I've always liked Caldara and I've wanted to make a Caldara deck for a while, but sadly I only have 2 core sets, which means only 2 copies of Fortune or Fate and Dwarven Tomb. Still, do you think it's absolutely necessary to have 3x of these cards for the deck to be good? And finally, what would you recommend in terms of new cards to include? I really want to try stuff like Herugrim + Steed of the Mark or Unexpected courage on Eowyn to help with attack. Has any of you tried this? Any suggestions are welcome.

I think that with the new Arwen Hero, no need of three copies of Fortune or Fate and Dwarven tomb.

I have build a new Caldara deck with powerfull result : Galadriel/Arwen/Caldara.

With Arwen, we have four ressources on turn one which could be crazy with :

If we have these two cards in hand, we could have four spirit heroes turn one.

These card became Free :

With the capacity of Arwen and Emery, it could be easy to have three allies in discard pile. If not it could be done with :

Then turn one, we could have Three Heroes and three allies put into play and Caldara in discard pile.

With Galadriel, you can play :

With these two cards, you can easily fetch Dwarven tomb or Fortune and Fate.

You can also use, the new Elven Light with Arwen in order to draw card and try to fetch the expected event.

In this deck, the Glorfindel ally from the dreamchaser cycle is awesome !

Thanks for the illustrated tips! However, I should've pointed out I don't want to build too modern a deck, as Galadriel is in my silvan deck and I don't have Dread Realm yet (otherwise, Sword thain would be a no-brainer.) I still want to build the classic Caldara, Glorfindel, Eowyn deck but with recent cards, such as Herugrim. Is it possible without 3 copies of FoF and Tomb and without Mirror and such?

The main issue without Galadriel for a Caladra deck will be card draw, especialy with Eowyn, would could empty you hand fast. So Mathom, Lindir and Hobbit Pipe would help. But FoF and Tomb are essential with Caladra. I think I would bet on the Harp and Gamling and a lot of Gondoir allies with their discarding effects to help with questing and location control. The idea is to sometimes discard and other times keep discarded cards in your hand.

Just don,t forget that the main issue with a mon Spirit deck is the lack of attack. Ah, if we had a few Spirit Ent allies...

Thanks for the illustrated tips! However, I should've pointed out I don't want to build too modern a deck, as Galadriel is in my silvan deck and I don't have Dread Realm yet (otherwise, Sword thain would be a no-brainer.) I still want to build the classic Caldara, Glorfindel, Eowyn deck but with recent cards, such as Herugrim. Is it possible without 3 copies of FoF and Tomb and without Mirror and such?

It could be possible but the lack of draw will be a problem if no Fortune and Fate in hand.

I have seen some deck with Eowyn & Herugrim but with Galadriel + Mirror.

Or use Good harvest and a few Lore drawing cards.

Caldara decks don't need to draw to be good, but it can help. My deck in this video got plenty of allies into play without draw cards. It uses Stargazer to make the top card of the deck Fortune or Fate or Map of Earnil so that you draw it naturally, since that's the only card you really need in your hand. The rest of the deck goes to the discard pile .

But now that Lindir's out, I agree he would make the deck better. As would Sword Thain and Arwen probably. And soon Glorfindel ally will help with attack.

I think I'll just post the deck I made so you can judge it. I should point out that this is just my idea of what the deck should be, as I've never played with Caldara before.

Caldara

Eowyn

Glorfindel

Emery x3

Westfold Horse breeder x3

Lindir x2

Elfhelm x1

Northern Tracker x3

Pelargir Shipwright x3

Ethir Swordsman x3

Arwen Undomiel x2

Imladris Stargazer x3

Zigil Miner x3

Hama x2

Light of Valinor x3

Map of Earnil x3

Steed of the Mark x3

Unexpected Courage x1

Herugrim x2

A Test of Will x2

Hasty Stroke x2

Fortune or Fate x2

Dwarven Tomb x2

Hidden Cache x3

Caldara decks don't need to draw to be good, but it can help. My deck in this video got plenty of allies into play without draw cards. It uses Stargazer to make the top card of the deck Fortune or Fate or Map of Earnil so that you draw it naturally, since that's the only card you really need in your hand. The rest of the deck goes to the discard pile .

