The Elves are Going to War

This Fellowship was born from a desire to elevate the Silvan archetype in a manner that could be competitive against the upper-echelon of challenging quests without making too many concessions at the expense of theme. This required going two-handed, partially to maximize the martial prowess of Silvan archers and partially to allow for all of the Silvan tools and tricks to be included in an optimized fashion, but I'm very pleased with the end result. Apart from Mithrandir, all heroes and allies from the combat deck hail from the woods of Lothlorien or Mirkwood, and the questing deck merely supplements this with the addition of a few inhabitants of Rivendell (Elrond, Arwen Undómiel, and Glorfindel).

While clearly unable to match the sheer power of top level decks, these Elves have successfully completed the entirety of the Angmar Awakened cycle (including Card Dum twice!) and the ALeP Oaths of the Rohirrim cycle, plus a smattering of other difficult quests (Return to Mirkwood, Battle of Five Armies, The Morgul Vale, The Three Trials, The River Running, etc.). In fact, this has become my go-to fellowship for "rage-questing" to break losing streaks :). In addition, these decks bring enough variety of options and decision points that each playthrough still feels fresh and enjoyable. Hopefully, you will find them as fun to pilot as I have!

Elves of the Woods

Hero Lineup

• Celeborn is self-explanatory in any Silvan build. He will be almost exclusively questing and providing his enters play boost.

• (MotK) Legolas is the key to this deck's success because he immediately solves the problem of card draw that plagues most / builds. Once he is equipped with a Bow of the Galadhrim and/or Rivendell Blade, he can mow down enemies across the table. As a result, this deck practically never lacks for cards to play.

• Thranduil remains my favorite hero in the game, mainly because he allows you to wait until the combat phase to decide which Silvan ally you need to drop into play. Short on defense on your side of the board? Bring in Greenwood Defender! Need to bail out the questing deck from an attack? Summon the Defender of the Naith! Need more attack power? The options are almost endless. And in doing so, Thranduil provides a near-constant source of resource smoothing, which will keep this deck running efficiently. As the game goes on, you can even give him whatever combination of Ancestral Armor, Armored Destrier, Elven Mail, and/or Round Shield show up first to turn him into a decent late game defense option.

Another advantage of starting with two heroes is first turn access to Naith Guide (or to O Lórien! and then Naith Guide), as well as first turn access to Steward of Gondor in quests that call for pure power (looking at you, Carn Dum).

Questing

Aside from Celeborn's 3 , this deck is not going to shoulder much of the load in willpower questing. However, between Naith Guide, Orophin, Hands Upon the Bow, and the trusty Sneak Attack/Gandalf combo, there are plenty of ways to provide support to the questing deck.

However, one of the hidden strengths of this deck is the ability to handle Battle questing quite well. This proved key in dealing with the Accursed Battlefield against Carn Dum, and allows for success in the Against the Shadow cycle.

Defense

Thranduil does a decent job of holding down the fort in the early game, but between Feigned Voices and Feint, you should have plenty of tools to deal with the nastiest enemies. For anything that is immune to player cards, you may find yourself having to chump, but the good news is that you can usually muster up enough raw to take out the enemies that engage with you during the same round. Defender of the Naith provides sentinel support across the table, and eventually Thranduil should gain sentinel from either Elven Mail or from the ability of Arwen Undómiel from the questing deck.

Attack

The plethora of ranged characters allows you to pepper any foe with arrows and to lend your martial prowess wherever it is most needed. Between (MotK) Legolas and Haldir of Lórien on the other side of the table, you have the ability to bring at minimum 6 to bear upon any enemy from turn 1 (9 in Angmar quests with Amarthiul ally!). Once Legolas is armed up, he can use Hands Upon the Bow and Goblin-cleaver to great effect. For tougher enemies, there's always Gandalf or a late game Rúmil bomb. Rivendell Bow is for Glorfindel in the other deck for even more ranged options.

