The Host of Lorien 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

It's weird, I thought I had published this deck years ago after it did so well during Con of the Rings. Oh well, better late than never I suppose, and this deck has definitely earned the reputation to be published!

When the Council of the Wise contract first released, my mind immediately went to the Silvan trait. Not just because it is my favourite one, but also because that trait has a lot of exclusive events that become even better with this contract. Elf Guide now produces 2 resources, Island Amid Perils lowers your threat by an additional point, and Campfire Tales draws you an additional card! Or mix and match the events with the contract abilities, who's gonna stop you?

Surely not the enemies in the scenario. Galadriel keeps your threat stable while you lower it with your contract, Galadriel's Handmaiden, Elrond's Counsel, and Island Amid Perils. This deck often ends on a lower threat than it started. This gives you ample time to help other players with your host of Ranged allies.

If enemies do ever engage you, Thranduil is your primary defender, and there are plenty of toys for him to equip in order to power him up. You also have a couple of defensive allies with Defender of the Naith and Greenwood Defender, though Silvans aren't fantastic when it comes to defence. Try and get Feigned Voices in your hand and cycle it with Tome of Atanatar or Galadhrim Weaver.

This deck quests pretty well thanks to Galadriel keeping your allies ready during the round they enter play, and Celeborn giving them some extra willpower, so that even your combat allies can quest. In the mid-to-late game, you will have several allies questing for 2, and can still cycle allies in and out of play with The Elvenking and Children of the Sea for additional willpower. Remember that Naith Guide can keep Celeborn ready will he quests for 3. You also have the flexibility of Nenya.

A couple of odd cards I want to mention before we talk strategy:

• Faramir is mostly here to push the willpower even further. You will end up with more allies in play than you can bounce back to your hand, so giving them +1 is going to keep you questing for a long time.
• Hithlain is a card you don't often see, but I would recommend in decks like this that spawn a lot of allies and bounce them back to your hand quickly. This can make short work of 4-6 quest point locations within a turn or two.
• Silver Harp/Mirror of Galadriel is a standard combo that allows you to dig through your deck faster. With all cards having only 1 copy in your deck, it can allow you to find what you need a little faster.
• Will of the West is included because this deck draws a ton of cards. Being able to reshuffle your discard pile into your deck is going to help you keep from stalling out around turn 8. Reshuffling your deck also helps to get more events into your deck, fueling the contract.
• Silvan Refugee is a tricky card that should be the first to go if you plan on losing allies. It's a great target for Children of the Sea, since it is returned to your deck before it is discarded.
• Captain's Wisdom is a nice combo with the Greenwood Archer, who can ready the hero you just exhausted for a ton of resources. You can also use the Archer to ready up Galadriel for her ability before you use her with Nenya.

Strategy wise, you will be looking for a few cards. You cannot play cards beyond Thranduil's ability before you get Nenya, so that should be a priority. It is why Gather Information is included, so that you can clear that side-quest if you fear it might be at the bottom of your deck. The incredible amount of card draw should also help. The only event you aren't able to play without the ring is The Tree People, which is arguably the strongest event that Silvans get.

Beyond that, some cost reduction or resource generation will help you to get going. Steward of Gondor can be played on turn 1, and I would advise to play it on Galadriel, since she will be bankrolling your and cards during the game. Other spheres can still be bought via Thranduil's ability. The contract also helps to add some resource smoothing, plus, the resources can be used for your allies later on, as there is no way to pay for those outside of the combat phase (or you get lucky with The Tree People).

Galion is pretty useful as well in this deck, and the sooner you can find him, the better. He is the target for many of your "escape button" events like Quicker Than Sight, Feigned Voices, and even The Elvenking. Upon his retreat, you can use Valiant Sacrifice to draw some more cards and trigger the contract again if you haven't used all three options this round. If you have no other target for Thranduil's ability that turn, you could bring him back for free with his boosted stats, though his inability to attack and defence will mostly just give you an extra body for a second event. The Tree People comes highly recommended!

Another card worth mentioning is Host of Galadhrim. That card goes crazy in this deck due to the many different allies you have that will all do something different when they reenter play. Keep in mind amidst the crazyness that you have to trigger your contract for this event as well! All your allies will be entering play with Celeborn's buffs and Galadriel's ability to not exhaust to quest on that turn. Add to this the boost from Faramir, and you will be clocking in at 60+ without too much trouble, having all your characters ready for the later phases of the round. Is it win-more in that situation? Perhaps, but boy is it fun to play!

I hope you enjoy this deck as much as I have over the past few years. It works better in multiplayer thanks to the crazy amount of Ranged characters you can end up with. Cards like Campfire Tales also become better in multiplayer, but is worth including in solo with this contract. This deck will struggle with direct damage. While Silvan Tracker will heal your Silvan characters, not all of them will have a lot of hitpoints. This can make quests like Desert Crossing a poor match. Other than that and being swarmed by low-engagement cost enemies, this deck does alright against quests that don't need a specific deck built for them. More than that, it is simply a lot of fun to play, and that's what we're here for!