To the Sea!

"To the Sea, to the Sea! The white gulls are crying.
The wind is blowing, and the white foam is flying."
                       –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Chart your course, raise anchor, and hoist the mainsail. The Grey Havens deluxe expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is now available at retailers throughout the United States! Availability in other regions may vary.

With its three new scenarios, two heroes, and thirty-nine player cards (three copies each of thirteen different cards), The Grey Havens carries you over the waves and deep into the heart of an epic, new adventure. It all begins when several of Middle-earth's greatest heroes receive a summons from Círdan the Shipwright, asking them to meet with him at the Grey Havens. There, they are introduced to Lord Calphon, a wiry, middle-aged nobleman from Dol Amroth whose dreams have been haunted by images of an island littered with ancient Númenorean ruins.

In The Grey Havens, you control these heroes and help them lead Lord Calphon to his mysterious island. You'll sail the seas, battle Corsairs, explore uncharted lands, and report your discoveries back to Círdan and the Grey Havens. Along the way, you'll find yourself confronted not only by Corsairs, but by the Undead, sudden storms, rolling seas, and the lingering malevolence of Lord Calphon's mysterious isle.

Additionally, every deluxe expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game serves as a new entry point to the game's high fantasy adventures, and The Grey Havens opens up an all-new region of Middle-earth, full of powerful Ships, sailing, thrilling exploration, Noldor Elves, and twelve encounter sets that introduce a wide variety of distinctive, new challenges.

Setting Sail

Along with the new regions of Middle-earth that they reveal, all of your deluxe expansions for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game provide a wide array of new player cards that can help you rise above the challenges before you. The Grey Havens is no exception in this regard, and you'll find a host of Noldor waiting for you in Mithlond. You'll also find new attachments and events for each sphere, all of which play to the expansion's nautical themes, as well as its focus on expanding the Noldor mechanics that were first introduced in the Angmar Awakwened cycle.

Although you don't need any of the Angmar Awakened Adventure Packs to play through The Grey Havens, they established many of the various new ways that the game's Noldor might interact with the cards in your hand and discard pile. Noldor-themed cards like Arwen Undómiel (The Dread Realm, 140), Elven Jeweler (Escape from Mount Gram, 33), and Elven Spear (The Treachery of Rhudaur, 87) introduced discard mechanics that allow you to convert the cards in your hand into beneficial effects. Meanwhile, cards like Elven-light (The Dread Realm, 145) and Lords of the Eldar (The Battle of Carn Dûm, 121), supported these new discard mechanics indirectly by offering valuable effects that you could only trigger from your discard pile.

Now, The Grey Havens introduces several new ways that your Noldor-themed decks can interact with the discard pile. Each sphere gains a non-unique ally, one of which requires you to discard a card after it commits to the quest, while the others gain benefits based upon the type of card that sits atop your discard pile. Similarly, each sphere gains a two-cost event that becomes stronger for each copy in the discard pile. Developer Matthew Newman looked at one of these, Elwing's Flight (The Grey Havens, 13), in his preview, "Sailing Out of Mithlond," which illustrated some of the ways these events play with the Noldor mechanics to encourage new decks and styles of play. And, today, we follow up on the theme of exploration that pervades so much of The Grey Havens by incorporating Elwing's Flight into a sample deck, along with two of the other similar events, Anchor Watch (The Grey Havens, 7) and The Evening Star (The Grey Havens, 10).

Memories of Ages Past

Deck Created with CardGameDB.com The Lord of the Rings Deckbuilder

Total Cards: (50)

Hero: (3)
1x Theodred (Core Set)
1x Círdan the Shipwright (The Grey Havens)
1x Galdor of the Havens (The Grey Havens)

Ally: (17)
1x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
1x Gleowine (Core Set)
1x Henamarth Riversong (Core Set)
3x Lindon Navigator (The Grey Havens)
3x Sailor of Lune (The Grey Havens)
3x Snowbourn Scout (Core Set)
2x Warden of the Havens (The Grey Havens)

Attachment: (10)
1x Celebrian's Stone (Core Set)
3x Narya (The Grey Havens)
2x Protector of Lorien (Core Set)
3x To the Sea, to the Sea! (The Grey Havens)
1x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)

Event: (23)
2x A Test of Will (Core Set)
3x Anchor Watch (The Grey Havens)
1x Dwarven Tomb (Core Set)
3x Elwing’s Flight (The Grey Havens)
2x Ever Vigilant (Core Set)
2x Hasty Stroke (Core Set)
2x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
2x Stand and Fight (Core Set)
3x The Evening Star (The Grey Havens)
1x The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core Set)
2x Will of the West (Core Set)

This deck can be constructed with just one copy each of The Grey Havens and the Core Set, yet it bursts with the new Noldor flavor, starting with its heroes, Círdan and Galdor. Together, they allow you to cycle rapidly through your deck and manipulate your discard pile, allowing you to derive maximum benefit from cards like the Lindon Navigator, Sailor of Lune, Warden of the Havens, and To the Sea, to the Sea! These also work tremendously well in tandem with Protector of Lórien, which allows you to manipulate the top of your discard pile as many as three times per phase.

There are a few other cards that truly stand out in this deck. First of all, there's Narya, which allows Círdan to turn nearly any ally into a powerhouse. Accordingly, you want to play your Unexpected Courage on Círdan as early as possible so that he can both quest for his four Willpower and then exhaust with Narya to ready the Warden of the Havens to defend. In a pinch, you could even ready Faramir during the quest phase so that he could exhaust twice to provide all your characters with two bonus points of Willpower until the end of the quest phase. Meanwhile, To the Sea, to the Sea! effectively transforms your spare cards into resources, and with all the drawing and discarding that you'll be doing with this deck, you definitely want to include both your copies of Will of the West.

What Will You Discover?

What will you discover as you sail the seas and delve into the ruins that litter Lord Calphon's mysterious isle? Mystery, exploration, and adventure await you. Begin your next journey today—head to your local retailer to pick up your copy of The Grey Havens!