Hi everyone! I've decided to continue SgtDraino's sterling work and create this thread asking what popular strategies everyone has for the Revised Sealed League. I have heard a lot of people complain about it, but a lot more seem to love it (it's my favourite of all sealed leagues, though I do like them all in their different ways).
So here are my thoughts, just in case anyone's interested.
Firstly, there are far more choices here than for the other sealed leagues. Not only do you have 27 deck options instead of only 8, but you also get to choose some of your boosters in series 1 and 4. This is, in my opinion, a very important point. If you take boosters in serie 1 for any set in FotR you can be guaranteed that you will get nothing at all to help the Dunland Shadow (King block too, but at least some besiegers can take control of sites nicely). Personally, I open my fixed boosters (1,4 and 7) first, make a guess as to what deck I am most likely to choose and then open the appropriate boosters.
To my mind there are certainly are better sets and worse sets for the boosters. Set 4 (TTT) is safe. You will get cards that help all the shadows (probably the only choice you should make if you want Dunland), and if you happen to pull an
Uruk Vanguard you'll be laughing. Also the 3 shadow types are all in the first serie's starters-you won't be wasting card slots when you pull
The Balrog's Sword. Sets 5 and 6 can be interesting, but unless you want Knigts or Ents, I wouldn't recommend it. Sets 1 and 3 are solid, especially for Fellowship options, but again you pretty much rule yourself out of Dunland.
Set 2 is the gambler's choice. If you pull a
Flaming Brand, you'll be laughing all through serie 2 (I won all 10 games when I got one in my MoM booster the first time round), and cards like
Gandalf's Staff,
Mithril Coat and
Filibert Bolger and Bilbo are awesome for the hobbits (
Fearing the Worst might net you a few free wins, too). However so much stuff is useless there-Final Cry really was a wasted card I got the 4th time we had this sealed.
RoTK might give you
War Towers or
Red Wrath, but I find the lack of options for Uruks or Dunland underwhelming. That issue runs into set 8, though there are some excellent cards for nazgul there (and
Siege Troop is a very good aid to Dunland). Set 10 is my new favourite. The Sauron uruks are OK, especially with
Rank and File, and whilst Rohan doesn't get much, Gondor does (Denethor) and
Fell Deeds Awake ends those Dunlandings. The elves are proper fighters, especially with
Glimpse of Fate, but the real winners are the Hobbits. There are a whole host of cards that aid you there, such as
Chance Observation or Tale of the Ring. If you pull
Brooding on Tomorrow, the Uruks cry, almost as much as the Nazgul will when they finally Tip Gandalf only to have to discard it. Also the Raider cards totally revolutionise your shadow. An extra
Rallying Call is always welcome (the most powerful card in this sealed in my opinion), but a Cast into the Winds is just as good. Plus I seem to draw a lot of
Seasoned Leader which is essentially 2 wound for 1 twilight as your
elite Archer wins his fight at strength 12. There is a lot of rubbish in there, though, and the Dunlandings won't thank you for pulling almost nothing to help them. I would certainly recommend
Mount Doom if you are sticking with the
Trust me/Archers as your choice in serie 4.
Now on to the Deck choices. The thing I love about this league is that almost all of the 27 options seem viable. I admit that I have only ever gone for the Rangers/Archers in serie 3, but I have chosen all other 6 decks in the first 2 series.
So let's look at the 9 options for the first 2 series. Some are weak, but I feel many combinations are strong with no clear winner.
1. Men/Uruks with Elves/Trackers. I like that you get a lot of Uruks here, but your fellowship will be quite weak. The elves really like having Gimli to support them and you will miss him badly here. I don't recommend this option.
2. Men/Uruks with Gondor/Easterlings. I went this route for the first sealed league. I don't like Easterlings as Sam destroys them, but the Uruks still hold their own. Pulling a
Flaming Brand helped me to win 33/40 games, but that was only enough for 5th spot!
Anarion is great fun, though. The most important thing to note is that this way gives you no
Shotgun Enquea, which really stings.
3. Men/Uruks with Rohan/Nazgul. I did this for the third Sealed League (after pulling
Rohirrim Army and
Eowyn's Sword) and was disappointed. Rohan takes a beating against the nazgul that come in the packs, though
Hrethel is quite good here. On the other hand those Nazzies are a very solid shadow.
4. Elves/Dunland with Elves/Trackers. I did this for the second sealed league and ended up coming second (to someone else who had gone down this route). The elves are good at only letting one minion survive the archery phase, and Gimli will happily mop up the rest. The pair of Enqueas is very welcome, though I only would go Dunland if I had pulled something good in my TTT booster. (
Over the Isen was sufficient for me!)
5. Elves/Dunland with Men/Easterlings. This is interesting. You get all the dwarves (though having to choose your Thrarin is sad) and an Enquea to benefit your Easterlings. It is a bold move that I have yet to do, but it does have merits. Personlly I find the dwarves not named Gimli slightly lacking in Sealed, though.
6. Elves/Dunland with Rohan/Nazgul. This is an interesting one. The pair of Enqueas must be noted again, and actually if you play Hobbits with
Shadowplay you have a pretty nice wounding machine. I haven't done it, but feel there is potential. I would want to have pulled an
Elven Bow or two to do this, though. No
Aegnor is sad.
7. Gandalf/Southrons with Elves/Trackers. If you have picked the Gandalf starter, the second serie is really down to you as for where to go next. I prefer bolstering the hobbits by going Rohan than getting
Mysterious Wizard, but this is viable. You still get your Enquea here.
8. Gandalf/Southrons with Gondor/Easterlings. I do not like this set up, despite the fact that all your shadow is Yellow. Easterlings and Southrons do not combine well if you don't have
Rapid Fire, which is sad. Your fellowship gains nothing, either. No Enquea seals this combo's sadness.
9. Gandalf/Southrons with Rohan/Nazgul. I've done this for the 4th and 5th sealed leagues and have had fun in all but serie 2. Rohan needs for you to have gone for the Men in serie 1 to be able to cope (Not even a
Brego) but the Eomer you got in serie 1 is nice and has the Gandalf signet. The hobbits get some lovely boosts, though, so I'd say just stick with them.
Make Haste is excellent for ridding Sam of his
Blade Tip, so remember that.
Sadly I cannot really comment on the serie 3 decks. Pipeweed looks as though it will do nicely with Gandalf, but it's so hard not to get all those archers. Play it with the Nazgul and you won't be disappointed, though. It is a pity
Frodo's Pipe does nothing to help
Trust Me as you Once Did. As for the RB comps and Isengard orcs, I like the look of the shadow, but even if I pull an
Orc Commander, I'm still likely to stick him in with my archers. The Rangers/Archers help almost all the fellowships as much as the archers make a decent stand alone shadow: the Banner of Westernese is excellent
for Gondor, whilst
Aegnor loves all those archer Allies. Do note that cards like
Great shield or
Mithril coat, or even a fancy ring will really make archers struggle, but they are still surprisingly rare.
If you've got to the end of that, well done! Sorry it took so long, but there really is a lot to say. I hope you will now agree that this sealed has many dimensions, and that is why I love it so much. Well done to whoever (I think it was Ramolnar) for making such balanced and fun decks with lots of decent options.
Topic: Revised Sealed Movie League Strategies on Gemp (Read 13102 times)
