The Last Homely House
Undying Lands => Valinor => Topic started by: sgtdraino on March 08, 2014, 03:16:36 PM
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What do experienced players think are the best strategies to use when playing the King Block Sealed League on Gemp? I've put this in Valinor (and not King), because the Gemp starter decks are sometimes not quite standard. So, let's pursue a number of questions about this type of league, to hopefully give newer players some insight into it:
1. All things being equal, which starter deck do you think is smartest to pick each series? (see poll at the top) Why?
2. Exactly what is different about the Gemp versions of these starters? Do these differences change each League, or are the Gemp versions of the starters pretty static? Does anyone have an actual starter deck list for the Gemp versions of these Sealed League starters?
ETA: In addition to choosing a starter in Series 1, all players receive the following cards:
Ruined Capitol
Morgulduin
Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul
Ulaire Enquea, Faster Than Winds
ETA: In addition to choosing a starter in Series 2, all players receive the following card:
Osgiliath Channel
ETA: In addition to choosing a starter in Series 3, all players receive the following card:
Sam, Needer of Vittles
The starters are indeed the LOTR Online versions, seen at this link:
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,9119.0/topicseen.html (http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,9119.0/topicseen.html)
3. What are some other useful strategies to heed, when preparing for this meta? For example, I've heard it is smart to open your boosters before you choose your starter, in case you get a great rare that works better with one starter than another. What are some other strategies?
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Thanks for starting this up :)
I'm really only familiar with Fellowship and Towers Sealed (also that revised Movie one, which is a whole 'nother animal), so I'm looking forward to getting my feet wet with this King Sealed.
So I spent some time mulling it over, and looking at the starter deck lists, and ended up going with Eomer>Merry>Sam. My reasoning for Eomer and Sam is more direct, whereas choosing Merry is more indirect (basically both the fellowship AND shadow match the Eomer deck, so you have some compatibility).
Eomer: The advantage I saw right away was that if you can get horses on your companions, you have eliminated one of the Aragorn Deck's main killing avenues (Red Wrath). On top of that, the southrons don't have any pumps included (given, the sauron pump is kind of crusty in that you have to remove three threats, but it's SOMETHING), so you're generally dealing with high strength elite riders, with pumps, and you can't use your red wraths. Downside to this is flooding the twilight pool quite a bit (it's a lot of possessions), and someone will eventually die. General strategy, I suppose, would be to just use the unmounted companions as cannon fodder/threat-wound-absorbers each site and move on. The Aragorn Deck was really tempting (you have automatic threat control, and a really strong Aragorn), but I still went with my gut for Eomer.
Merry: Didn't really look too deep into this one. It added some flexibility to both the fellowship and shadow strategies that you built in Serie 1, basically.
Sam: For me, this was almost a no-brainer. You get a guaranteed Sam, and this is good for two reasons
1. Sam can take the ring if Frodo dies. Even more useful than in Towers, this allows you to use Frodo as a threat-wound-absorbing pincushion for burdens during the skirmish phase, and once he's around 7 or 8 burdens, just kill him off and start fresh with Sam.
2. When Sam hits the table, he's at least a Strength 5. And if you happen to have Merry out, that's a 6/4 companion for only cost 2. On top of that he benefits from all of the other shire cards, which comes to my third reason.
3. Orc Armor/The Tale of the Great Ring/NFFATROD. These are some very solid Ringbearer-survival support cards, plus a very nice way to deal with threats if things look like they are about to go south(ron) [ ;) ].
On a side note, I did take a decent look at the Frodo one, because it had some things to be considered. The Noble Intentions automatically boosting the Wraiths is very cool, and looks like fun...additionally having a guaranteed Gandalf is pretty sweet too. However, since you have a better chance at pulling a common Gandalf than a foil promo version of this Sam, I still ended up going with Sam :)
As always, I agree with opening your boosters before deciding. For example: if you end up with two copies of Steadfast Champion, and stuff like Sharpen Your Swords, or Glamdring and you didn't get a Gandalf, it might actually be better for you to pick the Gandalf Deck for set 10, just to give you better double-moving power.
Also for reference - Here's the original physical card deck lists:
http://www.gondorian.com/lotrtcg/starters.php
And here's the one's, which I BELIEVE will be used for the gemp sealed league (basically the LOTR TCG Online ones, if I'm not mistaken):
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/921814-the-lord-of-the-rings-online-trading-card-game/faqs/39070
Looking forward to seeing some other opinions/insights :)
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Yep, those are the starters. I made a thread showing the differences: http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8563.0.html
Note Eomer does not come with a Gandalf. I spent all that time on the thread when I was dismayed not to be able to use the Citadel to Gate that I pulled on account of no Gandalf.
