I am not a strong deckbuilder - in fact, this is the first time I tried to - so I'd appreciate any help with smoothing out a deck. We usually play 3 players, and heroes blocked by the other 2 decks are Galadriel, Glorfindel, Idraen and Bard, Hama, Dunhere.

I started with a Treebeard deck of Gizlivadi and tried to get it to be more of a multiplayer healing support deck (we usually lose to too much damage on our characters) that can hold its own when neccessary and came up with the following variant.

Heroes:

Treebeard

Elrond

Merry (Spirit)

Allies (22):

1x Henamarth Riversong

2x Quickbeam

2x Wandering Ent

3x Erebor Hammersmith

3x Galadriel's Handmaiden

1x Arwen Undomiel

1x Master of the Forge

3x Warden of Healing

3x Wellinghall Preserver

1x Gildor Inglorion

2x Gandalf (Core)

Attachments (20):

2x Hobbit Pony

3x Ent Drought

3x Lembas

3x Miruvor

3x Vilya

2x Burning Brand

1x Unexpected Courage

3x Self Preservation

Events (8)

3x Deep Knowledge

3x Entmoot

2x Test of Will

Other cards I have considered are Elrond's Council, Ghaladrim's Greeting, a single copy of Protector of Lorien and Haldir (who would only be blocked out when playing with a 4th player) and maybe even a Power of Orthanc for APs that have nasty condition attachments, or filling up to 3 on a few of those 2 copy cards. But I have problems with deciding what to put in and what to leave out.

I am also open to switch up the hero setup, but I think this combination is well suited for powerful healing support and capability to contribute to whatever is needed most at the time.

Any input is very welcome, thank you!

This looks like it would be a fun deck to play! Here are my suggestions.

I consider 3x Daeron's Runes a must for any deck with lore. I'd also consider Peace and Thought, and also Fast Hitch instead of Hobbit Pony so Merry can quest and threat reduce rather than one or the other.

I'd drop Vilya, because unless you set up Elrond for it with support cards it can often be a waste of a very strong hero's action.

You might consider Derndingle Warriors as I've found them to be very good in multiplayer and combo well with the Wellinghall Preservers.

So, basically I love the deck and I want to play it myself. Seastan had spot on advice. I agree with everything he said, except that the othe ents lIke derdingle will probably wor bether in aLLY decks. With his advice in mind You should go up to 3 wandering ents. I also thing you can cut the 2 Gandalfs. I know he is a great card, but he looks expensive for your deck and doesn't fit with theme at all. The only benefit I see is color smoothing off you end up with too much blue resources. Probably not good enough.

I just have one crazy suggestion that I have found success with. The card is spare hood and cloak. It would replace Miravor as a ready effect. Essentially you use it with the warden of Healing when you don't need him to ready your ents so you can use them right away. Then, once you have a big army you can use it to ready another player's Faramir ally (assuming somebody has him) to push questing for the win or something like that. It's not a great card (if you try to use it every round it is just annoying, better to use it only once or twice when you REALLY need it) but it can work in decks like the one you have here.

I don't see much point in you only having 1 copy of Master of the Forge. A lot of games you just won't see him, and given the number of attachments you have in the deck he'd be really good. I'd go for 3 copies to be as sure as possible, and cut something else - possibly cut copies of some of your attachments, because once the Master gets into play you should find them soon enough anyway (I'd definitely say another Master of the Forge in the deck is more valuable than the seccond Hobbit Pony for this reason), or something else that's less important.

If you want to keep Vilya (but imo you should take that attachment out, like Seastan said before), then you should add Imladris Stargazer. It helps to maximize the worth of Elrond/Vilya.

Light of Valinor and Fast Hitch are cards to consider. I'd add Elrond's Counsel as a personal vavour, but because of Merry (and Fast Hitches) it isn't needed that urgent. Also, some cards to draw your deck faster (like Peace and Thought, Daeron's Runes) would be good.

