The Woodland King (MD - Silvans Alternative) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck is part of Mormegil’s Deckbox, an effort to create an extensive catalogue of decks for the different archetypes, themes and playing styles available to players. Click here to check out the whole project.

Preferred Player Count: 1-4

Rating: .5

Premise

This deck has brought me a lot of joy. Sure, having the degenerate combo-potential of the Celeborn-Galadriel-Bifur lineup is probably a bit stronger than this (somewhat more conservative) approach, however mixing it up with Thranduil adds another dimension to the archetype entirely.

Having a great defender (thanks to Inner Strength) from the very first round onwards gives the archetype a much-needed backbone to deal with enemies from the get-go, something the more combo-orientated version can struggle with. I also prefer this deck for actually playing with other players since the combo-version tends to take a long time during planning which often bores other players.

How To Play

Since you want access to lore sooner rather than later, I like to see Nenya ASAP. It also helps you with questing, which can be a bit weak in the beginning otherwise. Other cards that help you immensely are resource acceleration cards - your game will be much easier if you can slap down an early Steward of Gondor or O Lórien!. From there on, you try to swarm allies (also utilizing great cards like The Tree People or A Very Good Tale) as quickly as possible before you settle into your classic loop of Host of Galadhrim (which can be played and recycled every round through Galadhrim Weaver and Galadhrim Minstrel).

This deck funnily enough has a much higher skill-cap than the combo version - maximizing the utility of allies like Greenwood Archer or the Weavers (to manage your deck and discard pile) is often the key to victory - as is choosing the right ally with The Elvenking depending on your situation. Managing these pieces correctly often requires a very good feel for your current situation in the quest and for your deck.

Considerations

Cloak of Lórien is a decent include in saga quests where The One Ring is unavailable to you. The doomed events can all be added if you like, however I usually prefer playing without them here (unless you are playing a quest that really taxes you in terms of tempo and requires a quick start to keep ahead of the encounter deck. Double Back is always a very useful card, especially in higher player counts.

Enjoy!!!