Chuckles: you know about the blocking warm errata right?

Yeah... it might have just not been my night. Probably should have changed strategy... oh well, each time I had enough... or would of had enough will power to remove Ithilien road - twice wargs killed three questing allies in the first staging of the game and surged into another enemy or location... over run shortly there after.

Another attempt I had 1x test of will only for 2x wargs to appear... 2x surge is bad enough even without the ally culling occuring. Especially in the first or second round.

One attempt avoided the wargs, for a while at least, but celador died round two or three ... and Silvan's don't tend to defend or siege very well.

Yea, I haven't had a chance to play Into Ithilien (or any games for that matter), so I have no idea how it'll work out. Hopefully I can avoid Blocking Wargs better than you did.

Also, with The Nin-In-Eilph and Celebrimbor's Secret being released, I feel like there are some changes that need to be made to the decks and I think I'll wait for The Antlered Crown and start everything over again with the greatly altered decks. Then again, I might just keep trying with the decks that I already have just to see how they do.

Well I think we agree that in this cycle Silvan went from almost nothing to a very viable archetype. (And a fun to play one at that.) I hope that the Dunedain trait receives as much love during the next cycle and becomes as viable.

I've just finished a game to test my version of 2 "elf-decks" focused specially on Sylvan trait, and they are Incredible. The sinergy between two decks is great, every play of one of them boosts both decks. I do not use to play "2 handed" because I usually play solo, and It costs me a little to think in how to build 2 different decks which can support themselves. With Silvan archetype, it looks to me, more than with any other theme, that you are'nt building two decks, but splitting only one deck into two.

Yes... fun being the key part for me... I really enjoying playing them... and looking at the different decks, I have seen so far, there doesn't appear to be only one strong way to build them.

I've recently posted my 2 decks.

So, first attempt at Into Ithilien is a loss on round 2, at least it would have been but I gave up before finishing round 1.

I was questing for 16, REALLY hoping to have enough to clear Ithilien Road so that I could control engagement. Questing for this much meant that EVERYONE was exhausted (Haldir had Wingfoot so he could ready and at least do some damage). I was starting with 6 threat in the staging area, thanks to the Southron Companies required by the quest setup. First card staged was a Forest Bat. So I dealt 2 damage to Celeborn and removed him from questing so I was down to 14 and there was 7 in the staging area. Haldir is also readied because I chose enemy.

Everything still looks pretty good. I could get 3 threat in there and still clear the location. Next card... Southron Support. I KNEW I should have mulliganed until I got a A Test of Will!!!! Of course, the best I could do is pull 2 enemies that each had 2 threat, so I ended up being 1 shy of clearing Ithilien Road, which meant I now had 5 enemies engaging me with no one to defend. I would maybe have 2 or 3 heroes still alive afterward and been completely screwed with at least 4 enemies still engaged with me.

So yea, this isn't looking so good right now.

Second game went MUCH better. I got good allies with some attack on the first round and also got A Test of Will pretty much every time it was really necessary! Lucky draws, but great win. I also decided to write down a game report while I played (1st time doing that). It kinda helped me gather my thoughts a bit and make smarter plays (I think), but really made the game take a long time ( like 3+ hours ).

:::Calculating Score...:::
6 completed rounds = 60
Total combined Threat = 74
Total damage on Heroes = 3
Cost of dead Heroes = 0
Victory points = 0
TOTAL SCORE = 137

Below is the play report if you feel like wasting your time It's not very "professional". "Purple" is the Celeborn/Glorfindel/Elrond deck and "Red" is the Legolas/Haldir/Galadriel deck.

Purple starts at 29 threat
Hand: Orophin, Naith Guide, Silvan Refugee, Protector of Lorien, A Test of Will; Draw A Burning Brand on round 1

Red starts at 27 threat
Hand: Silvan Tracker, Henamarth Riversong, Unexpected Courage, Bow of the Galadhrim, Rivendell Blade, Foe-Hammer; Draw Feint.

ROUND 1
Purple plays O Lorien (Celeborn's resource), exhaust it to play Naith Guide (using Elrond's resource) and target Haldir with her ability.

