A Lonely Friendship 2.0

• 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. Version 2.0 includes Faramir, which takes care of long-term questing issues.

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 one 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 or Lembas now and again to help.
• Lembas 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!

About the Sideboard

There's an Elrond here for actual sideboarding for conditions, and then a lot of other stuff that could be good, but I removed because I have something better. Thus, I've removed:

• Eldahir, making room for more ways to ready Gimli.
• Peace, and Thought, because I can't usually spare heroes for it. With Captain's Wisdom and We Are Not Idle, I'm already straining the limits of all the different ways to ready heroes. I tested it for a while, then went back to Gléowine.
• Ioreth... but I'm still not sure of this one. Lembas combines healing with another readying, but only happens once per shuffle. When a lot of damage comes in very quickly, Ioreth is a better plan, although with enough resource boosts I can just cycle Warden of Healing.
• Errand-rider, Narvi's Belt, and Song of Travel, because I now have an Erebor Record Keeper to go with We Are Not Idle, adding money where it's needed. Plus the one copy of Legacy of Númenor helps boost things all around.
• Narvi's Belt with A Burning Brand, because it's expensive and Livery of the Tower with Protector of Lórien is usually fine. I have one Hasty Stroke still, just in case.
• Sword-thain and Asfaloth, which is hilariously awesome but takes forEVER to set up.