Elves and their Stones 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This took me ages to test and refine. Most of the reason these notes are so long is that I used them to think "out loud" about what was essential and what wasn't. The deck is not super-reliable, but it works reasonably often, and it's a lot of fun when it works. It started out as an Elf-stone / A Very Good Tale deck, but now it's an Elf-stone / To the Sea, to the Sea! deck, with one Tale just for old times' sake.

The Erestor-Círdan the Shipwright combo is old news, but I haven't seen anyone pair them with Denethor yet. He gets me 2 resources at the start, and access to A Very Good Tale, Steward of Gondor, Captain's Wisdom, and others. I think this makes him more than a match for Arwen Undómiel's resource boost.

As with most of my favorite decks, there are a variety of pieces here, and you don't need all of them right away as long as you find something. You might not get To the Sea, to the Sea! at the start, but there's plenty you can do without it. There's only the one Elven-light, but that's too expensive early on anyway... and so on. You don't need to find all three Elf-stones right away, but if you can get one to work out soon, things get rolling pretty quickly.

Early Game: Surviving

Some cheap junk is here just to stay afloat in the first couple turns:

• Crams and Lembas of course. No Unexpected Courage, because it's harder to pay for, and if you end up needing it that badly then you aren't playing your allies right.
• Captain's Wisdom for Denethor or Círdan the Shipwright, and Legacy of Númenor. You definitely should NOT play all three Legacy of Númenor.
• Elrond's Counsel, for threat reduction and a little questing.
• Arwen Undómiel, who is cheap but not junk, for some quick questing and better defense.
• Ered Nimrais Prospectors make perfect chumps, because their response is all you care about and you want to play them again later. They also can feed extra resources with We Are Not Idle, especially green that can't come from Captain's Wisdom.
• Denethor blocks reasonably well for a turn or two, and the other heroes can block or attack for small amounts.

After two or three turns, strong allies and chumps should start handling all your combat, so that you aren't risking a hero when you block. There is no shadow management in this deck; the most common deaths seem to be bad shadows very early, or failing to quest enough and being overrun.

First Cycle

This is all about growing your allies cheaply and quickly, and grabbing whatever you can whenever you can. The things you want most are:

• Silver Harps, as soon as possible. These are absolutely essential for giving you any kind of choices as the game goes on.
• Elf-stones and expensive allies to go with them, which is what the deck is all about.
• Steward of Gondor and To the Sea, to the Sea! for Círdan the Shipwright.
• Galadriel, to help you look for all of the above.

On the other hand, there are some cards you don't care about at all in the first few turns.

• The Galadhrim's Greeting, which you almost certainly can't afford yet. Exception: if you've used more than one Legacy of Númenor to get set up, you probably can and must afford it.
• Gandalf, who might end up killing you by threat before you finish. Only at times of dire need will I play him so early.
• Galdor of the Havens and Gléowine, because at this stage you are usually drawing more cards than you can pay for anyway. Although, if they're convenient, it doesn't hurt to get them started.
• Firyal and Jubayr, you care about but may not be able to play. Don't get caught up in things you can't achieve yet.
• Truthfully, you can afford to lose any ally in the first round, as long as you lose some and gain others. I hate to see Arwen Undómiel go by, but nobody is strictly necessary.

End of Deck

With a little luck, you can use Ered Nimrais Prospector to line up a Will of the West on the turn that your deck is about to run out. This is also the ideal time to play A Very Good Tale, when you have only 5 to 8 cards in the deck. This deck doesn't have enough allies in it to risk a Tale most times, but if you can figure out who's left, you can make some pretty amazing things happen.

If you have enough blue resources, or cards for To the Sea, to the Sea!, it's nice to grab Glorfindel from the discard pile at this point. He makes questing, attacking, and triggering A Very Good Tale much easier. However, you should try to have Elven-light in your hand when you play Will of the West, to speed up the next cycle of the deck.

First or Second Cycle

The cards that are important, but not urgent. You can get them back into the deck with Ered Nimrais Prospector, and find them late in the first cycle almost guaranteed. You can Will of the West and work on them in the second cycle. Hopefully they won't be much later than that.

• Narya, because when you have all these great allies, you may as well use them twice.
• Gildor Inglorion can act like a third Harp by sending a card back into the deck, if he isn't busy questing or blocking. He also helps set up A Very Good Tale when the deck is almost empty. Still, other allies are sometimes more important, depending on game state.
• Treebeard is nice to have early-ish, so he can start earning resources. He's a strong blocker and attacker, and later he will be able to ready himself. Being able to play him with whatever resources are at hand makes this fairly easy.

At this point, Denethor is pretty much useless, since all he's good at is blocking. Use Captain's Wisdom on him mostly, then send his bonus to the Steward Cirdan, though you can still have Cirdan be Wise and Crammed.

I hope to have at least half of the allies in play before the first Will of the West. Which ones depends on what the quest is doing to you. Here's what they mostly help with, in order roughly of importance:

• QUESTING: Firyal, Gandalf, Arwen Undómiel, Faramir, Gildor Inglorion, Glorfindel.
• BLOCKING: Jubayr, Gandalf, Arwen Undómiel, Treebeard, Gildor Inglorion.
• ATTACKING: Glorfindel, Gandalf, Treebeard.
• READYING: Gandalf, Treebeard. (And of course anyone with Narya.)

Second or Third Cycle

Galdor of the Havens and Gléowine start to become useful around this point, because there are so few cards left that you're looking for. Many times, your starting hand for the turn won't have anything useful without their help. Daeron's Runes is also a big help here, especially if you can cycle Elven-light with it. We Are Not Idle is like a blank spot in the deck, immediately replacing itself with something useful. Galadriel rarely finds anything except recycled Crams, and Elf-stones you don't need, but it's still worth trying and she can quest or chump.

