A Lonely Friendship 1.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

This deck is honestly not my best, because it needs a lot of setup time. However, if the first turn or two don't kill it, it should be able to muddle through until turn four or so, by which time it is AWESOME.

Early Game

Problem #1: You need your hand to be empty for Galdor of the Havens, before you draw both Will of the West. (That's why there's two of them.) If you draw them both too early, things get tricky.

Problem #2: Unlike most decks of this kind, Gimli needs Steward of Gondor, so that he gains the Gondor trait, and can attach Livery of the Tower. Because of this, Legolas needs most of your Captain's Wisdom, Unlikely Friendship, and We Are Not Idle resources.

Use Galdor of the Havens to throw away things that you really would think you'll need later, and trust your Will of the West to bring them back. I usually throw away everything that cannot draw me cards or make me resources in turn 1.

Early game, all you need to do is survive. Don't engage if you can help it, quest just enough to stay afloat, etc. Use Cram and Hasty Stroke to avoid dying. A well-timed Sneak Attack Gandalf might save your bacon. Remember that all but two of your allies can block and die if you need them to.

Mid-Game

Ideally Galadriel finds you some Spirit attachments that cost 2. Ideally, when you Sneak Attack Gandalf, you draw cards because you don't need his other effects. Ideally you run your hand out and use Galdor of the Havens for six cards, before you ever drew Will of the West. Ideally all of your discards ever are Elven-light and Glorfindel.

Yeah, it's nice to dream.

The advantage here is that every function can be served by multiple different unique cards, and then they stack with each other once you have all of them. The bare minimum you need probably looks something like:

• Arwen Undómiel OR Dwarven Shield OR Livery of the Tower, or less optimally Protector of Lórien.
• One, preferably two, of Steward of Gondor OR Dwarven Shield OR The Day's Rising.
• At least two of Unexpected Courage OR Heir of Mardil OR Erebor Record Keeper, with a Cram now and again to help.
• Ioreth OR Warden of Healing.
• One Mirkwood Long-knife OR Glorfindel for attacking and questing, or Arwen Undómiel for questing. You can get by on occasional Galadriel and Gandalf to help quest.
• If possible, King Under the Mountain or Gléowine. If not possible, oh well.

Late Game

Profit!

After you draw your whole deck, play Will of the West. Try to get most of the good events into the discard first: Sneak Attack, Elrond's Counsel, and all the resource-makers especially. I like to make sure Elven-light is in my hand before that, so I can start using it again immediately.

This deck really isn't an Elven-light deck, which is why there's only one of them here. But in mid-game and late game, it helps you find resource-makers again faster. The joy of playing Elven-light, then Daeron's Runes to discard it, then playing Elven-light cannot be expressed to one who has not experienced it.

At some point, Legolas will have enough resources to play Glorfindel, either from discard or from hand, and at that point most things become trivially easy with the occasional Sneak Attack Gandalf to assist. Enjoy!