Starting imited game in block 1

[Angostrura]

Two friends and I played back when the game came out and want to revisit the fun once again, but we want to approach it with some limits to keep games balanced and not go down the path of collecting cards. We want to run some sessions like seasons and keep everyone limited to a similar pool of cards. Something along the lines of:

round 1:starter deck + 6 boosters
round 2: round 1 cards + 6 more boosters

Starter decks will give us some structure and then we'll split a booster box to add some randomization while limiting us to only the cards we pull. We'll do some trade/drafting to balance along the way to keep the balance.

Question is... in block 1, since there are only two starter decks and one deluxe starter, how do we best balance starter decks. Deluxe starter has adventure cards that aren't in Gandalf and Aragorn, so how do we account for those without giving an unfair advantage?

[ket_the_jet]

Honestly, I think the three decks are fairly well balanced. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Of course, you can also come find us on Gempukku if you want to play sealed formats in league games online. Hope to see you around!

www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr

Cheers.
-wtk

[Kreggers]

That's a very cool idea. Some family members and I just got back into the game this year after a 15+ year hiatus, so we have been buying up a ton of cards and filling in the collections and decks. I bet after a while to prevent monotony we may need to try something similar.

[dmaz]

Question is... in block 1, since there are only two starter decks and one deluxe starter, how do we best balance starter decks. Deluxe starter has adventure cards that aren't in Gandalf and Aragorn, so how do we account for those without giving an unfair advantage?

Sounds like a good way for one to keep an overall theme for the deck going each season,  while providing enough booster packs to add flavor!

I will say that the deluxe starter has access to some strong cards that the Aragorn and Gandalf don't, primarily the two copies of 1U234 Nertea, as well as lots of stealths for the FP.

From seeing many digital Fellowship sealed events, I think the Aragorn and Gandalf decks are pretty well balanced as-is. I think the deluxe one deserves a shot (hoping to see it on gemp sometime), but it may need some tweaking that playtesting would find out

[Angostrura]

Ended up buying all three starters, and we're going to randomly distribute the three extra random rares that are a part of the deluxe and then figure out something fun to do with the oddball booster pack that's also included and won't split evenly, maybe use the cards in some format of a draft to keep balancing as we go.

Was kinda worried about the cards like that in the deluxe but I also seem to remember that the Ringwraith deck for the hard hitters that it has also has a lot of shortcomings that rely quite a bit on getting the right cards at the right time. But it's been about 15 years since I've played so my memory might be off.

Overall, super happy that this seems like a viable game to organize. I'll report back with how it goes. Will be a little while before the cards ship and we get the first game together, but I'm super excited!!