Saga Fellowship with Cirdan

Pair of decks designed to be effective against most quests without much tweaking. There's no big story behind it - Spirit is supposed to provide questing, Tactics/Lore kills things. Current state of the decks is a product of an ongoing evolution. Tactics/lore derives straight from monotactics ranged-focused decks which were fun to play, but seriously lacked card draw and resource acceleration. Sacrificing hero Legolas for Mablung helped with the latter and Lore splash eased the pain of the former, allowing also to move healing cards from the other side of the table. That last move triggered switch from trisphere questing deck to current monosphere, which is now great at questing and threat reduction while doing just fine in card draw department and almost acceptable with resource acceleration, which leads to quite obvious conclusion that sphere bleed and spirit overpoweredness went a little too far. Very first iteration of spirit deck contained Glorfindel and Eowyn, two heroes I grew really tired of. Fortunately, recent additions of Cirdan and Arwen allowed me to ditch the good old ones, splashing leadership in the process. This splash is a bit tricky and quite expensive to achieve, but when it finally triggers, there's not much encounter deck can do to stop the willpower train led by Faramir. Narya in combination with Glorfindel and Northern Trackers makes this deck viable in quests that include deck separation (Fog on the Barrow-downs, Foundations of Stone, Breaking of the Fellowship). Nenya provides much needed willpower on-demand in early stages. 1 HP allies are prone to ally hate, so it's wise to save one resource for A Test of Will until more bulky guys appear on the table. Card draw in games with starting hand that consists of Elven Light might lead to empty deck around round 11 in some longer scenarios. Beregond is primary recipient of Unexpected Courage. Arwen is great hero for many reasons, but one I'd like to highlight is that she doesn't need any setup to be efficient - she just sits there, quests and quietly churns out money. That makes her similar to Mablung on the other side of the table, who is the epitome of boring usefulness in my opinion. While his pals flex their muscles, kill and block hordes of enemies, he's down there for them to earn for their shiny toys and events. 2/2/2/4 stats sometimes are described as "waisted", but Mablung can really make use of all his points depending on the table situation. He's also primary target for any nasty Condition attachments, since I can (barely) survive a round or two until Power of Orthanc arrives. Great hero. Haldir gives access to lore and that alone makes him my favourite serial killer of the game, because card draw is the king, as we all know. He's compatible with easily the best armoury in the game, which leads to obvious choice of ally sidekicks and Gondor guys rioting in the streets in demand of anything resembling a sword. Legolas and Marksmen of Lorien might seem like a pricey overlap in conjunction with Haldir, but hey, who doesn't like to kill them all quickly? (Besides Fornost Bowman, of course). Bofur is the relict of mono-tactics setup, but his versatility keeps him around. On the other hand, Azain Silverbeard is the fresh addition which I'm not entirely convinced of. Hands Upon The Bow is a card often overlooked in my opinion. They might contradict with Mablung's ability at first glance, but usually encounter dec provides enough enemies for everyone and HUTB with so many mighty ranged characters are of great help against quests like Into The Pit or Breaking Of The Fellowship. It's also a part of quite spectacular combo action with Haldir, a weapon, carefully placed Secret Vigil and Foe-Hammer; I love to play it as a quest action, since it can really turn the table. On defensive side, Burning-branded Beregond seals the deal. He's a primary target for every readying effect; getting him ABB is priority, so mulliganing for one of ingredients and getting the second by any means (Deep Knowledge, Gather Information) is strongly suggested. Derndingle Warriors pose as perfect emergency valves in case this plan fails.