LotR TCG Wiki → Card Sets:  All 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 → Forums:  TLHH CC

Author Topic: Best Format?  (Read 5149 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

March 20, 2018, 07:26:21 AM
Read 5149 times

ArtificerAlf

  • **
  • Information Offline
  • Tracker
  • Posts: 102
Best Format?
« on: March 20, 2018, 07:26:21 AM »
Hi everybody,

I started expanding my collection about a year ago, but with all the business of life, couldn't get any friends to play. Now, I've figured out what seems to be a better strategy for bringing in some friends. They choose a starter deck to play (based on favorite characters), and then we slowly make edits and add new cards. Opening some boosters also helps. :)

The main point of this topic though, is to discuss what format everybody finds the most diverse. When I first came back, many people suggested sticking to Fellowship, which I had planned on, until the drive to include Rohan, Dunland, Raider, and Gollum seemed like it needed to be included. I only tinkered with my Fellowship cards, thinking about decks/adventure paths, etc, yet my desire to play with the "full" culture options always lingered. Fast forward to last Saturday. My buddy was interested in Faramir (being one of his favorite characters). So, I gave him that deck and I played the Witch-King starter with the ents. We had a blast. I'm not sure if I was used to Fellowship too much, but not always expecting a Balrog at site 5 seemed like it brought new strategies to the game. We decided to play Towers Standard, and I've been messing with a ent/shire deck for my Free Peoples, and trying to figure out what Shadow I want to play (I've always been die hard Moria archers, so changing it up will be good for me to experience new parts of the game). I'm also going to house rule some Reflections cards...if the event portrayed is from a previous movie/book, it will be allowed within that block. So, I can use Huorns, Merry's Dagger, etc.

Overall, I'm curious about how people view Towers Standard vs Movie. I do miss the Fellowship site path immensely, mostly because of ways to pull Bilbo, all the forest and rivers, and overall Moria site support. I do feel that this is probably not all it's cracked up to be, especially with the strategies of the Prancing Pony and what not. At some point, I know I will want to expand into the RotK phase (really looking forward to Ringwraith orcs, Gorbag, Shelob, and Sauron Uruks), but for now, TS seems like it gives a ton of options as I try to pull more friends in for some multiplayer fun.


March 20, 2018, 02:19:07 PM
Reply #1

Legion

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Horseman
  • Posts: 343
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2018, 02:19:07 PM »
If you are playing with physical cards (very much incomplete sets), I've always thought Towers Block is the best. The Common and Uncommon Free Peoples cards are just way better (Elite Rider with a mount and spear, or Ranger of Ithilien with a sword are effectively strength 10, which is comparable to many minions). Fellowship Block has a lot of good cards, but you are always feeling like you are holding on, rather than winning when there's no Aragorn's Bow, Last Alliance and Flaming Brand.
I never really mixed-and-matched the sets much. I found that they were nicely contained against themselves (for example I liked that although there was little Frodo protection in Towers, there wasn't a lot of swarm, either). Towers Standard has a lot of Rock-Paper-Scissors, where certain decks hard counter others (e.g. Moria vs Rohan), and I don't see that as beneficial to bring new players.
To be honest, for casual play I think that decks don't have to be good, they just need to be evenly matched. In which case, go for whatever format(S) you like!
King Block got silly. Strength 20 Siege Troop for 8 Twilight is obscene without proper counters.

March 20, 2018, 06:52:55 PM
Reply #2

ArtificerAlf

  • **
  • Information Offline
  • Tracker
  • Posts: 102
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2018, 06:52:55 PM »
If you are playing with physical cards (very much incomplete sets), I've always thought Towers Block is the best. The Common and Uncommon Free Peoples cards are just way better (Elite Rider with a mount and spear, or Ranger of Ithilien with a sword are effectively strength 10, which is comparable to many minions). Fellowship Block has a lot of good cards, but you are always feeling like you are holding on, rather than winning when there's no Aragorn's Bow, Last Alliance and Flaming Brand.
I never really mixed-and-matched the sets much. I found that they were nicely contained against themselves (for example I liked that although there was little Frodo protection in Towers, there wasn't a lot of swarm, either). Towers Standard has a lot of Rock-Paper-Scissors, where certain decks hard counter others (e.g. Moria vs Rohan), and I don't see that as beneficial to bring new players.
To be honest, for casual play I think that decks don't have to be good, they just need to be evenly matched. In which case, go for whatever format(S) you like!
King Block got silly. Strength 20 Siege Troop for 8 Twilight is obscene without proper counters.

