I understand there's staples to the Noldor archetype (Hero Erestor, Cirdan, Elven-Light), but I'm not sure on what really makes them work so well besides obscene card draw. What are the best targets for discarding besides Elven light, Lords of the Eldar, and Ally Glorfindel? Are cards like Eleven Jeweler and Spear good or more deck specific?
Please share your Noldor decks and thoughts.
Noldor is my favorite trait to build around for willpower decks. I look to Noldor to give me a deck which quests well but whose role doesn’t end with “O exhaust everyone to quest. See you next round!” Narya helps you achieve that. Ally Glorfindel also.
My go-to Noldor deck is blue and green, with Cirdan, Arwen, and Galdor. I would call Arwen more of a staple for the Noldor archetype than Erestor is— he defines your play style so much that he is really an archetype unto himself. I prefer Galdor over Erestor because I like a slower, deliberate play style in general.
Obscene card draw deserve To The sea! To the sea! use. With it you can put a huge ally in play each turn for 1 resource. I'm personally not looking for good card to discard (still play 3 elven light and 1 lord of Eldar though), I just think about the card that I need the less and discard them. A unic character that I have in 2X? discard! Any Ally that I don't plan to play this turn (or eventually next turn)? Discard! Since we draw a lot we don't need to preserve our hand.
I'm also playing Galdor over Erestor in Noldor. Not for a slower but at the opposite: I discard almost all my hand during mulligan procedure so I have the best chance to find to the sea! to the sea and the big allies. Then I have my hand empty on turn one (or two eventually) and redraw 6. In very few turns I got my deck empty with 6 to 10 allies and I'm able to do lord of Eldar each turn.
I'm in Arwen team too. And my third hero is Galadriel in multiplayer game and Denethor II in solo.
I think the thing which sets Noldor apart is the ability to use cards as resources in To the Seas! to the Sea! Or to discard them for various other effects.
The card draw is more about keeping stocked to trigger these abilities! All the cards you mentioned are very good.
heres a couple examples of decks that use all those cards and have strong use of the Noldor synergies. Feel free to ignore them if you want to come up with something all on your own!
http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/7806/the-swords-of-the-noldor-2-0-1.0
Definitely To the Sea, To the Sea. Hero Arwen is another staple.
Also, using hero Erestor frees you up to use the amazing Galdor ally. Galdor hero with Erestor ally is good, too.
U http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/106693
http://ringsdb.com/deck/view/99346
These were my attempts at a psuedo-Noldor deck.
My idea was a solo deck that showcases Elrond, without Vilya for flavor and personal challenege, prowess as he was when he was the Herald of Gil-Galad. It's not super tied into the traditional Noldor Archetype. It did put me on the path of some the aforementioned cards.
Edited by DezzyBassistI'd have to agree that To the Sea, To the Sea is the key Noldor card -- if you're running a Noldor deck, you want it, and if you're not, you don't. Arwen, Elven Light, Cirdan, and Erestor all work great in a Noldor deck, but they all work great without any Noldor allies at all. Just looking at ringsdb:
Number of pages of decks:
8 To the Sea, to the Sea!
6 + Elven-light
5 + Arwen hero
4 + Erestor hero
4 + Lords of the Eldar
3 + Cirdan
What about those cards without requiring TTSTTS?
38 Elven-light
30 Arwen hero
12 Cirdan
11 Erestor hero
7 Lords of the Eldar
Lords of the Eldar is used the majority of the time with TTSTTS, but the other cards are so darn useful that they are primarily used *outside* Noldor decks.