Revised Sealed Movie League Strategies on Gemp

[idleninja]

I agree with daisukeman. I went for sets 3 and 8 last time because you have the best shot at getting game-changing cards. I feel like going for base sets (1, 4, 7) is pointless due to the huge number of useless rares, but it seems like you guys have had good luck with those.

Okay, I'd like to focus on the Series 1 starters for a bit. As a reminder, the three options for Series 1 are:

Deck 1: Gandalf/Shire and Southrons
Deck 2: Dwarves/Elves and Dunland
Deck 3: Gondor/Rohan and Uruk-hai

Disregarding booster pulls, deck 3 for sure. Only downside I see to that deck is twilight generation from FP side, and maybe some man hate from Raider cards.

[dmaz]

I agree with daisukeman. I went for sets 3 and 8 last time because you have the best shot at getting game-changing cards. I feel like going for base sets (1, 4, 7) is pointless due to the huge number of useless rares, but it seems like you guys have had good luck with those.

Okay, I'd like to focus on the Series 1 starters for a bit. As a reminder, the three options for Series 1 are:

Deck 1: Gandalf/Shire and Southrons
Deck 2: Dwarves/Elves and Dunland
Deck 3: Gondor/Rohan and Uruk-hai

Disregarding booster pulls, deck 3 for sure. Only downside I see to that deck is twilight generation from FP side, and maybe some man hate from Raider cards.

I thought a lot about this, and spent some time looking through all of the card lists. Your point, I feel is only true to the extent that sets 3 and 8 have smaller card pools so your chances of pulling one of the rares that you want is slightly greater. However, the base sets, after looking at them don't have a huge number of useless rares at all. On observation of Set 1.

The only that I would consider completely useless rares that I found were (and some might argue):
Mithril Shaft
The Council of Elrond
The Nine Walkers
An Able Guide
Arwen's Fate
The Choice of Luthien
Alive and Unspoiled
Cruel Caradhras
Saruman's Reach
Uruk Spy
Cave Troll's Hammer
Denizens Enraged
The End Comes
Fool of a Took!
Goblin Domain
Lost to the Goblins
The Underdeeps of Moria
In the Ringwraith's Wake
The Twilight World
Despair
The Irresistible Shadow
Journey Into Danger
Mordor Enraged
Orc Butchery
Seeking its Master
The Weight of a Legacy

The number of usable cards from set 1 is actually huge, and a lot of them are really great. This is because of the fact that throughout the choice of the three starter decks each serie, you will more than likely have access to a vast array of the "main" companions, and not just fillers. Any of the rare companions are good. Their weapons are great too. Not to mention the allies. Galadriel, LoL, or Albert Dreary are clutch. Take a look at the rare Isengard cards too. Aside from those few events, those Uruk cards are great, especially considering how strong Uruks are in this league.

Altogether I counted 65 cards that would be great pulls from Set 1, as compared to 26 really bad ones.

For Set 3, I found the following cards to be either utterly useless, or dependent on pulling another rare (like Vilya or Nenya...chances are you won't also get Galadriel or Elrond, so don't count on it being a useful card)
Book of Mazarbul
Mines of Khazad-Dum
Forests of Lothlorien
Nenya
Vilya
The Shards of Narsil
Citadel of Minas Tirith
A Fell Voice on the Air
Hollowing of Isengard
Depths of Moria
Gates of the Dead City
His Cruelty and Malice
Morgul Slayer
Orc Trooper
Terrible as the Dawn
Why Shouldn't I Keep It?
Melilot Brandybuck, Merry Dancer
The Shire Countryside

Doing the same comparision, I found 15 good pulls from Set 3 (and I'm even including both of the Tower cards - one adds twilight, the other assists in getting initiative), up against those 18. Just as in Set 1, I left out some cards that appeared to be neither really bad or really good, and depend on your deck type (like the Set 3 Arwen or Set 1 Cave Troll).

