Spell Singer 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

---- INTRODUCTION ----

Hello Everyone !

DISCLAIMER - This deck is still a work in progress and there are a LOT of possible paths to branch in or out. As such, I left many cards in the sideboard which I have been including/excluding during the construction process. Feel free to experiment ! This deck is meant to be fun but still decently performing, although it is clearly on the optimist side of things going your way and most likely too slow for some scenarios.

Note that I left "in your collection" cards like Blue Staff in the deck. The effective deck size after Elena, Pallando and The One Ring setup is 55.

---- CARDS BREAKDOWN ----

The deck is made of several packages that work and synergize together.

--> Instrument Package :

Elena + Bronze Bell + Wooden Lyre

This package is very low deck space and allows for a powerful set of advantages :

• One instrument on setup, thinning the deck and giving versatility
• Leadership sphere access
• Minstrel hero to enable Song of Slumber (see below)

Instruments might seem underwhelming at first but I think they are actually very powerful. Just using 2 of them here allows us to boost defense by 1-2 which combined with Inner Strength and Arwen Undómiel allows Pallando to defend extremely well. The Wooden Lyre effect on the other hand allows big tempo swings at engaged enemies.

--> Spell Package :

Pallando + Luin Cultist (+ East-helper) + Zigil Miner + Spells

Blue Staff + Rods of the Five

Core package of the deck, we want to loop powerful spells like You Cannot Pass! and Song of Slumber using the Easterling mechanic and Zigil Miner. The combination of those two spells allows for very efficient management of engaged enemies : keep a few using Song of Slumber then make a big swing with You Cannot Pass!. This is possible because Song of Slumber is both a song and a spell. Word of Persuasion is there for its tempo advantage potential.

Spells can be tutored using Blue Staff which doubles as a readying tool and more thanks to Rods of the Five.

--> Song Package :

Hey Dol! Merry Dol! + Hobbit Pipe + Love of Tales

Small combo enabled by songs which we can use for free here. -1 threat, +1 draw, +1 resource every turn is quite good, essentially turning Elena into a boosted Galadriel !

--> Quest failure Package :

Blue Staff + Emissary of the East + Variag Recluse

Arwen Undómiel + Bilbo Baggins

The goal here is not to spend the whole game without questing but rather to do damage control during the first few rounds we need to setup our board. We use easterling mechanic again here to minimize threat increase as much as possible during turns 1-3. Blue Staff alone is enough in the beginning, but the extra Variag Recluse is good to prevent locations from stacking too much.

Additional allies with 2 also help here.

--> Allies Package :

Quickbeam + Treebeard + Warden of Healing

Good allies which improve questing mitigation, provide some healing, and give us attacking power before You Cannot Pass! can be set up.

--> Card-draw Package :

That is a lot of cards depending on each other, and most of them are 1-of because of deck size constraints. On top of that, the deck is actually 53 cards after setup. How is this going to work ? Well ... we include MASSIVE draw and tutor engines.

• Pure draw : Daeron's Runes + Gléowine
• Tutors : Blue Staff + An Unexpected Party + Word of Command
• Top deck : Master of the Forge + Imladris Stargazer + Wizard Pipe
• Filtering : Bilbo Baggins + Zigil Miner

The idea is to have branching between our ways to tutor cards.

Imladris Stargazer allows top deck control for Zigil Miner and You Cannot Pass! tricks (generating resources on the fly) but also allows Bilbo Baggins to discard unwanted cards. Wizard Pipe is not mandatory but helps holding or removing key cards from hand.

Blue Staff gives us spell cards and allows to shuffle.

An Unexpected Party gives us song cards and in particular it can target Bilbo Baggins, Gléowine and Hey Dol! Merry Dol!, the latter enabling our Song package. Also allows to shuffle.

Master of the Forge gives us access to attachments and also allows to shuffle.

Word of Command is our joker for when we need a specific card ASAP. It is mostly used to find allies we need for the engine. Because of Pallando and Rods of the Five giving us readying options early, it is very good here.

--> Usual-Suspects Package :

Steward of Gondor + Unexpected Courage + Strider + A Test of Will + Elrond's Counsel

The One Ring + Inner Strength

Staples which are almost always auto-include when available.

--> Honorable mentions (in no particular order) :

• Gandalf / Tom Bombadil

Including a third hero means giving up on Pallando innate ability, which I found too harsh on the early game. Gandalf is a good candidate but makes playing lore cards too difficult. While Tom Bombadil is tempting and thematic, his capacity is overlapping what we already do and is basically win-more, mostly because he cannot target in the staging area.

• At the End of All Things

I really wanted to play this contract and I tried very hard ... The innability to gain resources from attachments means replacing Steward of Gondor with Hidden Cache and Expert Treasure-hunter which is not doable (see below). Losing the resource ability on Blue Staff is also very bad.

• The Riddle-game

This can actually be playable, but I have not tested it. I am unsure at this point if our cost curve allows a reasonable success rate and more importantly if we can afford discarding spells early (ie. before finding Luin Cultist). Ring of Thrór would be the perfect choice but we have no dwarf hero sadly. Stone of Elostirion is a no-go too being restricted and we do not really need the card draw that bad. Necklace of Girion would be our best target though.

• Elf-friend + The Elvenking + Galadhrim Weaver (+ The White Council)

Minimal recycling engine for non-spell cards ... very ambitious and very unlikely to be playable since we do not empty our deck. Fun dream when paired with Sneak Attack / Gandalf.

• Golden Horn

Playing this requires either Golden Belt or a second minstrel hero which is not viable as stated above. Our restricted attachment slots are all taken already. Also Tactics sphere access implies bloating the deck more which is bad at this point. Moreover, if i understood the ruling correctly, it cannot be used to do multiple damage so ... nope.

