Advise Me, O Mithrandir 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This deck is based on two combos: Ioreth with Sword-thain and Henamarth Riversong with The Tree People. These combos “generate” resources along with Gríma and Keys of Orthanc, allowing the normally costly cards in the deck to be paid for more easily.

Before I start explaining the deck, I should mention that it is not intended for solo play. Despite the Doomed, the deck works better the more players are added to the game, especially if one is a “real” Silvan deck. The deck simply gets off to too slow a start in solo to function well against most quests.

The first combo, Ioreth + Sword-thain, should be the target of your mulligan. Obviously, getting both pieces is unlikely; however, one of the two with a decent bit of FREE card draw is still good. If you have both pieces in your hand after using your card draw, you can play them both (using Gríma on Sword-thain) on the first turn, giving you an extra hero immediately. Unfortunately, you can’t use Mithrandir's Advice and still be able to play the combo turn one, but it’s probably best saved until after you have the extra hero since you’ll get one more card. (Same logic applies to Scroll of Isildur).

The second combo relies heavily on The Tree People for its success. Essentially, you aim to get a “better” (aka more expensive) Silvan out of it than the one you pulled back to your hand. Henamarth works best, as he (she? It? I never can tell with Elves) is the cheapest of your Silvans, but Galadhrim Minstrel works well, especially since she can fetch Tree People or another card draw event. Using Tree People once or twice a turn can get you a lot of Silvans pretty quickly, especially with Scroll of Isildur for recursion.

So at this point, I felt great about myself and my discovery until I played the deck and ran into 3 problems:

1. Tree People is once per phase, so I can’t jerk Henamarth back and forth to dump 6 Silvans on the board;

2. I kept drawing my expensive Silvans (that card draw is a two-edged sword) and

3. I ran out of my deck quickly.

To fix problem one, I simply had to remember my action windows during questing/combat better so as to know when to use Scroll of Isildur, and also not be afraid to pull back Minstrels if I had to. Problem two was solved with Dunedain Lookout and Dúnedain Pipe, allowing me to put Silvans on the bottom of the deck, “recycling” them. Problem three was a symptom of problem 2 to some extent, but I threw in Song of Travel with some Will of the Wests in case I needed to reshuffle. In most cases, this was done before the deck was actually empty, allowing me to play more card draw events or get back a lost ally.

The rest of the deck is just Silvan allies and card draw. Mithrandir’s Advice is bonkers with 4 heroes, as is Scroll of Isildur (free event!). I think it goes without saying that Keys of Orthanc should be an early play, as it grants even more resources when you use Grima. The only other thing to mention is that running this alongside a dedicated Silvan deck (I’m thinking Celeborn/Galadriel/Bifur lineups) helps to boost your allies and provides boardwide archery protection (Silvan Tracker).

Enjoy the deck!