Consistent Wisdom

Questlogs using this decklist
The Battle of Carn Dûm - Nightmare - 1 Player - 2020-08-20
We Must Away, Ere Break of Day - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-21
Over the Misty Mountains Grim - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-21
Over the Misty Mountains Grim - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-21
Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-22
Flies and Spiders - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-22
Flies and Spiders - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-22
The Lonely Mountain - 1 Player - 2021-01-22
Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim - Nightmare - 2 Players - 2021-01-22
The Battle of Five Armies - 1 Player - 2021-01-24
The Redhorn Gate - Nightmare - 1 Player - 2022-02-03
Passage Through Mirkwood - Nightmare - 1 Player - 2022-02-04
Journey Along the Anduin - 2 Players - 2023-01-15
Escape from Dol Guldur - 2 Players - 2023-01-15
The Hunt for Gollum - 2 Players - 2023-01-15
Conflict at the Carrock - 2 Players - 2023-01-29
A Journey to Rhosgobel - 2 Players - 2023-01-30
The Hills of Emyn Muil - 2 Players - 2023-01-30
The Dead Marshes - 2 Players - 2023-02-01
Return to Mirkwood - 2 Players - 2023-02-02
Intruders in Chetwood - 2 Players - 2023-02-04
The Weather Hills - 2 Players - 2023-02-04
Deadmen's Dike - 2 Players - 2023-02-07
Escape from Mount Gram - 2 Players - 2023-02-25
The Wastes of Eriador - 2 Players - 2023-02-25
Across the Ettenmoors - 2 Players - 2023-02-26
The Treachery of Rhudaur - 2 Players - 2023-03-05
The Battle of Carn Dûm - 2 Players - 2023-03-11
The Dread Realm - 2 Players - 2023-03-14
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Seastan 42057

A remarkably consistent deck, despite the 1x limitations imposed by the contract. And by consistent, I mean consistently strong, not necessarily consistent gameplay, as it depends a lot on what cards you see.

Mulligan for Vilya, Word of Command, or Heed the Dream. These cards emulate having 3x Vilya in the deck. Gather Information is a backup, as you don't want to rely on questing well in order to find Vilya. You want to have Vilya out on turn 2 at the latest.

Then you've got effectively 4 cards that help you stack your top card: Imladris Stargazer, Gildor Inglorion, Wizard Pipe, and Bilbo Baggins (who fetches the pipe). You should run into one of these early on (or find one with another search card) and you are good to go with standard Vilya shenanigans.

There's also a very high percentage of strong cards in the deck, so you don't necessarily need to wait for one of your top-deck setup cards. Just have Gandlaf play the cheap allies/events off the top until you come to a big one, then have Vilya put it into play.

The starting threat is quite high, so we have Elrond's Counsel, The Galadhrim's Greeting, and Double Back. But we also have access to consistent threat reduction with the contract. There are enough events and card draw in the deck to play at least one event per round, so your threat should not increase very much all game.

9 comments

May 25, 2020 doomguard 1963

i would inrcease the events by 5 and reduce allies by 5. with only 15 ebents you could be doe in round 5. seems ti few for me. would put in:

  • we here not idle (great in council, a card and one of the 3 options)
  • hidden cache (with council worth played as event or discarded with sldier of erebor)
  • man the walls ringsdb.com (usefull for many allies that will not bevilyad in)
  • Hope Rekindled (cost nothing, trigger contract and gives free shuffle)
  • feint
  • depends, how fast te deck is done, will of the west, perhaps instead of hidden cache

wich allies would i cut?:

  • Ranger
  • defender of cair andros
  • anborn
  • giant bear

would add additional, the light of valinor for elrond.

then depends on testing, let it be 52 or reduce by 2 more allies.

May 26, 2020 Seastan 42057

@doomguard Thanks for the suggestions. I considered those events, but wanted to keep the high ally count for two reasons.

  1. In early game you do not want to accidentally get stuck in a situation where you cannot use Vilya on a big ally. Later in the game when you are able to manipulate your deck this is not a big deal. But in round 1, if you get Vilya out (which is the goal) Gandalf will have limited opportunity to clear out the top card. If the next card is something like Man the Walls, Feint, Hidden Cache that you cannot play or afford, it is a big loss.
  2. After you find Vilya, it is highly recommended to use your next search card to find A Very Good Tale, which in this deck represents 8+ resources, well worth even a full strength Heed the Dream. By dropping the ally count down, this card becomes much weaker. Maybe not worth including anymore. And the gain of a couple extra triggers of the Contract do not make up for the loss of such a strong card.

May 26, 2020 doomguard 1963

i would say, with gandalf, there is a very good chance to play the event away if its on he top, and wait with the carddrawing there is another chance, if after that event there is another, that you draw. anf if there is a third, you can play it with gandalf in the qustphase. seems to me, there are many ways to play events from the top to get to the juicy allys. o.k. man the walls and feint are then perhaps not the best, but there are many that can be played every time.but perhaps i should test it on my own. which szenarios did u test, yet?

May 26, 2020 Alonewolf87 1921

Always some cool decks, kudos. By the way no Light of Valinor?

May 26, 2020 Seastan 42057

@Alonewolf87 Mistake on my part. I originally had Galadriel instead of Denethor, and Vilya felt like a nonbo with her ability if you wait until after commiting to use it. It should definitely be in there now (and probably would have still been worth it despite the nonbo).

@doomguard I tested it against Escape from Umbar, which it crushed. I could tell that it would be capable of beating harder quests as well.

May 27, 2020 Beorn 13362

Any reason why you didn’t include a copy of Expert Treasure-hunter? It seems like an auto-include in any Gandalf deck.

May 28, 2020 Seastan 42057

@Beorn In a standard Gandalf deck I think it's an auto-include, but the extra cards you burn through here by the deck being event-heavy, in addition to the contract and Vilya, I found myself not missing it.

Aug 21, 2020 Seastan 42057

Update, this deck completely dismantled nightmare Carn Dum, winning in 7 rounds with a final threat of just 30. It's a pretty good deck, perhaps even top-tier.

I didn't draw into one of the 3 key mulligan cards in my opening hand (Heed the Dream, Word of Command, or Vilya), even after a mulligan. But the deck showed its consistency in that Gandalf saw Daeron's Runes on the top of my deck, and from that card draw, along with the card draw from the contract, I drew into Drinking Song, which gave me a big hand refresh, in which I did finally find Vilya and was still able to pay for it. But even if I hadn't found it, I did have a Stargazer in hand, so I was bound to dig up one of the key cards soon anyway.

So despite the 1x limitations, the deck has a lot of tools at its disposal, and it's also a blast to play!

Jul 20, 2021 ohuerc 448

Love it! Absolutely right about Expert Treasure-hunter, I would not use it without also using Light of Valinor. Have you considered a Beorning Skin-changer though? I use one for my Three) Wise Men deck, and almost always trigger its action at some point. (Just now discovered, I'd made major changes to that deck and forgotten to publish. Oops.) Sometimes I also run 1x Stand and Fight, to recycle dead Bears and Beorns (for two resources!), but it ends up being not needed a lot of the time.