Dad Needing Help Tweaking Starter Decks for Kids

[Landroval]

Hello,

As the title says, I needs help tweaking the starter decks we have for balanced gameplay.  We have the following starter decks from this block:

Faramir (EoF) x2
Witch king (EoF) x2
Aragorn (TT)
Legolas (HD)

Any ideas on how to make three decent decks with this card pool?  Should we mix and match free peoples and minions or just keep with the base starters?

Thanks in advance.

Aragorn Starter Deck

Gondor Gondor / Dunland Dunland

Ring-bearer (2 cards)

Frodo, Tired Traveller
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Adventure Deck (9 cards)

[1T] The Riddermark
[2T] Rohirrim Village
[3T] Westemnet Plains
[4T] White Rocks
[5T] Hornburg Courtyard
[6T] Hornburg Armory
[7T] Hornburg Causeway
[8T] Ring of Isengard
[9T] Orthanc Library
Free Peoples (24 cards)

Aragorn, Wingfoot x2
Gimli, Unbidden Guest x2 (starting)
Legolas, Elven Comrade x2 (starting)
Merry, Learned Guide x3
Pippin, Woolly-footed Rascal x3
Hobbit Sword x2
Ranger's Sword, Blade of Aragorn x2
Best Company x2
Severed His Bonds x2
Swiftly and Softly x2
Valor x2
Shadow (25 cards)

Band of Wild Men x3
Dunlending Brigand x3
Dunlending Madman x3
Dunlending Pillager x3
Dunlending Robber x3
Dunlending Savage x3
Iron Axe x3
Dark Fury x2
Death to the Strawheads x2

Legolas Starter Deck

Elf Elven / Raider Raider

(This deck contained no random rares)

Ring-bearer (2 cards)

Frodo, Tired Traveller
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Adventure Deck (9 cards)

[1T] Plains of Rohan
[2T] Wold of Rohan
[3T] Barrows of Edoras
[4T] White Rocks
[5T] Hornburg Parapet
[6T] Hornburg Armory
[7T] Hornburg Causeway
[8T] Wizard's Vale
[9T] Palantir Chamber
Free Peoples (25 cards)

Balglin, Elven Warrior
Gimli, Unbidden Guest (starting)
Legolas, Archer of Mirkwood x2 (starting)
Lorien Swordsman x3
Elven Bow x3
Elven Sword x3
Hobbit Sword x2
Break the Charge
Baruk Khazad
Khazad Ai-menu x2
Quick as May Be x2
Severed His Bonds
Valor x3
Shadow (24 cards)

Army of Haradrim
Desert Soldier x2
Desert Spearman x3
Desert Warrior x2
Southron Marcher x3
Southron Traveler x3
Southron Runner x3
Mumak x3
Whirling Strike
On the March x3

The Witch-King Starter Deck

Gandalf Gandalf / Ringwraith Ringwraith / Sauron Sauron

(This deck contained no random rares)

Ring-bearer (2 cards)

Frodo, Tired Traveller
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Adventure Deck (9 cards)

[1T] Horse Country
[2T] Derndingle
[3T] Golden Hall
[4T] Ered Nimrais
[5T] Hornburg Courtyard
[6T] Hornburg Armory
[7T] Hornburg Wall
[8T] Nan Curunir
[9T] Orthanc Library
Free Peoples (24 cards)

Ent Avenger x3
Host of Fangorn
Merry, Learned Guide (starting)
Pippin, Woolly-footed Rascal (starting)
Quickbeam, Bregalad (starting)
Skinbark, Fladrif
Hobbit Sword x2
Ent Moot x2
Enraged
Boomed and Trumpeted x2
Knocked on the Head x2
Long Slow Wrath x2
Roused x3
Severed His Bonds x2
Shadow (25 cards)

Gate Troll
Gate Trooper x3
Gate Veteran x3
Orc Cutthroat x2
Orc Insurgent x2
Orc Pursuer x3
Orc Runner x3
The Witch-king, Deathless Lord x2
Ulaire Lemenya, Winged Hunter x2
Ulaire Nertea, Winged Hunter x2
Fell Beast x2

Faramir Starter Deck

Gondor Gondor / Shire Shire / Isengard Isengard

(This deck contained no random rares)

Ring-bearer

Frodo, Tired Traveller
The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Adventure Deck

[1T] East Wall of Rohan
[2T] Wold of Rohan
[3T] Stables
[4T] White Rocks
[5T] Deep of Helm
[6T] Hornburg Armory
[7T] King's Room
[8T] Ring of Isengard
[9T] Caverns of Isengard
Free Peoples (24 cards)

Anborn, Skilled Hunstman x2
Faramir, Ithilien Ranger x2 (starting)
Ranger of Ithilien x3 (starting)
Sam, Nice Sensible Hobbit
Smeagol, Poor Creature (starting)
Hobbit Sword x3
Ranger's Bow x2
Sword of Gondor x3
Ancient Roads
Don't Look at Them
Don't Follow the Lights
Severed His Bonds
War and Valor x3
Shadow (25 cards)

Isengard Artisan x3
Isengard Builder x2
Isengard Journeyman x2
Isengard Mechanics
Isengard Plodder x3
Isengard Tinker x2
Uruk-hai Berserker x3
Uruk-hai Raiding Party x3
Gnawing, Biting, Hacking, Burning x3
Kill Them Now x3


 

[Phallen Cassidy]

Welcome! Hopefully someone who plays the Towers Block Sealed leagues online can chime in with play experience, since we use the starters in those leagues. I can say you definitely made the right choice in skipping the Theoden starter, though Here are the balance changes I'd make. These are 1:1 substitutions, but if you can add enough cards to make each deck 30/30 then you can ditch the starter rules that let you shuffle your discard pile into a new draw deck.

