Gandalf Makes Everything Better: Silvan Edition 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Gandalf is so well designed in this game. I always love playing a hero Gandalf deck and it's always a letdown when I switch to a "standard" deck and realize I have to play with that top card of my deck face down. Gandalf's wisdom is truly powerful!

I'm going to attempt to make several decks combining Gandalf with the various people groups and see how they function. This deck was inspired by a deck I saw here on RingsDB by user Fjord. He was really on to something. Gandalf is amazing in a Silvan deck.

This deck is full of the standard fun Silvan tricks but Gandalf makes all those tricks better! You can set up your The Tree People to get the big, expensive ally you need into play without fail. You accelerated card draw keeps those awesome events flowing into your hand. After playing an ally or something useful in the planning phase you can prepare an event for the quest or combat phase so you can play (and ultimately draw) 2-3 more cards per turn with Gandalf's ability! He smooths your resources and gives you (limited) access to Lore from turn 1 without having to bring a Lore hero. His staff provides more resource acceleration and smoothing. Gandalf just makes the Silvans that much better! He makes everything better!

I've played this through a bunch of quests now and it has a high win ratio and a very high fun factor. Silvans are fun and Gandalf is fun and together they are awesome.

Notes

I usually feel I need Nenya right away in a Silvan deck but this deck usually doesn't have an issue questing so I ended up cutting down to 1 Nenya. The constant threat reduction is nice with Gandalf's threat starting the deck pretty high and that card draw never hurt anything either! Why Daughter of the Nimrodel? When Island Amid Perils, I found I wanted a few 3-cost allies in the deck and sometimes that focused healing was more helpful than the Galadhrim Healer. She could be cut for a 3rd Healer but I found it entertaining to include 1 copy.

Why no Narya? There's already a lot of action advantage with Galadriel's ability and while the Silvan allies are very good, their stats are always the best. I found I'd rather use Gandalf's stats than ready 2 allies in most cases so I cut it. An argument could be made for keeping it.

Why 3 Host of Galadhrim? Because it is amazing! Once you start playing this card, that encounter deck is toast. It's remarkable what this event does to a Silvan board. I want the full 3 copies in there because I want to see it fairly soon and fairly often. You aren't limited to playing it 3 times since you have the Weavers around. Host of the Galadhrim makes the Weaver that much better because you can basically play 2 Weavers at the same time, digging into your discard pile rather than just taking the top card. It really increased the power of the Weaver.

Mulligan for a Wizard Pipe and O Lórien!. Draw lots of cards and do all the Silvan tricks! Enjoy