The Moneymaker

By Seastan, in Strategy and deck-building

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I call this deck the Moneymaker because of its enormous resource-generating potential.

Total Cards: 50
Heroes (starting threat: 26)
Arwen Undómiel ( The Dread Realm )
Gríma ( The Voice of Isengard )
Théodred ( Core Set )
Allies (15)
3x Ethir Swordsman ( The Steward's Fear )
3x Anfalas Herdsman ( The Steward's Fear )
1x Galdor of the Havens ( The Treachery of Rhudaur )
2x Henamarth Riversong ( Core Set )
1x Quickbeam ( The Treason of Saruman )
3x Gandalf ( Over Hill and Under Hill )
2x Treebeard ( The Antlered Crown )
Attachments (17)
3x Steward of Gondor ( Core Set )
2x Miruvor ( Shadow and Flame )
3x Unexpected Courage ( Core Set )
3x A Burning Brand ( Conflict at the Carrock )
3x Protector of Lórien ( Core Set )
3x Keys of Orthanc ( The Voice of Isengard )
Events (18)
3x A Test of Will ( Core Set )
2x Dwarven Tomb ( Core Set )
3x Elrond's Counsel ( The Watcher in the Water )
3x Elven-light ( The Dread Realm )
1x Will of the West ( Core Set )
3x Daeron's Runes ( Foundations of Stone )
Deck built with Rivendell Councilroom
The idea here is you get tons of money, tons of cards, tons of questing, tons of defense, tons of attack, and tons of cancellation. What else do you need?
Money cards all go on Arwen. She will get 1 (natural) + 2 (steward) + 1 (discard) + 1 (Theodred) +1 (Keys) = 6 resources each turn. With Grima and and Theodred's resources, and Grima's ability, you net 9 resources a turn. Crazy.
Card draw comes from Elven Light. You can discard it as much as you want once you have Protector in play (3 discard/phase/Protector limit which is not much of a limit at all), so you can turn any number of Arwen's 5 resources into cards.
Questing comes from Arwen, Gandalf, and some Outlanders (which can be replaced by Ents if you don't like them, just put the Keys on Grima instead to balance out the need for more lore).
Defense comes from Grima+Unexpected courage+Protector+Brand. It's easy to get him up to 7+ defense and defend 3+ times a turn with shadow cancellation. Crazy.
Attack comes from Gandalf, Treebeard, Quickbeam, Galdor, and even Theodred if you use one of the UC on him.
Tons and tons of threat reduction. You can easily keep Gandalf in play from turn 1 (yes Arwen/Grima lets you play him turn 1!) without threating out. Crazy.
Lots of fun to play too. Try it out!
Edited by Seastan
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It seems a shame not to include Harbor Master! Other than that glaring omission, quite a fun looking deck.

What do you need to find ASAP? Just elven light?

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I hope you post a video of this deck in action!

I just built the deck with my actual cards, I will try it tonight. :D

Edited by Lecitadin
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Yep, tried the deck (against Passage through Mirkwood Nightmare ), it's really fun and powerful!

They've created a serious loop with Arwen and Elven-light!!! As soon as you get a copy of Elven-light in your hands, it's one more card draw each turn! Discard Elven-kight, get the resource on Arwen, respend the resource to pay for Elven=light from your discard pile... and draw! Gets crazier with Galdor, which let's you draw one card when you discard Elven-light!!

I'll replace the 3 x Orthanc keys with some healing cards, it was badly needed for my heroes.

Edited by Lecitadin
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It seems a shame not to include Harbor Master! Other than that glaring omission, quite a fun looking deck.

What do you need to find ASAP? Just elven light?

You're right, this would have been the perfect opportunity to fin in Harbor Master!

And yeah, just Elven Light. Once you have it you can draw into all the other cards quite easily.

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With all the threat reduction in this deck, I may try it with the Palentir (on Arwen with UC), to get a nice control over the encounter deck.

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Another good way to use Elven-light without Arwen is to combo it with Steed of Imladris.

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Here you go!

Video

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Watching that video confirms what I thought, Elven Light is insane card draw with Leadership. It was fun to see your deck in action. How often do you find yourself missing combo pieces (like elven light) or required survive-the-first-two-turns cards?

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Watching that video confirms what I thought, Elven Light is insane card draw with Leadership. It was fun to see your deck in action. How often do you find yourself missing combo pieces (like elven light) or required survive-the-first-two-turns cards?

Yeah Elven light is crazy, but with just Arwen it's only ok. It's the fact that Protector of Lorien lets you discard it so much that is can turn into some some serious card draw.

The fact that it can get Gandalf or Treebeard into play on turn 1 actually makes it have a very solid start, even more so than some of my other decks.