Red exhausts Galadriel to use her ability to lower Red's threat to 26 and draw another Silvan Tracker. Play Bow of the Galadhrim on Haldir and play Henamarth.

Quest with Celador, Celeborn, Glorfindel (raise threat by 1) Elrond, Naith Guide, Legolas, Haldir (no exhaust), and Henamarth (no exhaust). Questing for 20.

Staging: 1) Southron Mercenaries 2) Secluded Glade; 11 progress! Clear Ithilien Road and place 7 progress on the quest (7/15).

Already doing SO MUCH BETTER than last game, but can't get cocky yet.

Travel to Secluded Glade.

Red engages Southron Mercenaries. Deal 2 archery damage to Celeborn. Undefended attack from SM reveals Overgrown Trail as the shadow card, so I remove 2 progress from the quest (5/15) and deal 3 damage to Legolas. Attack with Haldir and Henamarth for 6 to destroy SM. Use Foe-Hammer to draw 3 cards: The Tree People, Galadhon Archer, and Island Amid Perils.

Refresh and Resource up...

ROUND 2
Purple draws Imladris Stargazer; Red draws Nenya.
Red plays The Tree People on Henamarth, and grab Rumil and put him in play. Very nice swap; too bad this deals damage to Celador. Play Unexpected Courage on Elrond (2 from Galadriel). I want to play Henamarth again, but I want to save up for Silvan Tracker because we've already got some good damage built up on Silvan heroes. I going to hold onto Legolas' resource for Feint.

Purple plays Silvan Refugee (Glorfindel's resource) and Protector of Lorien on Elrond (Elrond's resource). Also use Galadriel to draw a card (Imladris Stargazer) and lower threat to 30.

Quest with Celador, Celeborn, Glorfindel (+1 threat to 31), Elrond, Naith Guide, Silvan Refugee, Legolas, Rumil (no exhaust). Use Unexpected Courage on Elrond. Total: 17

Staging: 1) Blocking Wargs (Glorfindel plays A Test of Will) and surges into Ithilien Road 2) Ithilien Guardian (raise questing to 19) surges to Morgul Spider. 13 threat versus 19 attack = 6 progess: 3 on Secluded Glade and 3 on the quest (8/15). No travelling.

Purple engages Southron Company and Red engages Morgul Spider. Red plays Feint on Morgul Spider. Declare Elrond as defender against Sourthron Company. Shadow is Southron Company. OUCH! He's got 7 attack. Good thing I put Protector of Lorien on him. I discard both copies of Imladris Stargazer to bump Elrond up to 5 defense. He takes 2 damage.

Attack Morgul Spider with Haldir and Rumil to kill it. No attackers left so we move to the next Round. Refresh and Resource up!

ROUND 3
Purple draws Vilya (sure, now that I got rid of the Stargazers. Whatever. I want to save Elronds actions anyway). Red draws another Galadhon Archer. Use Galadriel's ability for Purple right away and draw Arwen. Nice.

Purple plays Arwen with 1 resource each from Glorfindel and Elrond.

Red uses O Lorien to play Silvan Tracker (2 from Haldir). Pay 1 from Legolas to give Rivendell Blade to Haldir.

Questing: This is a tough one. I can quest for a total of 23 if I throw everyone at it. With what is currently in the staging area I need 14 to clear the quest stage. This seems pretty safe in most quests, but with this one, but with no way to cancel When Revealed effects, some nasty stuff could definitely happen. If I DO quest hard enough, then I can just keep using Haldir in the next stage to clear things out. I'm going to risk it and go all out because I don't think sticking around for longer is going to work out well, either. I will quest with everyone, except Silvan Refugee (no attack) and Galadriel (obvious reasons). Arwen will quest simply to use her ability on Elrond. Silvan Tracker does not exhaust (Galadriel) and Elrond is readied by UC. Total 23.

Staging: 1) Southron Company for 3 threat 2) Morgul Spider for 3 more threat. That couldn't have gone any better. Total 13 threat in the staging area to 23 attack = 10 progress which clears the stage. Celedor is still in play so we move on to stage 3 and bring the Ranger objectives down for Purple.

