Elrond - Lord of Rivendell

"At least for a while the road must be trod, but it will be very hard.  And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it.  This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong.  Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."

~ Master Elrond

The Lord of the Rings, Book Two,

Chapter Two: The Council of Elrond

Residing in the Last Homely House in the peaceful dell of Imladris is the Lord of Rivendell, the steadfast leader of the dwindling Elves of Middle-earth: Elrond.  Being nearly as old as Middle-earth itself, Elrond has lived through the First and Second Age of the continually shaped world and he continues to endure throughout the darkening Third Age.  Though his previous command has led to numerous victories over the forces of evil, including the overthrow of the Dark Lord Sauron at the Battle of the Last Alliance, evil has once again regained a foothold in the lands of Middle-earth, and it will take every last ounce of effort and determination from all the Free Peoples to achieve another victory.  

Just as Elrond is depicted as a powerful, surreal leader in Tolkien's literary works, he too is a force to be reckoned with as a hero in the Lord of the Rings: LCG.  As the final hero to be released in the Dwarrowdelf Cycle (in the Adventure Pack Shadow and Flame) Elrond provides several unique abilities and actions that can lead to both powerful and thematic conclusions.  So let's begin by looking at the hero card itself. 

At a threat level of thirteen, Elrond bolsters the highest threat of any hero to be released to date; however, he makes up for this by packing a serious punch comprised of all around strong stats. With three willpower, Elrond can quest very effectively, but three defense paired with four hit points means he is also an extremely efficient defender as well.  His attack strength of two is his lowest attribute; yet, there are ways of making even this better as we'll see in a little while. Finally, the Lore sphere is a strong fit for Elrond; however, he could have easily fit into any of the spheres due to the various roles his character enacts.  We'll see later how he can take up the mantles of each of these spheres.  

Fittingly, Elrond carries both the Noldor and Noble trait since he is the patriarch of his noble Elven bloodline.  Likewise, his Response text, which reads "After a character is healed by another card effect, heal 1 damage on it."  is also a further reflection of his character.  Elrond is one of the most skillful healers in Middle-earth and it is through this proficiency that he was able to save Frodo Baggins from a certain demise inflicted by a Morgul Blade on Weathertop.  

Elrond's second on-card ability reads: "You may spend resources from Elrond's resource pool to pay for Spirit, Leadership, and Tactics allies."  Once again, this ability provides a very thematic cohesion with Elrond's literary character since he is the one who called forth many of Middle-earth's warriors and leaders to discuss the fate of The One Ring.  Furthermore, it was at this council that Elrond ultimately led the formation of the Fellowship of the Ring, which in the Lord of the Rings LCG universe is comprised of heroes and allies from all four spheres (five spheres actually, if you count Gandalf, who hails from the neutral sphere!)  For a quick reference, Aragorn, Boromir, and Sam are each from the Leadership sphere.  Legolas, Gimli, Merry, and another version of Boromir are heroes represented by the Tactics sphere.  Pippin and the Strider version of Aragorn are from the Lore sphere.  Lastly, to complete the Fellowship, the ring-bearer, Frodo, and another version of Pippin hail from the Spirit sphere.  As it stands, even after Elrond foresees the formation of the Fellowship, his work in Middle-earth is far from over.

Now that we've covered the basics of Elrond's card-only attributes and abilities and how they mesh with theme and gameplay, let's take a look at a few ways to further increase his renown as he is pitted against the denizens of Middle-earth.  To begin with, there's multiple attachments that make make the Elf-lord a powerful hero to accompany the Free Peoples in any quest.  First and foremost is Vilya, the Ring, Artifact attachment created specifically for Elrond.  This attachment reads "Attach to Elrond. He gains a Spirit resource icon."  Without this ability, Elrond is still capable of purchasing Spirit allies through his on-card ability; however, once Vilya is attached he can now expand fully into the Spirit sphere and use his resources to purchase attachments and events as well.  Rather than acting as a simple Song of Travel, however, Vilya's real power lies in its other ability.

