I don't know how many of the folks around here play Magic: The Gathering (nor what level of competition they play at), but I think certain formats in LotR TCG are fairly analogous to certain formats in MTG.
Lotr Expanded : MTG Legacy
Lotr Standard : MTG Modern
Lotr Movie : MTG Standard
Now, to break that down:
In MTG's Legacy format, players can construct decks using cards from every set and product in the game's history (with the only exceptions being the Unhinged and Unglued silver bordered sets). There is a banned and restricted list for this format. In spite of this, Legacy obviously has the highest power level in MTG as far as formats go. Turn One wins are quite possible. However, there are certain cards that keep such things in check. An example of one such card is Force of Will (and by the way, this card is bitched about constantly... usually by casuals and people who don't want to spend the money on them, lol). Obviously, turn one wins aren't really a thing in LotR (okay, okay, so there are some insane decks in open format that can filter the deck, make the move limit +8 or more and get to site nine on their first turn, but that is neither here nor there).
Now, like MTG's Legacy, Lotr Expanded has some powerful combos. The ones being discussed in this thread, such as the Madril/IB style decks, Horn filter decks, and Gil-Galad cycling, etc. And while they are powerful, there are tools at everyone's disposal in expanded to address these issues. This is why building your deck to suit your meta is so important. In MTG, they have a sideboard of 15 cards for this purpose. And while we don't have a sideboard in Lotr, we still have the option to include so-called silver bullet cards in our decks. Take a look at deck lists you can dredge up from any major tournaments in years past. If you inspect those lists carefully, you will find silver bullet cards, i.e. meta choices.
To continue with the format analogies, Lotr Standard : MTG Modern.
In Modern format, players can use all cards printed in standard legal produces since the 8th edition core set and the Mirrodin expert set. Reprints in non-standard legal products of cards that did appear in standard at some point are also legal. This is kinda like Lotr's version of rotation.
So, since standard in Lotr is King block and forward, power level greats pretty high towards the end. Modern is considered a "turn 4 format" meaning the game should be ending around that point (or at least that is what people say, and it is quite possible with combo decks like Kiki Jikki and Splinter Twin decks, the Urzatron decks, and the Melira/Non-Melira Birthing Pod decks). Modern's power level in magic compared to Legacy is to Lotr Standard compared to Expanded. Powerful cards and combos available thanks to high-powered sets. But again, the tools a player needs to play against the field are there.
Lastly, MTG's Standard to Lotr's Movie. In MTG's standard, power level is tightly controlled by Wizards of the Coast. During the movie block sets, Decipher was also much more careful about power level. I think the comparison of
Anduril, Flame of the West to
Anduril, Sword that was Broken is a good one for obviously demonstrating power creep. And power creep tends to have an inevitability in it unless you do like Wizards does and intentional make low-power-level sets to break up a constant stream of powerful sets. Combo decks are basically not printed in MTG standard (meaning control, aggro, and midrange are the field).
I seem to be rambling a bit, but my overall point is this: Yes, formats have power levels. Some are higher than others. Some are lower. Every one has the tools they need at their disposal. We just hafta build our decks for the meta, rather than in a vacuum. When I build my decks, I hafta assume that pretty much everything that can go wrong, will. Then I have to tune my deck to address as much of that is as feasible and then just take my losses to the things I can't address.
Anecdote:
Earlier in my lotr tcg career, I loved playing Last Alliance Elf/Gondor (ever since the FotR set released, basically). Then, King block rolled around and
Corsair Marauder was printed. Jeez, did I hate Marauder... Discard one of my freeps possessions and get two tokens on their Black Sails?! Well, yeah. Tossing a ton of possessions on your freeps to tank them up was a big deal and shadow sides needed a way to deal with that (we had Grima earlier to try and address the same thing). I was frustrated as I loved to play decks that made heavy use of possessions, especially when Corsairs were so popular. But it occurred to me, what if I build a deck that took away their advantage of discarding my possessions? I wasn't the only one to see this. Elf/Gondor decks began to rely on artifacts, forgoing possessions almost completely. And those that did this performed really well.
Anyway, I realized we have a finite number of sets to work with, so there aren't going to be new decks popping out of the woodwork. But! We hafta adjust to what other people are playing. Does that mean we hafta put our pet decks aside? Maybe that is what it takes to win for that period of time until the meta shifts. Maybe winning isn't as important and we just hafta take our licks and enjoy playing that pet deck and just do the best we can against the opposition. And maybe in some cases, we just hafta realize that our deck isn't good. For example, I wanted (and still want) so badly to make a deck using
Final Count and
My Axe is Notched with Defender of the Free Peoples. The closest I have ever gotten to it working was throwing a Gandalf +
TMAYOD package in their. But guess what... It still sucked. Sometimes things just don't work.
I don't think rules or formats or banned/restricted lists need to be changed. We have to. If a strategy is really that oppressive, the meta should shift to hate it out. Then another deck will be top dog for a while until the meta shifts and hates it out. Granted, I'm grossly over-simplifying this as the cycle is more complex than that but you get the gist of it.
On silver bullets specifically: They are incredibly important!
Ulaire Enquea, LoM is the most well-known silver bullet of all time. I grant you he is versatile and has no cultural enforcement, so he is flexible (and his stats just make him solid). However, he exists to threaten big fellowships (just like
Greed and
Cantea, Black Assassin do). Just like
Wormtongue exists to threaten tanking up your freeps. Just like Chief Councilor threatens decks that splash multiple cultures for powerful versatility. Just like
Demon of Might addresses careless giving of twilight and the use of speedbump freeps characters.
Saruman's Power and
Sleep, Caradhras are there to stop decks that rely on many conditions. There Number Must Be Few exists to stop large fellowships from just running wild down the site path. All these things exist to counter certain things, and in turn, they all have things that counter them. That is the way this works. The game is about who can eek out as much advantage from all of this.
Lastly, we (those of us who have played the game at least little while) know what we are getting ourselves into when we step into a game of a certain format. You know when you go into Movie that you may very likely see Dwarf/Sauron discard or Besiegers... You know going into Expanded that you may very likely see Horn Filter/Troll Swarm.
Don't want those two copies of
Ships of Great Draught to have no use beyond removing Madril's threats? Throw in a few copies of
Castamir of Umbar, or perhaps
Southron Commander, or even
Desert Lord? Corsair Brutes? With the exception of the last one, all those minions are quite good even if they aren't playing Madril and you have no threats to put tokens on
Ships of Great Draught with...
And with people playing decks as large as they do these days (which is really foreign to me), what is another couple cards if it helps you play better in a matchup you are expecting to come up against? I realize there is no perfect deck (though it sounds like Sgtdraino's Madril deck might be getting there? Honestly, I think win percentage might likely speak more to his skill as a pilot as opposed to solely the deck's
raw power).
In conclusion, try not to feel like you waste your time even when you play against Horn Filter and Madril. Try to appreciate it on a deckbuilding level. At least that is what I try to do. Card interaction thrills me. I could get beat over and over again and I'm fine. I just love to see cards interact. (For those familiar with magic, it is probably obvious I'm a major Johnny at heart, but am willing to put my Spike face on).
Sorry for this mangled attempt at a post. I hope someone gleans some value from it on some level or other. Remember, you have the tools. And if you think you don't, raise the issue to this community and let us work together on addressing so-called "problem" cards.
Topic: Horn deck nonsense (Read 15176 times)