Resources

I prefer relying upon a combination of O Lórien!, Tighten Our Belts, and Thranduil's smoothing ability to avoid just defaulting to Steward of Gondor. However, I unashamedly swapped in Steward of Gondor for Carn Dum :).

Miscellaneous Strategy

Since you start off with a source of card draw and solid attack powe, look for some combination of a weapon, attack cancellation, and Naith Guide in your opening hand. Questing will be slowest during the first few rounds, so the more enemies you can engage and dispatch, the better you can keep tempo with the encounter deck (and the more cards you can draw). Try to time Tighten Our Belts strategically to get the full three resources.

Spirit of the Eldar Days

Hero Lineup

• Glorfindel is his usual, powerful self. He gets Light of Valinor and Asfaloth, and can even attack across the board with a Rivendell Bow from the archery deck.

• Haldir of Lórien plays several crucial roles, not least of which is providing instant access to for those quests when Nenya doesn't want to show up. He also combines with (MotK) Legolas from the archery deck to bring 6 to bear on turn 1, which is often sufficient to take out an early enemy and maintain tempo. Once he is powered up with Bow of the Galadhrim from across the table, he can put his sniping ability to good use as well.

• Galadriel does what she does, controlling threat, providing card draw, and giving allies a free first turn of questing. After Nenya shows up, she is typically my first target for Unexpected Courage to allow full usage of her potential.

Questing

At a cool 23 starting threat, I've found that you can afford to quest with Glorfindel from the beginning, even if you haven't found Light of Valinor yet. Nenya is the most critical piece for early questing (you can provide 7 once you have it), but if it tarries you still have plenty of Silvan allies that can pick up the slack (all boosted by Celeborn across the table). You may not be bringing obscene levels of to the quest each round, but 3 copies of Host of Galadhrim allows for huge strategic pushes at the right moment (time these carefully!). Between Asfaloth, Lórien Guide, and Woodland Courier, locations are rarely an issue, and so I've never felt a strong need to include Hithlain or Thrór's Key.

Defense

Hopefully, you are not having to engage too many enemies, though the archery deck can assist with Defender of the Naith and Thranduil (once he gains sentinel). Arwen Undómiel provides further support to this as well. In general, you should have a consistent stream of chump blockers thanks to Galadriel's ability to allow allies to quest w/out exhausting. In a pinch, Elrond or Silvan Tracker can defend and potentially survive (and Glorfindel has a large enough pool of hit points to take an undefended strike).

The real contribution of this deck to the common defense is the support of healing (Silvan Tracker and Galadhrim Healer) and shadow cancellation (Quicker Than Sight. This may not always be flashy, but it is a critical cog in the machine of the combat deck. Mainly for this reason, I am usually happiest to see a Silvan Tracker pulled out with The Tree People.

Attack

Aside from Haldir of Lórien, this deck is not going to blow anyone away with its attack power, but it can do more than enough to complement all the ranged characters across the table. Add in Glorfindel's base 3 , and you have a solid fellowship.

Resources

The only resource acceleration is The Tree People, but you should be taking advantage of O Lórien! and Tighten Our Belts from the other deck. I really enjoy the decision points that come with this, including the decision on whether to spend it all or to leave 1 resource for A Test of Will (or to enable Host of Galadhrim on the next turn).

Miscellaneous Strategy

Nenya is the main card you want to see early, followed by questing allies and The Tree People, and of course Light of Valinor. Try to time your Galadhrim Weavers to recycle your key cards (A Test of Will, The Tree People, Quicker Than Sight, Host of Galadhrim). The main goal is to build up a board of at least 3-4 Silvan allies and then to drop Host of Galadhrim for a big push. The archery deck should be grabbing most enemies, but it is usually wise to keep at least one ally unexhausted to block unexpected attacks.

Final Thoughts

While these decks doesn't always quest well right out of the gate, with the Wood-Elves keeping combat locked down, the questers can catch up in a hurry and drop large amounts of when needed. Most of all, they are just a lot of fun to play and provide plenty of chances to make meaningful decisions about how to handle a given round of questing and/or combat.