Rossiel's Revenge 1.0

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Rossiel, a pupil of Lady Galadriel herself, who took her sister's name after she was murdered by Mirkwood spiders, wandered far and wide beyond the boundaries of Lothlorien for a means to make a difference in the long standing battle against the threat of Mordor. She wandered to Fangorn and told Treebeard her story, and afterward an Entmoot commenced, whereupon a group of roused Ents agreed to join her and a handful of Silvan elves to journey into the heart of the dark lands beyond...

I created this deck after suffering mightily at the hands of the Battle of Carn Dum--my usual Silvan decks were defeated again and again by that very difficult scenario. I'm not much of a power player but more a thematic player so I refused to just slam it with a power deck (with Steward of Gondor in it, for example--I really don't like that card). I wanted to beat it with a theme deck. This is the one that did it. It is strong, if not top tier, but I just love the theme and story of it. Here's how to use it:

I realized while fine tuning this deck that a lot of songs weren't really necessary. The cards tended to naturally split into what I needed. resources generally flowed into Ents and the occasional Boomed and Trumpeted, and the resources went to everything else. A Good Harvest helped out when needed and of course resource origin is no concern for Gandalf and Keen as Lances.

You might wonder why I included Out of the Wild even though this is not a secrecy deck. Thing is, the card is so good with Rossiel it's worth it even at full cost. Play it once and use it on a location or enemy to 1) buff Rossiel for will or defense, whichever you need, 2) make Keen as Lances much cheaper 3) get rid of a pesky high threat card if possible and 4) reshuffle the encounter deck--sometimes it matters, like in the Dread Realm with those Cursed Dead that resurrect themselves out of the Encounter discard pile. The other Encounter deck crippling cards are there just to let Rossiel do her thing. And the combination of this with the Ents was surprisingly effective, provided you are patient and wait for the opportune moment to use them. This takes a little practice but it's fun, and of course Henamarth Riversong is very helpful here. As always, wait to use his ability until the end of the turn so he is available for other things (like being a chump defender--with 3 copies he's sure to come back later).

You will almost always need to use the Threat mitigation options with Gandalf and Keen as Lances to stay in the game because of the high starting threat--but it's ok because the Ents in particular are so strong they can usually handle early Encounter deck shenanigans.

Most often you will want to put Self Preservation on Quickbeam first, then on Treebeard, and this greatly enhances the versatility and power of the big guys. Put Lembas bread on Rossiel to give her some well timed double duty and healing simultaneously, and Ent Draught is good for everyone present. It's excellent with Rossiel especially, allowing her to take undefended attacks from weak enemies so she can quest or defend against bigger ones. Obviously once you get the victory display going, she can defend like a beast, augmenting the considerable defensive power of your Derndingle Warriors.

Keep a little damage spread out across your Ents if you can--this makes your Booming Ents extremely effective attackers. Wellinghall Preservers are amazing at questing and extra healing for your big guys (usually), though healing your Derndingle Warriors works very well to keep super strong defenders around for a long time or to keep Beechbone hovering around 2-3 damage on him (4-5 if he has Ent Draught) and he becomes a savage attacker.

Questing is aided by well-timed use of a small amount of Secret Paths, the odd Radagast's Cunning and Explore Secret Ways, but usually questing is handled nicely by Wellinghall Preservers, Wandering Ents, and if need be Rossiel. Treebeard is very handy for questing in a pinch, since he can push through by wounding himself for additional --that technique saved my butt more than once. And of course you can quest with Quickbeam if you really just need to press hard on, using his ability to ready him for smashing stuff.

For multiplay, Henamarth Riversong is not nearly as powerful and you may want to substitute Haldir of Lórien or a Daughter of the Nimrodel. If have mixed feelings about Leaflock. I like the card and the artwork, but I feel he isn't quite as powerful as he should be given his cost. A Wellinghall Preserver costs the same and has a constant 3 rather than variable, and it heals every round, which Leaflock can't do. So unless you have a lot of damaged Ents, he's not worth it. I actually think they should have put the maximum at +5 , or maybe given him an additional hp or something. But anyway. Cloak of Lórien is very effective on Rossiel, but most of the time it's just overkill, especially with Ent Draught around. But it's thematic and gives her a potential defense of 5, so I put it on the side board.

Overall the deck is fun, pretty strong, faster than you might think, and it still has some strategy too (unlike, say a typical dwarf-swarm deck which kind of just plays itself). Whereas you always want to play Entmoot and Daeron's Runes, and you will almost always use Wellinghall Preservers for questing, Derndingle Warriors for defending and Booming Ents for attacking, the rest of the cards are about strategy and timing (after all you don't want to be hasty). You usually have options--quest with Treebeard or Quickbeam? Play a victory display card, or plant more Ents? Play Gandalf or save resources? Play Keen as Lances now or wait until it becomes cheaper? Buff Rossiel with Out of the Wild or wait? Hang on to Secret Paths and Radagast's Cunning or play them now and push through? In solo play, Henamarth Riversong makes these choices even more interesting and powerful.