For a long time I have been waiting for the Thanduil hero card and I have to say that it leaves me a bit scratching my head.

On a plus side we finally get a defensice oriented Silvan hero at a decent threat cost but I am not sure what to make of his special ability. It is great that he does not need a ressource match for playing silvan allies, but his ability has no synergy with Galadriel and I cannot think of many scenarios in which playing allies during the fighting stage is benefial (in comparision with playing him in regularly.

It is woth to be mentioned that I have not played him until now (as I have all the packs but are due to a lack of spare time hopelessly behind in playing them. So am I missing something or am I not alone in being a bit underwhelmed by Thanduil?

Just have a look at some of those allies and their abilities to find out how amazing Thranduil is. For instance Rumil’s ability is normally wasted as there often is no enemy engaged with a player in planning but during combat there is. Woodland Archer is another great example, normally it is hard to get a good use, with Thranduil he is always useful. And the list will continue, plus, the resource smoothing, obviously...

14 minutes ago, RebelX said:

I cannot think of many scenarios in which playing allies during the fighting stage is benefial (in comparision with playing him in regularly.

There is a lot to say about Thranduil, but I will mainly address just this point… The following Silvan allies are generally better played in the combat phase instead of planning:

* Greenwood Archer (more choices of heroes to ready)

* Galadhon Archer (more likely to have an enemy to apply effect to, or at least have full information about board state to decide)

* Marksman of Lórien (ditto)

* Rumil (ditto)

Also interesting is that, on top of the resource smoothing, he lets you delay your decision on how to spend your resources on allies until later in the turn. Want to play a Silvan Tracker but worried you might need that Marksman in your hand this turn instead? Wait for the reveal, and if you don't need to shore up your attack power, go ahead and play the Tracker instead. Such flexibility should not be underestimated.

Yes, the delay is a great point, too.

Galadriel is great synergy in a Silvan deck but she doesn't define the archetype--- so "not synergizing with Galadriel" is not a strike against Thranduil, in my book. If anything, I like it because it encourages different decks to be built, rather than everyone building the same tri-sphere Silvan deck over and over. I haven't had a chance to play Thranduil yet but I like him very much. Looking forward to trying him out one of these days...

Well, I am happy to be wrong here, as I had high hopes for the charcater.

So I guess Thranduil shoulld be in a Silvan deck with a focus on fighting.

Which third hero would be best suited with the Thranduil - Legolas (tactics) tandem (in a silvan thematic deck and overall)?

You might be interested in this thread:

I still find Celeborn, Galadriel, Thranduil to be the best Silvan deck, and I have been meddling with this deck more than any other, probably, since early 2014. But as said many times, and this is the beauty of it, there are many good options...

...with the three above though, you want one ally for double duty in planning and another in combat (usually Archer, Marksman, Minstrel or Rumil, or the new Defender perhaps) and return one of them with an event...

Galadriel is still a Great 3rd hero, epsecially if you focus your deck in playing regularly 2 allies per round, one in planning and another in combact phase. Quite feasible but then you might have to be careful with you resource curve. New leadership event is great in this regard if you don't play steward.

However many option exist now. leadership monosphere with imrahil is indeed a super alternatives with no out of sphere event, sneak attack + gandalf recursion, multiple action vantage.

Yes, we touched upon it in the other thread. I have tested Elf Guide already and so far it has been gold. I do no go go Sneak Attack any more because of Thranduil and not even core Gandalf, though he seems obvious with Galadriel. I just like to focus on Silvan. I also only run just a single copy of A Very Good Tale and try to time its use really carefully.

I used custom tactics Thranduil before the official one, and frankly I like it better, but I am more bummed about his stats than his ability.

Why are you bummed about his stats? Silvan was lacking a good defender.

6 hours ago, RebelX said:

Well, I am happy to be wrong here, as I had high hopes for the charcater.

So I guess Thranduil shoulld be in a Silvan deck with a focus on fighting.

Which third hero would be best suited with the Thranduil - Legolas (tactics) tandem (in a silvan thematic deck and overall)?

Galadriel may not perfectly synergise with Thranduil, but she's still quite powerful in a deck with him. If you'd rather not use her though, Haldir or T Legolas are good choices.

3 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

Why are you bummed about his stats? Silvan was lacking a good defender.

Yes, he is good, especially once Silvan Tracker hits the table. But what especially makes things easier for defending with Thranduil, I find, is Quicker than Sight: such a fitting addition to the deck.

7 hours ago, RebelX said:

Well, I am happy to be wrong here, as I had high hopes for the charcater.

So I guess Thranduil shoulld be in a Silvan deck with a focus on fighting.

Which third hero would be best suited with the Thranduil - Legolas (tactics) tandem (in a silvan thematic deck and overall)?

Have you thought about Argalad? The two heroes you have are weak with questing, and Argalad can help with that. He might even be better with spirit Legolas for double-dipping

On 2/11/2019 at 3:55 PM, dalestephenson said:

Why are you bummed about his stats? Silvan was lacking a good defender.

Cos putting Elvenking on him does not give much, defending more than 1 enemy is not that often needed, and with his 1 attack and 1 willpower he not gonna do much other than defending - which makes other heroes better targets for Elvenking and that is not very lore-friendly. But that is just my quirk.

That’s one thing I agree, Elven-king is not so amazing for the readying effect. However, I find you do not want too many attachments in this deck filled with allies, and you already have O Lorien, Mirror of Galadriel and perhaps Nenya, all of which you might want three copies of (I was only playing one of Nenya when I had a Lore hero but now with Thranduil I run three copies). So, I am not particularly bothered that Elven-king is not that essential to the deck, but it can be still nice to have, especially as another utility to return an ally when needed.

It's true that Thranduil gets less benefit from readying from questing or readying for attacking than just about every other Silvan hero -- however, on the occasions where you *do* need a second defense, getting that is way more important than squeezing out just one extra point of willpower or attack routinely. I love readying attachments on defending heroes. Though I get your point -- I think it is actually most useful on a buffed-up Argalad, and thematically Elvenking should go best on Thranduil.

Celeborn is a decent candidate. Quest for 3 than use his stat in combat. However naith guide already allow him to quest without exhausting and Greenwood archer make you ready the hero you need more in combat phase. All-In-all elvenking is primarily a tool to save deck space in Silvan deck cutting the number of silvan events. Readying effect is more a side effect.

6 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

It's true that Thranduil gets less benefit from readying from questing or readying for attacking than just about every other Silvan hero -- however, on the occasions where you *do* need a second defense, getting that is way more important than squeezing out just one extra point of willpower or attack routinely. I love readying attachments on defending heroes. Though I get your point -- I think it is actually most useful on a buffed-up Argalad, and thematically Elvenking should go best on Thranduil.

Agree with both: in genereal Argalad is the best candidate because it is just so much fun to do the ‘double questing’ with him, but it is certainly useful to have that utility on a defender in need. For that matter, Celeborn is also not a bad candidate, more than he can be flexible with attack. What really helps though, is to have Woodland Archer ready and thanks to Thranduil be able to play him in combat: I just find that combo amazing.