Let's travel to Ithilien Road.

No Engagements thanks to stage 3.

The Southron Company engaged with Purple will attack and Silvan Refugee will defend. Shadow is Forest Bat, so Purple raises his threat by 1 to 33 (yay, no more battle, so they only have 1 threat!). Silvan Refugee is destroyed, so 1 damage is dealt to Celedor (1 hit point left). Attack with Elrond and the 2 Rangers to destroy the Southron Company. Move on to the next round, healing 2 from Celeborn and Legolas thanks to Silvan Tracker and Elrond.

ROUND 4
Purple draws The Tree People and Red draws A Test of Will.
Red plays Nenya on Galadriel using one of her resources. Pay one from Legolas to play a Galadhon Archer (with O Lorien) and deal 1 damage to a Southron Company. We'll hold off on other cards because I don't want to waste Celeborn's boost when I don't need it.

Purple will play The Tree People and pull back Naith Guide (and kill Celedor). TTP brings in another Silvan Tracker. Use Galadriel on Purple to draw Unexpected Courage and lower threat to 33. Darn, I was going to use Vilya this round and that would have been a good one to Vilya into play. Pay 1 from Glorfindel and Elrond to play Vilya. Use Vilya and ready again with Unexpected Courage, which bring Naith Guide into play. Her ability ability targets Glorfindel. I'm going to hold off on playing more cards here too.

Questing: We're starting with 5 in the staging area, plus the active location has 4. I going to want to quest through here quickly to make sure threat doesn't increase too high before stage 4 and to prevent too many enemies from getting stuck in the staging area. I'm going to buff and keep up Purple's Silvan Tracker just in case of Haradrim Elite showing up. So let's go: Ithilien Guardian, Celeborn, Glorfindel (no exhaust), Elrond, Arwen (buff Purple's Silvan Tracker), Naith Guide, Red's Silvan Tracker, Rumil, and Galadhon Archer. Total: 19

Staging: 1) Overgrown Trail 2) Haradrim Elite (so glad I remembered him and kept Silvan Tracker up). The attack has no shadow effect (Lost Companion) and does 1 damage to Silvan racker. Total 12 threat = 7 progress (4 on Ithilien Road, 3 on quest stage).

Travel to Overgrown Trail. No engagement. Haldir uses ability to kill Haradrim Elite. Moving to next round. Heal Silvan Tracker and Legolas

ROUND 5
Purple draws Valiant Sacrifice; Red draws Daeron's Runes, which gets played immediately, which draws Galadhrim Minstrel and Feint and discards Silvan Tracker. Galadriel also uses her ability on Purple, which draws Silvan Refugee and lowers threat to 33.

Purple uses Vilya (then readies Elrond): Vilya is revealed and then placed beneath the deck. Play Unexpected Courage on Galadriel using Glorfindel's and Elrond's resources. Play Naith Guide with Celeborn's resources and target Glorfindel with her ability.

Red uses Island Amid Perils to pull back Galadhon Archer and lower its threat by 2. Purple uses Valiant Sacrifice to let Red draw 2: Island Amid Perils and Rohan Warhorse. Using O Lorien, we play Galadhon Archer again dealing 1 damage to the same Southron Company. Pay 1 from Haldir and 1 from Galadriel to play Galadhrim Minstrel, who let's us draw The Tree People. Pay 1 from Haldir to play Henemarth and then use The Tree People on Henemarth to pull in Lorien Guide. Then use Unexpected Courage to ready Galadriel.

Questing: Exhaust Ithilien Guardian to place 3 progress on Overgrown Trail (3/6). And I'm not gonna bother to go into details about who is questing cuz it's too long. Total 24.

Staging: 1) Mumak 2) Blocking Wargs (A Test of Will) surges into Overgrown Trail. 13 Threat = 11 progress 2 on Overgrown Trail (Lorien Guide added one) and 9 on the stage (12/12) and we move to stage 4.

Everyone's threat is below 37 so it's a normal quest instead of siege. Purple is at 33, which is the highest. Travel to Overgrown Trail.