Thanks for the response! In short, yes, I am talking about playing with actual paper cards. I've been trying to round out my collection, and my FLGS also has some booster packs I can buy when I want to rip open some packs. I have definitely been trying to purchase the singles of various cards that I've been chasing....I can now finally say I own Legolas, Greenleaf (it was one of the big cards I wanted as a 12 year old...now I have a Tengwar copy!).

Right now we are building and editing decks and creating our own meta. My overall goal is to bring a few other friends into the game so that we could have some fun playing multiplayer (another dream of mine from back in the day). A year ago, I was posting my Fellowship decks for advice. This time, I think I'm just going to let us develop things on our own and continue playing. I don't want to rush for a "perfect" decklist or understand some of the finer points of the game. I would rather us figure it out and develop on our own. No need for a Tier 1 meta. That being said, sometimes the card strategy pages on the wiki have some sample decklists, which is always something I can get behind.

Also, as I round out my collection, how many copies of each card should I be looking for? I notice that Shadow decks tend to run 4 copies of cards, but Free Peoples is about 2 at the max. Is this something I should look at for collecting?

March 21, 2018, 06:20:19 AM
Reply #3

Phallen Cassidy

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Bowman
  • Posts: 493
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2018, 06:20:19 AM »
I am of the unpopular opinion that Towers Standard is one of the best formats there is. I feel the cards and features that are added don't really take anything away, whereas in Movie I think some of the new cards devalue older strategies. In a sealed setting with a limited card pool, however, usually the imbalance of the strongest cards is countered by a lack of availability - much harder to pull off a Ninja Gollum deck or use Grond to discard everything. And if you have full control over the card pool, you can just remove unpopular cards (Galadriel, Lady Redeemed) if they come up. All in all, I wouldn't worry terribly much about expanding as far as you'd like unless you guys are gonna be buying up (or printing out!) cards you'd like to have. Then I'd stick to Towers Standard (or King Standard! Sets 1-7).

Now, I've only played with the physical cards twice, but one of the things I thought was really cool was combining sites. Prancing Pony followed by West Road - why not? Bridge of Khazad-dum into Caves of Aglarond (underground!) - go for it! We considered all sites to be in the block from the latest set (so Elrond can't skirmish at Ford of Bruinen the latest cards are from Towers, but Aldor can), but there's a ton of flexibility for in-house rules on the sitepath to make it what you want.

March 21, 2018, 09:25:02 AM
Reply #4

Eukalyptus

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Bowman
  • Posts: 429
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2018, 09:25:02 AM »
You collect 4 of a card that you need 4 of. You want a companion that is not in your starting drawn asap? Add 4 copies. Some card that isn‘t that valuable? 1 or maybe 2. There is no set, perfect way to handle this, so just think about what you want to do and collect accordingly.

If you need any Two Towers (set 4) cards, let me know. I have an abundance of them.

March 22, 2018, 08:02:52 AM
Reply #5

ArtificerAlf

  • **
  • Information Offline
  • Tracker
  • Posts: 102
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2018, 08:02:52 AM »
If you need any Two Towers (set 4) cards, let me know. I have an abundance of them.

Two Towers all rarities, or commons/uncommons? I have a pretty solid Fellowship collection, with some Mines of Moria and Realms of the Elf Lords we could possibly discuss. Thanks for the offer!


