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ingold55

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:14 pm

Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 1199 Location: Out on the front line

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Analysis of each version of Legolas in LOTR TCG, with strengths and weaknesses as well as a few suggestions for deckbuilding.
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Have you ever been looking for a Legolas in a deck? If you have, you may have noticed there are not just two or three out there. In total including the “Hunters” there are fourteen different copies of Legolas out there. This article looks at each Legolas, and shows some of his strong points and weaknesses.

To start with, I would like to say that most Legolas’ are archers, and also that all the Legolas’ are companions.

Legolas, Greenleaf
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Frodo
Archer
"Archery: Exert Legolas to wound a minion; Legolas does not add to the fellwoship archery total." He is an archer, but you have to exert him to wound a minion for archery. He doesn’t add to the fellowship archery total. This a good point about him. since he doesn’t add to the archery total, he can’t be blocked by those annoying cards that make the fellowship archery total –1. The bad thing about this Legolas is that you have exert him.

Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood:
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Gandalf
Archer
"While skirmishing a Nazgul, Legolas is strength +3." This Legolas is good when skirmishing a nazgul. But other than that I do not recommend him for a deck unless fighting a nazgul deck.

Legolas, Son of Thranduil:
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Aragorn
Archer
To start, Legolas Son of Thranduil is a good way to add to the fellowship total. “While at a forest or river site add 1 to the fellowship archery.” Because of his card text, he should mainly be used when playing with the fellowship block. Also, the fact that he has the Aragorn signet allows you to use Aragorn king in Exile.

Legolas, Dauntless Hunter:
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Aragorn
Archer
This Legolas is a good way of to keep your opponent form being able to play that many conditions and events. However the catch to this Legolas is that he needs unbound hobbits to make him good. “The twilight cost of each shadow event and condition is +1 for each unbound hobbit you can spot.” Again the fact that he has the Aragorn signet allows you to use Aragorn king in Exile. This Legolas unfortunatly is on the X-list, but is still great for playing at home.

Legolas, Elven Comrade:
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Gandalf
Archer
Legolas Elven Comrade is a good way of protecting companions from minions, especially Gimli. “Skirmish: Exert Legolas to make an minion skirmishing an unbound companion strength-1. (or strength-2 if that companion is Gimli.)” True it is good in elven decks, but is better in fellowships with Gimli.

Legolas, Archer of Mirkwood
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Theoden
Archer
“Each time Legolas wins a skirmish, you may heal a dwarf companion or another elf companion.” This Legolas is a good choice when playing with decks that require healing.

Legolas, Fearless Marksman
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Aragorn
Archer
This Legolas I don’t recommend playing with. For archery you have to have initiative, and discard four cards from hand to wound a minion. "Archery: If you have initiative discard 4 cards from hand to wound a minion." The one good thing about the Legolas is that he has the Aragorn signet, which allows Legolas to be healed by Aragorn King in Exile.

Legolas, Nimble Warrior
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Theoden
Archer
One thing not so great about Legolas Nimble Warrior is better in mixed decks rather than elven decks. “While you cannot spot a threat, add a threat to make the fellowship archery total +1.” This is a good way to protect yourself from swarm decks, and it also comes in handy when skirmishing minions with higher vitality. Especially when playing in elven archery decks. The bad thing about this Legolas is that you need ways to remove threats. Aragorn Driven by Need is a good way to do this.

Legolas, Elven Stalwart
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Aragorn
Archer
“While you can spot three wounded minions, each minion skirmishing Legolas is strength –3.” This Legolas is good when playing in elven archery decks. You use the archery to wound the minions, then play them on Legolas.

Legolas, Companion of the Ring
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet 7
"While Legolas is at a battleground or forest site, he is strength +2 and resistance +2." Since Legolas Companion of the Ring can be made eight strength and resistance nine, he is an ideal Legolas, but you need you site path to have mainly battlegrounds and forests. This is also the first of three Legolas’ that are not archers. To make this Legolas even better, you need Elven Bow, or Legolas’ Bow to make him an archer.

Legolas, Woodland Emissary
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet 6
This is the Second of the three Legolas’ that are not archers. However, Legolas Woodland Emissary has another way to wound minions. “At the start of the archery phase, you may spot another elf to exert a minion.” This is a good way to wound, but if you were to play Elven Bow, or Legolas’ Bow, you would be able to dish out two wounds instead of just one. I don’t recommend playing with this particular Legolas in mixed decks unless you can spot another elf, however I do think that this is a great companion in elven decks though.

Legolas, Of the Grey Company
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet 6
Archer
Legolas Of the Grey Company is an archer, and also has a good way of doing double damage to minions. “At the start of each archery phases, you may reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is an Elven

card wound a minion.” By wounding with archery, and doing Legolas’ card text it can help get rid of those annoying minions. I recommend this Legolas in an elven archery deck because of all the wounds you can apply before the skirmish phase.

Legolas, Fleet-Footed
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet 6
Hunter 1
"Regroup: Exert to hunter companions to draw a card." This is the third non-archer Legolas there is. However, he is also the first Hunter companion there is. For Legolas Fleet-Footed, you need to once again add Elven Bow, or Legolas’ Bow to make him an archer. This Legolas works very well in mixed Hunter decks because he allows you to exert two hunter companions to draw a card. This comes in handy when wanting to move more than once, and you have few cards in hand.

