Movie block vs Shadows and beyond

[daisukeman]

I have to agree with Alazzar on everything posted before.
--
About the increased strength of companions, I guess it can be made (taken into account it's a business to sell these new cards) if the new increased strength is supported by the story.
I mean, see any version of Two-towers' Theoden and he is vitality=6 (because of the particular part in story which twotowers start); and then after he is "exorcised" he becomes stronger and 'healthier'??(well, more vitality) ---in Return of the king---.

Mainly the main characters could and would become stronger as the story advances (f.e Sam as in mount doom's version), but not boost up any companion, much less those nonmain characters or even those without a name (nonunique).
This way, you could have bigger minions but also stronger-in-the-process main companions, so the skirmishes would just get more epical (strength number wise, f.e strength 15 vs 16).

See Dwarf Guard turn into Dwarven Warrior .. that just doesn't seem right.
For me, remembering FOTR days, it was fun being bold and playing Dwarf guard only to see him being killed on the very same turn. Or even making him combo with Disquiet of Our People and making him go honorably taken down by the balrog and 2 other orcs (the stronger ones)...
Miss those days

[ket_the_jet]

See Dwarf Guard turn into Dwarven Warrior .. that just doesn't seem right.
For me, remembering FOTR days, it was fun being bold and playing Dwarf guard only to see him being killed on the very same turn. Or even making him combo with Disquiet of Our People and making him go honorably taken down by the balrog and 2 other orcs (the stronger ones)...
Miss those days

I was much more impressed with the people who gave Dwarf Guard Endurance of Dwarves, Dwarven Axe, Dwarven Bracers, and Hand Axe to have an 8-3 beast for 2 twilight!
-wtk

[Gil-Estel]

Today I played a game vs Pepin. He is a nice guy, no doubt about it, but for 6 pool he played an orc (that exert to wound dude) and relentless warg. So vs Dwarves (all I had he had a str 13. fierce and damage +1 minion....early game....:no: That is not good people. Oh and ofcourse there are 3 pre skirmish wounds...madness.

[daisukeman]

I was much more impressed with the people who gave Dwarf Guard Endurance of Dwarves, Dwarven Axe, Dwarven Bracers, and Hand Axe to have an 8-3 beast for 2 twilight!
-wtk

That seems logical but the problem with boosting a guard is that is far way better to have: Fror, Gimli and Gloin with the axes and stuff put in them (assuming it's a dwarf deck). Then you'll have 4 companions including Frodo, which leaves a slot for 1 more companion if you --sanely this is-- don't want to go all the way with 6 or more companions.
I really don't think a dwarf guard should cope that slot.

The extra twilight for these unique dwarves instead of a dwarf guard really pays off (by even playing Farin, though I don't find consider him good enough: skirmishing against orcs really doesn't need strength, you need instead anti-swarm for frodo).
Then the only use for the guard was to play him at a dangerous site where you know he (with Thrarin) were to be killed.

In my dwarf FOTR deck, I fit legolas and he is starting with gimli, then play gloin and fror.
Having elf + dwarf can be dangerous against moria, but then you can fit 2 copies of The Council of Elrond and early get Greatest Kingdom of My People or Song of Durin.
Toss in Bilbo, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit and you have a competitive dwarf deck.

[Kralik]

Or for just over the twilight of the original Lurtz:

Scouting Orc + Relentless Warg + Mordor Scimitar.

8 Twilight nets you a Str. 16, vitality 4, fierce, dmg+1 minion. (Sounds almost like the Balrog!)
But he gets an automatic wound (exert) per skirmish plus 3 other wounds to deal out... aside from the normal skirmish wounds.

Add Rider's Gear and there's no fear.

[ket_the_jet]

In my dwarf FOTR deck, I fit legolas and he is starting with gimli, then play gloin and fror.
Having elf + dwarf can be dangerous against moria, but then you can fit 2 copies of The Council of Elrond and early get Greatest Kingdom of My People or Song of Durin.
Toss in Bilbo, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit and you have a competitive dwarf deck.

My Fellowship deck started Frodo, Gimli, and Gloin. Gandalf, the Grey Pilgrim was key, and Farin and Fror were my whipping boys. And Sam...
-wtk

[Alazzar]

I used to play the Lord of the Rings Online game (from Worlds Apart) quite a bit, and I recently logged back in and started playing the occasional game again.  I'd stopped playing at set 12, so I didn't have any of the newer cards.  I'd also never had a huge online collection, so I only ever had enough cards to make a single deck, and if I wanted to change decks, I basically had to trade my old one away to make a new one.

