Elvents with Back to The Light and telepathy...help!

[Mythdracon]

I've always struggled trying to make the best Elven telepathy deck possible (we all know how picky I am). I decided Arwen is an amazing companion and starting first with her is a good idea. I stacked all my Elven rares and uncommons and such together and had many ways to go about it....but there were some dissonant themes therein: forest Elves, telepathy Elves, double-move elves, skirmish event elves, archery (or denial thereof via Elven Armaments) and so on.

Back to the Light I really want to use--I currently only have 2 copies of it but it looks awesome. Meanwhile I was thinking Arwen, Echo of Luthien with Mallorn Trees, and perhaps Gandalf, Manager of Wizards. But I also want to use the TD Gil-galad and Glorfindel, Eldarin Lord. Any decklists? I'm thinking strong competitive decks. Maybe some Elven Warriors to use up 2 other Elven Armaments too. Or Celeborn, Arwen and Galadriel with Wells of Deep Memory. Or the Shadows Legolas, Companion of the Ring for forest strength (going with no archery theme). :S

Problem mainly is, telepathy seems best suited to archery, i.e. companions that have 'Reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is an Elf card, soandso is an archer'

HELP!

[SomeRandomDude]

I made a telepathy deck that pwned once. Archery style.

(35 cards)

Galadriel, Bearer of Wisdom
The One Ring, The Ring of Doom

Legolas, of the Grey Company
Rumil, Silvan Elf

Elrond, Witness to History x 4
Aragorn, Driven by Need x 4
Orophin, Silvan Elf x 4

Nenya, Ring of Adamant x 3
Naith Longbow x 2
Elven Bow x 3
Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow x 2
Into the West
Still Needed x 4
Sword of the Fallen x 4
Refuge x 2

Lego + Naith, Rumil + Naith, Elrond + Elven Bow, Galadriel + Elven Bow, Aragorn + Aragorn's Bow.

Nenya stacks, Lego wounds, 7 archers, 2 Naith Longbow working well = currently 10 wounds + Gorn's Bow/Into the West potential, Elrond stacks Nenya, Still Needed great for stacking and tossing with Into the West to reset threats, 4x each comp + Refuge = healing.

Alternative: Drop Still Needed, run Gandy, Manager of Wizards + regroup toys for chucking minions and run like mad. If you use this strategy, go ahead and build the deck slightly large, run Tentacles + 4x Hides (a strategy I LOVE!) and filter like mad (Seriously, Foul Tentacle = 3 more + Huge Tentacle + Watcher = deck 5 cards slimmer).

Typical telepathy, though, does something COMPLETLEY different. This is very atypical. Typical telepathy likes Still Needed, Gandy, Manager of Wizards, Celeborn, Glimpse of Fate + Brooding (as you usually lose initiative), Gil-Galad + Into the West.

Telepathy is actually best suited to the skirmish phase. Because then you get Gandy and all his tricks, Gil-Galad's skirmish events and Celeborn's healing. But mess around with archery. I did that before RoS with the old Rumil and...other than taking a Mountain Troll to the face at site 2 (yeah, the set up tosses out a heckofalot of twilight) I usually pwned. Actually, I dropped Mountain Trolls quite frequently, about as often as they dropped me.

BTW, the old Rumil shouldn't be used. Run Lego, of the Grey Company and he provides the wound necessary to trigger Rumil, Silvan Elf, which is identical, except that Rumil is an additional strength and hunter 1.

[Mythdracon]

Thanks for the in-depth advice! What's the 4x Hides strat? I think I've seen it mentioned elsewhere before, but not figured out how it's better than simply using 4 other different cards (esp. as the deck I'm thinking of didn't have Dunlendings). :S

Do you have a typical Telepathy deck with Gil-Galad (TD), Elven Armaments and such?

[TheJord]

Hides is a great card for cycling, even if your not using Dunlendings

[SomeRandomDude]

TJ's right. Hides is there to cycle. There's not enough tentacles to make a big deck out of them, so dump Hides as a filler deck.

[Mythdracon]

But you have to play it in order to draw a card. I guess its use lies in triggering it at the right time? Otherwise it still looks like filler to me. O_o

[SomeRandomDude]

It is filler. That's it.

Pretty much you use it as "remove to draw a card." It does nothing else for you, but if you just want to cycle, its the best card for it.

[TheJord]

I know this is kind of off topic, but I know Mythdracon was saying about Dwarves and Elves pwning everything, well Dunlends rape and pillage (in true Dunlending fashion) both of them!

I am the master of Tower block Dunlends

[SomeRandomDude]

Unfortunately, Dunland dies outside of Tower block.

Inside, though, they pwn.

[Mythdracon]

True. Archery + discard in manuever = byebye ugly Dunlendings that hack and slash all. =(

[TheJord]

This is true, but Dunlends vs Dwarves in expanded usually results in Dwarf massacre bwuhahahaha!

[SomeRandomDude]

He has a point.

But...then again, the only person who runs dwarves in expanded is running discard. Dwarves aren't exactly tier 1 in expanded.

Run 'em standard.

[Elf_Lvr]

On topic, perhaps?

I wrote an article over on CC with a telepathy deck in it, I'll find a link.

Here.

Go to the decklist at 4.1.

I'm thinking maybe you could drop some of the swords in there for Armaments.

Honestly, Age's End Arwen is the only way to go with telepathy. Well, not the ONLY way, but it's probably the best Arwen for the job. And since she'll be generating threats, you probably don't need Gilly, but if you want him, tweak up the decklist a bit and see how it plays out. Either way, Into the West is a must.

I like a shadow with Orkish Camp, actually, esp. with Gilly. If you use Into the West/Attunement with Still Needed, unless you can shuffle your deck, you're stuck. Orkish Camp can drop those events from the bottom of your deck to your discard pile, to be taken back with Gilly.

[Mythdracon]

Nice decks there. Thanks for sharing. GP.