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I wish I had more time to post in-depth, but most of my time on this site is spent killing time in between lulls at work, so I can't go into great detail.
I've never played on Gemp, I prefer being limited to my physical cards and playing with some friends face to face instead of online, so I don't know how the drafts differ from online vs. offline, but I will add to this conversation a point that you've probably all figured out, that being that the Sam deck is infinitely better than the Frodo deck. I found a few Mount Doom starters for $2 at a local Kmart and decided to do an altered version of a draft with a few friends, and those of us (2 of the 4) that got the Sam decks were the ones that survived the longest. Unless you pull some great cards in your rares, the Frodo deck's FreePeeps side is too scatterbrained to form a decent defense. Either you start with Gandalf, or a combo of Dead Man of Dunharrow/Oathbreaker, in which case there are two threats on the board to start the game. And in the case of the Sam deck, you have Frodo, Merry, Pippin, and a strength 7 Sam already out. Although decent Shire pumps are harder to come by in RoTK block, it's way easier to build around that semblance of a defense than the million directions you could go with the Frodo deck, none of which typically form into anything defensible.
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Thanks for starting this up :)
Thanks for participating!
And here's the one's, which I BELIEVE will be used for the gemp sealed league (basically the LOTR TCG Online ones, if I'm not mistaken):
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/921814-the-lord-of-the-rings-online-trading-card-game/faqs/39070
Yep, those are the starters. I made a thread showing the differences: http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8563.0.html
I don't think that's necessarily correct, as I noticed during Series 1 of The Two Towers Sealed League that both the Aragorn and Theoden decks came with 2x Southron Commander, which is not listed on the LOTR Online deck lists at those links. So, it seems like that must be something specifically added by Gemp?
ETA: The King Sealed League starts tomorrow, perhaps a couple of folks would be kind enough to post the specific deck list for Gemp when they open their starters?
I will add to this conversation a point that you've probably all figured out, that being that the Sam deck is infinitely better than the Frodo deck.
That does seem to be the one thing everybody agrees on. Otherwise it's a total disagreement on which are the better decks to pick in Series 1 and Series 2. I'm guessing it's a split between going with a Gondor strat vs. a Rohan strat.
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Southron Commander is added in TT Sealed by Gemp, as is Enquea LoM in King Sealed.
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Just out of curiosity, what's the reasoning behind the changes?
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To prevent easy wins by allowing 9 companions without punishment. Sure you could pull a Southron Commander in your packs if you're lucky, but still. Both formats also feature a specific site 7 (Hornburg Causeway for TT, I think Osgiliath Channel for King), to punish such playing as well.
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Southron Commander is added in TT Sealed by Gemp, as is Enquea LoM in King Sealed.
Thanks for the information. Is it 2x Enquea LoM, as it was with Southron Commander? Are those the only modifications? Are only the two Series 1 decks modified in this way? Was anything added to the FP side to even them up?
Both formats also feature a specific site 7 (Hornburg Causeway for TT, I think Osgiliath Channel for King), to punish such playing as well.
The stock Eomer deck has Osgiliath Crossing, and the stock Aragorn deck has Pelennor Grassland. Are you saying that in both decks, these two sites have been replaced with Osgiliath Channel?
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I think it was one Enquea only. Could be wrong, though. Legion already pointed out the differences in those starters in his thread. Site 7 is o/c in addition.
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I think it was one Enquea only. Could be wrong, though.
Interesting.
Legion already pointed out the differences in those starters in his thread.
Looking at his thread, it looks like he's detailing differences based on the LOTR Online decklists, not the actual lists used by Gemp (he doesn't note the addition of Enquea LoM, for example).
Site 7 is o/c in addition.
So players get the site 7 that is stock to the deck, and then they also get an extra site 7, in the form of Osgiliath Channel?
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IIRC week 3 of King league all players get a Sam so that Sam starter isn't ridiculously overpowered.
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IIRC week 3 of King league all players get a Sam so that Sam starter isn't ridiculously overpowered.
Very interesting! Can anyone confirm?
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Hot dog!
Really cool, thanx Euk.. and great that you perform adjustments based on real play experience and top player's feedback.
I did not play towers sealed cause for me, it's the most lamest format (just as it is), due to poor crowd control (now imagine it in sealed, without proper shadow cards.. just what you get)...
