Gandalf's Silvan Smokers (Silvan Pipe Combo) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Commentary

• Despite being late to the party (I just found out that this idea was already published in 2020), I am proud to say that I found this combo on my own. My version is definitely inferior to the one I later found, but I'm proud of it nonetheless.
• This deck (without any quest involved, big caveat) should combo out on Round 2 Planning Phase most of the time. It might be possible to get it to Round 1, but that's a huge change in how many cards the two main heroes can dig through together (8 vs 36 max). Maybe with a helper deck added for support? Earlier iterations tried using Vilya, but it's too slow for a deck this fast and the high threat cost of Elrond is better spent on Doomed cards for acceleration. Even King Under the Mountain and Steward of Gondor are perhaps not fast enough, which sounds crazy.

Core Combo (no effect without at least one enhancer):

• In play: 4 pipes, 2 Galadhrim Weaver, 2 Galadhrim Minstrel
• In hand: Smoke and Think, 2 Host of Galadhrim

Combo Enhancers:

• Galadriel's Handmaiden (threat zero)
• Woodland Courier (nuke all locations)
• Galadhon Archer (nuke all enemies not on you)
• Rúmil (nuke all enemies on you)
• Galadhrim Healer (remove all hero damage)
• Orophin (recover all your silvan allies)
• Third Weaver + Minstrel
• • Unlikely Friendship (inf $ & non-event recursion)
• • WANI + Greenwood Archer + Dáin (inf $ & non-event recursion)
• • Risk Some Light (control encounter deck)
• • Orophin + Bulwark (remove conditions)
• • Warden of Healing (convert $ to healing)
• • The White Council (partners inf cards & $ & recovery)

Accelerators:

• Dáin Ironfoot (dump aggressively with Gandalf's recon)
• Hidden Cache
• Wizard Pipe (set up any of the three hero abilities)
• Spare Pipe (also a combo piece)
• Daeron's Runes
• Heed the Dream
• Word of Command and/or Old Toby
• Deep Knowledge
• The Seeing-stone
• Legacy of Númenor
• Unlikely Friendship
• We Are Not Idle
• King Under the Mountain
• Steward of Gondor

Enablers:

• Dwarf Pipe (fourth pipe, could do third Spare Pipe, but this lets Dáin bypass a blockage without losing it)
• Song of Kings (need for cards from hand)

Runners up:

• (removed from deck because win on Round 2 too fast to justify the costs) Elrond+Vilya
• (removed to accelerate more) Unexpected Courage (efficient upgrade for survival)

First turn combo:

• As previously mentioned, it's very unlikely to manage a first turn combo. However, it's at least hypothetically possible. One unrealistic example start is given below, but having played this on DragonCards I managed to pull off a first turn combo once out of about 20 tries.
• Setup: Messenger pulls Henamarth from deck, so deck is effectively 49 cards.
• Start Round 1, Resource Phase. Top 3 cards are Cache, dump with Dáin for $6. Next card is some useful event like The Seeing-stone, play it with Gandalf's Staff and fetch (depending on your hand) probably Deep Knowledge. Hand: 8, Deck: 38, Dump: 3
• Go to Planning.
• Top card is Wizard Pipe, play it with Gandalf. (Deck: 37)
• Assume you already have Song of Kings in hand. Dáin dumps three extra cards like two Song of Kings plus Galadhon Archer. (Pipes: 1, Deck 34, Dump: 6)
• Play Galion then The Tree People x3 for 3 Galadhrim Minstrel for Smoke and Think and two Host of Galadhrim. (Hand: 7, Deck: 31, Dump: 9, 1 pipe, 1 elf)
• ... will take too long to fill out. Hopefully you can see it's possible.

Here's a link to the better version that someone else already posted:

• https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/16283