Mouhaha! Yep, you're right, but I'M not yet at your level to build insanely cool decks!! Maybe when I retire... in 25 years...

Get the highest cost units like northern trackers or shipwrights in the discard pile via Stargazers-Miners, Emery, and Eowyn etc. Use Frodo or Merry as third hero. Use Caldara's ability then 'good meal - fortune of fate' her back in. 2 Trackers (3 with sword thain) for 3 cost is crazy good

I use to play Caldara a lot.

My choose for the heroes are: Caldara (of course), Galadriel and Eowyn. With Galadriel my threat is basically "freezed", so I can focus on get a strong board position before engaging most dangerous enemies. Also, with Galadriel I can play her mirror, which is incredible in this deck, and Nenya. I also play the typical Imladris stargazer - Zigil miner with hidden cache, and 2 copies Herugrim, which helps converting Eowyn in a killing machine (and solves the main problem of this deck which is the lacking of attack if you don't use Glorfindel).

I do not play Silver Harp, cause with 3 Dwarven tomb, and 3 map of Earnil I believe is enough to recover any card you could discard due to Mirrors of Galadriel.

With the recent spoiler of Arwen, I'm considering to switch Eowyn for her, and add a "noldor sub-theme" to the deck (Lords of the eldar, Elvish light, light of valinor...)

Also, sword-thain will be a must in new Caldara decks, and when the new Glorfindel ally will be released... it will be it's brightest ally.

Although it doesn't conform to the OP's conditions, I've been having a blast with my flavor of the modern Caldara deck. I've teamed her up with Eowyn and new Arwen: both have built-in discard effects, after all, and Arwen's resource acceleration is so, so sweet. Even sweeter is Sword-thain. The boosts it gives to Caldara and Pelargir Shipwright are among its most potent uses, and my deck stocks plenty of unique Spirit ally targets in the hope of getting Sword-thain into play as early as possible.

It's awesome to behold when this works out -- theoretically it can happen first turn with Emery and Arwen's resource boost (!). In a Meetup game last night, I got it going turn 2 thanks to Bilbo. Then it was just discard, discard, discard (which worked especially well against The Antlered Crown and all its hand-size punishment). I only hit the big Caldara button twice in the course of the quest, but bringing out a total of 6 high-cost Spirit allies during any action window of choice is amazing.

And when it *really* works, it's just bonkers: I once tested it against Watcher in the Water and managed to trigger Caldara FIVE times, I believe. I doubt I'd ever had 3x Northern Tracker, 3x Pelargir Shipwright, and 3x Ethir Swordsman out on the board before -- ironically, the quest doesn't even need that much willpower/location control. Striking Tentacle makes an undefended attack? Whatever: I had so many resources via the Caldara savings, Arwen, and a working Ziggy/Stargazer combo that I didn't even blink at offing Caldara the hard way and resurrecting her with Fortune or Fate. (Yes, 3x FoF and 3x Dwarven Tomb is ideal.) And there's something so satisfying about killing the Watcher with a mono-Spirit deck, especially when your heroes only have 1 attack each. Go Spirit Ladies of Middle-Earth!

Another nice thing about Sword Thain in a Caldara deck is that the Map of Earnil becomes free, giving you easy access to the events you discard.

I think what also really works with the Caldara Archetype is Elven-Light. because it works the opposite like most cards (play from the discard and it goes into your hand), you essentially have the choice with Arwen to either draw a card or get a resource (as it costs 1). I've used it to great effect, and Lindr also works with the archetype, as you will be emptying your hand regularly. Now all it needs is better combat or defense. Perhaps with the Spirfindel Ally that will be coming out, the archetype will be even better!