You see, I'm more of a shadow player than a freeps player. I usually prefer to go second, double only if needed, and would rather win by seeing all comps struck dead instead of arriving safely to 9!
This is unlikely in towers and it is basically a 9-companion race to site 9.
RotK is different because of threats (major difference), and has a slightly better crowd control (as an option at site 7 and from minions not only from 1 culture as in towers).
I would have gave it a chance if I knew about the Commander addition...
So, if I understand correctly the upcoming King sealed will feature one U. Enquea from set 1 for both starters?
It's gonna get pretty savage and bloody out there with an Enquea!!
About:
...For example, I've heard it is smart to open your boosters before you choose your starter, in case you get a great rare that works better with one starter than another....
Sure, I always thought everybody did that (you can't trust your rare-draw luck) !
Seems common sense to do it for every choice of starter... unless of course, for the Sam starter.
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So, if I understand correctly the upcoming King sealed will feature one U. Enquea from set 1 for both starters?
It's gonna get pretty savage and bloody out there with an Enquea!!
IIRC it's one Shotgun Enquea and one 7U212, which also gets better with 6 companions out.
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I really don't like the fact that the Set 1 Enquea was added. Based on how games I've played and watched already, there is enough crowd control for both starters to punish for 9 companions. When the twilight pool was risen due to extra companions, I saw sauron effective deal with companions by swarming and carefully using the threat pumps to weed out three companions. Although they didn't reach Frodo, this was still solid. I took care of three companions in one move without drawing my Enquea as well. When given lots of twilight, the Raiders can start becoming Damage+6 more often, as well as adding tons of threats that end up getting assigned to companions that they would have planned to kill off later.
Altogether, I think it was a little unnecessarily communistic to throw the Set 1 Enquea in...can't we just keep it to King Block, please?
Anyway, about the starter decks >
I ended up pulling two Raider rares, a rare Faramir, two denethors, and Noble Leaders in my boosters.
About halfway through the pulls I thought I was going to still go with Rohan, but I just couldn't justify letting some good rares go unused :)
So...even though it wasn't my first choice, I'm going to see if Gondor will see it done :)
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Hot dog!
Really cool, thanx Euk.. and great that you perform adjustments based on real play experience and top player's feedback.
Thanks, but Sealed was designed their ways before I took over the leagues.
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I ended up pulling two Raider rares, a rare Faramir, two denethors, and Noble Leaders in my boosters.
About halfway through the pulls I thought I was going to still go with Rohan, but I just couldn't justify letting some good rares go unused :)
So...even though it wasn't my first choice, I'm going to see if Gondor will see it done :)
lol. That's ironic, considering that it was your rather convincing argument that convinced me to go Rohan (when originally I was leaning towards Gondor). We'll see how it goes!
It looks like the Eomer deck (and I assume the Aragorn deck) are indeed the LOTR Online versions, with each player receiving those four additional cards (2 sites, 2 Enqueas). I've updated post #1 with that information.
ETA: Eukalyptus, can you confirm whether or not all players get a Sam in Series 3?
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Nope, can't.
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I'm pretty sure that I recall that you do not get any additional bonus cards going into any additional series. So, if you want a Sam, best hope to draw one or choose the Sam starter. Sam starter has a lot of frodo saves going for it, if I recall. "A Marvel" is pretty solid against swarm.
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Status Report: So, I think this is my first time playing King Sealed. I just completed Series 1. I chose the Eomer Starter, based on dmaz's reasoning. I think I did pretty well, only two losses, currently ranked 13th. Observations:
It's all about swarm, swarm, swarm. So far this seems to be a very simplistic series, to me. There is pretty good crowd control in the form of Shotgun Enquea and whatnots. Very little in the way of useful event pumps for any Shadow, so few surprises. Also very little in the way of Frodo anti-overwhelm cards. I haven't really found threats to be making much of an impact on the game. The basic FP strategy seems to be bid a little to go first, then get out 5 guys and try to keep them alive as best you can. If one gets killed, play another. Once you get to about site 8, play all the guys you've got and double.
Shadow strategy seems to be build up a hand of fairly cheap guys, and then bomb the opponent with a swarm whenever an opportunity presents itself. You want your FP to go first if possible, so your opponent will get more desperate to double and give you the opportunity to drop the bomb. I believe most of my wins were shadow kills.
So, what about the rest of you? How would you describe your experiences with this League?
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I'm pretty sure that I recall that you do not get any additional bonus cards going into any additional series.