• Spare Pipe

A very tempting thing, which caused a lot of back and forth during deckbuilding. They do add to the tutor engine while also making Pallando more tanky on the health side which is good. I decided to cut them in the end since their 5-card range is already covered by Imladris Stargazer and since we already can find songs and spells reliably.

• Thrór's Map

I have the unerrated version ... too bad the nerf made it almost unusable without recycling options which we cannot fit in. Would have been very nice with Variag Recluse. Still a decent sideboard option.

• Hidden Cache (+ Expert Treasure-hunter)

Another hard choice, cutting this was a turning point in saving space for other things in the deck. This is mostly relevant when trying to play At the End of All Things. However, the big downside is that we cannot use Expert Treasure-hunter reliably if our early game strategy is to fail questing. Steward of Gondor is just better in this situation.

• Drinking Song

We only have Bilbo Baggins and it is low priority compared to early allies we need to get going. We have a lot of ways to shuffle and reset the top deck to see many cards while not giving up on our hand, so basically we do not need it.

• Sneak Attack + Gandalf

This combo has the advantage of also helping during early game, mostly for threat reduction, but takes a lot of space we do not have. Once again, using the above recycling engine for Sneak Attack is a fun dream that will never happen.

---- GAMEPLAY ----

First, we want to mulligan for Steward of Gondor, Imladris Stargazer and Master of the Forge. Any draw and tutor is also good, an early Word of Command being very nice. Unexpected Courage is also desirable early. Keep in mind we have no tutor for allies so they should take priority. Luin Cultist can wait a little.

Attachments go as follows :

• Elena :

Bronze Bell + Wooden Lyre + Emissary of the East + 0-1 Unexpected Courage

• Pallando :

Blue Staff + Steward of Gondor + Strider + 2-3 Unexpected Courage + The One Ring + Inner Strength + Wizard Pipe + Love of Tales

• Bilbo Baggins : Hobbit Pipe

Engine allies priority is as follows :

Imladris Stargazer > Master of the Forge > Luin Cultist > Gléowine > Zigil Miner > Bilbo Baggins > Variag Recluse

In the early game, hunt aggressively for Steward of Gondor and focus on playing as much of the key allies as possible. Multiple Master of the Forge and Imladris Stargazer is good but not a priority. Try to play Gléowine as early as possible too. Use Word of Command carefully to pick the allies or combo pieces you are missing. Do not hesitate to delay some of them for an early Quickbeam or Treebeard if you need the breathing room.

Use Rods of the Five to get two uses out of the Blue Staff : you almost always want the resource, then decide if you need the threat reduction or the tutor. Timing spells for Pallando untap is important.

You should not need to quest during the first 3 turns at least (some scenarios will put pressure though, in which case Strider can help). Send Elena, Arwen Undómiel and Bilbo Baggins once you get them and tank the threat with Blue Staff and later on with Emissary of the East.

Use Imladris Stargazer and shuffling options aggressively to see as many cards as you can in order to efficiently find solutions. Sequencing and timing is everything, much more so than in a Vilya or Gandalf deck.

Use An Unexpected Party to grab Gléowine and Bilbo Baggins, but also Hey Dol! Merry Dol! and eventually more Song of Slumber (although you should prioritize finding them using Blue Staff). Once you have Bilbo Baggins and Hey Dol! Merry Dol!, hunt for Hobbit Pipe and Love of Tales using Master of the Forge for even more acceleration. Using Imladris Stargazer, Bilbo Baggins and Zigil Miner together, along with spells setup, is a nice puzzle !

Keep enemies in check by finding and using Song of Slumber without restraint until you can setup You Cannot Pass! with Zigil Miner to wipe them. Pallando with Inner Strength, Arwen Undómiel, Wooden Lyre and You Cannot Pass! can defend multiple times for up to 10 ! When the occasion presents itself, Word of Persuasion can do wonders and is usually a large tempo swing : remove one enemy and use it to block until it dies. You do not need a big expensive target, a small one is perfectly fine. Zigil Miner + double You Cannot Pass! can wipe any big guy easily. Just keep recycling Song of Slumber for extra safety. Bronze Bell can be used to help with the killing of multiple enemies but can also lower the cost of Word of Persuasion for tanky enemies in some rare cases !

Recycling your spells using Luin Cultist does not rely on the deck being empty, but rather making the deck thin enough so that you can reliably pick them back with Blue Staff : being down to 20-30 cards is already reliable enough given all the shuffling you can do.

Once you get Emissary of the East and then Variag Recluse, you can catch up with locations very fast. Be careful with travel effects though since we have no perfect solution for them.

Once you get 2-3 Luin Cultist in play, East-helper becomes your heavy duty engine :

• Tap 1 Luin Cultist to reduce cost
• Tap 1-2 Luin Cultist to recycle 2 spells
• Tap 0-1 Variag Recluse for progress
• Use East-helper to untap all 3
• Tap 1 Luin Cultist to recycle East-helper
• (...) It is not an infinite loop, but it is good enough and generates a lot of quest progress with Emissary of the East :)

East-helper is also very usefull to heal Pallando when needed or to reduce the cost of Luin Cultist and Variag Recluse in the early game.

---- CONCLUSION ----

This is deck is extremely fun to play even if it can fizzle sometimes when Steward of Gondor or Imladris Stargazer fail to show up early. We have ways to dig before them, but it is not exact science !

The deck is also quite challenging to play properly with a myriad of synergies and combos everywhere (even a few greedy ones) !

Thanks a lot if you read all this ! Cheers !