This deck takes advantage of some new cards and some unreleased spoiled cards to try a new secrecy deck type. Using Galadriel to keep me in secrecy the whole time, I can avoid most enemy engagements, which allows me to use ranger tricks to deal with enemies before they engage.
The Deck
Still early testing, but here's my deck:
Heroes
(20 Threat)
Galadriel
Glorfindel (Spirit)
Pippin (Lore) [very helpful for Secrecy decks; raises engagement costs and gives card draw when you engage]
Allies
(21)
2x Arwen [good quester and helps with the low defense in this deck]
3x Ethir Swordman [great quester]
2x Imladris Stargazer [helps optimize the amazing card draw]
3x Westfold Horse-Breaker [could maybe be replaced]
1x Anborn [if I can get him out, he can really help against enemy-heavy quests]
2x Henamarth Riversong [REALLY helps plan the turns out, also great with Ithilien Lookout and traps]
2x Ithilien Lookout [combo with Henamarth]
2x Ithilien Tracker [combo with Henamarth]
2x Gleowine [might be overkill, but really makes this deck consistent]
2x Treebeard [might be very strong, but haven't had much chance to try him. Used him twice for attacking though
]
Attachments
(15)
3x Light of Valinor [obvious choice]
2x Asfaloth [another obvious choice]
2x Elf-Stone [for Anborn and Treebeard mostly]
2x Ithilien Pit [enemies don't engage, so just hit them in the staging area]
3x Poisoned Stakes [let the enemies just die in the staging area]
3x Resourceful [best resource generation outside of Steward of Gondor]
Events (16)
3x Test of Will [this deck is pretty weak, so we NEED to keep WR effects in check]
2x Elrond's Counsel [the only threat reduction outside of Galadriel; free and powerful]
3x Noiseless Movement [if you need to delay engagement; haven't used it yet for different reasons]
3x Daeron's Runes [can't go wrong with this]
3x Risk Some Light [amazing encounter deck manipulation in secrecy]
2x The White Council [useful in several ways]
Notable Missing Cards
- Nenya: her primary ability is more useful 97% of the time and adding this would likely mean I'd want to add Unexpected Courage as well, which would mean too many card slots.
- Leaf Brooch: all event cards cost 1 or less (when in secrecy, which is when this card applies); just doesn't provide enough value.
- Ranger Spikes: I can generally quest well enough that I don't need the -2 threat, and the enemies tend to stay in the staging area anyway due to my low threat. It's better to have ways of hurting the enemies while they're there (Ithilien Pit and Poisoned Stakes).
- Gandalf: I mostly wanted to give Treebeard a shot first. If I can get Treebeard out early enough, he'll probably provide a lot more value than Gandalf, but Gandalf can provide a lot of value no matter when he comes into the game.
Strategy and Notes
You can draw 4 cards per turn with Gleowine out and if you engage a high-engagement enemy. At worst, you can draw 1 extra card with Galadriel, which means the deck is at least twice as efficient as usual (kinda like playing with Bilbo), so you can have more variety in the deck with fewer 3x cards, which is nice. This makes it a very poor choice against some of the newer quests, though.
Once the card draw engine is set up, Imladris Stargazer kinda seems pointless because most of the cards that she plays with will get drawn anyway. Might just take her out, but she's really useful in the early game if you can get her out, though early game also tends to need stronger stats too.
Using Henamarth and Risk Some Light, you can generally have a very good idea about what is coming and use that to your advantage. If you know an enemy is coming, you can use Ithilien Lookout to get rid of it, one of the traps to allow you to kill it in the staging area, and/or Ithilien Tracker to negate it's threat during questing. Enemies can pile up in the staging area pretty quickly sometimes, so we need Asfaloth to ensure locations don't pile up too.
Pippin gets the first Resourceful because there are plenty of Lore cards and he's the only Lore hero. Nenya could have helped (gives Galadriel a Lore resource icon), but I've already given my reasons against that card.
Westfold Horse-Breaker always seems pretty cool, but considering Glorfindel is the only hero worth readying, and since he has Light of Valinor, this ally could probably be replaced by someone more useful, preferably with stronger stats.
White Council has several uses: readying is useful once in a while, moving resources around, draw 1 more card (eh, not as useful in this deck), or a weak Dwarven Tomb-ish card (shuffle vs into hand). All of these seem a bit minor, so I was thinking of taking it out and replacing with 1x Ithilien Pit and 1x Elrond's Counsel. I want to playtest it some more though.