Towers Standard Sealed Discussion

[dmaz]

Providing an opportunity for everyone to record their thoughts/comments/suggestions to the Towers Standard Sealed League on GEMP.
I anticipate most of this discussion will center around starter deck content, but there is also opportunity to discuss broader, overarching theory and approach (like amount of additional sealed content, which fellowships should be matched with which shadow, etc).

I intent to watch a little bit more and post some of my own thoughts.

Thank you for your interest and participation!

[Tunadan]

A good start would be swapping the Hobbit and Three Hunters shadows. That would give hobbits a needed boost, and would knock the obvious top dog down. Another thing to do would be to boost the Rohan shadow. The freeps is in a good place imo, but the shadow doesn't have much going for it. Either boosting or replacing it would help.

[daisukeman]

Thanks Dmaz and admin team, great work!

So hear me out, I've been thinking what we can suggest to balance more the choice of starters.
Starters' shadows and fps are overall optimally thought out, and many of my suggestions are not really "new ideas" in terms of shadow or fps layout, but rather the aim instead is how to re-distribute/release better these, given the series boosters choices (basically first: 1+4, second: 2+5, third:3+6).
Due to the fact that nowadays virtually everyone chooses the 3-hunter starter.

An immediate first-off suggestion is to remove Gimli from the 3-hunter deck (LA instead). Why? I believe this is the current choice due to the fair amount of Gondor, Elf and Dwarven cards you get. Personally, whenever I've gotten a very nice/rare Dwarf card, I'd always pick 3-hunters (not worth the Dwarf+Gandalf because you'd unuse Elf and Gondor cards completely), so by removing Gimli you are forced into reconsidering the Gandalf + Gimli starter.
Also and due to power creep in later sets, trackers will be significantly better than the other FotR shadows.
My suggestion includes having Boromir in the third starter so that Gondor cards could also tilt that way --Rohan would be out from this series because you can't get cards for them in set 1 (disadvantage).

So here I'm posting suggestions, for example for series 1, something among these lines:


--------------------------------------Free peoples
Option#1: Boromir and hobbits (only deck getting Sam --it's possible to start with 4 hobbits or go for Boromir+Merry)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16fdIOK61P2LQUywwkPCRQ11mDreEhtu9/view?usp=sharing

Option#2: Gandalf and dwarves (not much changes here, but starting with Farin)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fyPPFILPieLeMoTaWYSTmMor0siouCrP/view?usp=sharing

Option#3: Aragorn and elves ("LA" but not really; Gimli no longer in this deck and Aragorn is not key in the deck)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Vo02eMvt3tIInIu7X3IdTQHf1LObISp/view?usp=sharing
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------Shadow
Option#X: Sauron grind (probably still paired with Option #2)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nFnVZQ7ihXpgtqavTSX0yhS5EUWZ-0i6/view?usp=sharing

Option#Y: Moria 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WYWk2WsL9I7AC68F9DjUUMjC78ds8Axl/view?usp=sharing

Option#Z: Nazguls 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qYTP7yffYXbvAJxZ1k5F-6SdBtsIHRR0/view?usp=sharing
--------------------------------------

NB=

• I'm personally not a fan of large decks (so cut down strictly to 30); nor using >5 companions: let anyone use all companions they want but not included in the starter --just relying on pulls they get.
• Notice all of them are using FotR shadows so that good minions from set 4 with power creep, are really splashed but not there as a baseline.
  For instance Uruks can't be there for series 1, otherwise they have advantage of getting good cards both from set 1 and set 4.
• Haven't thought how to pair shadows with Fps, it is very possible some of them are stronger, so I wouldn't rule out that some of the starters come with 1 or 2 rare cards.
• We don't need to explore every strategy which is already common in meta (i.e., archery); and also tuning might be needed if swarming becomes easy at least for first serie.

