As of now, I think what you gain in the short term (1 less resource and + 1WP) is not worth the long term sacrifice. Since she gives you an advantage over another silvan only if you use her to chump block soon thereafter, if you do not need to do so the round she enters play you'll have to choose between avoiding "silvan leaves play" events (or not, but at the cost of losing an ally, which is bad) or having to refrain from using her for questing.

I see what you're saying and definetly agree that the first rounds are critical.

Since card draw with silvans is less of a problem she might be worth the deck space just to have to possibility to play a cheap ally T1 (even though 1 additional WP is not much important considering Silvan decks usually run Celeborn + Mirlonde / Haldir / Elrond, all high WP heroes).

Maybe she is useful in scenerios such as Into Ithilien which feature a tough enemy right from the start in the Staging area, however I think if you're engaging such enemies with Silvan from T1 you're going to have a hard time: since attack power is low, it will take you multiple turns to dispatch him while having to suffer a 1-ally drain for every attack + possible additional shadow effects.

The strategy I use in my deck for dealing with early enemies is always trying to avoid combat. If it is not possible, I am more than willing to keep a hero (mainly Elrond) back to defend unless the enemy has an extremely high attack value (5+), but usually such enemies have high engagement costs as well.

However I think I'll give the Refugee another try just to see whether her cheap price is worth the drawback.

Having Gandalf in the deck is like cheating. My Silvan deck struggles for resources... But I will try the idea of having even more allies.

Silvan deck builds itself just like outlands, bunch of auto include cards. Sure they have a more fun playstyle, but essentially it's still built around one type of mechanic. Already, stopped playing them, but in general have not been playing the game at all, which seems kind of stale to me right now. For some reason it's lost it's replayability. I'll beat a scenario and then have no interest in playing it again. Maybe it was the cycle, but something has shifted.

Silvan deck builds itself just like outlands, bunch of auto include cards. Sure they have a more fun playstyle, but essentially it's still built around one type of mechanic. Already, stopped playing them, but in general have not been playing the game at all, which seems kind of stale to me right now. For some reason it's lost it's replayability. I'll beat a scenario and then have no interest in playing it again. Maybe it was the cycle, but something has shifted.

There is one thing that makes these decks NOT build themselves: they use all 4 spheres. You have to make your hero selection first... after that they can build themselves for the most part. There are more and less thematic builds too (generally in regards to the attachments, like Steward of Gondor).

Wasn't it established that Celeborn-Haldir-Galadriel was superior than Celeborn-Haldir-Legolas? I personally think that it depends on whether it is a combat or questing scneario.

What about Elrond? What about 2 handed? My first version used Aragorn. There are plenty of great non-thematic choices too.

For the most part a power silvan deck relies on these 2 heroes Galadriel and Celeborn. With 2 heroes locked in you get to choose one other hero. Basically any lore hero will do. Haldir, Grima, Aragorn, Bifur, Elrond, Mirlond etc. it really does not mater that much.

Sure legolas and tactics can replace lore, and it may be a decent option in multiplayer, but lore for silvan is much stronger than tactics for the trait. Overall.

Compare to Outlands at least you got to chose the other 2 heroes that go with Hirluin, but for the most part Silvan deck it just as obvious to build as Outlands.

It can build itself but there are a lot of interesting variations that can be made. How do you divide up when playing two player? What is the perfect companion deck for it? How about a tandem Hobbit secrecy deck that pairs up perfectly? I agree that things can get stale, especially if you're playing solo primarily. Adding another deck increases the options/combinations exponentially.

In response to Glaurung's deck, I like having Good Harvest and Bow of the Galadhrim to really make Haldir work. What I love is that this becomes a very viable staging area attack deck as well as Silvan which is awesome. In that sense it's great to have some tactics cards in there (Galadhrim Archer). When I get tired of the Galadriel/Celeborn/Haldir deck I'm going to make duel decks that work together and see how that goes. To me this is my dream deck that I've always wanted so I'm happy, even if it's not the hardest thing to build.