Purple optionally engages Southron Company (the one with no damage on it) and also engages Morgul Spider.

Haldir uses his ability to attack and kill the Morgul Spider. Silvan Tracker defends against Southron Company with 2 defense (Arwen); shadow is Forest Bat, which raises Purple's threat by 1; 1 damage to Silvan Tracker. Legolas and Glorfindel attack Southron Company and destroy it, placing 2 progress on the active location.

End of round; heal Silvan Tracker.

ROUND 6
Purple draws Steward of Gondor; Red draws Nenya.
Red uses Island Amid Perils to return Galadhrim Minstrel to hand, lower threat by 2 (29). Pay 1 resource from Haldir and Galadriel to play Galadhrim Minstrel; retrieve A Test of Will from the deck.

Galadriel exhausts to lower Purple's threat (36) and draw another Steward of Gondor. Purple pays 2 from Celeborn to play Steward of Gondor on Galadriel (gotta have that A Test of Will ready). Pay 1 from Glorfindel for Silvan Refugee. Vilya gives us Feigned Voices, which goes to the bottom of the deck :'(.

Questing: Once again, lots of guys questiong. Ithilien Guardian and Lorien Guide explore the active location. Total 21 WP.

Staging: 1) Southron Mercenaries 2) Southron Support: Cancel the when revealed effect, but doomed 3 puts Purple at 39, which makes this a siege! Threat = 7, Defense = 8 ... Protector of Lorien discards Orophin and Steward to get 2 more for 10. 3 progress!

No locations to travel to so we start engagement. Purple engages all enemies.

Thankfully I saved a resource to play Feint on Mumak. 2 archery damage is placed on Legolas. Haldir uses his ability to destroy the Southron Mercenaries. Southron Company attacks Silvan Tracker (with 2 defense thanks to Arwen); shadow is Ithilien Guardian who deals 2 damage to Southron Mercenaries; 1 damage to Silvan Tracker. Galadhon Archer attacks and destroys Southron Company while Glorfindel and Legolas attack the Mumak for 3 damage.

And so we move onto the next round while healing all damage (except Elrond's).

ROUND 7
Purple draws Feigned Voices and Red draws Silvan Refugee.
Purple uses Vilya to put Galadhrim Minstrel into play, which pulls out The Tree People. I use The Tree People to pull back Silvan Refugee and put another Galadhrim Minstrel into play, which pulls Daeron's Runes, which pulls Unexpected Courage and A Test of Will and discards Silvan Refugee. Pay 1 from Glorfindel and Elrond to play Unexpected Courage on Celeborn.

Red uses Galadriels actions to go to 34 threat and draw Island Amid Perils. I'd sure love to see this card for the other deck, but it's probably too late anyway. Use Island Amid Perils on Galadhrim Minstrel to drop to 32 threat. Pay 2 from Galadriel to play Galadhrim Minstrel and pull out Daeron's Runes. Play Daeron's Runes to discard Nenya and draw Hands Upon the Bow and Bow of the Galadhrim. Pay 1 from Galadriel to play Silvan Refugee and 1 from Haldir to play Henamarth.

Questing: Arwen grants defense to Celeborn. Questing for 16

Staging: 1) Forest Bat - cancel effect (hopefully something worse doesn't show up) 2) Secluded Glade. Threat = 4; 12 progress is just enough to pass the stage. I WON!

Well, the third attempt at Into Ithilien was pretty devastating. I tried to follow the same formula as last game: quest with everyone and hope that Ithilien Road is explored so I won't have any enemies engage. That idea fell apart when a Haradrim Elite showed up. His Forced effect made him attack, which had a shadow that gave him +2 attack (Southron Company), bringing the total to 6 attack, which can kill any of my characters, so a hero died. Do I kill Celeborn, Glorfindel, or Elrond? I had Steward of Gondor in my hand, which would go a long way toward making up for the missing hero, so I'd need Celeborn around to pay for it. If I got rid of Elrond, I'd lose my enhanced healing and the ability to help pay for any of the allies. If I killed Glorfindel, I wouldn't have anyone who could survive another undefended attack from the Haradrim Elite (his 27 engagement means he'll need to be engaged this round, even though I still had enough to clear the Ithilien Road). Celeborn was the one that had to go, and hopefully Vilya would be able to help out as much or more than Steward of Gondor.