Bzzzt! Series 2 cards just got distributed, and it looks like everyone gets an Osgiliath Channel. Post #1 has been updated.
We'll see what happens for Series 3!
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It's all about swarm, swarm, swarm. So far this seems to be a very simplistic series, to me. There is pretty good crowd control in the form of Shotgun Enquea and whatnots........The basic FP strategy seems to be bid a little to go first, then get out 5 guys and try to keep them alive as best you can. If one gets killed, play another. Once you get to about site 8, play all the guys you've got and double.
I made this observation very quickly around the third game of the second serie. I had a rough start to the second serie, but ended up going six straight wins due to what you noticed here, more or less.
I found that if I bid high and go first, people are more likely to drop their shotgun enquea early (50% of the time you get an early draw with him) than hold onto him because they want to get some low cost minions in hand for site 4 and have more options for overwhelming people with my burdens (the burden removal for +2 strength is very solid). Now...once shotgun enquea is out of the question, you can really just dump all the companions you want and run to site 9 as long as you keep the threats under 2 for site 8 (so they can't pull him again). Since I did end up going with Aragorn (ironically, haha), he was able to give solid threat control during the regroup at site 7. And three times I specifically won by double moving from 7 to 9 this way. If you are careful and you play threats correctly you can almost always pull the the double form 7 to 9 if you have enough companions and you've saved some events in hand.
I was very hesitant to be accepting of the shotgun enquea (it still doesn't feel completely right having him)....but I do see how the game might just turn into a bidding match for who goes first if he wasn't in the picture.
I was excited about (once again) picking the not-so-popular starter deck in serie 3 of Frodo, to get my hands on Gandalf, but I'm not sure I will even play anymore, as I just got in trouble for "flaming" Cthulhu. While it was only a 3 day ban (and completely confirmed my presuppositions that this guy has his nose so far enlodged up the mods butts, whilst being malicious within games), his undyingly narcissistic trolling within the community has left such a bad taste in my mouth, it's basically overpowered my desire to participate. That and there were others that were starting to disciple themselves to his ways, which I found annoying.
Sorry, got too off topic...I might be able to motivate myself to participate in sealed, as there is a large community active, and enough people for me to be able to play, whilst avoiding those that are unpleasant to play with (I seriously doubt I'll ever go back to My Cards/All Cards/Or Daily Tourneys)....I'd really like to get the Gandalf dynamics to work in Serie 3...even if I don't get a Sam.
Has it been confirmed whether there would be a Sam for everyone? That might encourage allow for a balanced distribution of Starter choices in serie 3....or maybe then everyone will just pick gandalf so they can have the best of both worlds, hahaha.
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I found that if I bid high and go first, people are more likely to drop their shotgun enquea early (50% of the time you get an early draw with him) than hold onto him because they want to get some low cost minions in hand for site 4 and have more options for overwhelming people with my burdens (the burden removal for +2 strength is very solid). Now...once shotgun enquea is out of the question, you can really just dump all the companions you want and run to site 9 as long as you keep the threats under 2 for site 8 (so they can't pull him again).
I got beaten by at least two Aragorn decks, and both ran full fellowships. It didn't even seem like they were particularly concerned about Enquea, since losing a single guy still leaves them with 8 more. They were generally able to just power through whatever I threw at them. I noticed that Frodo in the Aragorn deck was often much harder to overwhelm, because those guys generally chose the Pippin deck for Series 2, and got 3x Dagger Strike. No nice powerups for Rohan Frodo.
Since I did end up going with Aragorn (ironically, haha), he was able to give solid threat control during the regroup at site 7. And three times I specifically won by double moving from 7 to 9 this way. If you are careful and you play threats correctly you can almost always pull the the double form 7 to 9 if you have enough companions and you've saved some events in hand.
Yep! That is what I experienced playing against Aragorn decks in Series 2. I am very surprised, however, that virtually none of my opponents made any effort to go first, which I feel definitely offered an advantage.
I was very hesitant to be accepting of the shotgun enquea (it still doesn't feel completely right having him)....but I do see how the game might just turn into a bidding match for who goes first if he wasn't in the picture.
Honestly, I don't really feel like the one Shotgun Enquea even makes much of an impact. Either your opponent is sticking with 5 and he's useless, or he's busting out a full 9, and it's just a minor annoyance for one turn. I may need MORE crowd control than what I've packed so far, because frankly it doesn't seem to be effective against larger fellowships.
Has it been confirmed whether there would be a Sam for everyone? That might encourage allow for a balanced distribution of Starter choices in serie 3....or maybe then everyone will just pick gandalf so they can have the best of both worlds, hahaha.