Anyway, I've been playing in a variety of different formats online (Fellowship block, Highlander, all sorts of stuff), and I've actually done reasonably well in Standard and Expanded, considering my inferior cards.  I basically end up having to make gutsy (some might say "stupid") double-moves and hope that my opponent didn't get a very good shadow draw on the reconcile.  My fellowship can stay alive reasonably well (Gondor/Gandalf), but my Shadow just isn't up to par.

Now, why is this relevant to this topic?  I'll tell ya why:

I just got done playing a Standard game with a guy that had a very impressive collection of Hunters Block cards.

It was one of the least-fun games I've ever played.  Total NPE.

On his first turn, he used Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg to play Erkenbrand's Horn.  He also dropped a copy of New Chapter.

He then proceeded to play every single Follower in his deck.  16 followers at site 1.  I don't know if this is a well-known combo or anything, as I've never really played with or against Hunters Block stuff, but it was nasty.

On top of that, he was using Pippin, Brave Decoy -- this allowed him to just transfer every single Follower he had onto Pippin, then have Pippin fight all of his skirmishes.  It was kinda ridiculous.

I actually thought I'd have somewhat of a chance because my Shadow was Corruption Orcs and he didn't appear to be playing any events.  But once he played Jarnsmid, I knew I was dead, because Jarnsmid could fight every turn and have Pippin take over to thwomp my Orcs.

Still, it was his Shadow that ended up killing me.  Uruk Hunters tore me up in a way I didn't know I could be torn up.

Long story short:  When playing set 7-12 stuff against Hunters Block stuff, you REALLY get to see the difference in power levels.

[Gil-Estel]

No one will argue with you there. Horn filter is the most stupid deck around, and what I miss in lotr nowadays is some kind of intelligence. The resemblance with the gym hits me more and more. Guys going nuts on steroids, gazing in awe at themselves in the mirror, the one being more muscular than the other.
Decks are extremely powerful in what they are supposed to do and even on top of that you have decks that go beyond. I don't like it one bit.

[sgtdraino]

Just found this thread searching for something else. It was an interesting conversation, so I'm bumping it!

As many of you know, I don't really have any problem with power creep, or Shadows and beyond. I continue to believe Expanded is the best format in the game, and remains consistently the 2nd most popular on Gemp.

Horn Filter decks can generally be beaten without much difficulty if you know what you're doing, and are prepared for it.

Nazgul may not have gotten any "power creep" in their literal strength levels, but they remain probably the single most powerful Shadow culture in Expanded format, so that seems fitting to me.

Expanded is where I see the most variety, including lots of cards from earlier sets, not just stuff from Shadows and beyond.

Back when the game was still being made, I did get alienated by both rotation (hated the concept) and the new Shadow cultures (didn't like 'em). Nowadays, I still don't like rotation (and I think that's borne out by the low popularity of formats that use rotation), but the new Shadow cultures don't really bother me much, since the older cultures are still quite popular too.

And as far as the new site mechanics go, I think it's a great additional element of strategy. And if you think about it, at the end of Return of the King, some of our heroes did indeed end up back at Bag End.

Long live LOTRTCG!

[Dictionary]

In terms of physical cards, I gave up at Movie, there are so many overpowered cards in Reflections, as well as some of the other sets. Glorfindel, RIW is a perfect example of power creep; if he's in your deck, with no reason not to have him in your starting fellowship, you're getting a strength 9 for 2 twilight, whereas in Fellowship it was 5 or 6 (as Jdizzy pointed out), and I never understood why GLR was basically free.

On Gemp, where you have all the cards, it's not so much of an issue. The biggest problem for me is the power difference between casual/fun decks and very competitive decks, which (in my opinion) is a much wider gap than it was in Fellowship Block, but that could be resolved by having Expanded Tournaments, or adding the Austrian format. As long as you fight fire with fire (With both players having really powerful decks) the game stays fun, because the power of certain cards/strategies is completely relative to your opponent. In the end, I think I agree with Draino, and I am glad that Decipher kept going, even though the game's nature did completely change from what it used to be.