Legion's Sealed League!

[TheNinthPlayer]

WOTR is my favorite, though I'm most likely alone in this.

[bign19]

I would be interested if we made the sealed league something I havent played yet. For example a TS sealed where we can choose any starter deck from sets 1-6 or something along those lines. I think the variation would be interesting

[Legion]

Not a bad shout at all.  Would anyone else consider this?  I would prefer not to do it as in my opinion the WK starter destroys all the other 5 from TTT Block, and Fellowship Block decks don't have the correct sites.  If we gave free choice for the sites, then a Cavern Entrance site 7 means the WK beats 10 of the others, with only Aragorn from Fellowship block having a chance if he plays Pathfinder at the correct time.  And then it's still not guaranteed.  I'd rather not get into a 2 horse race of WK or Aragorn if there are 12 to choose from.

I do like the WotR block decks, but again the Boromir deck is really the one to play or to beat.  If you go for 4 series like real leagues, then you just go Gandalf, Mouth of Sauron then Boromir 9 times out of 10, regardless of your booster pulls.  If it was from any of the other 5, I guess Saruman, Gandalf and Mouth of Sauron are all viable.  However as it was the most recent league, I would say let's not play it just yet.

If I had to vote now, I would say go for King Block.  As they are the online version of the Eomer deck is far more powerful than the Aragorn.  However that is purely down to the 2 Elite Riders killing all but 1 of the minions in the Aragorn deck.  If they were removed from the deck (like with physical cards) I think the two are fairly balanced.  As far as I remember, Pippin vs Merry is quite fun, too.  I never got the Mount Doom starters, so cannot say about Frodo vs Sam.  (And yes I would consider saying reset the collection each week, as otherwise almost everyone would go Aragorn, Pippin then Sam).

I have written a programme that would give rankings in a way that should allow people to play each other more than once and it still being fair on the rest.  It's based on the Rugby Union International Seedings, but uses Arctan instead of linear functions so you do gain (small) credit for beating someone much lower than you.

Has anyone else got any ideas?  I certainly feel we could do something very new and inventive.

[Legion]

Or, we could play the TS idea, but with the choice of 2 decks?  1 from Fellowship, one from Two Towers.  It would still be possible that WK and Legolas (from set 3) would still be very powerful (as Legolas gives Saruman's Snows) on the shadow side, but I feel the Free Peoples would take a beating.

[TheNinthPlayer]

As far as the MD starters go, I found Frodo to be much more powerful than Sam on the freeps side, but the shadows evened it out.
(purely from my experience, that is, owning both decks and playing them against each other with my friends.) 
 I know that resets are most likely necessary, but I would love to see how Aragorn, Driven by Need (ROTK) works with the two MD decks, with Frodo wraiths/threat control on one side, and Merry, Rohirrim Squire / Pippin, Sworn to Service weird threat-work on the other.  Just would lead to some crazy combos, particularly with Knight's Spear out. 

[Legion]

Sounds about right.  I wish we did play a RotK sealed league for real on Gemp, but the organiser seems not to like that block much.  Pity   Unless anyone has any other suggestions, I'm going to suggest we go by the TS idea: you pick a deck from Fellowship Block and Towers Block and you get 8 boosters: 2 from sets 1 and 4, 1 each from   the other 4 sets.  You also get to play up to 2 Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul.  I also feel that everyone should get 1 copy of Boromir, Son of Denethor as he is the only real swarm protection available.

I feel there are several interesting ideas for this format.  FotR Aragorn and Theoden give a powerful shadow of Uruks, and has the Eomer with an Aragorn signet.  Gimli and TTT Legolas would give an interesting wounding shadow combining Whirling Strike and Under the Watching Eye.  The fellowship would be good at wounding and can load Gimli up to take out any big minion that survives archery.  Gandalf (either) and the Witch King would form a frightening swarm thanks to They are Coming being able to use the Free Peoples cards drawn by all the Sauron Orcs to play even more goblins.  FotR Legolas could pair well with either Theoden for loads of Uruks, or WK for Snows in the swarm, or perhaps wit TTT Legolas for some Elven power.  Perhaps even Boromir and Faramir could team up for loads of pumps for the men of Gondor.  I'm sure someone can do something creative with Eowyn, too.

[JudgeDRG]

ok I am in, I don't support this idea very much, I think we should find a more official way for more leagues, and I have a lot of ideas if there is ever to be a discussion,
but I support you and anyone who cares about this site and this game, plus I love playing lotr, so
count me in!

[Legion]

I'm asking for the discussion.  I just made this idea as it is new: I doubt anyone has ever done this before, and could be interesting.  Obviously it won't be everybody's taste.  I want to do something that as many people as possible want to play, so your opinions and ideas are very welcome.  I obviously cannot set up anything official, but it should be just a bit of fun. 

I sometimes wish there could be a ladder system on Gemp.  If we went with one similar to mine, but using Linear Splines instead of Arctan functions it should be almost impossible to cheat in any meaningful way (to get your rating past 80 would take literally thousands of games if you're using fake accounts).  That's probably a discussion for another time and place, though.