Leaf and Land 3.0

• Versions
• 3.0
• 2.0
• 1.0

I originally built this deck for the Thematic Nightmare series on my blog, over two years ago. I've been playing it pretty regularly ever since, and I got some comments on it this year when I brought it to Con of the Rings this year, so I figured I'd post my latest version.

"In Dwimordene, in Lórien

Seldom have walked the feet of Men,

Few mortal eyes have seen the light

That lies there ever, long and bright."

—Gandalf, The King of the Golden Hall, The Two Towers

Strategy

After over two years of playing it, this is still my favorite Silvan deck!

At its core, it works just like any other Silvan deck: I play Silvan Allies down to get Celeborn's bonus. Galadriel lets them get double use out of those extra stats, allowing them to contribute to both the quest phase and the combat phase. The next round, once they are no longer benefiting from Celeborn's boost, I use an Event like Island Amid Perils, The Tree People, or Feigned Voices to pull them back into my hand so I can trigger their Enters Play ability a second time. That's all stock-in-trade for your standard Silvan deck.

The addition of Hero Gandalf adds an extra layer on top of the already-interesting Silvan fare. He allows me to include Silvan Allies from all four spheres, rather than having to pick between and . But he can also play the 0-cost Silvan-bouncing Events from the top of my deck, effectively resulting in free card draw. Combined with Galadriel's ability to exhaust in exchange for drawing 1 card and -1 threat, this deck draws cards surprisingly quickly.

The trick to playing this deck is in the timing: It's usually better for me to play whatever 0-cost Event happens to be on top of the deck than one from my hand (because it equates to free card draw). When Gandalf can't play the card on top of the deck, I usually trigger Galadriel's ability in the hopes of getting something better on top.

Attachments

My Heroes don't have any natural or icons, but as long as they're the top card of my deck, Gandalf can play cards from those spheres. Nenya gives Galadriel the resource icon, too, so the cards are slightly easier to play than the few cards. In practice, this deck has so much card draw that a few dead cards don't hurt it too badly, and it shouldn't be too long before the Wizard Pipe decides to turn up to ensure I can play everything.

Gandalf's Staff and O Lórien! are great for resource smoothing, ensuring I can play at least one Ally per round, even though I'm only generating one resource of each color.

It's not vital to the deck's functioning, but Narya is pretty fun here. Once Gandalf has found his ring, he can exhaust to ready two Allies and give them +1 to and . The best part is that this stacks with Celeborn's boost, turning wimpy Allies into stalwart heroes during the combat phase. In the late game, I frequently use Galadriel's Handmaiden as my main defender!

Threat

Even though it starts at 34, threat isn't a problem for this deck. Between triggering Galadriel's ability almost every round, Island Amid Perils, and Galadriel's Handmaiden, there's plenty of threat reduction to go around. It's pretty common to end games with my threat lower than it started.

Mulligan

I typically mulligan for either Wizard Pipe or Nenya, to ensure I can play my cards as soon as possible. I might keep a particularly good hand with Gandalf's Staff or Shadowfax in it, though, depending on the circumstances.

Updates

The Allies have been totally rebalanced since the last version of this deck, notably including 3 copies of the Galadhrim Weaver. She's a great, cheap target for pulling back into my hand to fuel a card effect, for shuffling The Tree People or A Test of Will back into my deck, or for shuffling my deck if I can't play the card that's sitting on top of it and I'm still looking for some key piece.

The Elvenking makes an appearance now, too, although the ability to ready Celeborn is more of a perk. Its real value is in being able to on-demand pull an Ally back to my hand so that I can replay it next round if I need its effect.