Even though I was able to keep Haldir ready (Naith Guide) and give him a Bow of the Galadhrim on the first round, he still didn't have enough attack to be able to take out the Haradrim Elite before he would make another attack, so I either stack up 4 unhealable damage on Glorfindel or lose another hero.

I chose option C: forfeit.

Tough choices... been considering having another run at ithilien as my deck has changed some what.

The starting hand/encounter deck combo is so crucial for this jolly quest; you want allies to quest with & test of will & feint/feigned & Readying & weapons...

In my opinion, It's a good quest to trim so so things from your deck - as even though I lost four straight, the changes I made overall improved my deck.

Yea, Into Ithilien demands a lot of attack strength out of the gate and plenty of cancellation. If you have low threat, the defense isn't as necessary, but if you're threat is 27 or higher, you'll want to have some decent defenders just in case of something like what I experienced. The worst part is that Haradrim Elite's ability is a Forced ability, rather than a When Revealed ability, so I couldn't cancel it.

First attempt at Journey Down the Anduin was a success. The only issue I ran into was because a 2nd Hill Troll showed up on Stage 1. I decided to block the troll with Celeborn because I had 3 duplicate uniques in my hand and Protector of Lorien on him, so I would take 1 or 2 damage and heal it up with Silvan Tracker. Of course, the troll's shadow card is Despair, which says "Defending character does not count its defense". So, of course, he dies and I gain 2 threat when I SHOULD have been just fine.

Oh well. I still did just fine without him though things would have been slightly better if he was still in there, carrying O Lorien.

:::Calculating Score...:::
4 completed rounds = 40
Total combined Threat = 71
Total damage on Heroes = 5
Cost of dead Heroes = 11
Victory points = 8
TOTAL SCORE = 119

I don't really think Journey Down the Anduin is a great test for decks, so maybe I'll run this one more time and then do the alternate quest (Massing at Osgiliath) twice instead of doing one of them 3 times.

Second attempt at Journey Down the Anduin was successful and actually kinda fun, but I was able to amass some pretty good armies and it kinda sucks when you have guys standing around doing nothing:

:::Calculating Score...:::
6 completed rounds = 60
Total combined Threat = 54
Total damage on Heroes = 2
Cost of dead Heroes = 0
Victory points = 4
TOTAL SCORE = 112

I actually made a mistake on the second to last turn (forgot to reveal the 2 cards per player from Stage 3B) that could have had a pretty strong effect on the end of the game, but the encounter deck only had 3 more enemies in it and only 2 of them could have been made any difference in the outcome, and even then, I still had a few guys standing at the end of the round, so it probably would not have mattered. It might have impacted the score a few points if one was the other Hill Troll, but I had more than enough attack and probably would have survived the attack (with some damage to raise the score) assuming there weren't any nasty shadows. If a bunch of locations would have been revelead, I would have had enough allies out (5+ per player) to quest past them and finish the enemies off in the last round.

In any case, we're moving on to Massing at Osgiliath.

Played 3 games of Massing at Osgiliath. Lost the first 2 essentially on the first round because of bad draws on both sides. I had a hard time generating enough allies on the first round to be able to use any for chump blocks, so I ended up always having to engage 3 Snaga Scouts (each of the first 2 games, I drew another Snaga Scout on the first turn) and leave their attacks undefended (I wanted to keep my attackers up to kill some baddies). Also each time, 2 of the Snagas got nasty shadow cards that ended up killing two of my heroes. I also ended up with 1 bad shadow card on the first round for the other player in one game and lost another hero due to undefended attacks.

Anyway, the game that I won went well for me in the first round:
1) I had Hands Upon the Bow, which meant I could take out a Wolves from Mordor during the quest phase.

2) I didn't reveal an additional Snaga Scout (or any enemy) on the first turn, so there were only 3 enemies that needed to be engaged, which was much more doable than 5.

