The Mirror's Gaze 4.0

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"What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, things that are and things that yet may be." - Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring

This pure questing deck is an old standby of mine that has remained in my repertoire as a powerful deck and has made it through so many quests. As long as it is supported by at least a good combat deck, it handles questing and associated tasks exceptionally well. Not only can it provide high willpower, but it also contains hefty location control, healing, threat reduction, and can consistently recur A Test of Will or Hasty Stroke.

Opening Hand

Of course, a hand that has some decent allies to play is a must. There are plenty in this deck that provide high willpower or other benefits, Ethir Swordsman, Pelargir Shipwright, Galadriel's Handmaiden, and Northern Tracker to name a few. Aside from that, either Elven-light (to enhance the card draw) or Silver Harp (to gain a resource from Arwen Undómiel's ability) can help accelerate the deck a bit. Last but not least, A Test of Will is an important piece of this deck and it is good security to start the game with a copy in hand.

Gameplay

The Heroes

This deck quests and doesn't really do its own combat, Arwen Undómiel and Éowyn will quest each round and Galadriel will usually be exhausted for her threat reduction and card draw action. Discarding a card with Arwen's action can sometimes enable a card to be afforded sooner and pairs with Elven-light for an essentially free card draw. Éowyn's action will hopefully not have to be used often but can be useful in certain cases of course. Galadriel is generally the one who ends up with the attachments, specifically Nenya and Mirror of Galadriel. Nenya grants access to so the deck's few cards are playable. Mirror of Galadriel combos with Silver Harp to allow a 10-card deck search every round, highly useful for digging for certain cards.

Early, Mid, and Late Game

The early game is mostly marked by expanding the willpower output and getting some location control in place. The heroes start with 7 , which will soon increase as more allies are played. It's not unusual to start off questing for 9-10 in the 1st round. Northern Tracker and Rhovanion Outrider will usually keep the locations from walling the players, but Thrór's Key works as a surgical tool against the absolute worst of locations.

The mid game is often when the mirror and harp combo is in place and the card draw has thinned the deck to the point that the Test of Will recursion becomes increasingly viable. A Test of Will and maybe Hasty Stroke are often lifesaving events for the whole team at the table, and this deck has ways to play them far more than the typical deck. Dwarven Tomb readily fetches one back for future use. Galadhrim Weaver can shuffle A Test of Will right back in the deck for it be drawn later or fetched by the mirror and harp combo (so long as you play her right after using A Test of Will). And if that's not enough, Will of the West shuffles the whole discard pile back in the deck, A Test of Will, Dwarven Tomb and all, so that it can all be drawn later for even more cancellation.

The priorities of the late game will vary depending on the game state. Are there more nasty treacheries likely to come? Get ready to recur A Test of Will, maybe play Will of the West. Are the other players inching closer to threating out? Then solve that with Double Back or The Galadhrim's Greeting. Whether it's cancellation, threat reduction, or healing, this deck can keep giving it since Will of the West restocks the deck to weather the long game.

Tricks and Tips

• Card draw is central to the deck's functioning. You may be tempted to share Galadriel with the other players, but the thinner this deck gets, the sooner you will see A Test of Will reappear after it is shuffled in.
• It helps to carefully read the game state so that you know which of the several options you should spend your precious resources on. Then you know whether to prioritize playing a questing ally, location control, threat reduction, or recursion.
• I tend to only play Will of the West when the discard pile has all 3 Test of Wills and some of my other recursion cards are in there too. Better to save it for when it will recycle a hefty amount of the cancellation/recursion system.
• It may not matter often, but since Galadriel enables allies to quest without exhausting the round they enter play, you sometimes can defend a weaker stray enemy if you have to, and hopefully not lose the ally to a chump block.
• Don't ignore the sideboard, some quests make side quests nearly worthless and others render Súlien a decent replacement for Northern Tracker.

Success

I played this deck through the Dream-Chaser cycle, The Haradrim cycle, and some of the Ered Mithrin cycle along with some other normal and nightmare quests. It tends to be a strong contributor to victory with all the things it can do for the team. The ability to keep cancelling the worst treacheries at least 90% of the time is very powerful. As long as it is protected by a combat deck, it often gets the group through the scenario while dodging the worst of it. I'd say this is simply one of my best decks.

Note: This is a reposting of the deck since it had a few changes. Greyflood Wanderer was switched with Rhovanion Outrider due to the seeming increase in locations that resist sweeping progress placement. The sideboard was also updated, but it is the same deck other than that.