The Last Alliance of Rangers and Ranged (Silvans) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Once upon a time Thranduil walked through his woods and saw a bunch of humans. He was about to say: “It is a crime to walk in my realm without leave”, but then he recognized their bows and lovely green uniforms. So, he hesitated and thought: My Silvans love bows, too! And we really love all things that are as green as my forest! Thus he decided to talk to them and after some nice small talk he realized, that those rangers, as they called themselves not only loved the trees as his own The Tree People, but they also hated orcs and preferred to fight in the shadows with masterfully build traps, to avoid direct confronting enemies just like his own people with their Feigned Voices. And so it happened that they became friends and forged a mighty The Last Alliance!

I love to explore the many options for The Last Alliance and Rangers and Silvan seem to be a fiiting combination! The Last Alliance can be used for:

• using cheaper allies to fetch more expensive ones with The Tree People
• healing Rangers and Silvans with Silvan Tracker
• play expensive alies with Spring the Trap
• get a discount for allies with O Lórien!
• play out-of-sphere allies like Legolas, Galadhon Archer or Northern Tracker in the combat phase
• use Silvan and Ranger allies to avoid attacks with Feigned Voices

And of course the discount from The Last Alliance helps to build your board faster. Other cost reduction is delvered by O Lórien! and the thematically fitting Seasoned Forager. And if one of your traps snaps, you can play a costly Ranger (or Silvan) with Spring the Trap.

This decks tries to play at least one trap per round, that hopefully attaches to an enemy to draw a card with Damrod and reduce your thread with Celador (or ready him if necessary). If a trap attaches to a weak enemy, you can "recycle" it with It Should Be Spared. So you should mulligan for a trap. To never run out of traps Anborn helps to reuse all your fancy traps.

Another nice start for your opening hand is The Tree People and some cheap ally or Galadhrim Minstrel, to fetch The Tree People. The minstrel is a nice target for The Tree People, so you can use a ability more often.

Legolas is also a good start, as you can play him in the first combat phase thanks to Thranduil's ability and the discount from The Last Alliance. He helps a lot to draw more cards. Additional cards draw beside Damrod is proved by Mithrandir's Advice, so I seldom have trouble with keeping my hand filled.

Thranduil shines through his ability to play Silvan (or Ranger) allies without a ressource match in the combat phase. This enables you to play Legolas, Galadhon Archer and the powerful Northern Tracker. Or you can play one of the helpful allies with "enters play"-effects like Greenwood Archer, Guardian of Ithilien or Andrath Guardsman. Thranduil main task is to defend enemies, that slip through your traps.

But often he don't has to defend anything, as you have a lot of options to avoid attacks from the enemy:

• Ranger Spikes prevents enemies from engaging you at all Feigned Voices, Coney in a Trap or Andrath Guardsman prevent enemy attacks
• Guardian of Ithilien could be played to push an enemy, that you cannot defend, back to the staging area (and maybe even right into a trap ^^)
• Ambush enables you to attack first and probably kill the enemy before he has a chance to hit you
• Forest Snare of course completely disables an enemy

The other traps help to weaken (Entangling Nets) or kill them slowly (Poisoned Stakes), before they ever engage you.

Damrod and Celador quest, at least in the early game, and deliver a lot of card draw and threat reduction. And of course Damrod discount keeps your trap engine running!

Faramir helps a lot to enhance your questing power and Henamarth Riversong enables you to decide which cards to play (e.g. if a trap is useful, because the next encounter is an enemy), especially in solo play he is really powerful.

Healing is handled en suitable with Silvan Tracker.

As you have a lot of ranged attack power, this deck pairs well with strong defending decks. But a mentioned above, I have seldom problems with defense because of all the possibilities to avoid strikes from the enemy.

The side board offers some options:

• For location heavy quests Asfaloth and Box of Earth could be added.
• Nasty conditions could be removed with Athelas and some healer (Daughter of the Nimrodel or Galadhrim Healer)
• Cloak of Lórien provides additional defense
• Beravor could be used, if you want more card draw. In this case Celador has to be removed and you need other options for threat reduction (like Favor of the Valar or A Lesson in Caution)
• For quests with a lot of required willpower Emyn Arnen Ranger could help