Setting up a group questions

[mille1212]

Well, I am finally ready to set up a group for LOTR tcg.  I have a group to 5-6 teens from church coming over tonight to hang out and learn how to play the game.  I am starting off by showing them how to play with starter decks.  I purchased one of each from Fellowship to Mount Doom.

I would like to start meeting with them once per month to play the game if they like it.  I will have to be the supplier of the collection and I have collected all cards from the Fellowship to Mount Doom in the following minimum quantities (2R, 2 UNC, 4COM).

In an effort to keep the decks as balanced as possible and to make the most use of the cards that I have, I have the following two questions.  I would like feedback as I want to make the game fun for the boys also. 

1.I would like to make deck building as fair as possible once we get to the point of building our own decks with the limited amount of cards that I was able to acquire.  My thought is that I would limit each deck to one rare copy of each individual card, 2 uncommon copies of each individual card, and 4 common copies of each individual card.

2.I am also considering limiting each deck to say a maximum ratio of 1R and two UNC for every 4 COM.  A deck of 60 cards could contain up to 10 rares and 20 UNC.

I may be way off base with these thoughts.  Just wondering if anyone has done something similar?  Thanks.

[Tbiesty]

Very cool!

My friends and I did something very similar when we started playing (even though that was 10 years ago now). :-)  Since our card pool was limited at the time, it did help so one person couldn't just "outspend" everyone else and pretty much always have the best deck.  So, yeah, I think it's a pretty cool idea!  Just starting with Fellowship cards first is a good way to learn.  Then, you can eventually introduce them to Towers, and later, King cards; it is a fun way to progress through the trilogy.

Enjoy!

[azogsbane]

My brothers and I share our card collection in common. When we first started playing, we each claimed a culture (one free-peoples and one shadow) that would be ours to make decks with and that sufficed to prevent conflict of interest. Any conflict that did arise we managed to solve peaceably. There only were four of us though, I'm not sure if that would work with six. But if it could work, that would prevent you from having to limit the ratio of rares/commons etc.

[leokula]

I think that this might work for fellowship sides, but for shadow, I dare say that without multiples of rares, you'll be left with very weak shadow sides.

For fellowship, if you have tough companions, most of the time, that does the trick, and you don't need a lot of multiples. I can think of a pretty good fellowship with only 1 copy of each rare, but can't come up with a shadow side built that way... since ur minions get discarded all the time, you need lots of multiples to keep consistency.

If you really wanna do this, I think you have to understand you'll end up with games being decided by whoever gets to site 9 first, 'cause your shadows won't be good enough to pull shadow kills. If you're fine with it, than that's cool

[mille1212]

Your replies both pro and con are appreciated as I didn't think about some of your suggestions.  I shall give this some further thought before decided on the best course of action.  Thanks everyone.