3) No nasty shadows that killed off heroes.

I also got an early Horn of Gondor and put it on Legolas. That's definitely the best place to put it because I actually have a pretty good number of tactics cards. Even though I generated probably 9 or so resources from HoG in the 5 rounds I had it on him, I still ended up with 2 tactics cards in my hand at the end of the game and only 1 resource on Legolas. I DID draw a few more tactics cards than usual, but it's not unusual for me to have to make tough decisions about what to buy with Legolas' resources due to several good options in my hand. Normally, I had been putting it on Galadriel because once she had Nenya, her resources would count for 2 spheres, but I generally ended up having extras on her when I did that. Turn 2 Steward of Gondor on Elrond was also very nice.

:::Calculating Score...:::
5 completed rounds = 50
Total combined Threat = 57
Total damage on Heroes = 2
Cost of dead Heroes = 0
Victory points = 1
TOTAL SCORE = 108

Final Tally for Silvan Doubles decks:

- The Morgul Vale: 1-2

- The Steward's Fear: 2-1

- Into Ithilien: 1-2

- Journery Down the Anduin: 2-0

- Massing at Osgiliath: 1-2

Overall a 7-7 record (5-7 without JDtA). This was really fun and pushed me to play some quests I hadn't gotten to yet. I have to say that I really enjoy the Against the Shadow quests, now that I've finally completed them all with various decks). I'm still scared to finish the Heirs of Numenor quests though. Into Ithilien was fun during the game that I won, but if I can't get set up well in the first round or two, these quests really screw me over, similar to Massing at Osgiliath. Thanks for sticking with me this long.

Next steps will be either trying some new decks or trying to get this pair of decks through Heirs of Numenor and the rest of the alternative quests in Ian's testing guide . I won't be updating this thread with that info though.

Final decks:

Silvan Doubles - Purple

53 cards

Heroes (29 threat)

Celeborn

Glorfindel (Spirit)

Elrond

Allies (17)

2x Orophin

3x Naith Guide

2x Imladris Stargazer

2x Arwen Undomiel

3x Silvan Refugee

2x Silvan Tracker

3x Galadhrim Minstrel

Attachments (18)

3x Steward of Gondor

3x O Lorien

2x Unexpected Courage

3x Light of Valinor

2x A Burning Brand

3x Protector of Lorien

2x Vilya

Events (18)

3x Valiant Sacrifice

3x Feigned Voices

3x A Test of Will

3x Island Amid Perils

3x Daeron's Runes

3x The Tree People

Silvan Doubles - Red

55 cards

Heroes (27 threat)

Legolas

Haldir

Galadriel

Allies (18)

1x Rumil

3x Galadhon Archer

2x Silvan Tracker

3x Galadhrim Minstrel

2x Henamarth Riversong

2x Lorien Guide

3x Silvan Refugee

2x Defender of the Naith

Attachments (16)

3x Bow of the Galadhrim

3x Rivendell Blade

2x Rohan Warhorse

2x Horn of Gondor

2x Wingfoot

2x Unexpected Courage

2x Nenya

Events (21)

3x Feint

3x Hands Upon the Bow

3x Foe-Hammer

3x Daeron's Runes

3x The Tree People

3x A Test of Will

3x Island Amid Perils

And that ends this thread... assuming no one else jumps in with comments (which has been pretty rare lately; I guess you guys are sick of this thread ).

Just to make sure you know your efforts weren't in vain, I have been following the progress and development of your decks.

Like wise... inspired me to do the same even

Well maybe you guys can give me your opinion then. I have a few options

1: Update these decks to use some more of the newer cards .

- Elven Mail : Replace Rohan Warhorse, which I rarely used since I had so many strong attackers. I'd probably use the Mail on Defender of the Naith, Elrond, and/or Celeborn so I can get some more consistent defense. Best to use it on Silvans so they can heal.)

