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Author Topic: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?  (Read 3563 times)

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October 23, 2014, 11:40:11 PM
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ununtrium

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Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« on: October 23, 2014, 11:40:11 PM »
Hi!
I am interested in staging a couple of draft play events for my real-life playgroup. It has been a long time since we played a draft game.

Would it be best to go for the FotR draft packs (along with sealed product from FotR block) or rather the TTT draft packs together with the respective boosters from TTT block?

Feel free to advise ;)

Thanks!
I am a Lieutenant Commander on the G.A.B. Saffron team. My trade lists:
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October 24, 2014, 03:42:07 AM
Reply #1

thetimewarptrio

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Re: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2014, 03:42:07 AM »
Depends how exactly you do your booster drafts. Every one I've been to has had different rules, from basing your drafts off a randomized starter deck, to drafting completely from scratch using boosters and draft packs.

If you're looking to be cost effective, go with Towers block. Most plentiful and inexpensive by a wide margin, including both expansions. Fellowship/MoM expansions are easy to find and cheap, but you're gonna pay a pretty penny for RoTEL boosters, which contain the best game-changing cards.

Fellowship draft pack boxes though are cheaper than Towers, if that matters to you.

Personally, I prefer playing Fellowship. It's a more fun block for me, and it's not something I've beaten to death. It's also harder to do a specific strategy in a booster draft in FOTR, because of the variety (at least on the Shadow side). The disappointing thing about Towers booster drafts is everyone typically ends up running Isengard Uruks, unless you start with starter decks. Then whoever gets the Aragorn starters goes with Dunland, which isn't quite fair as the Aragorn starter is the best starter in the block (don't get me started on the BoHD and EoF starters).

So.....(deep breath). In summation, if you're on a budget and want to cost-effectively play, go with Two Towers. But if you're not terribly worried about it, play Fellowship.

Also, try and figure out what rules you want to use..........that'll make advice a little easier to give haha.
If we're gonna play games, I'm gonna need a cup of coffee.

October 25, 2014, 07:02:20 AM
Reply #2

ununtrium

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Re: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2014, 07:02:20 AM »
Many thanks for your input. I was going for official decipher draft rules (1 draft pack and 3 boosters - one from each set in the block). No starter decks. I concur with the supply situation of sealed product.

Cheers!
« Last Edit: October 26, 2014, 02:50:01 AM by ununtrium »
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

October 26, 2014, 06:19:12 PM
Reply #3

dmaz

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Re: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2014, 06:19:12 PM »
I'm going to echo a lot of what thetimewarptrio said.

Fellowship draft is A LOT of fun, but it will cost you a little more just because of Realms of The Elf Lords. There's just something special and nostalgic about the feeling of opening those FotR packs and making a deck with a FotR site path :)

I've spent a lot of time buying/selling/playing with cards recently, and am planning on trying for a local sealed tournament myself soon.

I'll give you a cost breakdown based on the average prices I've seen throughout eBay and online dealers like catergoryonegames and miniaturemarket, etc (not including shipping charges...the people who offer free shipping generally use a "buy it now" price for more). Sometimes you can snag them for cheaper on eBay if someone doesn't name the auction correctly, and it doesn't get a lot of views, but you can't really count on that too often hehe.

Fellowship Block Booster Boxes:
FotR: $30
Mines of Moria: $16
Realms of the Elf Lords: $75-$80

Towers Block Booster Boxes:
TT: $27
Battle of Helm's Deep: $30-$35
Ents of Fangorn: $22 <--these have recently gotten a little higher in demand from what I've seen

So totaling the three boxes...
FotR: $121-$126
TT: $79-$84

You'll notice on eBay, that most of the time, the "Buy It Now" prices are quite a bit more than this, and people sometimes do purchase them for that price. The prices I listed are what I consider to be the "fair" price, or what I would sell it for.

As was already mentioned, the actual draft packs usually cost only about 10 bucks for FotR, while Towers can run up to $20 from what I've seen (they're a little harder to find).

If I had to guess, you could plan on spending around $30 - $40 more if you chose Fellowship over Towers...for me, the price is worth it for the experience, but to each his own :)

I'm currently seeing if I can get my friend to offload some booster boxes to me; he had plans but probably won't use them. He does have some Realms, and I'm eager to get my hands on them. If I get more than one, I'll be posting extras on my sale of sealed stuff on the Esgaroth Marketplace, I need to update that thread anyway.

In any case, good luck and let us know how the planning goes! I'll give you a heads up when I update my sales thread, if you end up being interested.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2014, 12:14:02 AM by dmaz »

October 27, 2014, 09:57:50 AM
Reply #4

Ringbearer

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Re: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2014, 09:57:50 AM »
Fellowship is more fun since it usually has better crowd control. The southron captain does little if frodo has a sword.

October 27, 2014, 08:25:24 PM
Reply #5

ramolnar

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Re: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2014, 08:25:24 PM »
Fellowship block draft, by far. In my mind, fellowship block draft is the most challenging format for LotR. Drafting matters - it's often tough to reach 20 playable fellowship cards. Old Toby is pretty good, and I've played Natural Cover. Play matters a lot, particularly timing of the reshuffle. The sites you bring matter. For instance, choosing Caras Galadhon can be strong, because it lets you double from behind into site 6.

Towers Block draft has too little crowd control - the optimal strategy is drop nine and go. Nertea and Enquea change that in Fellowship, and every draft pack contains at least one of them. Also, the Towers Block print runs aren't balanced enough. Getting the Aragorn Heir to Elendil and Defend It part of the pack is much better than the Elves, for instance. Shadows vary more in strength as well, because they draw only from set 4. The Raiders are just miserable.
If you do play Towers Block draft, I would suggest giving everyone 1 Southron Commander.

October 28, 2014, 05:54:27 AM
Reply #6

dmaz

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Re: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2014, 05:54:27 AM »
Heyo!

So I was able to snag those Realms booster boxes I was talking about. Gonna keep one for myself to do what you're doing (probably just wishful thinking though haha), but I'd be happy to sell some of my sealed stuff to you, whether its Fellowship or Towers.
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8929.0.html

October 28, 2014, 11:16:34 PM
Reply #7

ununtrium

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Re: Best physical draft play experience: FotR or TTT?
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2014, 11:16:34 PM »
Many thanks for the input! Dmaz, I will pm you later today. Cheers!
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