Vilya carries the Action ability to "Exhaust Elrond and Vilya to reveal the top card of your deck.  You can immediately play or put into play the revealed  card for no cost, if able. Otherwise, move the revealed card to the bottom of your deck."  This vastly powerful ability has been argued by some to break the game due to its ability to get powerful cards into play virtually for free; however, let's take a closer look at what it actually does.  At its surface, Vilya is without a question a great attachment, but it is important to realize that to use it, you must exhaust Elrond, thereby halting any support he would add to the questing, attack, or defense phase.  Of course there are obvious ways around this, such as an Unexpected Courage attachment or various readying effects, but those can also take time to locate, purchase, and put into play.

The real explosive potential of Vilya bursts forth when other Elven allies that seem to be designed specifically for this attachment to excel come into play.  The first of whom is the Master of the Forge, who like his leader, hails from the Lore sphere.  This Elven blacksmith has about the lowest stats possible for any character so he's not much use in the field except to serve as troll bait, but it's not his stats that matter, it's his ability to exhaust and "search the top 5 cards of your deck for any 1 attachment and add it to your hand. Shuffle the other cards back into your deck."  Simply put, the Master of the Forge is designed almost exclusively to search for Vilya in order to add it to your hand more quickly and get it into play as soon as possible.  He can, of course, work to find other attachments too, such as the Unexpected Courage previously mentioned, as well as Light of Valinor, which when attached to Elrond, allows him to contribute to the quest phase without exhausting.

Now that Elrond has his Forge Master in play to fetch him all the powerful attachments he requires as he journeys across the wilds of Middle-earth, it's time to look at some more allies that further benefit the Vilya-equppied hero.  Also from the Lore sphere is Gildor Inglorian, a five cost ally with undeniably stellar stats.  Gildor's on-card Action reads "Exhaust Gildor Inglorian to look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Switch one of those cards with a card from your hand. Then, return the 3 cards to the top of your deck, in any order."  This is quite a potent action that a player may take if they choose to exhaust Gildor and disregard his amazing stats.  Likewise, it allows for player deck scrying of the top three cards, acquiring one of those cards into your hand and then being able to put the other replaced card into play instantly if you use Elrond/Vilya.  But what if the top three cards isn't enough scrying to fit your fancy?  In that case, the Spirit ally Imladris Stargazer can be activated for a small cost of two resources.  Her Action text reads "Exhaust Imladris Stargazer to choose a player. That player looks at the top 5 cards of his deck and returns them to the top of the deck in any order."  While this ability does not allow you to switch and keep one of those uncovered cards with one already in your hand like Gildor's does, it does allow you to look at almost double the amount of unknown cards on the top of your player deck.  In turn, any one of these may be placed back on top and activated instantly with Elrond/Vilya.  For a truly bombastic scrying interaction, you could use the Imladris Stargazer first to look at the top five cards of your deck and place the three most favorable ones at the top.  Next, Gildor's ability could be activated to switch one of those top three cards with one from your deck, and finally, Elrond/Vilya could finish off this epic combination by instantly activated the best card of your choice!

While Gildor Inglorian and the Imladris Stargazer are natural additions to enhance the ability of Elrond/Vilya, they also serve to add a thematic presence as well since they both carry the Noldor trait and are subjects of Lord Elrond.  A couple other allies that may not directly synergize with Vilya but are still natural matches for an Elrond led player deck are Erestor and Arwen Undomiel.  Being a four cost Leadership ally, Erestor is the chief counselor of Elrond's household in Rivendell which, in turn, pairs nicely with his on-card Action that allows him to "Choose and discard 1 card from your hand to draw 1 card. (Limit once per round.)"  This ability serves as a useful way to get rid of duplicate unique items (such as an extra Vilya) and also fuels the card drawing and scrying mechanism that Gildor and the Imladris Stargazer are powering.  Furthermore, Erestor does not have to exhaust to carry out this action and his decent stats in willpower and hit points make him a great ally to accompany Elrond as they depart from Imladris.  

Of all the allies available, one of the most natural followers of Elrond should be his own daughter, Arwen.  After a couple of Adventure Packs where she was strictly an objective ally, Arwen finally received her ally incarnation into the Spirit sphere.  Costing a mere two resources, Arwen carries the Response ability: "After Arwen Undomiel exhausts, choose a character. That character gains sentinel and gets +1 defense until the end of the round."  The most useful way to use this ability is to commit Arwen to the quest phase followed by selecting an already strong defender to be even better at it for the impending combat phase.  Elrond has a base defense of three; so, if Arwen allots her ability to her father, he gains a whopping four defense as well as the sentinel perk which allows him to block any other player's attacking orcs, trolls, or wargs.

