Broken Token

[Kralik]

Those who have played this deck think that it is broken, but I prefer to think that I'm just clever. I currently have it paired with Corsair for certain cycling / discard playing reasons, but you may find a better way. Now just don't use it against me! Card numbers are tight, but it works (35 total each side):

FREEPS:
Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

1x 14R2 • Elladan, Son of Elrond (starting)
1x 14R3 • Elrohir, Son of Elrond (starting)
4x 18R12 • Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor
2x 18R11 • Galadriel's Silver Ewer
2x 15U16 • Gift of the Evenstar, Blessed Light
1x 18R7 • Celebring, Elven-smith
3x 18U8 Elven Armaments
2x 13R10 • Asfaloth, Swift Blossom
2x 7U15 • Ancient Blade
2x 13C13 Crashing Cavalry
2x 7C23 Into the West
3x 7R24 Leaving Forever
2x 11U26 • Uncertain Future
4x 7C29 Still Needed
4x 7C30 Uncertain Paths

SHADOW:
3x 8R51 • Castamir of Umbar
3x 10C37 Corsair Boatswain
2x 10R38 Corsair Brute
3x 8C54 Corsair Freebooter
4x 8R57 Corsair Marauder
3x 8C58 Corsair Plunderer
3x 10U39 Corsair Ruffian
4x 8C50 Black Sails of Umbar
1x 8U59 Corsair War Galley
2x 8R65 Ships of Great Draught
3x 10R46 Quelled
4x 8C66 Wind That Sped Ships

Basics:
You must get a few cards in play for this to work, and play it a bit by ear until you do. Namely, these are Galadriel's Silver Ewer, Gift of the Evenstar, Blessed Light, and of course, Gil-galad, High King of the Noldor. You can survive OK without the Ewer if you get Uncertain Future, but the latter is much easier for your opponent to discard.

Full Rundown:
*Celebring, ES helps with getting artifacts outs; Elven Armaments is a good all-around booster that helps vs. archery.
*Gil-galad takes Elvents into hand during Manuever.
*Elvents and twin bros both are powerful and add tokens. Overwhelm minions, unless they are fierce.
*Asfaloth, Swift Blossom heals with tokens. Overwhelm fierce minions on second skirmish.
*Recycle Still Needed if you don't have Gil-galad and Into the West yet (or if you want it with Leaving Forever).
*REGROUP MADNESS:

• Remove threats with Into the West and Still Needed (play Uncertain Paths later to shuffle it back in). Exert bearer of Asfaloth SB (usually Elrohir for me) or Galadriel.
• Discard opponent's conditions with Leaving Forever.
• Discard surviving minions with Ancient Blade.
• Set up Crashing Cavalry safeguard.
• Use Leaving Forever to draw (almost) as many cards as you wish to either move again or set up your shadow.
• Use Gift of the Evenstar, Blessed Light to play Uncertain Future, use Uncertain Future twice, then use Uncertain Future to play Leaving Forever. Leaving Forever discards Uncertain Future, recycle. This nets you two tokens for every ONE on the Gift of the Evenstar, BL. OR, if you want a 3-for-1, just use all three tokens and discard Uncertain Future during Manuever.

Once you have the setup you need, you'll be putting out very little twilight (if any) in the Fellowship phase. Discard extra copies of conditions you want to play during regroup if you have them in discard already (one use for Corsair Plunderer in my shadow pair). After everything you want is in discard, your doubling ability is very high. Facing an opponent's discard deck may actually help your cause!

Let me know your thoughts.

[Elrohir]

Hey, another one using leaving forever! Yes, it makes fun. Well, I do not think that it is broken..but it is a very strong combo.
My deck is another type. I will write it later...

[Kralik]

It's not really "unlimited combo" broken, but it may be a tad OP. It's self-sustaining!

[Elrohir]

Yes, there are other cards that discard minions in regroup.

Drawing cards like Move this way or the horn deck are same "near broken".

Long live the elves! Long live the elves!

[MR. Lurtzy]

I've used a deck very similiar to this one, though leaving forever is a very interesting addition that I may want to consider.

[Kralik]

Ah, Elrohir figured out a way to make it "truly" broken, but I'll leave it to him to announce if he wants.

[Elrohir]

Well, we should hope, our opponent will never play foot of mount doom. This makes the excessive strategy a bit ... weak.

[Elessar's Socks]

Ooh... interesting choice using Elladan and Elrohir. The Leaving Forever decks I've seen have been spamming Elven Marksmanship to give 10+ archery a site. I'll have to playtest this puppy.

[Pepin The Breve]

  Yeah, pretty annoying this elven deck if you ask me 

  There are some evil ways of shutting him down with some sitepath manipulation and there are always some nasty shadows that do their tricks even before skirmishes. But this Gil-Ga.. i mean...deck pretty much discard all conditions, remove all threats, heal all companions and overwhelm one or two minions with tons of event you get back adding threats. I always foun the regroup hability of the new Gil pretty OP (yeah, the maneuver too) but that was almost like fruity loops.

  Of course there are some ways to kill it, but i don't like the idea to make an deck specific to kill another (like i had to back in the Lady Redeemed days) or you will just sit and watch while your shadow strategy goes to the thin. Or maybe you got lucky and kill Gil at site 2 with some nasty evil combo before he evens get a chance of doing his tricks.

   Anyway, i must say that even i don't like in some way i have to admit is a nice deck! Maybe i'm just a little sad for being completely butchered by Gil and his twin grandsons   

   The good thing is that it motivates me to try harder some standard deck that is actually good.

[Kralik]

Well, we should hope, our opponent will never play foot of mount doom. This makes the excessive strategy a bit ... weak.

It would crimp it for a turn, but shouldn't be too bad. You only need one Leaving Forever in discard, and you could play Still Needed to your draw deck.

[Kralik]

A change that may be better:

Take out Ancient Blade, and use:

4x Still Needed
3x Uncertain Paths
3x Fleet-footed

I'm not so sure Ancient Blade is as useful as all that, since it would require 2 regroup actions to use (and by that point, your opponent has had a chance for theirs). Leaving Forever as good as reconciles your hand, and with more Elvents (and especially Fleet-footed) you shouldn't be seeing too many minions in regroup.

EDIT: Perhaps pair with a site-control shadow and Fleet-footed will be awesome! Imagine 7x Elvents stacked on your deck, 1 goes to bottom for Into the West, and you draw 6 for double move with Leaving Forever. Then 3 Uncertain Paths with Gil-Galad... mmmmmmm....

[flash]

i don't think that this deck is broken...only OP imho...there are certain ways to destroy it...maybe i will try them when i face kralik again...

[Kralik]

i don't think that this deck is broken...only OP imho...there are certain ways to destroy it...maybe i will try them when i face kralik again...

Flash beat me by running with his Freeps, but the deck does perform much better now that I added Asfaloth SB for healing.

[Gil-Estel]

EDIT: Perhaps pair with a site-control shadow and Fleet-footed will be awesome! Imagine 7x Elvents stacked on your deck, 1 goes to bottom for Into the West, and you draw 6 for double move with Leaving Forever. Then 3 Uncertain Paths with Gil-Galad... mmmmmmm....

But I'm pretty sure you can't spot sites you have in your supportarea that you have controlled in your shadow phase...Sorry

[Pepin The Breve]

   I'm sure that we have some shadows that just tottaly kills elven tokens, but that's only 10% of the shadows. So that's why i hate soo much the New Gil-Galad and Silver Ewer cause decks like this force you to play some kinds of decks. Anyway, i will stick with my old Standard decks and try to make a decent one...