Thank you for your input, I have changed up a few things based on your thoughts and reasoning. Current setup is this:

Heroes:

Treebeard

Elrond

Merry (Spirit)

Allies (21):

2x Quickbeam

3x Wandering Ent

3x Erebor Hammersmith

3x Galadriel's Handmaiden

1x Arwen Undomiel

3x Master of the Forge

3x Warden of Healing

3x Wellinghall Preserver

Attachments (17):

2x Fast Hitch

3x Ent Drought

3x Lembas

3x Miruvor

2x Burning Brand

1x Unexpected Courage

3x Self Preservation

Events (12)

3x Peace, and Thought

3x Entmoot

3x Daeron's Runes

3x Test of Will

I also have settled on the following "sideboard" to adapt to different scenarios:

3x Derndingle Warrior - for Wandering Ents for scenarios where with defense/self defend is on

1x Henamarth Riversong - for where it might be helpful/solo

3x Miner of the Iron Hills - condition attachment removal with a body for Handmaidens on low doomed APs

3x Power of Orthanc - when the condition atts might get out of control for healing attachments or Entmoot

3x Greetings of the Galadhrim - when Orthancing a lot for healing attachments or Entmoot

3x Elrond's Council - on low enemy APs for threat reduction, probably for healing attachments

1-3x Protector of Lorien - I don't think I will end up ditching a lot of cards to it, so I am not sure on its usefulness

As its game night tomorrow its the deck's first chance to maybe liven up to what I expect it to do. I'll give you an update.

Well, as promised, giving update after playing it some time. We played the 2nd and 3rd adventure of The Lost Realms and the first AP.

The healing power aspect plus being able to hold my own does work well, and as we didn't have anyone with a dedicated defender, Elrond and especially Treebeard were great in filling those roles.

One thing I noticed in all games was that I always feel extremely short on resources. I have definately enough card draw, as I was usually sitting there with 5+ cards in hand but no resources to play them. I am thinking about using Master of Lore in its original print version, as my group always plays cards as their printed text says, not sure what to take out for it instead though. If you have other ideas for smoothing my resource curve, please make some noise.

Well, as promised, giving update after playing it some time. We played the 2nd and 3rd adventure of The Lost Realms and the first AP.

The healing power aspect plus being able to hold my own does work well, and as we didn't have anyone with a dedicated defender, Elrond and especially Treebeard were great in filling those roles.

One thing I noticed in all games was that I always feel extremely short on resources. I have definately enough card draw, as I was usually sitting there with 5+ cards in hand but no resources to play them. I am thinking about using Master of Lore in its original print version, as my group always plays cards as their printed text says, not sure what to take out for it instead though. If you have other ideas for smoothing my resource curve, please make some noise.

Depending on the scenario, I can see you replacing Treebeard with Bifur and then including the Treebeard ally in your deck. This would allow you (and your teammates) to transfer resources to Bifur while also allowing you to generate resources to pay for ents with Treebeard. It may even allow you to alter your deck a bit and include more of the Tactics ents being able to pay for them with Elrond/Treebeard (ally).

Blue Mountain Trader could help you manipulate resources as well.

Granted, losing Treebeard hero does mean you lose out on a lot of willpower/attack and you wouldn't be able to rely on having an ent in play to utilize Ent Draught and Entmoot.

Your updated deck looks fine to me Puppenmaedchen. It covers all the bases that it should, considering of course that you're running Merry. I would argue however, that every deck that runs Elrond should run at least 1 Vilya, even if you're not setting up a Vilya engine. You never know when it might be useful.

Well, as promised, giving update after playing it some time. We played the 2nd and 3rd adventure of The Lost Realms and the first AP.

The healing power aspect plus being able to hold my own does work well, and as we didn't have anyone with a dedicated defender, Elrond and especially Treebeard were great in filling those roles.

One thing I noticed in all games was that I always feel extremely short on resources. I have definately enough card draw, as I was usually sitting there with 5+ cards in hand but no resources to play them. I am thinking about using Master of Lore in its original print version, as my group always plays cards as their printed text says, not sure what to take out for it instead though. If you have other ideas for smoothing my resource curve, please make some noise.

Depending on the scenario, I can see you replacing Treebeard with Bifur and then including the Treebeard ally in your deck. This would allow you (and your teammates) to transfer resources to Bifur while also allowing you to generate resources to pay for ents with Treebeard. It may even allow you to alter your deck a bit and include more of the Tactics ents being able to pay for them with Elrond/Treebeard (ally).

Blue Mountain Trader could help you manipulate resources as well.

Granted, losing Treebeard hero does mean you lose out on a lot of willpower/attack and you wouldn't be able to rely on having an ent in play to utilize Ent Draught and Entmoot.

In that case it would be a totally different deck. The whole point of this deck, which is pretty much the same as mine, is to rely almost completely on Treebeard for attack, defense and questing. Cards like Unexpected Courage, Self Preservation, Lembas and Ent Draught are supposed to go on him, so if you lose Treebeard, well, then it's a different deck altogether.