Legolas, of the Woodland Realm
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet 6
Hunter 1 Archer
This Legolas is one of the best there is. He is Hunter 1, an archer, and he can add to the fellowship archery total! The catch is you have to be playing against Hunter minions. “Exert Legolas to make the fellowship archery total +1 for each hunter minion you can spot. (limit 3).” You can’t get much better than that, but there is another draw back. the more hunter minions there are in play, the less of a chance Legolas will have to use his hunter bonus.

If there are any errors in this article I would appreciate it if you would tell me. As usual, comments are all ways welcome, and appreciated. Smile

Thanks,
Ingold
Cool

Last edited by ingold55 on Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:13 pm; edited 3 times in total

Guest

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:40 pm

Joined: Posts: Location:

Dauntless Hunter is X-Listed, so he is widely unused as far as decks. Fine article otherwise. I'll look for somthing to get nick-picky about later.

ingold55

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:10 pm

Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 1199 Location: Out on the front line

dauntless dude is on the x-list? hmmm, thanks for telling me. Smile

AdultLink

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 1:02 am

Joined: 15 Dec 2005 Posts: 253 Location: Hyrule

You make a mistake when talking about Legolas Greenleaf, you say something about exerting to wound a minion he is skirmishing and I believe you meant to say just "a minion". Grammer could be a little brushed up on in some areas, but overall pretty good. The sentence structure and adjectives got a little monotonous by the 7th or 8th legolas, and I seemed to think you used the phrase: "There is a catch" more than a few times. However, I did keep reading (so I could write comments) and because I wanted to see the end.

I also personally disagree with Legolas Fearless Marksmen being shabby, because direct wounding is supreme, and discarding those four cards is important in cycle decks. He is the best alternative to Legolas, of the Grey Company with a mixed deck.
Also I don't think Legolas, of the Woodland Realm is the best. Hunter is great, but his game text (at least now in standard) won't end up helping you much, because most people wont use hunter minions. I think the best all-around Legolas (and one of the best all-around companions in the game) is still Greenleaf, but that's the voice of one gamer.

Anyway, back to your article. I appreciated the Bold and italics, I think that before you explained the pros and cons of the legolas, that you should have written the game text right after the stats (strength/vitality), but otherwise it looked sharp.

Overall, a three would have been very stingy, and undeserving so I decided to give you a 4, because I liked the article overall. I hope my (many) comments are useful when you compile your other feedback, and that I have been helpful. I only write back comments because you request, not because I saw fault with your article. Well done.

Haves/Wants

Anonymous Prodigy

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:08 am

Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States

Good article, ingold55. I have to agree with AdultLink; the grammar could stand to be brushed up a bit. Good job on giving info about each Legolas.
A bit lengthy, but informative. It would be really great if you added some decklists to play him in. Once again, good article! Wink

I had to put something here.

AnxiousChieftain

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:02 pm

Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 3947 Location: Maryland

AdultLink hit the nail of the head with most of his comments. In addition, I found myself disagreeing with many of your comments about the different versions of Legolas. For example...

Quote:

Legolas Greenleaf
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Frodo
Archer
He is an archer, but you have to exert him to wound a minion for archery. He doesn’t add to the fellowship archery total. This a good point about him. since he doesn’t add to the archery total, he can’t be blocked by those annoying cards that make the fellowship archery total –1. The bad thing about this Legolas is that you have exert him to wound a minion he is skirmishing. This kind of archery is not always the kind wanted because of the wounding he is doing to himself.

Greenleaf is probably the best Legolas out there. The exertion isn't "a bad thing": it's a cost (and actually a small cost, considering the ease with which Elves heal).

Quote:

Legolas Prince of Mirkwood:
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Gandalf
ArcherThis Legolas is good when skirmishing a nazgul. But other than that I do not recommend him for a deck unless fighting a nazgul deck.

This is one the times when the comments aren't needed. All you really do is state the obvious.

Quote:

Legolas Son of Thranduil:
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Aragorn
Archer
To start, Legolas Son of Thranduil is a good way to add to the fellowship total. “While at a forest or river site add 1 to the fellowship archery.” Because of his card text, he should mainly be used when playing with the fellowship block. Also, the fact that he has the Aragorn signet allows you to use Aragorn king in Exile.

Again I disagree. He is best in Open or Expanded, because you can easily control the site path, and always have a river or forest out.

Quote:

Legolas Fearless Marksman
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Aragorn
Archer
This Legolas I don’t recommend playing with. For archery you have to have initiative, and discard four cards from hand to wound a minion. The one good thing about the Legolas is that he has the Aragorn signet, which allows Legolas to be healed by Aragorn King in Exile.

He is another of my favorite Legolases. Unlike Greenleaf, if you use his special ability then he still adds to the archery total. His ability doesn't require exertions, so even if your fellowship is heavily wounded he can still take out minions.

Quote:

Legolas Nimble Warrior
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Resistance/Signet Theoden
Archer
This is the Legolas’ start to get good! “While you cannot spot a threat, add a threat to make the fellowship archery total +1.” This is a good way to protect yourself from swarm decks, and it also comes in handy when skirmishing minions with higher vitality. Especially when playing in elven archery decks. The bad thing about this Legolas is that you need ways to remove threats. Aragorn Driven by Need is a good way to do this.

This is in fact one of my least favorite Legolases. He can only add 1 to the archery total without threat removal, and if you add threat removal then you're using up space in your deck that could be used for better archery cards.

I would have written this article differently, but of course that's because my views are different than yours. Smile

MODS RULE. - lem0nhead

Pipsqueak

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:11 pm

Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Posts: 331 Location: A northerner down south

Decent article, but you might want to list each card's game text along with it, just so we know what it is and don't get confused. Wink

Long live the southern bros. Homage