Overall, there are several other Elven allies that also work well in the context of this sort of player deck, and by the looks of the early teasers for the next cycle, The Road Darkens, it appears that there will be even more Elf goodness arriving this year.  However, instead of being focused on the Rivendell bloodline of Noldor Elves, it will be more focused on the Lothlorien and Mirkwood based Silvan Elves.  But that's a different blog post for a different day!  

Up to now, nearly all of the attachments and allies discussed have been from the Lore and Spirit sphere (with the exception of Erestor.)  Elrond has been shown to be highly skilled at questing as well as a defender (even more so when his daughter assists him) but what about attacking?  With a base attack strength of two, Elrond is certainly capable at combat but unfortunately he is still no Legolas. There are, however, a couple specifically Elven-themed Tactics attachments that can be given to the Master of Rivendell to add a bit more ferocity in the heat of battle. While the Master of the Forge may retrieve attachments for Elrond on the surface, he is also creating weapons behind the scenes as well in his Rivendell forge.  Eventually, he forges and retrieves the Rivendell Blade and Rivendell Bow for Elrond to take with him on his journey to the Wilderland.  Unfortunately, Elrond cannot use his resources to pay for these attachments, but if there is a Tactics hero in play, they certainly can.  Once equipped, these skillfully forged weapons can give Elrond the edge he needs if he faces down an enemy on the battlefield.  After all, he was one of the leading commanders of the Battle of the Last Alliance during the First Age.  If the need arises, he can wield a blade or bow in an adrenaline-fueled heartbeat.  

A handful of the best allies and attachments that are available to aid Elrond have been discussed; now, it's time to mention some of the key event cards that also pertain to the Elf-lord.  In this section, though, instead of discussing events that boost Elrond/Vilya in card draw and player deck scrying, the events that feature Elrond himself on them will be analyzed.  Similar to what we've seen so far, these events are primarily found in the Lore and Spirit sphere.  First up is Elrond's Counsel, a zero cost Spirit event that carries the activation Action: "If you control a unique Noldor character, give another character +1 willpower until the end of the phase and lower your threat by 3."  One of the most iconic uses for this event would be to partition its willpower boost to a questing Arwen followed by Arwen giving a defensive upgrade to her father.  Elrond's presence and fatherly counsel inspires Arwen to be more determined as she is questing and in turn, her accompanying Elrond makes him realize the importance of her safety and his defense is hardened.  Now how's that for a thematic fusion?

Two additional Lore Event cards featuring Elrond are Lore of Imladris and Needful To Know, both of which cost two resources.  To further enhance Elrond's skillful healing ability, Lore of Imladris is perhaps the best single-use healing card in the game with the Action to "Choose a character. Heal all damage from that character."  Serving an altogether different role, Needful To Know is activated with the Action: "Raise your threat by 1 to look at the top card of the encounter deck. Then, reduce your threat by X, where X is the threat of that card."  This may be a risky action to take if you're unsure of the next encounter card (it could be a treachery, which would end up yielding no threat reduction and a wasted two resources.)  However, if other encounter deck scrying effects are in play and you know the top card does carry a high threat, Needful To Know could be a great way to reduce your threat before it enters the staging area.  Overall, neither of these two Lore Event cards necessarily have to be used in conjunction with Elrond; however, they do provide an alluring thematic element if they are.   

That just about sums up this post on the Lord of Rivendell.  As you can see, Elrond is a very powerful and well-rounded hero to use in your harrowing quests throughout Middle-earth.  For a solid solo deck, Elrond fits well with Mirlonde (who is able to reduce his high threat by one) and Spirit Glorfindel who serves to generate Spirit resources and is another one of the best heroes in the game.  For an even more thematic deck, Elrond can be paired with his two sons, Elrohir and Elladan.  However, since all three of them together in a solo deck create a starting threat of 33, it is advisable to find a way to make a two-handed, dual deck approach such as having Elrond, Mirlonde, and Elrohir featured in one deck and Elladan, Legolas, and Spirit Glorfindel in the other.

Thanks for reading and leave a comment about any other heroes, allies, attachments, or events that you've found to be particularly effective (either thematically or mechanically) when paired with the Master of Rivendell.