So far there has been no confirmation on whether or not everyone gets a Sam. Eukalyptus says he doesn't know.
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Honestly, I don't really feel like the one Shotgun Enquea even makes much of an impact. Either your opponent is sticking with 5 and he's useless, or he's busting out a full 9, and it's just a minor annoyance for one turn. I may need MORE crowd control than what I've packed so far, because frankly it doesn't seem to be effective against larger fellowships.
I was just browsing Mount Doom, and there doesn't appear to be any solid crowd control from the decks or the boosters. The closest thing to crowd control, which anyone might have a reasonable shot at pulling would be Easterling Pillager, I think. This could be a nice surprise corruption card if the FP player has filled Frodo up with burdens from threats and was planning on killing him off to have Sam go on. Nonetheless, despite it being a common, it's still unlikely that everyone will be seeing one.
I could have easily overlooked something...does anyone else know of any crowd control in Mount Doom?
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Far Harad Mercenaries. I don't think of Easterling Pillager as crowd control since he needs another Easterling to spot and almost all Easterlings of King Block are not exactly the most effective minions in this format.
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Far Harad Mercenaries. I don't think of Easterling Pillager as crowd control since he needs another Easterling to spot and almost all Easterlings of King Block are not exactly the most effective minions in this format.
Thanks Euk, I had overlooked the spot an Easterling part...that does make it a little less effective. As you suggest, even if you pulled 3 other Easterlings, it's not like they would be very great minions to use.
On the other hand, Far Harad Mercenaries can spot any raider man, and triggers at the start of each skirmish. If your opponent thinks they're sitting pretty, waltzing from site 7 with 8 companions and no threats, they will be in some serious trouble if you throw one of those guys down on a Mumak. That would really be a nice pull for this next serie :)
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Yes, everyone gets a copy of Sam, Needer of Vittles in series 3.
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Mordor orcs got the guy whos 18 and fierce with 6 companions out. Not great, but decent.
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Figured it'd be ok to post this since we're already well into serie 3.
I got a nice booster pull (the rare gorn) and snookered myself into playing ome serie 3.
I was doing very well in a few games, but I just have to post this replay. I got completely WRECKED by the Wraith Orcs against this guy's deck. He combined the conditions that gave him bonuses for initiative along with heaving archery using those orcs that add to the archery total.
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/game.html?replayId=dmaz$s00t8xoiaz3ei957
While he did admit that his shadow draws were pretty much timed perfectly (getting the conditions out right away, etc), it's still pretty darn impressive.
Normally, in sealed, if a few companions die early, you end up limping along and eeking it out till maybe site 8 before you crap the bed, but this was just murder.
I guess I could take from this that there are things other than site 4 game text to worry about, if you bid a little high to go first :)
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This year I decided to take the Aragorn starter then Pippin to see what happens. In Series 1, I went 5-5 and I'm not sure how I won that many games. As with most GEMP sealed formats, the game seems to be mostly about crowd control. Orc Savage is better than anything Aragorn gets. So I get 8 threats? Whee, they can just become burdens after site 4. Meanwhile, Orc Officer means an Aragorn deck can't take as many threats as burdens.
On the other hand, in Series 2 I just finished going 10-0, with only one close game (I killed at site 9 off an archery from Raider Bow and a wound from Desert Runner). In Series 1 I had to play bad cards like Second Level; now I don't. I'm running two cards that didn't come from a starter. One is Site 4, really just to get the twilight. Okay, Sam, Needer of Vittles was helpful in Series 1, earning me two wins, but in Series 2 I could just run another Gondor body.
I bid 1, went first when I could (which was most of the time), and ran a lot. Lots of pumps cycle quickly and prevent overwhelming, while 3 Dagger Strike made me feel pretty safe late game. I could judiciously use them to get damage+1. So Enquea kills Denethor or Faramir? Big deal. On my shadow side, my big people will occasionally kill someone, but most importantly they often stay alive. As long as I go first and get one stop at site 4 or 6 and prevent four doubles things look pretty good.
In Series 3 I foresee more Ring protection with Tale of the Great Ring, Noble Intentions, and more Sams. Am I missing something, or is this just a running event?
