The Last Homely House

Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Movie => Topic started by: Andrewgeddon on June 20, 2010, 10:38:38 PM

Title: Newly returning player, looking for deck help
Post by: Andrewgeddon on June 20, 2010, 10:38:38 PM

Hello, and thanks for taking a look at my post :)

So, way back when, I dabbled a little bit in the LOTR TCG. I thought it was a great and extremely fun card game, and I started buying cards, eventually building myself a deck. Unfortunately, do to a lack of local support, as well as my one friend who played switching over to the awful "Duel Masters" card game, I fell out of the hobby, shelved my cards and went on my way.

Now, many years later, conversation with other LOTR TCG enthusiasts have sparked the desire to get back into the card game. Rather than starting from scratch, I thought I would take a look at the remnants of my "deck" to see what is still viable, and if it can be salvaged. It would be a great help if others wouldn't mind looking over what I have and maybe give me some suggestions as to what works, what doesn't, what I should add or take out, etc. I don't mind making drastic changes to the deck if need be, so any suggestions would be awesome.

The idea behind the deck was a "Hobbit Companions / Legolas Does Stuff" Fellowship, and a Nazgul / Gollum shadow side. Both sides had a few things thrown in to fill in any holes I was unable to get the cards I needed for. Here is what I have:


• Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
• The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Adventure Path (I'm pretty sure this is just random sites thrown in from what I had)


• Bag End
• Bree Streets
• Ford of Bruinen
• White Rocks
• Hornburg Parapet
• Hornburg Armory  
• King's Room  
• Wizard's Vale  

Free People's


• 1x Legolas, Greenleaf (Starting)
• 1x Merry, Friend to Sam (Starting)
• 1x Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood  
• 2x The Gaffer, Sam's Father  
• 3x Hobbit Party Guest  
• 1x Bounder  
• 2x Farmer Maggot, Chaser of Rascals  
• 1x Swiftly and Softly  
• 1x A Talent for Not Being Seen  
• 4x Hobbit Sword  
• 4x Mind Your Own Affairs  
• 1x Bill The Pony  (I know, he's banned now. Poor Bill!)
• 1x Long-Knives of Legolas  
• 1x Asfaloth  
• 1x Bow of the Galadhrim  

Shadow

• 4x Ulaire Cantea, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur  
• 2x Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul  
• 1x Ulaire Nelya, Lieutenant of Morgul
• 4x Ulaire Attea, Keeper of Dol Guldur  
• 3x The Witch-King, Lord of Angmar
• 1x Gollum, Old Villain  
• 4x Captured by the Ring  
• 2x Paths Seldom Trodden    
• 2x Corrupt    
• 1x Morgul Gates    
• 2x All Blades Perish    
• 4x Easterling Axeman (Filler)
• 1x Easterling Infantry (Filler)

I know the numbers are pretty off (25 Freepeoples vs 31 Shadow), and there is a lot of room for improvement. I would love to keep the decks Hobbits / Nazgul, but I am willing to make heavy changes. Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Title: Re: Newly returning player, looking for deck help
Post by: putridbreath on June 20, 2010, 11:24:43 PM

Glad you could join us! Welcome!

Please look at the many decks posted on this thread for inspiration--there are a lot of great ideas. Now if you're like me, you don't have 4 copies of every single card and that's ok. Play to the strengths of what you have. If you don't have enough Nazgul cards to build a complete shadow, than try another Shadow minion type. Those easterlings as fillers won't help much. Also, a general rule most follow is for 5 companions. With only Legolas and Merry, both exerting often, I don't see them making it to the second sanctuary.

Movie block plays with all Kings site paths but some (myself included) open Movie Block to all site paths from sets 1-10. Plus, where's your site 9?

I hope this helps some and there are other much more experienced players here than me that would be more than willing to help you get back into this great card game :)

Title: Re: Newly returning player, looking for deck help
Post by: Pepin The Breve on June 21, 2010, 06:26:07 AM

Hi there and welcome to the boards!

First of all its nice if you define what kind of format you want to play with your friends and such, or against people worldwide at GCCG. The most traditional are Movie block (sets from 1-10, with sitepath from RoTK and check pre-shadow x-list) and Standard (Sets from 7 to 19, sitepath from set 11 and beyond, x-list), but there are many people that play FoTR (sets 1-3) and TTT block (sets 4-6).

But feel free to adjust stuff (like sitepath or x-list) the way it suits better for your playing community.

In concearn to your deck i have to agree with putridbreath, i don't see how you can go any further than site 4 or 5 with only this 3 companions, since your deck isn't a super choke. Take a look at the boards here and you will find some nice deck ideas and strategies.

If you want to keep the deck Hobbit / Nazgul there are a lot of options.

Instead of posting a full deck list here i will just try to give some tips so you can came up with something original (and respecting the cards you own).

If you like the concept of wounding hobbits getting benefits from Greenleaf and Mind Your Own Affairs you should consider a few things:
- Shadowplay may be an excellent addition, but for that you need to have great healing ability, which can be achive through allies or bouncing companions (the one you can discard and play again later or that you put it back to hand). Unheeded may also works nicely.
- Your companions must be strong enough to survive if some dangerous minion gets throught skirmish (and belive me, sometime they will). So focus on get them at least some strenght and some backup like Bounder (i would use more than 1 copy), There and Back Again and The Tale of The Great Ring.
- Another guy that works very nicely with Mind Your Own Affairs is Smeagol, Always Helps (7R71) which turns Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom (10C112) a nice cards to peel the threats or the burdens you may be adding. Don't Look at Them (6R39) can also be interesting.
- If you go heavy on tales you may consider cards like Bilbo, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit (2U96), since shire guys doesn't have many condition discard.

For Nazgul you can add cards like Bill Ferny, Swarthy Sneering Fellow (2R75), some possessions or pumps. Conditions like Black Breath can works nicely also. Consider you worst problem here would be direct wounding (that would kill your guys before they ever land on skirmish) and tank companions, like Durin III, Gil-Galad + Aiglos, fully loaded Gron, etc. So think some ways of ensure your guys will get to skirmish and win!

There are a lot of other options bt i leave to you the rest!

I hope i helped somehow.