"And so,

From the ashes of this age of death of Caldara,

The Noldor recruits came to be known as

The Dredge dudes." -from an obscure Middle-Earth rock band

Caldara is dead. And she ain't kicking her dead friends back to life again... so, what's next?! Many may say Stand and Fight is the answer to an initial design without the compulsive recursion of Caldara but I just say "let's try other way..."

My way is the Dredge way. I like Dredge. I played Dredge in M:TG, I played Dredge in Android: Netrunner and I tried to play Dredge here. My first Dredge design was, of course, with Caldara. But most of the cards used in that deck were Ñoldor related so that's the way the Sea pointed me to sail on, sail on, sail on...

Erestor, this was the first piece of the puzzle. Once I've assembled the deck I've thought Beravor over this one but there were a few disparities I'll address further... Erestor provides me card draw, massive draw! And that's something I want to use as fuel for this deck. A Dredge deck needs cards in the graveyard to do things and puts cards in the graveyard pretty fast. Erestor condition forces me to put cards in the discard pile every turn so let's exploit that in our favour!

Círdan the Shipwright provides additional draw with a card in the discard. This will be usefull as you'll notice. But he also has great and will do some more tricks.

Arwen Undómiel is our resource accelerator and also discard enabler. She also quests well.

These three dudes are Ñoldor. Take notice.

There are two cards we want to exploit. The first is the must-have card in hand, the one to mulligan for, To the Sea, to the Sea!. This card is imperative to have in our first hand so we can start breaking the game. Other good card to have in our initial hand is Protector of Lórien. Both these cards will use cards in our hand as resources. The Sea is a must have, is the card that will put our strong allies in play since turn #1. The Protector is also a great card that can pump through our already strong but also provide bonus.

The Ñoldor ally base was poor. But this last pack gave us the Twins! Elladan and Elrohir act better in pair, also they are in the spheres we use. One can defend against low Strenght enemies and the other can pair for a good value. I have 3x each because they're not my initial targets and I want to see them in the mid-late game.

My first targets must be Galdor of the Havens or Glorfindel. Galdor just gives pure card advantage, turning the Círdan disadvantage into a 5-card-draw with selection. Profit. Still thinking about a 3rd copy to guarantee it first turns. Glorfindel ain't a priority but sure can have the initial hand-size bonus to make his appearence in turn #1. He can also appear from the discard pile as well.

I once used Treebeard as my go-to character but with the Twin and Glorfindel and some boosts we manage through combat pretty well.

Elven Jeweler has an in-built dredge effect costing cards to be put into play. Guardian of Rivendell is more costy but also a beefy defender. While the Jeweler can come into play any given turn the Guardian only appears when I really need more punch.

Lindir is an ace to play after all cards were discarded, providing +3 cards again to boost ProLórien or put a Jeweler into play (if drawn).

Imladris Caregiver is a tool to clean damage if I need to.

With this array of characters the deck quests well, won't suffer that much of location-clogging due to high value of and can make some good beats. To provide location assistance there's also Steed of Imladris, good card to use our fuel.

Tricks of the Trade,

Light of Valinor on Círdan. Círdan will be our main Questing character and also defender. He also will get ProLórien. With these two cards he can Quest as he likes and also defend. Nasty business.

Map of Earnil, this is our get-out-of-jail card. I'd rather spent 2 resources for this to come into play early than 1 for a Will of the West out of time. If attachment-discard is an issue provide other targets like Steed or Light of Valinor. You need to look at the discard pile and count the number of Maps and Wills to think when you want to trigger it for Will to not get decked.

Fair and Perilous is another trick. I'm strongly thinking on adding a 3rd copy but I can make use of the Maps with this too. It's a card that can provide a breakthrough some tuff enemies. Imagine discarding 2 cards for Círdan and playing this one, Círdan would have 8 alone. Nasty business. But also can pump your other guys too, like Glorfindel for 6 .

Lords of the Eldar is the card I use the least. You may think it's a core card in the deck but I manage to use my characters and other stuff to keep things as hand, but Lords of the Eldar can provide a breakthrough we need or to clean a problematic enemy.

Will of the West is pretty explanatory.

Elrond's Counsel because threat reduction for free is awesome. And +1 to too.

Card Draw,

Deep Knowledge is card draw for free. We can cover the Doom with the Counsel and two more cards can pay the cost of a Jeweler.

And last, Elven-light. This card is bananas! Is the shenanigan! The things I do with this card in this deck... insane! Pay one, draw it +1 card. Discard it for Arwen, +1 resource. Pay that resource, draw it +1 card. Use those cards for Sea, put a character into play. So many lines of play can be done with this card, from enabling Jewelers to fueling ProLórien and Sea... this is our main centerpiece.

Pro tip: always put it in hand before playing a Will of the West. That way you'll have it in the bin which is where you want that card.

Other considerations,

Silver Harp comes to mind. It would provide a false-discard. Problem: it's a win-more card and I don't need it. I know it would spare some cycles but I've never played through the whole deck 3 times, so... I'd rather spend those slots in other cards.

Unexpected Courage, another card I have a better replacement in place. Light of Valinor does the same thing for Círdan for 1 less resource. Also it would avoid exausted shenanigans.

The Evening Star, my first go-to location management. But with 1 Hero I found it pretty expensive and also dependent of copies in the bin. The Steed is way better for this deck.

For Sideboard I'd use more copies of other cards present in the deck. Fair and Perilous is a great card against enemy-spam.

I also have Gildor Inglorion in there. He's pretty beefy with 3 2 and a good defender. His abillity is really good but requires exaustion. I then replaced him for the twins and Deep Knowledge. That way I can attack and defend or quest and have card draw as well.

I did not included A Test of Will in my deck. I'm not finding any problems without it and I'm able to deal with all the Encounter deck throws at me. Also it's very difficult to play that card since we'll don't have it in hand by the end of the turn.

A word about Beravor, as I mentioned above I've considering using her instead of Erestor. And it doesn't work. The main trade here is the chance to have cards in hand from one turn to another (and this way A Test of Will had a place in this deck) for one less drawn card. But it's not only that... Erestor is a Ñoldor and can benefit from Light of Valinor (not the ideal target for it), Fair and Perilous but more important that that is the Lords of the Eldar bonus.

Also, Erestor can Quest after giving cards. The drawback is having to discard them. Beravor on the other hand has to exaust to give cards. If she was Ñoldor or Silvan I could stick Light of Valinor in her and go from there. Sure, I could use Elf-friend for it but the setup really worths it?! I think not. Also, it's one less card per turn. That do matter with the amount of things we can do with cards in hand and could be one card short from a Jeweler in play, for example. So Beravor as sexy as she looks is not worthing the trouble to save some cards from one turn to another when we can spend those cards well.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I've been playing this deck since I got the Ñoldor Trinity. It lacked punch initially and that's why I went for Treebeard. But even the good Ent wouldn't be enough to provide a good beating. Now, with the Twins and Fair and Perilous and the array of characters we have the deck can also beat up as well. The deck is really fun to play. You have an explosive first turn and try to manage the max you can do with all those cards. After that is just 5 new cards per turn (with Galdor of the Havens in play) and go from there. I had a hand of 9 cards once and it was not the first turn. That's how much cards this deck can generate, and trading them for resources is a must.

Let's just hope Caleb won't notice this one... and print some more cool Ñoldor allies to make this deck even more powerful.