an ally to play using Thranduil's action. In general, it's always a good idea to wait to use her until the very last action window before the round or when you need to draw the card or reduce your threat.

Another gameplay piece to keep in mind is that once Galadriel gets Nenya on her, don't always feel like you have to use her to add to your quest AND if you do, you can add her to the character AFTER the staging step. If you don't need the extra , keep her available to use her action. Even if you don't need to draw a card it's always great to be able to lower threat.

Once the deck gets going, it's fun to keep it going and the Silvans provide the flexibility with their "enter play" effects to work to overcome most scenarios. For example: 1) If you have been just brutalized by a Necromancer's Reach, slip Orophin in and out of play a few times. Use Island Amid Perils to do it to reduce your threat by three every time. 2) Need (even more) action advantage? Try bringing Naith Guide in and out of play. It's always a good target for The Tree People, The Elvenking, Feigned Voices or Quicker Than Sight. Slip the guide back in to play the next round. Lather, rinse, repeat. OR, use Thranduil's combat action to bring in to play a Greenwood Archer. Ready a hero and use him to either defend or attack. 3) Looking for cards? Gandalf! With threat reduction from Island Amid Perils, and direct damage from both the Galadhon Archer and Rúmil, many times it's worth using Gandalf's response to get the last of the attachments you need. 4) Looking for events to help your board state? Of course you can use the Galadhrim Minstrel and slip him in and out of play, but don't forget about the Galadhrim Weaver. Bring her back into your hand using any of the Silvan events then pay for her during combat or during planning and that event goes right back in the deck, ready for the minstrel to pull out. 5) Yes. It's a Silvan swarm deck, but it doesn't have to be... Sneak Attack Legolas in to play and use Sword-thain on him to get another hero, tactics resources and only use the big allies like Haldir of Lórien or Rúmil. Continue to trade up cheaper allies to get the allies you need. Find Protector of Lórien and use that to buff your heroes and viola, a deck that has only a few allies out, but can still do major damage!

And Galion. Oh how he seems to be an afterthought in this deck, but don't underestimate a ZERO cost 2 (with Celeborn's response) ally that can be used to trigger The Tree People, Feigned Voices, or The Elvenking. Imagine paying zero resources to bring in Haldir of Lórien or Legolas. Galion/The Tree People does that for you.

So in the end, I love this deck and it is a great deal of fun because you always have something to do. It makes you think about your action windows and how to maximize all sorts of effects in the game.

Enjoy the deck and let Grant and I know what you think!

13 comments

Jan 03, 2019 dobrophonic 52

How can you play The Tree People, a Lore card, without a Lore hero? I'm new to the game, so please forgive my ignorance.

Jan 03, 2019 Card Talk 1182

If you look at Nenya, that gives Galadriel the resource icon. I have to wait to get Nenya out and on to her, but once that happens, it works nicely.

Jan 03, 2019 dobrophonic 52

Thanks, I knew I was missing something - I just got Galadriel and Nenya, and haven't used them yet. I see it's very similar to how Narya gives Círdan the Shipwright the resource icon. Now I'll incorporate a few more cards into my version of this deck! Thanks for the deck ideas and the detailed explanation of how it works for noobs like me.

Jan 03, 2019 Card Talk 1182

If you are really interested in this deck or even just the Silvan archetype, our podcast, Card Talk is going to highlight this deck for the whole month of February. We are going to give in depth card analysis and show playthroughs highlighting the mechanics.

To get you started, we interviewed the lead game designer, Caleb Grace, and we talked about Galadriel for about 40 minutes. You can see that interview here: youtu.be

That will take you to our youtube channel with a bunch of content, not all of it related to Silvans. Happy gaming!

Jan 08, 2019 Melkata 3

Thanks for this deck! Just tried it out in multiplayer, and it really shone. It’s impressive as it can quest about as hard as it can attack, plus is a lot of fun to pilot as well. Look forward to hear the podcast.

Jan 09, 2019 Card Talk 1182

Thanks for the feedback. Silvan February is almost upon us!!

Jan 31, 2019 Betschi 1

Thanks for posting! What are you doing when you have many unique cards in your hand? Wouldn't Protector of Lorien be good in this deck?

Feb 05, 2019 The BGamerJoe 4799

I got to play several quests with this deck and wrote up my thoughts and experiences on my blog here: lotrdecktest.wordpress.com

Nice work!12

Feb 15, 2019 markkawika 1

I have taken this deck through both “The Hunt for Gollum” and “Conflict at the Carrock”, both on Easy Mode,

It has been a dream to pilot. The large deck size works really well with the many card-drawing abilities, like Galadriel’s ability plus the occasional Legolas if you can get him out.

I’d never played the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle before, so I mainly wanted to get an idea of how the different early quests went. This deck was ideal for that.

The first time through CatC, I used an action window on the first turn to complete the first quest when I saw that the +4 Quest strength would just get me to stage 2.

Well, if you’ve ever played Conflict at the Carrock, you know what happened next.

So I learned how to carefully manage my threat, and how to accept a failed quest as a fair price to pay to gain more time to build my army.

The second time throughCatC, I drew a Hill Troll on Turn 1, and on turn 4, Thranduil was suddenly very interested in studying sackcloth. But I still persisted, having a good opening hand (Nenya + O, Lórien) plus early luck getting Legolas out before Thranduil’s incapacitation made him impossible to get.

It took me a complete cycle through the Encounter Deck, and about 20 or so rounds (I lost count), but I pulled it off with ease. The bosses were easy to avoid and Rúmil made all of them into pincushions.

This has been a really fun introduction to the non-core scenarios. I’m really excited about continuing my explorations to Rhosgobel as I pay Radagast a visit.

Thanks so much for this deck. I definitely feel like in longer scenarios it needs a way to discard the duplicate unique cards you end up with. I’m going to have to try using Protector of Lórien next time I plan on dragging it out.

Mar 21, 2019 Nice Ich 1

@Card Talk Now that you have done Silvan February and played with the deck a bunch is there anything you would change? Is this the final form, with the current card pool? Thanks for all the work you did and time you spent on the videos. Keep up the good work.

Apr 18, 2019 Card Talk 1182

Hey @Aydrian! Sorry that I am just getting back to you. I would change a thing or two about it. I think that I would put take out Galadhrim Weaver and replace it with Galadriel's Handmaiden. Or maybe not. The deck seems to do fine the way it runs and I have been able to beat most quests with it. Some it takes more times than others.

The other card that I think would slot nicely in it is Greenwood Defender but I'm not sure what I would replace.

So, I guess I'm not sure... but I think the deck is a ton of fun to run!

Jul 16, 2019 Kristian 18

Detail: First mention of Legolas has link to the hero, not the ally.

Jan 16, 2021 The Purple Wizard 1151

@Card TalkDo you have an updated version of this deck with Host of Galadhrim in it and any other cards from the final set? A friend of mine was asking about Silvan decks and I was going to link to yours, but it looks like this is an older version than what you're using now.