You can just by the percent ratios, you actually have a better chance at getting an at least usable rare if you go with set 1. Yes, going set 3 gets you a closer shot at the rares you want, by the card pool, but its a risk since there's still an even greater chance you end up with garbage.

I'm looking at set 8 right now, and I'm having a hard time seeing these "game changing" cards that are actually as strong as Set 3's Palantir or Horn of Boromir. Half of the cultures' cards aren't going to help you at all (look at Gondor and Dwarf for example). Really Sauron is what is actually good, with an easy chance at a Great Hill Troll, and a long shot chance at a Grond. Still, I don't find the balance staggeringly in favor of it.

[Legion]

Citadel of Minas Tirith is definitely not a wasted rare-it is so good against those Southrons who often cannot win, but do wound.  I don't understand the attraction of set 8, though.  As I said in the first post, set 1 is solid, but the thing is it is so big, and a lot will be wasted on Sauron Orcs or Moria which you won't be playing.  Remember there are 121 C,U,R cards in sets 1,4 and 7, but only 40 of each in 2,3,5,6,8,10.  You get 3 boosters, so that's 3 rares, 9 uncommons and 21 commons (ignoring foils).

This gives about a 44% chance of pulling any given common you want in the small sets, compared to 16% in the larger ones.  For Uncommons it is 21% to 5%.  So you have a greater chance of pulling any given uncommon in set 10 (Brooding on Tomorrow) than any given common in set 1 (Sleep Caradhras).  Set 10 does have a list of very good cards, and lots are common/uncommon.  Rank and File is an absolute game changer for the Uruks, but so too are Cast Unto the Winds (a common, and especially if you pull another Rallying call), or any initiative losing card such as Glimpse of Fate or Hardy Garrison.  That's why I go set 10, though I do understand the arguments for set 4 which is solid.  Set 1 too, but the Dunlandings won't like you for it, making most elven pulls worthless.

[dmaz]

Citadel of Minas Tirith is definitely not a wasted rare-it is so good against those Southrons who often cannot win, but do wound.  I don't understand the attraction of set 8, though.  As I said in the first post, set 1 is solid, but the thing is it is so big, and a lot will be wasted on Sauron Orcs or Moria which you won't be playing.  Remember there are 121 C,U,R cards in sets 1,4 and 7, but only 40 of each in 2,3,5,6,8,10.  You get 3 boosters, so that's 3 rares, 9 uncommons and 21 commons (ignoring foils).

This gives about a 44% chance of pulling any given common you want in the small sets, compared to 16% in the larger ones.  For Uncommons it is 21% to 5%.  So you have a greater chance of pulling any given uncommon in set 10 (Brooding on Tomorrow) than any given common in set 1 (Sleep Caradhras).  Set 10 does have a list of very good cards, and lots are common/uncommon.  Rank and File is an absolute game changer for the Uruks, but so too are Cast Unto the Winds (a common, and especially if you pull another Rallying call), or any initiative losing card such as Glimpse of Fate or Hardy Garrison.  That's why I go set 10, though I do understand the arguments for set 4 which is solid.  Set 1 too, but the Dunlandings won't like you for it, making most elven pulls worthless.

Yeah, after giving set 10 a look, I'd say it's quite a bit stronger for an expansion set. Rank and File is crazy good for the Uruk deck.

For set 1, basically any of the FP cultures have decent commons and uncommons for the decks you get to choose from, but the Moria commons and uncommons are kind of crusty....I guess what it comes down to is if you want to chase big time rares, or bank on more solids common/uncommon support and not worry about the rares...

[sgtdraino]

Nice analysis, dmaz! As I mentioned earlier I did indeed go full-on set 1, and I am pretty happy with what I got... although I'm not going to go into specifics until the league is over.

My experience so far: I've played 8 games so far, and 6 of my opponents have been using Uruks. 1 opponent was using Dunland, and 1 opponent was using Southrons. I've suffered 2 losses, one from the Dunland, and one from one of the Uruk decks.

