Hi all,
I’ve been considering throwing this deck out for some advice for a while, and have decided that it needs fresh eyes on it to step it up a notch.

Heroes (27 threat):
Elrond
Legolas
Glorfindel (Spirit)

Allies (27 cards):
3 x Descendant of Thorondor
3 x Winged Guardian
3 x Vassal of the Windlord
3 x Eagles of the Misty Mountain
2 x Landroval
3 x Henmarth Riversong
2 x Master of the Forge
2 x Arwen Undomiel
3 x Radagast
3 x Gandalf

Attachments (12 cards):
2 x Rivendell Blade
2 x Support of the Eagles
2 x Protector of Lorien
3 x Light of Valinor
3 x Vilya

Events (18 cards):
3 x Hands Upon the Bow
3 x Feint
3 x The Eagles are Coming
3 x Daeron’s Runes
3 x A Test of Will
3 x Elrond’s Counsel

Total: 57 Cards

It’s based, as you can see, on a tonne of eagles, backed up by elves (and two Istari) and I’m keen to keep to that theme if at all possible. The idea was to make up a deck that, moreover, that doesn’t use leadership at all, and so avoids my typical crutches: SoG and Sneak Attack. This does mean it has trouble with threat gain quests, and it tends to ride its luck at the start. It also started as an effort to use Legolas in solo with the Hands Upon the Bow doubling with Rivendell Blade and Support of the Eagles making him capable of one-shotting a bunch of heavy hitters. The lack of Spirit cards (only 1 ally, 1 attachment, and 2 events) is partially to allow Glorfindel to be the main payment route for Gandalf and Radagast. I realise it’s a way too big a deck, even if we count The Eagles are Coming and Daeron’s Runes as kinda free draws. So, all comments welcome!

I would cut some of the Eagles surely. 3x Vassal, 1x Guardian, 1x Descendant, 2x Misty Mountains, 1x Landroval. Add Stargazer x3 and the third copy of Rivendell Blade. Get the Gazer+Vilya combo going and you needn't worry much about resources anymore. Cut Eagles are Coming - it won't be usually good to have the cards in your hand - you want them get to play for free via Vilya. Cut Radagast to 1 copy max.

That's some excellent thoughts there. For some reason it never occurred to me to get the eagles out through a controlled playing of Vilya, and so I just dumped all of them in! When I try to plan a deck it tends to lack finesse. With your cuts I think it gets down to 50, which is perfect. Thanks, I'll try it out soon! Any other thoughts from people?

Remember that Light of Valinor is a unique attachment (something I've forgotten in the past). Keep three, for Glorfindel needs them, but consider Unexpected Courage for Elrond if you find you need him for more than just the ring.

And Asfaloth is also a good choice with Glorfindel…

Yeah, the one problem with these great heroes is that they require quite a few cards each. Glorfindel wants three copies of Valinor to get the double use early (which is just great) and not to raise the threat too much. He also wants his horse (which is great again). Elrond needs Vilya and Unexpected Courage (more copies preferably, if able) since he's so good at questing, defending (which can happen more than once a round) and using the ring. And once you have Legolas, you're bound to include Rivendell Blade and Hands Upon the Bow. And of course, Counsel, Runes, Test, they're all essential or very hard to pass.

Finally, for now, you might also want to consider A Burning Brand, if you also get Courage on Elrond. And perhaps drop a copy of Protector.

lleimmoen said:

I may pop in a copy or two of UC, although I often put Valinor on Elrond, as the deck doesn't have much trouble questing, so I rarely use Glorfindel for it. It really depends on the quest. It gets hard to escape all the crutches of deck building (and UC can be a hell of a crutch). As to Asfaloth, I don't know. It's another (unique) attachment, and I'm yet to be convinced that Asfaloth, as seems to be claimed at times, makes the travel phase obsolete. It's a help, but not that good. So many locations are distances of 4-7 now that Asfaloth barely dents them, event over several rounds. But help it does, I guess.

Protector out for Burning Brand in is good. Not sure why I didn't have it in before. But I do want to keep the Eagles as a major theme, otherwise it's in danger of becoming Elves, with some birds, rather than Birds, with some elves. Thoughts very much appreciated everyone! Should have got involved like this sooner!

I´d suggest cutting down on the number of copies of your unique attachments. Once you get them in you have no more use for further copies. Consider instead dropping the extra so your deck will be 50 cards. This in itself will help you as you draw from a smaller pile of stuff. If, on top of that you ad 3 copies of Word of Command (considering your high inclusion of Istari characters anyway), then you should be able to draw a few of the unique cards you want at start and have a good opportunity to get your grubby little hands on some more without running the risk of sitting with 3 vilya on hand

I also recomend to remove Henmarth Riversong or at least reduce to 1 copy max.

I altered the deck to fit some of the reccs here, and tried it vs Down the River Anduin and also Massing at Osgiliath. It won both at a canter (although for Massing this was partially down to an excellent starting hand!) and it plays very well now. Sadly lacking a bit in Eagles, but undeniably the deck is more powerful for it! Many thanks for the suggestions put out, I'll put the full list up when I get the chance to do so.