King Standard question

[DarthMaeglin]

This has been plaguing my mind recently and I can't find anything that answers my question. Does anyone know why King Standard excludes most of the King block?

[Valtor]

It uses cards from sets 1-7, as a contrast to Movie Block which is sets 1-10.
See the Format Rules tab.

[ket_the_jet]

It's a superior format in every way.

[Dictionary]

They're not official names, they're just the Standard format at certain points in time. Since Movie already covers 1-10, the name King Standard can be freely applied to 1-8 or 1-7, as these were also "Standard" at points in time during the King era.

The reason 1-7 is used is because set 8 in particular contains a lot of blatant power creep, from character statistics (Siege Troop vs the old Regiment of Haradrim) to abilities (Grond, Hammer of the Underworld) to entire strategies (Corsairs).

This is not to say necessarily that previous sets are perfect, but 7-8 is one of the biggest jumps in this regard.

[menace64]

Yeah, but Siege of Gondor was such a fun set! It's Mount Doom that irks me, with all of its outright-broken cards. At least Siege introduced a handful of solid and new decktypes.

[ket_the_jet]

menace, we agree on a lot of stuff, but I disagree that set 10 is what broke the game. That said, I took a look at sets 8 and 10 and only found a few cards that seemed to really fit into the spirit of the prior metas:

Here are a few cards that stood out to me as being particularly interesting in the KS environment that wouldn't destroy the balance.

Siege of Gondor
Battle in Earnest

Legolas, Elven Stalwart (Gandalf signet? Why are there two Aragorn-signet Legolas cards in this block?)

Let Us Not Tarry
On Your Doorstep
Shadowfax, Greatheart

At His Command (outside of the Wraith threat mechanics)
Sixth Level (maybe if unique?)

Eowyn's Shield
Fury of the Northman (why does this card exist?)
No Living Man
Theoden, Tall and Proud (super powerful, but I kind of like it quite a bit without Rohirrim Army)

Gorgoroth Patrol

Beyond All Darkness

Mount Doom
Great Day, Great Hour

Arwen, Echo of Luthien
Phial of Galadriel, Star-Glass

End of the Game
Every Little is Gain

Orc Armor

Easterling Pillager (lame photo though)
Field of the Fallen

That's a lot fewer cards than I thought would be here, but I didn't really do a deep dive on a lot of them.

[Inspire]

I don't play much anymore, but I always enjoyed the KS format. Set 7 was well constructed and complemented previous sets without rendering them useless (arguably the last of its kind before the power creep started with Siege of Gondor). I have a few quibbles with a couple RotK cards (Merry, Swordthain and Pippin, WoBaS clean up indirect wounding a little too easily for my liking), but overall it's a terrific format.

If I had to make any changes, I always thought that the X-list was poorly thought out in King Standard, particularly for the races which received no help in set 7 ( and ). Decipher consistently underestimated how much cultures "fell behind" when they sat out a set. X-listing Relics of Moria always seemed unnecessary to me. The corresponding X-listing of Frying Pan was the justification given at the time, but even with RoM likely would have been worse off in KS (as compared to TS, where RoM was not X-listed) seeing as most other cultures received help in set 7 and lost its favorite kill-site in Cavern Entrance. Similarly, I thought at least one of StMtN or Saruman, KoI could have been removed from the X-list in order to keep non-tracker Uruks relevant. Trackers were the only Uruks near tier 1 in KS, and they would've benefited only marginally from either, given that they are already fierce. Like , lost ground to all other cultures by virtue of receiving no benefit from set 7 and losing Deep of Helm. Minor quibbles, though; KS is still great regardless.

[ket_the_jet]

Trackers were the only Uruks near tier 1 in KS, and they would've benefited only marginally from either, given that they are already fierce.

I find Archery to be infinitely superior to Uruk trackers in Towers block, Towers Standard, and King Standard, personally.
-wtk

[Inspire]

Trackers were the only Uruks near tier 1 in KS, and they would've benefited only marginally from either, given that they are already fierce.

I find Archery to be infinitely superior to Uruk trackers in Towers block, Towers Standard, and King Standard, personally.
-wtk

Interesting. archery is undoubtedly very effective in TS, but I always felt that Swordthain and WoBaS immediately knocked all indirect wounding Shadows down a notch or two upon their release (even after considering the terrific threat mechanic that was added in set 7). Few wounding decks can overcome a Fellowship peeling off up to three extra wounds every turn (particularly one with a thin card pool like archery)