March 22, 2018, 08:17:57 AM
Reply #6

ununtrium

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Horseman
  • Posts: 307
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2018, 08:17:57 AM »
You can't do better than sets 1-6. Overall, the cards are well-balanced and work well together. Towers Standard (1-6) is the format I like best. It helps that the cards from those sets are still pretty easy to get. Hope this helps.
I am a Lieutenant Commander on the G.A.B. Saffron team. My trade lists:
http://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/index.php/topic,3255.0.html
http://www.tradecardsonline.com/user/ununtrium

March 22, 2018, 08:36:44 AM
Reply #7

ArtificerAlf

  • **
  • Information Offline
  • Tracker
  • Posts: 102
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2018, 08:36:44 AM »
Why is it an unpopular opinion that TS is the best? I do agree that Fellowship seems like it has a lot of tried and true formulas or meta defining events (the Balrog, for instance). I really like how sets 4-6 add 4 more cultures to play around with.

March 22, 2018, 09:03:26 AM
Reply #8

Eukalyptus

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Bowman
  • Posts: 429
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2018, 09:03:26 AM »
I think you misunderstood. TS is the best format for most, as things were pretty balanced. Starting with King Block, the power curve took a good turn upwards, but Siege of Gondor really is where the game started getting silly and highly overpowered. While I like King Standard (1-7) the best due to it being the pinnacle of my playing memory, I like Movie regardless and prefer it to TS.

I‘ll write you a pm regarding the TT cards.

March 23, 2018, 11:08:24 AM
Reply #9

Eukalyptus

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Bowman
  • Posts: 429
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2018, 11:08:24 AM »
To be a bit more of help, here‘s a list of Rare cards you definately need 4 of in FotR and Towers/Standard. The others can continue the list as I am sure to miss some:

Savagery to Match Their Numbers
Gondor Bowmen
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell
Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk
Goblin Armory
The Witch-king, Lord of Angmar
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard
Servant of the Secret Fire
A Wizard is Never Late
Hate
Orc Bowmen
Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad
Hides
Simbelmyne
Weapons of Isengard
Easterling Captain
Easterling Army

(Any Aragorn) - most decks that play Prancing Pony or Riddermark run only 1 copy of Aragorn, but that means you must be absolutely sure that you DO start. Otherwise, each Aragorn is another 4 of.

The rest can be slotted in as you see fit. Having four of each of these cards in a deck has never been bad in my experience

« Last Edit: March 23, 2018, 11:11:45 AM by Eukalyptus »

March 24, 2018, 07:40:17 AM
Reply #10

ArtificerAlf

  • **
  • Information Offline
  • Tracker
  • Posts: 102
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2018, 07:40:17 AM »
Here's what I'm currently looking at in my collection:

Savagery to Match Their Numbers - 5. I pulled one as one of the 3 random rares in my Fellowship Gandalf starter when I was 12. It wasn't a main, but I began to appreciate it when I saw how much of a chase it became!

Gondor Bowmen - 1. Got it as a pull from my Realms of the Elf Lords box.
Elrond, Lord of Rivendell - 1. Opened 2 Fellowship boxes, I've only seen one so far.
Gandalf, Friend of the Shirefolk - 1. 2 Fellowship boxes, 1 Gandalf.
Goblin Armory - 0. Moria is one of my favorite cultures, so having none of these really makes me debate buying another box....they're like $14 for a single copy.
The Witch-king, Lord of Angmar - 0
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard - 1
Servant of the Secret Fire - 1
A Wizard is Never Late - 4, one of which is foil.
Hate - 4, one of which is foil.
Orc Bowmen - 1
Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad - 1
Hides - 2, both Tengwar
Simbelmyne - 3
Weapons of Isengard - 0
Easterling Captain - 3
Easterling Army - 0

I still have some packs from my Two Towers box to open, so I might open a few more copies of some of these. Out of all of these, I think Goblin Armory is the one I'm most disappointed I don't yet own.

June 14, 2018, 09:45:36 AM
Reply #11

Mythdracon

  • *****
  • Information Offline
  • Ranger
  • Posts: 879
  • You cannot pass!
Re: Best Format?
« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2018, 09:45:36 AM »
I am honestly inclined to say anything before the Shadows set is the best format...I really saw no need to create an entire new "Orcs" culture that wasn't compatible with the cards that came before, even if I understand that card games over time need to develop new sets, etc. Also, the old sets had better images from the movies (generally). XD
A wizard is never late...nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.