Your updated deck looks fine to me Puppenmaedchen. It covers all the bases that it should, considering of course that you're running Merry. I would argue however, that every deck that runs Elrond should run at least 1 Vilya, even if you're not setting up a Vilya engine. You never know when it might be useful.

I disagree, respectfully. Using Vilya comes with a hefty cost. Spending 2 resources, card space, and an exhaust from a powerful hero only to turn up a useless event or duplicate unique card could lose you some games.

My advice would be to focus on either a Treebeard healing deck or an Elrond Vilya deck, because trying to do both could stretch your deck too thin.

Your deck looks excellent, Puppenmaedchen. The only thing I would change is to put in more Unexpected Courage but that requires more core sets.

That's fair Seastan. I'll admit that it has whiffed as much as it has helped me. It's just that thematically, I can't conceive a deck that runs Elrond and not his ring of power. I still have 1 copy of it in my deck, even if only for thematic purposes. The deck is still very powerful. Another card that I also find very useful in this deck is Dont Be Hasty! I run 2 copies of it in my current version, and it's actually pretty good as a 1 shot action advantage for Treebeard. Dori is also a card worthy of consideration.

In that case it would be a totally different deck.

Yes, it would be different but it does give him options for resources. If he wants to keep Treebeard he could easily remove 3 Galadriel's Handmaidens and 3 Master of the Forges in place of 3 A Good Harvest and 3 Steward of Gondor. I imagine he would draw these two quite often with Peace and Thought.

Edit: Although maybe leaving in 1 or 2 Master of the Forges is still worth it.

In that case it would be a totally different deck.

Yes, it would be different but it does give him options for resources. If he wants to keep Treebeard he could easily remove 3 Galadriel's Handmaidens and 3 Master of the Forges in place of 3 A Good Harvest and 3 Steward of Gondor. I imagine he would draw these two quite often with Peace and Thought.

Edit: Although maybe leaving in 1 or 2 Master of the Forges is still worth it.

Well, this is for 3-4 players right? I think the leadership player will get upset if you pull out a Steward of Gondor from your lore/spirit deck.

But for solo, I agree. I use the Steward-Harvest combo excessively.

In that case it would be a totally different deck.

Yes, it would be different but it does give him options for resources. If he wants to keep Treebeard he could easily remove 3 Galadriel's Handmaidens and 3 Master of the Forges in place of 3 A Good Harvest and 3 Steward of Gondor. I imagine he would draw these two quite often with Peace and Thought.

Edit: Although maybe leaving in 1 or 2 Master of the Forges is still worth it.

Well, this is for 3-4 players right? I think the leadership player will get upset if you pull out a Steward of Gondor from your lore/spirit deck.

But for solo, I agree. I use the Steward-Harvest combo excessively.

He mentioned these heroes are the heroes blocked by other players (Galadriel, Glorfindel, Idraen and Bard, Hama, Dunhere) so I think he shouldn't have a problem utilizing Steward of Gondor (unless they are using Steward of Gondor / A Good Harvest).

Bleh, Steward-Harvest is so boring. Don't do it!

Bleh, Steward-Harvest is so boring. Don't do it!

but effective! lol.

How important is Merry to this? If you include some events to control your threat, then you could swap to tactics and get Mablung. Add in a copy of Rivendell Minstrel (Lore 3 cost ally that searches for a song) and include 2x of the song. It sounds like you are naturally engaging enemies anyways - and trees do love to trade hits with enemies - and Mablung can offer nice resource acceleration. Add in a Shield of Gondor - or get one from your other tactics player - and Mablung can help defend things as well. Maybe find room for Wingfoot for action advantage from him as well.

Granted, this is obviously taking things in a slightly different direction than previously, but it opens up a lot more ents to utilize and find with Ent Moot. Still using Wardens of Healing offers the group the healing you seek, but also gives you more ents than you can shake a stick at...

How important is Merry to this?

Merry is pretty important, I think. While his threat reduction is useful, what it seems he really does in this deck is provide access to cost effective readying (Unexpected Courage, Miruvor, Fast Hitch) all of which can be used quite effectively with Peace and Thought which really gets the deck going. Granted, I've never used it, but that seems to be the idea behind the deck.

That's a fair point. For standing, tactics just offers Boomed and trumpeted, which continues to focus on the combat side of things.

Could also drop merry for a leadership hero to get access to Cram, Heir of Mardil (to stand Elrond) and Steward of Gondor for resources. Theodred would be ok for more resources. Gloin could be an excellent fit with a song on him and the healing you already offer. Erkenbrand for a more dedicated blocker for the group. Or even Balin for some shadow card control.