Aragorn - Ranger's Sword makes this deck very capable right out of the gate, especially given Hobbit tricks when the going gets rough. I'd consider swapping one or both copies for the spare War and Valor instead, or maybe donating some Best Company to the Legolas deck so you're not looking at 3 solid fighters plus bouncing Hobbits. I'd also take some high vitality minions from the other decks to soak up arrows if you want them to compete with the Legolas deck. Faramir's Orcs have the added benefit of doing something if the FP can't both kill them and Dunlending Pillager. Would make the Shadow side a little less boring, too.

-0x-2x Ranger's Sword, Blade of Aragorn
-0x-2x Best Company
+0x-2x War and Valor
+0x-2x Hobbit Sword (won't be wasted, as many Hobbits as you'll be replaying)
+0x-1x Severed His Bonds

-3x Dunlending Brigand
-2x Dunlending Savage
+2x Isengard Journeyman
+2x Isengard Plodder
+1x Isengard Artisan

Legolas - The FP here have interesting skirmish capabilities, with Legolas hungry to win skirmishes but rarely capable of doing it alone. Of course, they prefer to just kill everything in the Archery phase. The bows might be a bit much with Quick As May Be and Legolas already in the mix, I might drop a copy. Not sure what you might add, though. Best Company? Severed His Bonds? The Shadow side is very reactive, hard for me to guess how it would play out. The Uruk-hai from your spare Faramir deck are great additions to any Shadow side, but they might give this deck consistency if it turns out to be a little too reactive.

-2x Southron Runner
-1x Southron Marcher
+3x Uruk-hai Berserker


The Witch-King - Ents are fine for a beginner, but get boring to play and play against pretty quickly since they're just big pools of strength and vitality. The Hobbit shenanigans would be fun if they weren't generally unnecessary given the Ents, so I'd make that trade to put some decision-making in the mix. Golden Hall can be a very negative experience too, haha. However, the Shadow side here is probably the most interactive of the bunch, giving a player meaningful decisions to make with minion vitality, twilight, and card cycling. I'd see how adding the 2 other copies of Orc Cutthroat goes, his text is just too good to pass up (but maybe too good to include so frequently?).

-1x Enraged
-0x-2x Boomed and Trumpeted
-1x-2x Ent Moot
-0x-1x Ent Avenger
+1x Merry
+1x Pippin
+1x-2x Knocked on the Head
+1x-2x Long Slow Wrath

-2x Ulaire Lemenya, Winged Hunter
+2x Orc Cutthroat

-1x Golden Hall
+1x Stables

Faramir - Kill Them Now is a dead card Other than that, this deck is pretty interesting. Sam lets the FP control the deck's breakdown once minions stop roaming naturally, and Gnawing, Biting, Hacking, Burning gives the Shadow side some recursion and reliability. That combined with using Isengard Builder's ability might be enough to stop a key double. Its site 7 gives it some killing power, but I don't think it's too much.

-1x Faramir, Ithilien Ranger
+1x card of your choice from the spare. I'd go for Ancient Roads or Ranger of Ithilien, but really they'll all be better than another copy of Faramir if you start with him

-3x Kill Them Now
+2x Ulaire Lemenya, Winged Hunter (remove a healthy companion from the wound pool)
+1x Isengard Mechanics or Isengard Tinker


But there's a few things that would be helpful to know. How old are your kids? Have you got any other cards available to you? Are you planning on any games with 3 or more players?

[Landroval]

First, thank you for your detailed response I look forward to digesting it.

To your questions:

My kids are 12 and 10 respectively and are experienced Pokémon, Magic The Gathering, Star Wars Destiny, and VS 2PCG players.  They've also dabbled in LOTR LCG (My main Game).  I played the TCG in college.

Right now this is our card pool.  If the boys take to it, then we might get a box of boosters somewhere down the road.  For now, Do you have any recommendations for any budget friendly singles that we should target to upgrade these starters a little more?   

I think I'd really like to try multiplayer with 1-4 players.

[Phallen Cassidy]

I've seen a few people mention that they're drowning in commons and uncommons they opened digging for particular rares. You might be able to get a boatload of cards from Fellowship and Towers blocks for little more than the cost of shipping, I'll see if I can track down where I saw someone mention that last. Rares are often the focal point of decks, but the commons and uncommons are the backbone. If anything there will be more strategies available to you without power rares making some cards basically unusable.

For multiplayer, you could probably undo the changes I made to the Ent deck. They aim to drop more twilight than a single player could use and then power through whatever gets played, but with two opponents life gets much tougher much faster. The Hobbit tricks would still make the deck more fun, if you want to throw them in anyway.

Another thing that I didn't consider in my first post is how the strengths of the different Free Peoples and Shadow sides line up. Balglin, for example, is almost useless against the other decks but would be a star against Southrons. Faramir's Ranger of Ithilien will have a field day against Sauron with that high site number, something other decks don't care about. And as I mentioned, Dunland is an uphill battle against Legolas. I don't know how much of this is really worth rearranging, but maybe after a game or two you'll have a better idea of what pairings would be best.

[Landroval]

We'd certainly be interested in commons and uncommons especially from the tower block for the right price.   

[azogsbane]

You could try swapping so that the Dunland shadow is in the same deck with the Legolas Free Peoples to avoid unbalanced match-ups.