Observations: Yep, those Dunland sure can swarm! I see that my Dunland opponent won only 6 out of 10 games, so maybe their performance is uneven.

I'm amazed at how often an opponent will forget about The Number Must Be Few, and play out 7 guys. I've won multiple games simply because my opponent played out 7 guys, and then I played TNMBF and stopped playing any more minions.

Gondor/Rohan and Uruk-hai is by faaaaaaaaaaaarrrr the most popular deck, the one you will encounter most often.

[sgtdraino]

A few updates from the end of Series 3: Not doing so well. Only won half of my games from Series 2, and Series 3 is looking about the same. It's hard for me to put my finger on why, it basically just seems to be down to draw. If the draw is good, I win. If the draw is bad, I lose.

For Series 1 I chose "Gondor/Rohan and Uruk-hai," overall very satisfied with that choice.

For Series 2 I chose "Elves/Gandalf and Uruk Trackers," overall satisfied with that choice too. It gave me Gandalf, a Shotgun Enquea, and more Uruk-hai.

For Series 3 I chose "Rangers and Archers," mostly based on positive feedback from other players about that deck, and that fact that it has a few more Uruk-hai in it. I have to say, I'm disappointed with it. I feel like the Shadow is relatively weak. The Fellowship is strong if you plan to switch over to Elven Archery at this point, but that was never my plan. I think the only stuff I ended up using from that deck, were extra copies of Aragorn and Boromir, and the somewhat crappy gondor powerup that only works on Rangers. If I had to do it over again, I think I'd go with my original plan, which was to pick "Ring-bound Companions and Isengard Orcs" for Series 3. That would have given me Faramir, Son of Denethor, and some pretty strong anti-swarm cards.

Ah well, next time!

Otherwise, I'd add that the Nazgul Shadow from "Rohan/Shire and Nazgul" is pretty good. The rest of the Shadows didn't really impress me much.

[Legion]

Given your pulls (I won't reveal them now as there are games to play, but I will say you wanted to get Gondor and Gandalf), I can see why you went for those choices series 1 and 2 I  t also gave you a strong shadow in plenty of Uruks.  However, that selection really doesn't lend itself to the Archers deck serie 3.  Your shadow is already as good as a ton of archers, so I'd have recommended the Pipeweed deck-the shadow probably gains nothing, but that's probably about complete by now so not a problem.   However, those pipes would have really decimated most shadows, especially given your pulls.

I'm not sure I'd play the archers having gone for Men in Serie 1 again.  I miss that rallying call or bonus Enquea too much-especially after going Gondor Serie 2.  However, the Uruks are still very viable.

[met]

Why is this topic still open ? sgtdraino already have said all in this previous comment.

Gondor/Rohan and Uruk/Nazgul are the stronger FP and shadows . Deck 3 is far better than the others with no balance at all.

Okay, I'd like to focus on the Series 1 starters for a bit. As a reminder, the three options for Series 1 are:

Deck 1: Gandalf/Shire and Southrons
Deck 2: Dwarves/Elves and Dunland
Deck 3: Gondor/Rohan and Uruk-hai

I'd like to hear reasons behind why someone would pick (or avoid) each one of these starters. Pros and cons.

Of the three, Deck 3: Gondor/Rohan and Uruk-hai seems like the strongest one to me. You've got solid Frodo protection with both Hobbit Swords and Dagger Strike, Enquea protection in the form of Eowyn, solid companions, with an Isengard Shadow... Isengard has the best condition bomb, and it seems like many of these decks are extremely reliant on conditions. You can get more Uruks in Series 2, and yet more Isengard in Series 3. With basically no danger from Corsair possession hate, the Gondor/Rohan and Uruk-hai setup seems like the obvious way to go to me... what are the downsides? I'm sure there must be some.

