Silvans for two players

very strong fellowship. i think it can do anything except fortress of nurn and perhaps get some issues in the desert (some of the harad-cycle) i am not sure if each 3 Host of Galadhrim are needed, i would (because Sneak Attack is allready there ) replace 2 of them with the good old Gandalf. if you are capable of using 2 or 3 Host of Galadhrim it might be winmore.

Ah! I am happy that the fellowship gets some attention finally. : )

The Celeborn deck needs all three Host of Galadhrim for sure. The card is insanly strong in that deck, because it triggers not only the ally abilities and Celeborn, but also the effect of Galadriel. You often play it early with only a few allies, because it is that good. The original version used only two copies but I played it wrong. I shuffles the event directly back with the effect of a re-played Galadhrim Weaver. After getting it right I quickly realized that a third copy is required to increase the availability of the card and the stability of the deck. Sometimes you play it more than three times, but it is mainly about having it available when you need it. Also, I tried Gandalf and the deck can simply not afford to play him without Sneak Attack making it a dead card without the event. Gandalf is not good enough to replace the Host of Galadhrim here.

However, I must admin based on these experience I didn't even try in the Thranduil deck. The arguments doesn't really count here. It has more resources allowing to play Gandalf from hand and it does not rely on playing allies during planning that much. Additionally, while Celeborn has multiple options to start really hot (e.g., Galion + The Tree People), Thranduil lacks of this option. Gandalf + Sneak Attack would create an equal kick-start for him. Probably, it is worth a try if it doesn't bother you to play a non-Silvan ally. :)

@ playing a non-silvan-ally: you left the path of "pure" race/theme long before with including the The One Ring ;)

overall, i think, with Beravor for Argalad or Haldir of Lórien it would fasten the whole thing a little bit up (my favoured silvancombo was celeborn, beravor, arwen for solo and mixed up with galadriel, thranduil and a lore-hero ) sadly there is no silvan-synergy with the silvan-heroes (except unique The Elvenking ) so the lore-position does not need to be silvan.

I am perfectly fine with my race theme, because I am playing in an alternative timeline. Aragorn died long ago and instead Arwen married Legolas. They went to the Shire on their honeymoon and discovered the secret of the ring. Because of Arwen was still bothering herself to struggle in earning the love of Legolas' father and her father already had a magic ring, they took the one ring and brought it to Thranduil. He was happy, because now he had a powerful magic ring as well. But then Galadriel mislaid her ring and she asked Thranduil for help to search for it. Unfortunately, the decks tell the sad story, because Nenya is not in the loot deck and they never found Nenya again (except for of course you have mercy and replace one of the items by Nenya). :D

And there is a VERY important synergy with the Silvan characters. It is the Silvan Tracker. Most of the allies cannot take any damage, so direct damage will often go to the Heros. It already hurts, that Galadriel and Arwen Undómiel do not heal from them. But it is really important hat you can heal two of your Heros by the Silvan Tracker!

in my games i mostly not use the tracker. the direct dmg is not so much that it kills a hero if you share it between all 3/6.

but i nearly never defend with heroes playing silvans, either use Feigned Voices or chump or use a sneaked Gandalf (with more cards from Beravor it is less a problem)

your timeline? not my cup of tea, but whatever makes you happy and it was a joke. to make best decks and fellowships that should make carn dum, use everything the game offer you.

Of course I was joking too with the timeline. I could not make it work without The One Ring. There are many adventurers punishing you hard for defending with allies (e.g., Deal one damage to the defending character) and many direct damage dealers (e.g., condition to the current adventure, deal one damage to a character after you draw a card).

Of course Beravor is a much better Hero than Argalad, but I don't think you can handle an adventure like the weather hills without effective Hero healing in a two-player game where both players mainly rely on Silvan allies. Don't forget, that only one can play Galion or O Lórien!. You must share your strength.

if i remember correctly, in my games Gandalf often gladly take dmg if needed. that helps and Legolas, Rúmil or Orophin are around sometimes to take 1 or 2.

first i thought highly of that Silvan Tracker but lately mostly only take 1 or 2 and consider the Galadhrim Minstrel more imprtant.

and btw, both can play Galion, you have to time it well, so only 1 is in play at the same time. but both can do a The Tree People with him and only one (the second player) keep him afterwards in play.

You can play Galion in both decks. I tried it. It is horrible. I run twice in a row into the situation, where the Thranduil deck couldn't bounce him back him for one or two rounds and the other deck had to bounce back 1-cost-characters with Galion in hand. Costed me the resource, that was then missing for a A Test of Will. I don't recommend that.

And for me it feels like you have played a lot of Silvan solo. But this is not what this fellowship is about. It is about two Silvan decks. Your strategy will do well on most quests including really hard ones. The strength of the Silvan archetype is that the deck develop much faster than the quest deck. As long as the encounter cannot remove most of your allies at once, there is nothing that can stop you. And more draw means even more development.

But their biggest weakness are all the 1 allies. When a quest includes direct damage and you are out of damage slots, your allies die like flies. "Each player deals one damage for each character [+random condition]". You can survive one of them with your Heros, but the second one will wipe out out both boards. That is the real issue.

Last week I played the Dunland trap and the trackers healed more than 20 from effects, that were basically not avoidable because you have to discard your complete hand every other round including your Test of Will. Galadhrim Minstrel could not have handled that.

A single Silvan Tracker with four Silvan Heros heals five damage every round. With an additional Silvan Tracker you heal already up to 12 damage every round. This is about compensation for their weakness over focusing even more on their strength. It is about increasing stability.