Mithrandir gets his ring 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

As the theme of the current cycle seems to be heading towards playing decks with only two heroes (Vanish from Sight and the spoiled Strider attachment), I decided to take a break from the Solo-Hero decks and make a dual-Hero deck. However, the best thing about this deck is that the Gandalf ally will basically act as your third hero whilst still hanging on to his ally type.

First, read the text on Narya, it tells you that it isn't specific to heroes and that the attached CHARACTER (not hero) gains the icon. This led to the following combo:

To get started, get your Nenya and Vilya out to smooth resources between Elrond and Galadriel. Then, try to fish for Narya and Gandalf. There is plenty of card draw included to make sure that you'll find them soon. When you have found the two cards, try to play Gandalf with Elrond/Vilya so you don't have to pay the 5 resources. Narya is cheaper but if you can play it with the combo, you do still save some precious resources.

Once Gandalf is on the table with Narya attached to him, things start rolling. He quests for 4 without having to exhaust, which is nice. you then can trigger Narya to exhaust Gandalf, choose him and another powerful ally (Treebeard, Glorfindel, Skinbark etc.) to ready AND get a powerful stat boost of +1 and +1 . Now you've got a 5, 5 Gandalf who can do some serious defending or attacking.

But why not both? Shadowfax is only restricted to Gandalf, not specific to his hero version. Now Gandalf is both Ranged and Sentinel, AND he has a build in readying effect to make perfect use of all of his stats.

Further combo's with Gandalf include his own Pipe who can let you swap a card from your hand with the top card of your deck. Afterwards, you can exhaust Elrond and Vilya to play the very same card for free. This way, you can avoid drawing key cards that you would like to play for free but they end up stuck in your hand.

The draw back of this deck is that you'll have to raise your treat by 3 at the end of each round (1 ordinary threat + 2 to keep Gandalf). To balance this, you can Galadriel yourself, drawing an addiational card, and play cards like Island Amid Perils on your Galadriel's Handmaiden losing 3 threat in the process, Elrond's Counsel lowers the threat and adds to your and if you can manage to play The Galadhrim's Greeting for free, it will be a good buffer for the next two rounds.

Some action from your heroes is also required in this deck, Elronds main objective is to defend any attacks that aren't being blocked by Gandalf or any other ally. With Arwen Undómiel and A Burning Brand you can get a proper defence going on. Light of Valinor will let him quest without exhausting so that Elrond is ready to trigger Vilya.

Galadriel can add her to Gandalf's or Elrond to get good progress each round. Miruvor will let you use her own ability as well to lower your treat. This effect is cheaper than Unexpected Courage but has a more limited use. Use Miruvor only if you can't lower your threat that round and absolutely need to.

Resources are gained with the trusty pair of Imladris Stargazer and Zigil Miner whilst also searching for the key cards in this deck. Master of the Forge lets you draw an attachment each turn and will shuffle your deck for the next Stargazer. Treebeard will pay for your Ents and can get them ready if you have a net gain of resources on him. Erestor will let you get rid of any unique copies of cards in your hand while also contributing to the quest.

The ents included form a good block against any enemies, they can defend and attack very Well whilst also being a good target for Narya. Treebeard is the best target for this effect since his stats will skyrocket. Haldir of Lórien is also a fine target because of his Ranged and Sentinel.

Though the deck relies on the Elrond/ Vilya combo a lot for getting a large amount of cards into play, I found myself at no time short of resources during the play testing of this deck. Hope you guys enjoy this one