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Ring-bearer: Frodo, Hope of Free Peoples
Ring: The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Adventure deck:
Steps of Edoras
King's Tent
Hall of the Kings
City of the Dead
City Gates
Minas Tirith Sixth Circle
Osgiliath Channel
Morgulduin
Haunted Pass
Free Peoples Draw Deck:
3x Aragorn, Driven by Need
1x Denethor, Wizened Steward
1x Faramir, Defender of Osgiliath
4x Gondorian Captain
1x Ingold
1x Sam, Needer of Vittles
1x Knight's Mount
4x Knight's Spear
2x Hobbit Sword
3x City of Men
3x Dagger Strike
3x Great Gate
3x Fourth Level
Shadow Draw Deck:
4x Desert Fighter
3x Desert Runner
2x Desert Villain
2x Haradrim Marksman
4x Southron Captain
3x Troop of Haradrim
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
3x Mumakil
2x Raider Bow
2x New Strength Came Now
2x Red Wrath
2x War Towers
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I'm kind of surprised to hear you were able to run so much. Generally it is more difficult to clear the board of minions in King Sealed to make an easy double move. With only 1 copy of Knight's mount I wonder what your opponents were doing that allowed you to double so often? I'm also curious how many opponents you had in Serie 2 that were playing Morcs and/or Sauron? Every win I have so far in sealed is from swarming my opponent that double moves. And a good number of my losses are from my opponent swarming me.
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It's enlightening to rewatch my games. Here are short game summaries:
1. Bid 1-1 [I won], Opponent played Big Minions which don't overwhelm anybody.
2. Bid 1-0, Opponent played Sauron. At site 5, Opponent took a threat instead of keeping a minion alive, while one more minion would have killed me at site 6. Likely I would have stopped and opponent might have been able to seize the lead.
3. Bid 1-1 [Opponent won], Opponent played Raiders. This was the Raider Bow - Desert Runner game at site 9. I drew well to win off my opponent double.
4. Bid 1-0, Opponent played Morcs. I could have lost to a built swarm at site 5, but my Raiders were applying pressure and the opponent needed cards. I killed at site 6 with Haradrim Marksman archery setting off 4 threats.
5. Bid 1-1 [Opponent won], Opponent played Morcs. Opponent made a mistake stopping at site 2, but then doubled 2-4. I got a city gates stop at site 5, and then forced another stop at site 8. I doubled to 9 for the win.
6. Bid 1-0, Opponent played 78 card Sauron. A forced double through 7 with Osgiliath Channel might have swarmed me, but Fourth Level killed a key minion. I could have sacrificed down to 5 companions, though, so this wasn't an opponent mistake.
7. Bid 1-1 [Opponent won], Opponent started Legolas (very good) and played Morcs. Opponent made a mistake stopping at 2, because I would have needed a very good swarm to win off a mulligan and 12 twilight. That let me seize the lead, and a Legolas pump-kill at site 4 let me keep it.
8. Bid 1-1 [Opponent won], Opponent played Raiders. I got a stop at 4 and doubled to 5, losing 2 people. Opponent had a tough decision at 5, because Haradrim Marksman would have won me the game in archery. I didn't have it. Under optimal play he would have lost 1 of 4 people. He made a small error and would have lost 2. After that stop, we both held at 6 but I won easily.
9. Bid 1-1 [I won], Opponent played Morcs. Opponent played Enquea at site 2 against 5 companions. After that point, I could dump and go. I made a mistake at site 4 to lose a minion, but opponent made a bigger mistake and stopped anyway. Leaving site 6 I had 9 companions, so even with a Ruined Capitol stop I was winning.
10. Bid 1-0, Opponent played 80 card Raiders. He got a site 4 stop, but so did I. City Gates stopped me at site 5. He should have doubled because he would have lost no more than 2 people moving to 6, but didn't. Maybe he thought 1 more minion in a swarm would have won, but he was wrong - he needed 2.
Let's see, what did I learn?
- Four times I lost the random roll and went second.
- I had two kills, one from a double move, one on a single. Eight times I survived site 9.
- Opponent Shadows were 4 Morcs, 3 Raiders, 2 Sauron, 1 Big Minions.
- I made one play error (#9) which would have lost the game if the opponent capitalized.
- In at least three games (#5, #7, #9), the opponent made a play mistake that lost the game. There were opponent errors in other games (#2, #8, #10) but I don't think they directly lost the game. Interestingly, my closest game (#3) had no opponent errors that I saw; I just drew well.
To answer your question, there were fewer double moves than I remembered. I built my deck with big 3 vitality minions to get stops at site 4, which I generally did. My opponents needed to double more aggressively - losing 2 people is usually fine against Raiders. I still believe Sauron is a better shadow, with Orc Savage and more swarm potential.