- Cloak of Lorien : Replace Protector of Lorien for a persistent defense boost, which is pretty much all I used PoL for anyway. Same targets as Elven Mail. I'd like to get the Silvan characters more involved in defending since they can be healed more reliably than Elrond)

- Galadriel's Handmaiden : Replace 2x Lorien Guide (not as helpful as he/she could be in more quests) and 1x SIlvan Refugee in one deck and replace 2x Imladris Stargazer (rarely got her and still did fine) and 1x Silvan Refugee in the other deck. Been waiting for this card for a long time.

- Mirror of Galadriel : With this card, I could shrink Red deck down a little bit because I could use 1x cards a little more reliably... maybe. I mostly just want to experiment with it because it's so hard to judge its worth without experience and if I can reliably use it to get 2 or 3 critical cards at critical times in most games, it'll be worth it. I don't know what I'd replace specifically, but like I said, I could drop a copy or 2 of some cards.

- Lembas : Replace Wingfoot and a copy of Unexpected Courage. This would provide some healing for Elrond so he can reliably defend later into the game, but I see this working on several different heroes in different situations, and can help heal other heroes before Silvan Tracker shows up. Wingfoot was rarely needed, and I'd rather have Galadriel more reliably be able to use Nenya, because it is more powerful, so Lembas can help there and so can an additional copy of Nenya.

- Heir of Mardil ?: This one is a maybe. If Elrond has Vilya and Steward of Gondor, Heir of Mardil essentially becomes an Unexpected Courage, but that needs 3 different cards to be useful, so the combo won't show up, and there's very little reason to choose it over Unexpected Courage when both decks have Spirit.

2: Try an Eomer deck

I haven't tried Eomer and Firefoot yet, and I saw an awesome deck with Eomer, Eowyn (or Frodo), and Prince Imrahil. Looks like a lot of fun.

3: Try making a "successful" Secrecy and/or Ranger deck... preferrably combined.

I'm thinking Galadriel, Haldir, and Pippin. This would start with 24 threat, but Galadriel's ability + one copy of Elrond's Counsel played on the first round would put me in secrecy right away, which should equate to lots of targets for Haldir. Throw in A Good Harvest and maybe a song or two and I can get some weapons on the Silvan ranger too. Haldir and Pippin kinda have competing goals, but I can deal with not getting Pippin's extra card if he can help me keep baddies in the staging area with +1 engagement.

I think "successful" would be defined as being able to defeat at least 2 quests from each cycle at least 50% of the time.

What do you guys think?

1) - Elven mail : Good thematic choice

- Lorien Cloak : I prefer Protector of Lorien because you can choose the boost

- Galadriel's Handmaiden : one of the best spirit allies with Arwen and Ethir swordsman

- Mirror of Galadriel : Only used on Caldara's deck for the discard ability (works fine)

- Lembas : Very Good card, one of the best untap attachment

- Heir of Mardil : Work fine with stewart of Gondor & Elrond as you said ...

2) I have made a deck with Eomer : Glorfindel (sp) / Prince Imrahil / Eomer.

It was based on use of Bofur (sp).

Very fun deck and performant.

Here my decklist :

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/122477-solo-deck-allies-have-to-die/

3) I have made a secret deck which works fine : Glorfindel (sp) / Sam / Pippin (lore).

I have add Sam for his untap ability which works fine with secret deck especially with Cloak of hobbit and for secret leadership cards and Bill the poney.

I am waiting until the last pack to build my elven doubles. You might get some new cards if you wait a little more. Then move on.

For those of you telling me that I should consider keeping Protector of Lorien, potentially instead of including Cloak of Lorien, I just want to say that that choice is based on the experience of using these decks. I have 4 heroes with 3+ willpower, and plenty of allies popping in an out that contribute plenty on their own. Of the dozen or so games, I've probably only used Protector of Lorien for its willpower boost once. I've needed to use it several times for a defense boost, and most of the time I end up wishing I didn't need to discard cards.

Also, I wasn't actually asking your opinions on the individual card changes (I appreciate them). I was just asking for your opinion about what to move on to next: Refactor Silvan, try Eomer, or try secrecy. Bullroarer Took made a decent point, though it actually sounds like the last pack will be more centered on Rohan, so I think I'll hold off on the first two options until the new year, and I'll try out some secrecy during Christmas break... maybe. I hope I find some time to actually play.