Endgame

By the fourth cycle, you've probably won already. Even if not, there's nothing left in your deck that you want. Captain's Wisdom, Legacy of Númenor, and A Very Good Tale are completely unnecessary. What you can do, however, is play 12 Cram and 4 Lembas in a single game, minus the ones Ered Nimrais Prospectors discarded, plus the ones they shuffle back in. You also get to play approximately 12 A Test of Will, 12 Elrond's Counsel, and 4 The Galadhrim's Greeting, if the game lasts long enough, which should keep you going for a very long time.

How Do I Block? (A Lengthy Story)

The original deck had one or two Erebor Guards, aka The Poor Man's Jubayr. The major drawback was that it usually couldn't be played Turn 1, since there was only one Legacy of Númenor in that edition. It was great if I drew it later, because the discards are meaningless, and for 2 resources I get a 4-cost ally to use for Tales. Ultimately, drawing it Turn 1 and then losing it left me too vulnerable too often.

Dwarven Sellswords were a fairly good alternative, since they have the same defense and HP, and also can quest if I'm stuck on an Elf-stone. The problem there is that they're useless for Tales, and pretty quickly Denethor has no resources.

After I added To the Sea, to the Sea!, I then thought of Galadriel and found that she fixes all the problems. Denethor plays her Turn 1, no matter what else I've drawn, and then she can quest or chump. Three copies was noticeably too many, and two has been pretty good.

Other possible blockers shown in the sideboard:

• I didn't think of Háma at first, and he fits the plan of strong named allies. His 3 cost makes him even harder to play than Erebor Guard, and only somewhat good for A Very Good Tale. The advantage there is that exhausting him for it has no drawback, since he readies when needed.
• I removed Gimli to make room. I like him, but I just wasn't using his ability very much, and often having trouble paying for him.
• With three Ered Nimrais Prospector, adding enough Dwarven Sellswords and/or Erebor Guards could make Dwalin worth adding. But, given the random nature of this deck's draw, probably not.
• Prince Imrahil was an an interesting thought, so that I can lose a hero to bad luck and still limp to the finish line. He can also get Denethor's bonus right away, built-in.
• Eldahir is okay, but I'd rather have the cheaper Erebor Guard. Déorwine (wrong color) or Jubayr actually discard shadows, rather than just find out about them.
• Northern Tracker has the same defense as Erebor Guard, and other benefits too.

The Rest of the Sideboard

As usual, here's one Power of Orthanc for actual sideboarding. Also, here's a Fortune or Fate for some shenanigans on specific quests. Some other things that I only tested out briefly...

• Warden of Healing and/or Dúnedain Remedy, to replace or complement Lembas. This deck hopes to start blocking with allies pretty quickly, and doesn't need much healing.
• Heir of Mardil is a cheap Courage that Denethor's action can trigger whenever it's needed. I've found that even that is unnecessary, when you have all these allies around.
• Sneak Attack and Gandalf, which was an interesting idea but mostly just got in the way. You end up drawing cards during questing or combat, when you can't play them anymore, and discarding them to Erestor. Sometimes you draw the wrong Gandalf first, and have to Sneak Attack him just to have enough blockers, which is terribly inefficient. And then you play him, and the other Gandalves become dead weight. It was tempting, but I got rid of it.
• Elrond is an alternative to Power of Orthanc. He's flexible, but hard to pay for, and is much better in a Sneak Attack deck.
• Lindir was an interesting thought, once I had To the Sea, to the Sea!, but he's just not useful enough here.

And finally, some other combos, ranging from common to ridiculously absurd, that I tried and discarded. These turned out to be so useless that I don't even want them cluttering up my sideboard anymore.

• Dwarf Pipe cycles a card back in from A Very Good Tale or Ered Nimrais Prospector. Bilbo Baggins can search the deck for it. As an afterthought, Hobbit Pipe draws a few extra cards. (As a further afterthought, Smoke Rings instead of The Galadhrim's Greeting, which was just too cumbersome. I can't recommend it.)
  The pipe needs Gimli or Erebor Guard in play first, or Ered Nimrais Prospector if you're really desperate. It was such minimal help, I found it better just to rely on Ered Nimrais Prospector and Will of the West.
• Likewise, Dwarven Tomb just to be absolutely sure of the Will of the West, and to have A Test of Will ready more often. Turns out I really don't need it.
• On that subject, Galadhrim Weaver as a cheap extra Ered Nimrais Prospector. Sometimes the timing works out just right, but that's even harder in an Erestor deck than otherwise.
• Absurd numbers of Elven Jewelers and Erebor Guards. Turns out I don't need cheap useless allies clogging the pipeline.
• Likewise, three Galadhrim Minstrel for dragging events out of the deck, thinning it for A Very Good Tale. It's hard to afford 2 green early, and other choices for green have proved to be better. When I don't have anything to do and want to draw more cards, I want to do so for free, so that I might be able to use what I find.
• Children of the Sea is a fun combo with Elven Jeweler or Elrond or Lindir, and Lords of the Eldar combos with a bunch of these characters. Interesting, but not fast enough, and rarely present in hand when needed.
• Rod of the Steward, back when I hadn't balanced my resource gain with spending. It was okay in the very late game, by which point it was irrelevant.
• Ranger Summons amused me as a replacement for Dwarven Sellsword, but I forgot it needs a Dunedain hero to play it.