Of the three, Deck 2: Dwarves/Elves and Dunland  seems like the weakest one to me. You've got Elves with practically no archery, just those crappy (IMO) Naith guys. Not sure what Echo of Luthien is even doing here, she's practically useless since there are very few cards in the deck. Not much Enquea or swarm protection either. On the Shadow side you've got site control Dunland with no Hides and no Freca. Bound By Rage isn't bad, but you can only have one out at a time, so you'll probably be holding the other one in your hand until the first one gets used up. Plus there's no more Dunland in the rest of the League, so you won't be enhancing these guys much in later series. So, what's the upside? I'm sure there must be some.

Of the three, Deck 1: Gandalf/Shire and Southrons seems to be in the middle. Sure it's nice to have Gandalf, but there are plenty of opportunities to get him in later series. The deck seems very condition-reliant, which to me feels dangerous. And it seems like you're going to be exerting Gandalf a bunch, with not too many ways to heal him. To me the main reasons to run a Gandalf deck is for condition removal, possession removal, and burden removal... but this deck does none of those things. Eomer doesn't seem to do anything but have a Gandalf signet. Southrons are okay, but you're not getting any more of them, and you probably won't pull a Ships of Great Draught to cycle them around with. So, what are some good reasons to choose this deck? Or not choose this deck?

[Cthulhu]

Why is this topic still open ? sgtdraino already have said all in this previous comment.

Gondor/Rohan and Uruk/Nazgul are the stronger FP and shadows . Deck 3 is far better than the others with no balance at all.

Because this is a forum where people can speak up their thoughts? Also because thats not true at all, depending on what people pull from packs. Last Revised league the best deck was Gandalf/hobbits & Archery, everyone was playing it. He is not as straightforward to play as Men/Uruks thoogh, so most new players tend to choose that.

In addition to Gandalf & Hobbits being the strongest fellowship for many people with experience in this Sealed, once getting the archery starter 3rd serie southrons assemble a killer shadow that can murder everyone not having some not so commonly seen cards like Gimli's Armor, SAWTC and Binding Ring or some pipe action (against a well made build just Boromir, DoMT doesnt cut it). Strangely havent seen it this league much except for a few not so good builds. Next league it may be the opposite with hobbits & archery all over again.

[Eukalyptus]

This is the deck that I used in series 3 and 4:

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Resolute Hobbit
Ring: The One Ring, The Ruling Ring

Adventure deck:
Edoras Hall
West Road
Base of Mindolluin
Pelennor Prairie
City Gates
Minas Tirith Sixth Circle
Pelennor Grassland
Morgulduin
Dagorlad

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
2x Aragorn, Heir of Elendil
2x Boromir, Defender of Minas Tirith
1x Targon
1x Elite Rider
1x Hrethel, Rider of Rohan
1x Théoden, Leader of Spears
2x Éomer, Forthwith Banished
1x Éowyn, Lady of Rohan
1x Hlafwine, Village Farmhand
1x Bounder
1x Armor
1x Knight's Spear
1x Sword of Gondor
1x Brego
1x Herugrim
1x Rider's Mount
2x Rider's Spear
1x Rohirrim Bow
2x Hobbit Sword
2x An Honorable Charge
2x Fey He Seemed
1x Garrison of Osgiliath
1x Parapet
1x We Left None Alive

Shadow Draw Deck:
3x Elite Archer
3x Southron Bowman
1x Great Hill Troll
2x The Witch-king, Deathless Lord
3x Úlairë Attëa, Thrall of the One
1x Úlairë Cantëa, Thrall of the One
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Faster Than Winds
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
2x Úlairë Lemenya, Lieutenant of Morgul
2x Úlairë Nelya, Black-Mantled Wraith
2x Úlairë Otsëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Corrupt
3x Houses of Lamentation
3x Black Breath
2x Blade Tip
1x Stooping to the Kill

That GHT was a 3rd Lemenya in series 3, but otherwise the deck stayed the same. Corrupt is gold, as was the 3rd Houses and Parapet. Saved my butt more than once.

And this is my best Sealed result so far, with Top 8 standing, maybe even 5th or 6th.