Before Legolas and Gimli there was Argalad and Thalin 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

We've all heard of the unique and unlikely friendship between Legolas and Gimli, but did you know they weren't the first Silvan Elf and Dwarf to form a close friendship? That honor belongs to Argalad and Thalin, two of Middle-earth's unsung heroes. Their ancestry is lost to history and you won't read about them anywhere, which I expect is just as they would want it. When these two paired up, very few ever lived to tell the tale.

Joining our stars for this adventure is the Elven jailor of questionable reputation, Thranduil. This is of course before the whole kerfuffle about a bunch of Thorin's folk being imprisoned by him. If Thalin only knew where this whole thing was headed...

All joking aside, this is a deck I built on a whim after Argalad showed up as the card of the day on the CotR discord and it turned out to be decent. I've never really played a Silvan deck before and wanted to find something unique other than the standard Galadriel/Celeborn variety. I've also been meaning to build a heavy-ranged Silvan deck and this checks both those boxes. The original conception of the deck was to lean heavily into direct damage (which it does) but it performs pretty well in most aspects of the game apart from questing. It just barely quests enough to cover itself so don't try to play this one solo.

Between Argalad and Thalin you can pretty much always get 2 damage on an enemy coming off the encounter deck. Have another player engage the enemy and you can put a 3rd and 4th damage on by playing Galadhon Archer during the combat phase then pulling it back with Pursuing the Enemy. Rúmil enables a large chunk of direct damage with all the ranged allies in the deck. Elf-friend is there to play on Thalin or another player's hero so they can be healed by Silvan Tracker. The only specific card I really look for in my opening hand is O Lórien!. Without it, the decks slows down quite a bit. The first Bow of the Galadhrim can go on Argalad depending on the threat of the enemies in the scenario, otherwise, the weapons tend to go on Legolas or Marksman of Lórien. I usually avoid putting weapons on the Galadhon Archer because I'm bouncing them in and out of play. I haven't decided yet who The Elvenking should go on. I've been putting it on Thrandual for extra defenses but it could also go on Argalad for extra direct damage.

As a side note, I really love Thranduil's ability to balance resources however you like and how it allows you to play the higher cost allies quicker. It's like having a built in A Good Harvest or The Storm Comes, but with timing that works way better with the Galadhon Archer's or Greenwood Archer's abilities.

The sideboard has a few cards that could be added to the deck depending on the needs of the quest.