[Thematic Nightmare] The Counsel of Elves 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a thematic deck built as part of my Thematic Nightmare series on my blog, Darkling Door.

The theme for this deck is simply "Noldor" and it was built to defeat Nightmare The Hills of Emyn Muil.

Strategy

There are a few major cards that I'm looking to get my hands on as soon as possible:

• Quick Ears, to cancel any early game Tunneling Nameless Things that come out before I have a bunch of expensive Allies down to help me deal with them
• A Test of Will, so that I can quest without fear of the Rockslide Treachery
• Sailor of Lune, who is immune to the effects of the Rockslide Treachery (as long as I keep an Event on the top of my discard pile, which is pretty easy)
• Stand and Fight, so that I can dump Allies with impunity and still play whichever ones I need at any given time

Anything not on that list I dump from my opening hand using Galdor's ability—even Sword that was Broken. There are 3 copies of it in the deck for a reason.

I can typically keep on top of clearing one Location per round once I get an Ally or three down, and especially once I find and play a copy of Sword that was Broken (which usually happens by about midgame). I generally pay to ready Aragorn as long as I have a copy of Quick Ears in hand (otherwise I only ready him when I expect combat). Arwen's extra resource typically goes to herself, but can go to either Galdor or Aragorn if it's needed. Galdor unfortunately tends to build up extra resources by the endgame for some reason, so my cost curve might still be a little off.

One trick I can use to great effect is to keep one of the 1-attack Eastern Crows engaged with me. They slowly bleed cards out of the encounter deck as shadow effects, meaning that it's possible to see the Tunneling Nameless Things get discarded harmlessly. Once all 3 of them are in the discard pile, I can kill off the Crows and feel mostly safe from combat for the rest of the game.

I also discovered that Side Quests are really nice in this quest. I only need to place 1 progress on the main quest in order to win, and anything beyond that goes to waste. Side Quests allow my excess progress to go towards something useful. Plus, each player Side Quest is worth 1 victory point, which can help me to reach that 20 victory point requirement a little sooner.

For more analysis, check out my blog post on this deck.