I have quickly come to understand that very many players of this game are huge proponents of Galadriel. I do understand why this may be true, but also have a few qualms about her, which I hope that this post may alleviate. My biggest issue is that she seems overly dependent on Nenya and some form of readying. Then, you can use both her ability and "quest" with her. But a good deck is one whose cards are not overly dependent on other cards always being in play to function. So, if Galadriel needs these cards, which I assume is not necessarily the case, it would make her pretty weak. (I have simmilar questions about Seastan's Boromir deck, as it seems overly reliant on a bunch of cards all being in play early on).

Anyway, thanks in advance for the help.

Not sure what the question is, but from looking at the card on Hall Of Beorn, without Nenya she is useful for both threat reduction and card draw, even in solo.

Until you attach Nenya, you can basically draw two cards each round, and not get the per-round threat increase. Seems like that would be handy in-and-of itself.

Attach Nenya and you get a choice of either that, or you can optionally give your questers a 4-willpower boost based on what card is drawn from the encounter deck (in the action window that comes after the encounter card is revealed, but before questing resolves).

I'd say it's quite a decent card, primarily to keep your threat down. Tho' I'm surprised about the 9 starting threat (I thought it was usually the sum of willpower, attack, defend, and HP, which is 8 for this card).

15 minutes ago, icabod said:

I'd say it's quite a decent card, primarily to keep your threat down. Tho' I'm surprised about the 9 starting threat (I thought it was usually the sum of willpower, attack, defend, and HP, which is 8 for this card).

Indeed normally it is the sum of stats, but Galadriel with her ability is a very strong card, and ifyouadd Nenya you have a two sphaire overpowered hero, thus the 9 instead of 8

she is one of my most loved heroes. When i manage to get her with the mirror and the harp that brings back discarded cards, any quest is almost over. Thats why i am not using her often ... she makes a lot of things easy

She can be very successful in a deck which doesn't even include Nenya. You see the 4 WP and think "she will quest," but maybe she doesn't have to. Depends on what your deck aims to accomplish. You could look at a hero like Beravor and see her ability and a blank statline, because you might never use it -- or, you could look at Beravor and see someone who could benefit from readying, thanks to her balanced stats. Galadriel's the same way. You can build a deck to support her with Nenya, or just include her for her abilities (the ally non-exhaustion thing is also really awesome). So hopefully that helps. If you've been thinking of her as relying on Nenya, you don't have to think that way. She's really much more than that.

Do not overlook her second ability! It’s bonkers. Galadriel is one of my top heroes.

I almost never included nenya. 4 willpower is great, but need a 2 card combo who don't do much separately is expansive. And most of the time winmore. If you enjoy to fix the lore sphere, or can profit of the ready of Galadriel by other way it could be great to include it. But the main use of Galadriel is to fix the threat for the whole game, to draw card and to enjoy two use of my ally the turn they arrive in play. I play her essentially in swarm ally (who usually are trait based deck).

Yeah even if you don't have nenya in the deck, canceling your threat raise and drawing an extra card is well worth the hero slot, you would be amazed. The extra one or 2 willpower a round from her passive ability is a cherry on top

I sometimes throw 1 Nenya into my Silvan deck but it's more for flavour than anything else. She's easily my favourite utility hero without it.

18 hours ago, Mostly_Harmless_Species said:

But a good deck is one whose cards are not overly dependent on other cards always being in play to function.

[Citation needed]

Seriously though, decks can be very successful while depending on certain other cards being in play if they have good card draw to find those important cards quickly (like, say, drawing an extra card per round from Galadriel plus using the Mirror of Galadriel to search for other useful cards).

Like others, I often don't bother using Nenya, but even when I do I almost always treat it as an emergency measure - I plan on not using it (except perhaps for the Lore access) but hold Galadriel back just in case I need that boost of 4 willpower. If I do, she's available and I trigger Nenya after staging (much like discarding to Spirit Eowyn); if not I use her ability. This approach handily removes the need for readying on her.

Also, you don't have to take our words for it, you can go watch videos of people playing decks which use Galadriel, or you can play such a deck for yourself. Experience is the best teacher.

I think the mirror is the more powerful Galadriel attachment. Even without protection from the discard effect, I usually keep what I searched for because her card draw keeps my hand full of other targets.

As for her disadvantage of not questing attacking or defending, once again I make up for that with the allies gained from the extra card draw. Then there is her ally ability to help with that too.

Next not to be overlooked (as I have said before) she is blue, which means a deck with her is automatically stronger by virtue of A Test of Will.

Add to all that repeatable threat reduction.

There are four pages of decks at ringsdb that have Galadriel with no Nenya -- of course, there's 20 pages with Galadriel *and* Nenya, so it's a minority view. I always pack Nenya with Galadriel, because 4 wp is handy, *especially* when you don't have to add it to the quest until you know you need it. But if it doesn't show up, she still earns her keep.

In my experience the Mirror reads "Search the top 10 cards of your deck for a card and add it to your discard pile".

I find that she's powerful because she is an exceptional glue card for many decks. She's great with Silvan and Rohan to get additional uses out of those allies, reduces threat, adds card draw, can add to questing with just one attachment. The ally questing effect is my favourite part of her abilities. One of the best utility heroes in the game.

As to cards needing to be out for a hero or card to be powerful, the game has certainly built to the point that needing a single card to activate a deck is really no big deal anymore. There are so many ways to get cards out now that I barely blink an eye at needing a single card!

14 minutes ago, NathanH said:

In my experience the Mirror reads "Search the top 10 cards of your deck for a card and add it to your discard pile".

Every time. Every ****ing time. I won't even use the mirror without a harp anymore because of blood pressure issues.

On 8/26/2018 at 1:03 PM, Mostly_Harmless_Species said:

But a good deck is one whose cards are not overly dependent on other cards always being in play to function.

So then you never play Vilya with Elrond?

3 hours ago, Bullroarer Took said:

Every time. Every ****ing time. I won't even use the mirror without a harp anymore because of blood pressure issues.

If it's every time, you can use the Mirror to thin your deck of unwanted draws then.

Play Galadriel/Arwen and use the mirror to find Elven-light.

12 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

Play Galadriel/Arwen and use the mirror to find Elven-light.

As much as I use Arwen (a LOT) I never put them together. I usually have a tougher time with no elven light but I never thought of this solution because I've never put them together. Good suggestion !

When I first saw Galadriel, I was dubious about a hero slot being used up without being able to contribute any stats.

Then I played her. Seriously, she's AWESOME.