Tracker1, I'm sorry to hear that the game's feeling stale for you right now. It does seem like one of your main joys in the game is building creative decks and Silvan doesn't seem to be hitting that spot for you. I really hope you hang in there and that this new cycle will bring something to spark your creativity again, I know we have all benefitted greatly from it.

Im also a bit dissapointed with new cycle…. Thank gof we have a nightmare release for old cards so I'm happy to play. But newcycle quests and new time mechanics is not as good as I thought in begin

@SauronTheGreat

In fact, after more tries I have to say I think my 66% rate with the above deck was more the outcome of a lucky streak than a reliable performance: Dol Guldur is just too punishing for solo play. Concerning Hero choice, I'm afraid you lose too much by giving up Lore cards, so there's really not much Silvan can do. I think one could probably build a tailor made deck to beat Dol Guldur and have some chance to win it, but a) it probably wouldn't work well against other difficult quests b) it would only stand a good chance of success, since in my opinion randomness is too huge of a factor in Escape from Dol Guldur to be able to overcome it just through deck building.

@Tracker1

I stand by my previous statement that silvan decks build themselves to a certain extent, so I do not agree with you they auto-build themselves: even though some cards are a must ( 0-cost silvan events, Daeron's Runes, A Test of Will, Naith Guide, Galadhrim Minstrel, Henamarth Riversong) changing just 7-10 cards greatly modifies its effectiveness, not to mention Hero choice. For example, I think choosing Grima instead of, say, Haldir makes a big difference.

After experimenting further with [solo] Silvan decks (mainly by playing against Into Ithilien and the Siege of Cair Andros since these two, especially the latter, are the Quests I enjoy the most and find more challenging so far), I came to this version of the Silvan deck:

Heroes

Celeborn, Galadriel, Grima

Allies (22)

3x Naith Guide

2x Orophin*

1x Henamarth Riversong*

3x Galadhrim Minstrel

2x Daughter of the Nimrodel

2x Silvan Tracker

2x Mirkwood Runner

1x Haldir of Lorien*

3x Galadriel's Handmaiden

3x Defender of the Naith

Attachments (8)

2x O Lorien!*

2x Steward of Gondor*

2x Keys of Orthanc*

2x A Burning Brand

Events (20)

3x Feigned Voices

3x The Tree People

3x Island amid Perils

3x Daeron's Runes

2x Deep Knowledge

3x Elrond's Counsel

2x A Test of Will

1x Will of the West

Of course a few cards might change here and there: for example against Into Ithilien I swapped all the Handmaidens for two copies of Hasty Stroke and a Dwarven Tomb; a strong case could also be made for adding the third copy of AToW. However the core stays the same, and so does the doctrine of this deck: play as many silvans as possible, as fast as possible.

Now it might not seem much of change compared to the deck I posted previously but in fact it plays out very different.

This is easily the most powerful deck I've ever played solo and is able to effectively handle very difficult quests. And it's not easy to play, far from it.

I'm not saying it's the most powerful deck ever built, but it's significantly more powerful than all the other Silvan decks I've tried, and very fun to play too. So, to sum it up from my experience there's a strong reason to believe Silvan does not auto-build.

Still, it's very sad to see very experienced LOTR players such as Tracker1 and Glaurung being disappointed with the recent developments of the game, I hope things will change for the better in the near future.

I'm sorry to resurrect this thread, but I just got actually interested in the silvan elves and I was wondering what was, according to you, just the most powerful solo silvan deck possible, at least regarding hero choices. Right now I'm playing Celeborn, Galadriel and Haldir, but I've heard Elrond is a better choice for a Lore hero. My concern is that the starting threat if you include him 33, and in quests like Anduin that can make a big difference. On the other hand, his ability to pay for allies of all spheres is huge. So, what hero combination do you think is the most efficient for solo silvan elves?

I have tested four combinations :

- Celeborn/Haldir of Lorien/Galadriel

=> My favourite thematic combination with a lot of threat diminution, Haldir become a beast and one shot all enemies in the staging area.

My threat at the end of the game is always below 15.

I can play Light of Valinor for Celeborn and WingFoot for Haldir of Lorien.

