Post-Mount Doom sets

[Bilbo the Hutt]

I found my old cards recently and one thing led to another and I ended up on this site.  I started looking through the cards database images and I found that a whole ton of stuff had changed since I left the game after Reflections/Mount Doom.  I went and familiarized myself with the new rules about sites and companion resistance and some of the new keywords but I have no idea what pretty much any of the cards do and if they're good or whatever.  So what was good after Mount Doom?  What strategies were popular, what was annoying, what did people think was good but ended up sucking, all that kind of stuff?  I don't know if I'll ever play anything other than movie block (even online where I have access to all the cards) but maybe I'll dabble in it occasionally.  I'm just kind of curious about the whole thing because it looks like I ended up missing about half of the game and I'd like to know what happened.

[Cw0rk]

To be honest I dislike everything after Mount Doom. Many people still only play 'movie block' which is everything from FotR till MD including Reflections.

[Bilbo the Hutt]

That is good to hear because I have no idea what anything does after that and I can imagine the learning curve is quite steep.  I hardly even know what the Mount Doom stuff does because I never really played with it much, what did Mount Doom introduce that was really game changing?

[ket_the_jet]

Mount Doom introduced free peoples cards that made it beneficial to lose the initiative. Glimpse of Fate and Brooding On Tomorrow are the two most popular, although that is not insulting to A Light In His Mind and Hardy Garrison. Unfortunately, the condition Memories of Darkness was X-Listed.

Otherwise, the game introduced companions that were unlike any before. Cirdan, the Shipwright, Elrond, Venerable Lord, and Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men are the most common, but Celeborn, Lord of the Galadhrim is also oft-played. Galadriel, Lady Redeemed is agreed upon to be overpowered, and most people do not play her because she is vastly overpowered.

Eowyn, Lady of Ithilien is another popular companion from the set...

Gollum, Mad Thing and Shelob, Her Ladyship are amazing as well. culture only got Shadow cards and Ninja Gollum is now one of the most powerful condition-based Shadows.

Enduring Nazgul got some new cards that are amazing. Enquea, Thrall of the One can end the game on one turn sometimes.

Uruk-Hai were new...and the two starter decks had two popular copies of Frodo and Sam.
-wtk

[Cw0rk]

Wow, just after reading your post ket, I realize MD was one of the very strong set.

[ket_the_jet]

In my honest opinion, the Lord of the Rings TCG really went downhill after the Return of the King set. Obviously, that is when the legal and financial problems of Decipher were at the forefront and there were not many playtesters and designers.

If you start with Siege of Gondor, every single culture exploded in power. culture got Blood Runs Chill, which allows them to discard conditions and possessions--something they could never do (Make Light of Burdens does not count!) was similar: Catapult gave them access to something they could never do before, and Fourth Level with Gondor Bow and Citadel of the Stars takes a lot of the fun of playing Knights away (Sixth Level was a welcome addition!). culture got Saved From the Fire which is mighty and powerful but with dangerous consequences...but Gandalf Leader of Men gives them the option of starting Gandalf and another companion. Don't get me started on Corsairs and Enduring Nazgul are pretty lame.

In fact, I kind of hate the term Enduring altogether. Reflections was a nice way for Decipher to try to get some extra cash, quick...but that set was actually under development before SoG. Most of those cards are relatively nice additions to the game, but I still miss the idea of Frodo as the lone ring-bearer.

If only there was a block that was just 1-7! Those were the days!

And before you call me hypocrites, my deck uses Durin III and Blood Runs Chill, among others. My Knights use Fourth Level and Catapult. So...I won't take Mauddib's approach of "a card is lame so I won't use it!" Viva Sam, Son of Hamfast!
-wtk

[Gil-Estel]

Well you could introduce Return of the King Standard then . But I most certainly do agree with you. But even initiative as a gamemechanism is something you could debate about. And that came with Return of the King. I like simple, easy to explain mechanisms, such as roaming. Those that make perfectly sense.

[Not a Zombie]

Ket: I completely agree on catapult, BRC and corsairs. Dwarfs are already powerful enough with cheap weapons, rings, and durin III. Add in condition and possession removal, and they are nearly unbeatable. Corsairs pretty well suck. When I first saw corsair marauder, I thought it was only shadow possessions and thought it was not great, but also not OP. And the castimir more powerful and cheaper than the WK?!?!? There isn't a single WK who is both enduring and fierce, let alone have a cool ability on top. Enduring nazzies I have no problem with, I don't personally use them much, but they at least aren't OP. I do really like what MD and SoG did for  though. Besiegers FTW! 

[TheJord]

I personally think Catapult is weak, it looks good on the surface but its SO unreliable.

Dwarves are solid, but Mount Doom introduced Ninja Gollum decks that rape and pillage Dwarves

Post-Mount Doom sets brought in a number of new mechanics

Toil - reduce cost of cards by exerting characters of the same culture
Muster - discard then draw at the start of the regroup phase
Lurker - all skirmishes must be resolved before Lurker minions
Resistance - all companions now had resistance numbers printed on them, this was reduced by the number of burdens on the RB

All the minion cultures were wrapped up into Orc Uruk-hai Nazgul Evil Men althought some new cards kept the old cultures like The Balrog, Saruman, of Many Colours

Followers were a new card type, not characters or allies, but cards that represented a character that assisted in some way by being attached to your companions.

Less and less money was available towards the end of the game so a lot of errata came out after set 18, but Standard is a great format, as long as you and your opponent agree not to play silly decks that never got banned, like the Horn deck

[Not a Zombie]

Not my experience with catapult, it has destroyed my shadow many times. Bad luck FTL!

[ket_the_jet]

Well you could introduce Return of the King Standard then .

Let's play Towers Standard on GCCG sometime! That's about as close as we are going to get! In actuality, I really liked the mechanics of Return of the King. Threats were a long-overdue thought (risk-reward) addition to the game. And initiative brought about a ton of new cycling options for decks but also brought an associated risk with mass-cycling. Before RoTK, Gwemegil, Elven Sword, and Fell Beast were kind of the best cards to straight dump cards out of your hand.

Wow, just after reading your post ket, I realize MD was one of the very strong set.

It sure is. And I neglected to mention Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith who is monstrous in the right decks, Borne Far Away which was key in a lot of decks for a while, Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom, The Tale of the Great Ring, and the new sites it introduced (Steward's Tomb is universally used in all of my decks)!

Catapult is unreliable, sure, but it gave something it did not have before. That is reason enough to include two copies in any Knights deck, in my opinion.

Corsair Marauder would be fine if it only dealt with Shadow possessions. My biggest problems with Corsairs is that they are unflavorful and can do everything. They are unflavorful because, instead of reflecting a group of pussies who ran away when they saw the Army of the Dead (or got killed by them, in the movies), they made them stronger and more terrible than any free people army. The fact that they work with Raider Halbred, Raider Bow, Red Wrath, Fierce in Despair, Rout, Harsh Tongues, etc., is just icing on the #$&*@! cake.

Keep in mind, I lump Reflections into the group of sets that I wish in the depths of my heart wasn't produced. 1-7 for the win.
-wtk