Brains 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck is a mess. What are the most critical things here?

• Absolutely Vilya.
• Absolutely A Very Good Tale with Message from Elrond.
• The Denethor/Galadriel combo, with things like Captain's Wisdom and Legacy of Númenor to help repeat it. Especially when Denethor probably feeds resources to Prince Imrahil.
• Song of Travel, because I've hung a TON of things on that.
• Silver Harp, because this is not my typical Erestor throw-everything-away deck. Similarly Wizard Pipe can push something back into my deck, as can Message from Elrond.

Now, about the less critical combos:

• All the other Gandalf attachments that are nice, but not critical: Narya, Shadowfax, Gandalf's Staff.
• Arwen Undómiel and Quickbeam because they're just that good.
• Lembas and Cram for surviving.
• One Self Preservation for Glóin, and one Ioreth for anybody. That's probably enough healing, because allies should take the brunt of it.
• One Spare Hood and Cloak, with bonus points for getting it onto Glorfindel or Wiglaf.

Trying to get down to 50 cards was awful. I really wish I could justify keeping:

• Bilbo Baggins for the Wizard Pipe.
• Gléowine for cards.
• The 3rd Elrond's Counsel, because I worry about Legacy of Númenor.

Also, reasonably likely to have a Message from Elrond and A Very Good Tale on turn 1, but card draw for the rest won't come together often. I tried to put a handful of 2-cost allies in here, so that it might still be worth using my own A Very Good Tale now and then, but it's really just not good anymore. Save them with Silver Harp or lose them.

What else am I not doing here? No Unexpected Courage, because I expect with enough allies we won't need it. But I'll keep Shadowfax. No Heir of Mardil either, even though it would go nicely on Prince Imrahil so that Denethor could trigger it literally any time. I didn't think of Favor of the Valar until much later, but I think I'm already good for attachments; I want to let the events crowd them out somewhat.

Finally, stuff I pulled out, in the sideboard:

• Zigil Miner and Hidden Cache. Nice idea, but the deck is already HUGE, and I'm already hanging so much on Song of Travel.
• 3x Ethir Swordsman for the same reason.
• One Explorer's Almanac for location fails. Removed when I added Northern Tracker to the other deck.
• Leather Boots for Faramir: too specific, and the ally swarm should crush anyway.
• Cloak of Lórien and A Burning Brand for Elrond. Allies should take the brunt of it.
• Reinforcements, because even if I throw in enough Song of Kings to play it, Erestor makes timing hard.
• I thought of a Dwarven Tomb so that I could rescue a Will of the West or repeat an Elrond's Counsel, but decided 2x Will of the West is better.