- Celeborn/Elrond/Galadriel

=> The starting threat is too high for me. Like you said, it could be very hard on some scenario like Anduin.

So for me, Elrond wasn't a better choice

- Celeborn/Grima/Galadriel

=> Very interesting combination. Grima and Galadriel works very well together. The Grima's capacity is very powerfull for ressources stabilization.

This combination lack of attack but you can quickly put in play a lot of allies.

- Celeborn/Bifur/Galadriel

=> The lore ressources is very important in the silvan deck. With Bifur, you can stabilize these ressources and play King under the mountain for card draw.

The starting threat is lower than other version.

As i said, my favourite is Celeborn/Haldir of Lorien/Galadriel. I have sucessfully passed many scenarios with this combination.

The combination with Elrond was the less stronger.

For solo purpose, I love the combination Celeborn/Grima/Galadriel in solo play. The most effective one for me, though not so thematic. Sylvan decks are really heavy resources consumers and grima, surprisingly, seems to be one of sylvan best friends.

For solo purpose, I love the combination Celeborn/Grima/Galadriel in solo play. The most effective one for me, though not so thematic. Sylvan decks are really heavy resources consumers and grima, surprisingly, seems to be one of sylvan best friends.

I think, you're right !

But i love play full thematic silvan.

In my Celeborn/Haldir of Lorien/Galadriel, the deck didn't have Stewart of Gondor

How do you manage to make haldir attack efficient without tactics ?

Do you count on another player to equip Haldir ? His attacks stats are too low to really attack the staging area without being well equiped.

I play some tactics cards in the deck (Bow of Galadrim and rivendell Blade) with Good harvest.

The Galadrim menestrel helps me in retrieving Good Harvest when needed

Good Harvest also helps me to stabilize the first turns.

It works fine !

(the list is available on french forum with some result ).

Thanks a lot 13nrv!

Ok Glaurung. Please make a video showing your deck against Into Ithilien Nightmare. Turn one you need to quest for at least seven using attack... I know it can be done with a God draw, but wow...

I've just recently gotten into LOTR and purchased most of the deluxe expansions (except for Voice of Isengards), and selective adventure packs based on recommendations. I'm definitely interested in a Silvan Elves deck, but I'd like to know what packs and expansions are essentially for the cards to build a competitive deck. I know Grima is in Voice of Isengards, and I will probably get it really soon, but what other products should I buy to make a good Silvan deck?

Star Lord, you need the ring-maker cycle.

Thanks. I've ordered all the adventure packs from the Ring-Maker cycle except Antlered Crown.

Ok Glaurung. Please make a video showing your deck against Into Ithilien Nightmare. Turn one you need to quest for at least seven using attack... I know it can be done with a God draw, but wow...

Ok will do. Fot NM Ithilien you swap Glorifindel(spirit )instead of Galadriel. She us useless in this quest for this deck

Bah, i hate these decks. All following the path FFG lays out for us. No thinking involved. It's outlanders all over again (albeit with a more interesting playing style) But I would really like FFG to quit this awful emphasis on traits. Deckwise, even a Gandalf/Splorfindel/Elrond deck is more interesting. /end rant

Ok Glaurung. Please make a video showing your deck against Into Ithilien Nightmare. Turn one you need to quest for at least seven using attack... I know it can be done with a God draw, but wow...

Ok will do. Fot NM Ithilien you swap Glorifindel(spirit )instead of Galadriel. She us useless in this quest for this deck

Ah... Now I understand. She is useless in much of Gondor.

Bah, i hate these decks. All following the path FFG lays out for us. No thinking involved. It's outlanders all over again (albeit with a more interesting playing style) But I would really like FFG to quit this awful emphasis on traits. Deckwise, even a Gandalf/Splorfindel/Elrond deck is more interesting. /end rant

I have to disagree here to some extent. Outlands is just adding up numbers, but with Silvans the sequencing of your plays and timing ARE important. It does require more thought. For the veteran card player perhaps it seems trivial, but I would not consider myself that and my first silvan games were a non-trivial exercise. I did get bored with them soon though.