Of Stars in Shadow Shimmering 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is an attempt at a thematic and functional deck featuring Aragorn, Arwen Undómiel, and cards centred around them, such as Heirs of Earendil, Tale of Tinúviel and The Evening Star. The deck is designed with fellowships in mind and focuses on questing and location control.

Questing

The deck makes use of the new ALeP card Let Us Sing Together to quest without exhausting. In this deck the card is a better version of Light of Valinor; a non-unique Song attachment, it grants the Minstrel trait, +1 and attaches to a character. Principle targets for the card are Aragorn, Arwen Undómiel and Gildor Inglorion.

Defense

Defending is the greatest weakness of this deck. In scenarios with hard hitting enemies, defending against more than 1 attack per round without allies like Guardian of Rivendell and Gildor Inglorion can be crippling. Until these allies can get on the board Aragorn will have to serve as the chief defender. Eru willing, cards such as A Burning Brand, Mithril Shirt, Magic Ring and Athelas should help Aragorn survive.

Allies

This deck is expensive; with the exception of Daeron's Runes, all cards cost at least 1 resource. Arwen Undómiel is a reliable resource generator; Aragorn is her sole target so keeping him alive is paramount. All allies are Noldor and cost at least 3 resources hence To the Sea, to the Sea! is a vital card to mulligan for.

Rivendell Minstrel can helping fetch 1 of the 10 Song cards in the deck. Depending on the hand Song of Travel on Aragorn can prove essential in smoothing the resource curve. Lindir's response is amazing; the deck has just enough card draw to be sitting on a hand of 3-6 cards, hence it is not difficult to get the full 3 card draw out of Lindir. I included 2 copies of him in this deck but there is a case to be made to triple up.

Once out Guardian of Rivendell will be the main defender with a teched out Gildor Inglorion providing situational defense. Being a lore character, Gildor Inglorion is an excellent target for A Burning Brand; together with Let Us Sing Together he can quest without exhausting in the questing phase then provide shadow cancelling defense or 2 attack in the combat phase. He is also an excellent target for Tale of Tinúviel.

Glorfindel is a great card. He can quest, then trigger his action so that he is available during the combat phase and, if needed, his action can be trigger again during the combat phase for a second instance of 3 attack.

Galdor of the Havens is a solid card. His response is good but his stats are mediocre at best. I have often found him difficult to get on board, his cost is somewhat prohibitive, his response is dependent on other card effects and it takes a few rounds for him to be worthwhile. Overall I think he is worth getting on the board during the first half of the game but his worth drops off as the game progresses. Elladan and Elrohir are good cards provided both are on the board. Alone either twin is expensive for their stats but solid if the encounter deck is filled with Orcs.

Attachments

As mentioned Let Us Sing Together and To the Sea, to the Sea! are linchpins of the deck. A Burning Brand and Mithril Shirt are there to help Aragorn survive. Magic Ring is a versatile attachment that fits well in this deck as the threat increase is irrelevant due to Aragorn. I included Silver Lamp as a one off as it pairs well with A Burning Brand. The card should be attached to Arwen Undómiel just in case she gets passed around with Desperate Alliance (if included in the deck). Athelas is a great healing card, made even better in this deck as once setup none of the heroes will be exhausting to quest making the "exhaust attached character" requirement more bearable. The deck has decent card draw with cards like Elven-light, Daeron's Runes and Galdor of the Havens, however, discarding cards is a matter of life in this deck, hence the inclusion of Silver Harp to help mitigate the worst of the discarding. Asfaloth is a good, but non-essential, attachment that helps with location control; together with The Evening Star he can clear locations during the staging step of the quest phase before quest resolution.

Events

A Test of Will is an essential card in a co-op deck, more so in decks with high card draw and spirit access from the get go. Heirs of Earendil is the main location control event; it helps mitigate locations with bad travel effects, high treat and can even secure guarded cards like Mithril Shirt. An expensive card Lords of the Eldar is not essential but can be a good option to have available. I tend to use it on the defensive against a crippling attack or as a willpower boost to avoid failing to quest. Daeron's Runes and Elven-light-Arwen Undómiel are principle card draw engines with cards in the hand being essential to keep momentum going. Tale of Tinúviel is a powerful card, but it can often be difficult to know when to use it. I have gone entire games where I didn't use the card once and in other games I've used all 3 copies in the same phase (the effect stacks!) for a ridiculous 12 .

Sideboard

I have found Will of the West to be superfluous. In most scenarios, proper hand management should see the draw deck exhaust when success is all but ensured. In co-op Desperate Alliance is an excellent card allowing other decks to all but forget about threat management. Its important to note Aragorn action is triggered in the refresh phase, so if not handled well it is possible to threat out before his action can be triggered.