Ally Power Deck 5.0

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Who doesn't love a good Vilya deck?

Elrond and Gandalf dropshipping ally after ally onto the battlefield isn't something that gets old quickly, so, even if this deck can't beat every quest, I've found it super fun to use.

In the spirit of using only what I have in real life, this deck uses the expansions I physically own (and reflects the fact I only own one core set). Either way, the focus of this chunky (56-card) deck is on getting useful and powerful allies out with some heavy heroes to back them up. All of the attachments are only for heroes, with the majority of them being split between Elrond and Gandalf.

The typical strategy here is to get a Wizard Pipe on Gandalf, and a Steward of Gondor and Vilya on Elrond. The other gadgets and tricks of the deck just flow naturally out of that setup so the earlier you get it the better off you'll be.

Manipulate the top card of the deck with the Pipe to pull some heavy allies off with Vilya, and use Elrond's passive ability to pay for any other ally out of your hand. Glorfindel is there to help mainly with early combat (and definitely questing if you can find a Light of Valinor for him) and also aid Elrond as a Spirit Hero in getting out some threat reduction events. Some Wardens of Healing pair nicely with Elrond's passive heal buff and can help you fend off some archery damage or unexpected combat damage.

Since pulling the Vilya/Pipe combo off is so important, one copy each of Heed the Dream and Word of Command are dashed in, so it's likely you'll have either the items themselves or a way of digging to get them in your opening hand most of the time.

The difficult part in using this deck is getting it off the ground. A desired opening hand would include a Pipe, Title, and (Elrond's) Ring. There are many different ways the first round can go, but usually you will either have to choose between Elrond getting his resource generation or his Ring. However you do it, the second round should start looking pretty good. Keep your threat down with the Counsels and Greetings and try to not take too many enemies too soon.

You will want a Stargazer out very soon to help prime the top of the deck for Vilya; in addition, a fortunate early appearance of Master of the Forge would be a blessing in that he enables you to shuffle your deck in case the top five cards are undesirable. He and Stargazer work well together for this reason. Gildor can also help with some card manipulation if absolutely critical, but it shouldn't be necessary. Load up Gandalf with his steed, staff, and Ring for mid- to late-game fun, and take advantage of Erestor to trade some dead copies of unique cards for playable ones.

Almost any ally that pops out of the deck will be useful as the majority of them can either quest or fight well (and a lot of them can do both!). An early-ish Treebeard might take a turn to come online, but he's a tank, and his passive resource/readying ability is invaluable in sticky combat situations. A board full of Eagles isn't uncommon nor unwelcome with this deck, especially early on. The cheaper ('chumpier') Winged Guardians and Vassals are there primarily to provide some early defense while the Ring/Pipe combo is getting set up; later on, their sacrifices go a long way towards pumping up the Eagles of the Misty Mountains.

Once enough allies are on the board, Faramir's questing buff will help you sail through almost any quest. Whether she makes an early or late appearance, Galadriel not only is a tremendous quester, but her digging and re-ordering of the top of the deck can give your Stargazers a break, as well as pull out one of the vital attachments you need for free!

A foreseen (and often experienced) weakness of this deck is its lack of manipulation of the rest of the board or the encounter deck. There is little by way of Treachery cancellation and location management. If desired, a sideboard could be imagined that included a few allies that helped in these areas (like Minas Tirith Lampwright), as well as some attachments (like Asfaloth) and the obvious events (A Test of Will). I might make this sideboard one day, but for now this is how it stands.

I'm sure there are many tweaks that can be made to this deck to make it much better, and I'll keep coming back to it as my play-through progress and physical collection grows, but it works well so far and has played well at least against earlier quests (through the Grey Havens box). Still, it's fun to have some big heroes and seeing a field of huge allies in just a couple of turns is pretty cool.