I'll put more later about what I would suggest exactly for series 2 and 3 (or let me know if you dislike this idea so that I stop).
Series 2 could have: Southrons, Dunlands, and Isengard orcs -including but not limited to Warg riders  (all these based on stuff you are likely to get from set 5 boosters). And assuming that if someone gets good pulls from set 2 regarding Nazguls or Moria (outstanding cards in this set), then they can "revamp" first series starters.
With series 2, fps: Rohan (maybe with Gandalf?), Aragorn (6r) + Gimli, and Knights.
Series 3 would have for shadow: Uruks using machines, Easterlings + Gollum, and Isengard men (with a few rares). And fps as: Ents (not necessarilly with Gandalf), Rangers (with Faramir and Smeagol), and Elves. 
I can see it overlaps a little with Movie sealed, but maybe we don't need to change this towers standard sealed at once? Maybe give it a try while having both (flavour A + flavour B?).. so that we can assess if starter selection becomes indeed more varied/balanced.

[Orophoin]

I don't think anything so drastic needs to be done to the starters. As it stands, the 3 hunters seems by far the most popular in the first series, and I'd say the other two are well matched. I don't think the 3 hunters is necessarily much better, but it has a lot more stopping power in the early game than the other two.

If I were to make tweaks, I would probably start by taking out the 'non-hunters'. So make the only companions Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli (and possibly take out Enquea as well). Fereveldir and Haldir are far better than the Rider of Rohan that the Rohan deck is given. This woulf force the use of three hunters to either just run those hunters (fine as Aragorn has defender plus one, there's already Frodo protection in Bounder, and there's a while host of very powerful wounding cards like Quick as May Be and Defend it and Hope), or play companions picked up in the boosters, which will likely be fewer in number and less useful. Since killing a companion and replacing it next turn is very effective against both of the other decks' shadows, I'd reckon it's a better strategy, but at least it's now a little harder to pull off. Losing Enquea also denies free synergy with Nazgul in series 2.

The other change I would make is to replace the site 2 in the Rohan deck. A lot of the power from that deck lies in the sites 3, 4 and 7, so it almost never wants to break ahead in the early game, favouring a late charge, instead.  Any wound carried over from sanctuaries would be priceless (and not impossible if Gimli and Legolas exert at The Riddemark), but providing a mini sanctuary at site 2 gives the 3 hunters a much bigger boost than the Rohan fellowship could expect to get. I would say any other site works, but Uruk Camp is probably the best.

[dmaz]

Taking some time to read through suggestions; I want to thank everyone for their thoughtful responses.

Tunadan, I had not previously considered as simple of a solution as swapping shadows cross-series. Interestingly, in doing so we could address the unspoken issue of the Hobbit/Smeagol deck not really getting any love because it needed a little bit more of an attractive Shadow. The TH deck in the 1st series seems so strong that having a headliner shadow to go with it is almost a no brainer. Rather than performing further nerfs, maybe this is a good thing to test.

daisukeman, great comments regarding power creep an cross-series impact. I also liked the suggested decks. Very straightforward, simple canvases to build on. Decks like this, I would almost suggest a whole new sealed league that included quite a bit more booster support for added flavor

Orophoin, first off, I think that was a great suggestion on changing the Rohan deck Site 2. I think that can be put in place without any further deliberation. I also think it may not be a bad idea to make the deck contain only the 3 Hunters as you suggest. Focus on that and force the player to make a tough choice if they didn't pull any other companions in their boosters (happens sometimes).

If that is done then it would probably be done in lieu of switching shadows with the Hobbit starter in the 3rd series...or maybe look at doing both and seeing how you could buff the Isengard Men deck.

Thank you again for the feedback...we have some things to think about and possibly generate a poll based on all of this feedback for adjusting the next league.

[Orophoin]

Thanks for the feedback, Dmaz!

The more I think about swapping the shadows for the men in series 3 the more I like it: the Saruman's Ambition are very versatile for a series one card, given the raw power of the berserk uruks in series 3. Switching the series means you now can't have both.