Silvan Might

I've been wanting to build a dedicated Silvan deck for a while and with introduction of Thranduil in Fire in the Night I was finally able to do so. Used these decks to beat all quests in the Ered Mithrin cycle and it felt both fun, thematic and powerful. I'm certain these are neither the most powerful nor the most original Silvan decks around but I really enjoy enjoyed building and playing these. Enjoy!

The Voices deck carries most of the load here as it manages threat, pumps out allies and provides . All allies come into play boosted by Celeborn and do not exhaust to quest thanks to Galadriel. The many effects that bring allies back into your hand allow you to get them back out.

The Thorns deck is mostly there to provide firepower with a bit of healing and location control sprinkled in.

The two decks work very well together.

Questing Usually Celeborn and boosted- allies are enough to meet all your questing needs. In scenarios that dump a lot of to overcome right away - look for Nenya in your opening hand to lend Galdriel's mighty 4. Argalad can either quest regularly or use his ability to reduce enemy , potentially wounding them in the process. Secret Paths and Radagast's Cunning can be used in a pinch to remove a particularly troublesome location or enemy's .

Defense The decks do not start with a reliable powerful defender, but Thranduil can defend an attack or two. Aim to get Ancestral Armor and Armored Destrier on him quickly. Cloak of Lórien, Dúnedain Warning and Arwen Undómiel all can boost his further. Greenwood Defender can serve as a reliable secondary defender wearing Elven Mail, Hauberk of Mail and eventually the second Ancestral Armor. The deck also has many ways to avoid attacks altogether - Haldir of Lórien sniping enemies before they attack, Feigned Voices, Feint and The Wizards's Voice will all serve you well to minimize the risk. In case unpleasant Shadow effects do come through - Quicker Than Sight and Hasty Stroke are there to help you cancel the worst of it.

Attack Haldir of Lórien is your primary sniper with Legolas a solid second. There is plenty of elven weaponry in the Thorns deck to make sure your archers are deadly. Something to note is that most bows aren't as powerful when attacking enemies engaged with the player themselves, so try to get most dangerous foes engaged with the Voices deck. The Black Arrow is there for boss enemies or if you want to kill something quickly early in the game to outpace the encounter deck. I normally use Unexpected Courage on Haldir for him to be able to shoot a few times per round, or even to use his Willpower to help with questing now and again.

Economy: The decks are fairly cheap with lots of 0 and 1 cost cards. O Lórien! used on Voices deck ensures you can get these allies out for reduced cost and the Elf Guide (especially if used on Galion) is a good way to pitch in a key resource. Card draw is reliably boosted by Galadriel (if you don't need her to use Nenya's ability or can get an extra ready for her - perhaps through a timely play of Greenwood Archer). Overall these decks don't swim in money, but you don't feel like it's a major limitation.

Threat: Between low starting threat, Galdrien's ability and cards reducing threat (including the very handy Double Back) - threat is never too much of a problem here, even when you liberally use Doomed effects like The Wizards's Voice. In rare cases where you really want to not worry about threat - substitute Argalad for Aragorn to maintain the icon, get a bit more for a rare undefended attacks and have the ability to reset your threat. The sideboard also has additional cards to further enhance your ability to manage threat (The Galadhrim's Greeting, Elrond's Counsel), Island Amid Perils and Secret Vigil).

Healing: It is remarkable how effective of a healing engine Silvan Tracker is. The initial investment of 3 resources get you to pretty much never think about healing. Lembas is there to provide a burst of healing to your dedicated defender along with an extra ready. In my experience that's more than enough.

Location Control: Asfaloth and Arod allow you to reliably place on locations in the staging area, while Legolas' ability speeds up your exploration of the active locations. The Evening Star and Woodland Courier can help further get rid of bothersome locations.

Sideboard: The Voices sideboard has flavour cards like Hithlain or Mirkwood Long-knife that are great for the theme but might not be the most powerful option. Athelas and Power of Orthanc are great for getting rid of unwanted Conditions for adventures that need it. Self Preservation can help in cases where you need a lot of healing on your dedicated defender. Swap side quests in and out depending on how feasible they are in any given quest. In cases where you need just a tinge more healing and Willpower - use Glorfindel instead of Argalad/Aragorn (I had to use him in Fire in the Night).

Weaknesses There aren't a whole lot. The flimsy 1 for most of allies make these decks vulnerable to "deal damage to each character" or "distribute X damage to allies" effects, but "distribute X damage between characters" are ok and can be quickly recovered from thanks to board-wide healing from Silvan trackers. The decks are dependent on a fair amount of allies and attachments, so effects that target number of allies or discard attachments are dangerous and should be cancelled. The Voices allies become weaker after the first round so it's important to have ways to get them back into your hand and benefit from their "enter play" multiple times (particularly Galion).

Very pleased with these decks and welcome feedback on how the deck can be improved (within theme). Cheers!