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The New Telepathic Elves

by Bryce Journey

Ring Bearer and the One Ring:
Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles

Adventure Path:
Rohirrim Road
West Road
Hall of the Kings
Pelennor Prairie
City Gates
Minas Tirith Seventh Circle
Pelennor Grassland
Morgulduin
Slag Mounds

Free Peoples: (36 cards)
1 Legolas, Greenleaf (Starting)
1 Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath (Starting)
4 Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
2 Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men
1 Elrond, Venerable Lord
1 Cirdan, the Shipwright
1 Gil-Galad, Elven High King
1 Celeborn, Lord of the Galadrim
4 Elven Bow
1 Bow of the Galadrim
1 Long-Knives of Legolas
1 Aiglos
1 Gwemengil
1 Asfaloth
1 Elven Sword
2 Vilya, Ring of Air
1 The Splendor of their Banners
3 Glimpse of Fate
4 Blades Drawn
4 Forearmed

Shadow: (36 cards)
2 Sauron, the Lord of the Rings
3 The Witch-King, Black Captain
3 Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One
3 Ulaire Lemenya, Thrall of the One
3 Ulaire Cantea, Thrall of the One
4 Bill FernySwarthy Sneering Fellow
4 Drawn to Its Power
2 Black Marshal
4 Morgul Gates
4 Between Nazgul and Prey
4 Dark Swooping Shadows

Strategy

Telepathy Elves love to fight. This deck utilizes four of six new Mount Doom Elf Companions to assist in that purpose. Elrond helps keep them all alive with his healing game text. Cirdan has built-in game text to decrease minion's strength even more. Celeborn can wound minions without winning skirmishes. Arwen, the main fighter in the deck, takes advantages of wounds on minions much like the classic Elf condition Blades Drawn, only with an even greater potential. But perhaps the greatest addition Mount Doom brings to the Elven telepathy strategy is the condition Glimpse of Fate. This condition is ideal with Gandalf, Manager of Wizards gametext. Now, not only can you stack the top three cards of your deck for telepathy purposes, but when you do you can also decrease a target minion's strength by 4!

The Shadow side takes advantage of high-cost minions to further increase the effectiveness of the telepathy half of the deck. At the very worst, the Shadow side will slow an opponent down to allow time for the telepathy Elves to win the race to site nine. But the Shadow half of the deck also has a focus on corruption and has a real chance of pulling off the corruption victory condition. Utilizing the old Fellowship set card Drawn to Its Power with the new influx of Enduring Nazgul, combined with the new Mount Doom event Dark Swooping Shadows, corruption has the potential of happening real fast. Ideally, the Shadow player would like to use the Siege of Gondor set event Between Nazgul and Prey to take full advantage of Drawn to Its Power. But corruption can also be pulled off with the combo of the Thralls of the One Enquea and Lemenya. If both of those Nazgul are exhausted during the skirmish phase and each proceeds to use their game text (Enquea using his an extra time thanks to Lemenya), that's four burdens that Enquea adds in one skirmish! The other new Mount Doom card is the condition Black Marshal which is simply a way to put more wounds on Enduring Nazgul before the skirmish phase.

September 16, 2004