I've always liked the idea of secrecy in this game. I'm not the bloodthirsty type, I suppose. Been playing with this Elrohir & Glorfindel deck for a little while now through the early quests, both solo and two-handed with a deck that contains Elladan, and have enjoyed it so far.

http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/1717/the-hidden-vale-2.0

Original focus was on readying effects to make up for the natural lack of warm bodies in a two-hero setup.

The Leaf Brooch opens up a lot of free, repeatable actions (Swift and Silent, Elven-Light, Courage Awakened) once things fall into place. Card draw becomes generous by mid-game, and resources haven't proved a major problem to date (what deck isn't slow in the first couple of turns?) so I haven't felt a crying need for Resourceful (3 cards in 50 wouldn't be consistent enough to make much difference, especially when there are already "essentials" I want to mulligan for).

All I really need is an ally Elladan (see my effort in the Creative thread ) to puff up Elrohir's defence to super-elf status.

How does Secrecy fare these days? I've played Lost Realm, but nothing after and a lot of gaps before (the only complete cycle I own in Dwarrowdelf). Any cards or combinations I've overlooked for this sort of setup?

Lords of the Eldar and maybe Lindir come to mind, but that's an expansion i don't have yet. Good idea?

Cross-posting the possibly too-suitable Elladan dream card:

Has anyone ever tried Hama (hero) + Leaf Brooch?

Would probably work well with the new 2-hero stuff.

I am so hoping for Elladan and Elrohir allies so that the brothers can work by themselves. It'll help to open up thematic Noldor decks into the Tactics and Leadership spheres and make both heroes much more playable in solo.

I really enjoy Secrecy decks too. They never quite seemed to work back in the Dwarrowdelf days, certainly not with only two heroes. Now that we have more options for resource generation and card draw, I think it's a little easier to make it work. I've been able to get pretty good results with Aragorn and Arwen, with Arwen providing both the extra resources and card draw needed.

It's still hard to muster the needed willpower and combat strength quickly enough (and reliably) for many modern quests though--a low starting threat doesn't really make up for the loss of a resource per turn, a hero action per turn, and an extra set of useful stats right off the bat. It's really fun to pilot, though.

Has anyone ever tried Hama (hero) + Leaf Brooch?

Would probably work well with the new 2-hero stuff.

I remember when Leaf Brooch first came out I was excited about it, but I wasn't able to get it to do much. It shines more now that we have a host of repeatable events like Swift and Silent and Elven-light. Hama + Leaf Brooch is a good idea... I might have to try it.

I feel very silly for not using Resourceful until now. Relying on Leaf Brooch for managing resources was if nothing else not consistent enough. Getting both in play on Glorfindel is great.

And especially good in campaign as Frodo can pay for neutral cards.

Updated to version 3.0

http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/1747/the-hidden-vale-3.0

I really enjoy Secrecy decks too. They never quite seemed to work back in the Dwarrowdelf days, certainly not with only two heroes. Now that we have more options for resource generation and card draw, I think it's a little easier to make it work. I've been able to get pretty good results with Aragorn and Arwen, with Arwen providing both the extra resources and card draw needed.

Isn't it a struggle to play unique allies when there's only one copy of each in the deck? I've been using 2x (and 3x Erestor because he's quite important to the deck) for consistency, but it does take up space and waste draws once they're in play. The discard effects don't even make good use of them because I'm mostly discarding Elven-light over and over (for mostly wasted draws...)

Excited to try Guardian of Rivendell (godawful art, otherwise decent looking card), which should ease the need for Erestor's discarding ability. A neutral sphere ally is great and I played a Guardian from Rivendell in LotRO.

Going to proxy up some Vanish From Sight for my next game, too. The deck gets quite strong defensively so maintaining secrecy isn't as important as simply using it to play secrecy cards at the right times. Would have really helped in the games I've played where Elrond's Counsel hid at the bottom of my deck the whole game, or when Glorfindel doesn't get Light of Valinor right away. Worth a try imo.

I really enjoy Secrecy decks too. They never quite seemed to work back in the Dwarrowdelf days, certainly not with only two heroes. Now that we have more options for resource generation and card draw, I think it's a little easier to make it work. I've been able to get pretty good results with Aragorn and Arwen, with Arwen providing both the extra resources and card draw needed.

Isn't it a struggle to play unique allies when there's only one copy of each in the deck? I've been using 2x (and 3x Erestor because he's quite important to the deck) for consistency, but it does take up space and waste draws once they're in play. The discard effects don't even make good use of them because I'm mostly discarding Elven-light over and over (for mostly wasted draws...)

Well, any card included at 1x is never going to show up reliably, but when it comes to allies, they often don't have to. At the end of the day, I just want to hit a critical mass where I have enough stats to cover questing and combat. In this deck, their abilities are just gravy. The second copy of any given unique ally could become a dead card, and since I don't particularly care which allies I'm getting down I'd rather put a different ally in instead.

It's probably different for your deck, though, at least as far as Erestor is concerned since your heroes don't have any "native" discard abilities to keep Elven-light going.

Deck has a lot less moving parts with Arwen hero.

http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/1772/the-hidden-veil-1.0

Would 2 Leaf Brooches add up to Secrecy 2?

Would 2 Leaf Brooches add up to Secrecy 2?

I have always played that Secrecy keywords stack, but I'm not aware of any ruling that clarifies it for certain.

http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/1812/the-hidden-vale-4.0

Original deck updated for a go at campaign mode. Didn't miss Resourceful at all, but that was probably due to Frodo's help in paying for neutral sphere cards.

Timely Aid gone as per suggestion. Seems a sensible decision.

Close but successful, after one false start (I need to learn what a good starting hand looks like).

I feel like there's too many cards in the deck intended to get it working re: card draw, resource generation, action advantage etc. and not enough cards that have powerful effects and the game. After 4 or 5 turns I can have stacks of resources and 10 cards in my hand (with the option to easily draw more) and nothing much worth playing (because most of those cards help me draw cards etc.)

Ditching Miruvor x3 in the next version in favour of O Elbereth! for something resembling punch against annoying, tough enemies. Lords of the Eldar hasn't pulled its weight so far, being most useful when I have a full party of Noldor in play, and therefore usually the quest well in hand (3 resources - 2 with leaf brooch - for +1 defence or a couple of attack at important moments is rather expensive).

Guardian of Rivendell has been very good. The new Strider attachment is very good (enough to drop one copy of Light of Valinor from the deck). Courage Awakened has been MotM is most recent games. Vanish From Sight situational but with O Elbereth! around becomes more useful.