The Last Homely House

Middle-Earth => Lothlórien => Fellowship => Topic started by: Abbott465 on November 18, 2020, 09:11:33 PM

Title: Ideal deck size in Fellowship Block
Post by: Abbott465 on November 18, 2020, 09:11:33 PM
Hi guys!

What do you think the ideal deck size in Fellowship block is? I've been trying out some decks with 36 Fellowships/Shadows and 37 but they feel chunky... 33 or 34 Fellowships/Shadows seem to work a little better... 30 was almost too slim... I did not like running 1 of's my best possessions and conditions. I'm trying to stay away from using the more popular decks like Super Friends and Pipes to make things interesting :P

What do you guys feel is the ideal Fellowship/Shadow size?
Title: Re: Ideal deck size in Fellowship Block
Post by: JamesCB on November 19, 2020, 03:48:02 AM
I try to keep it under 35, and 33 seems to be the best balance. It kind of depends on the deck. A deck featuring just Aragorn and Frodo will have no problem keeping it small, but a deck starting with Gimli, Arwen, and Frodo, and a draw deck with Gandalf and Aragorn, with possessions for them all, will have a tough time narrowing it down to the mid to lower thirties.

I agree, 30 is too small. You are way too vulnerable to a mill deck, (one NTaD is 10% of your deck) but it's also probable you'll run out of cards even not playing against discard. With 30 cards and a swarm deck, it is not at all unlikely that you will run out of minions before they get to site 9. And that is something you might call no bueno.
Title: Re: Ideal deck size in Fellowship Block
Post by: Air Power on November 19, 2020, 06:17:02 AM
It depends on the deck; there's no "right size" in abstract.  Things that play a lot of cads to cycle quickly (like swarm) should be bigger than things that only play a few.
Title: Re: Ideal deck size in Fellowship Block
Post by: Phallen Cassidy on November 19, 2020, 09:28:02 AM
Yeah, both the deck you use and the way you play should impact your deck size. If you notice you have 8 or more cards left in your deck after most games, consider making some changes: either cut some cards, add some reliable cycling, or change the pairing of Free Peoples and Shadow so that both halves of your deck aren't card-hungry. If you deck out playing against something other than discarding, think about whether there are cards you could add without diluting the deck's focus.

For me, 36/36 is the typical floor for deck size because I add situational cards and aggressively dig for what I need. Others consider 36/36 the largest deck size reserved for only card cycling machines such as Moria swarm. Even historically small decks, Super Friends with Uruk-hai for example, can afford to inflate a bit with Abandoning Reason for Madness and Gwemegil (maybe Nenya depending on the build) if that's more your style.
Title: Re: Ideal deck size in Fellowship Block
Post by: 5tein on February 11, 2021, 05:22:05 PM
Draw power is certainly one factor, but so is individual card count. A 32 card side with 4 copies of 8 distinct cards is going to deliver a much different experience than a 32 card deck with 2 copies of 16 distinct cards.

It’s also helpful to look at cost of cards on the Shadow side. If the Freeps is giving you an average of 7 TL per site in your current meta, it seems to me that the total net TL cost of your Shadow side should be around ~56. That’s assuming you cycle through your entire deck, which rarely happens, of course. Most of us are not comfortable with that idea, so it’s better to have a bit more than you can play in a single game.

With that in mind, I tend to build like this:

32/32 baseline

For every 3 cards I can draw during a game, I can add 1/1

So with 1-2 Elrond LoR I will play a 33/33 deck. Add an Abandoning Reason for Madness and I’ll probably go to 34/34. Or, With 4x Goblin Scimitars, 4x Goblin Scavengers, 4x Host of Thousands I will play 36/36. Relics of Moria and They Are Coming give me more wiggle room, but I don’t always TAC or HoT for a Scavenger. But toss in a Bilbo and Redbook of Westmarch combo or more Elronds or Gandalf the Grey Pilgrim and I easily get to 40/40 for Swam. I also have a turn one Freeps filter which changes the mix of my deck dramatically, so search cards should be considered as even better than draw power with certain decks.

That’s how I think about it, anyway.
Title: Re: Ideal deck size in Fellowship Block
Post by: FYNO. on August 01, 2021, 04:36:54 AM
I'm inclined to somewhat larger sizes than are suggested ITT. For example, I have a 100 card Pipeweed/Moria deck. It's rare to draw my whole deck but it has happened.

An important factor not mentioned so far is *how good are the most marginal cards* in either your Fellowship or Shadow. Fundamentally, the deck size trade-off is that a larger deck will run out of cards less of the time, but could be "watered down" by drawing weaker cards on average. But the latter effect is not static, it very much depends on your deck.

So to take my 100 card deck for instance - I don't feel there's a single card in there which is a notably below-average card that is bloating the average power of the deck. That's because there are so many good options available, and so much cycling mitigates the cost of more situational cards. But for another deck, I might run out of good options quickly, and building a deck that large might involve adding a lot of cards that are going to be consistently below-average draws. Even if I drew out my library more often for that deck, the cost/benefit ratio of adding more cards might shift more against it.