I know this appears to be going against the grain here, but I'm sticking to my guns. All things being equal, I'd go for Gandalf in serie 1, followed by Gimli then Legolas. I'm going to apologise in advance for quite a lengthy opinion coming right up
Before I begin Serie 1 (and to be honest 2,3 and 4) is all about
Boromir, SoD. Don't use
Lord of Gondor, even if he is rare. Allowing Frodo to fight Uruks without fear is still better than not dying to Uruks himself, even with armour, and he is soooo much more useful against Moria.
I say Gandalf in Serie 1 and, in part, this is thanks to the popularity of Aragorn-in an AvA matchup, nine times out of ten the FP can single its way to site 9-you lose by being outrun or by trying to run too hard and get smashed. Therefore, most players of Aragorn like to go first to get the edge in that race. This is absolutely ideal for Gandalf, whose fellowship is shockingly awful, but whose shadow is, in my opinion, absolutely terrifying. You should survive singles (and will rarely hit their site 7 which is the only real thing that hurts), and your shadow can do the rest: you can almost always get 6 or 7 orcs out per turn, especially since the FP stuff is so bad you don't mind discarding it with
TAC, meaning your opponent is forced to choose between being Enquea'd or swarmed.
Hobbit Intuition site 4 is not a worry-use that site to overwhelm Boromir, then move onto those Hobbits. Without good pulls I would reckon an Aragorn fellowship will never survive site 9. I tend to leave out the Marksmen (what-Legion not using Moria Archers?), Patrol Troop and pumps as they don't swarm as well as all the rest-you'll probably have picked up some cheaper minions in the boosters. If you cycle well enough (you really should be doing so) you can easily have a full house of minions for site 9 (or 8 if you're still ahead) by playing
Goblin Sneak (and using Gimli on occasion-it's normally safe sites 1,2 and 3).
My dislike for the Uruks is that they really are dependent on their pumps to break through which really are predictable. You can see
Saruman's Ambition on the table, and only 2 of your uruks can have 2
Bred for Battle (and
Uruk Savage is terrible). Plus if you don't have Urk-Hai Armoury out, chances are another one of your guys is not really
Bred for Battle thanks to Legolas. Strength 9 is not enough to overwhelm, and loses to Aragorn if he pulls a sword (which is admittedly uncommon, but seems to happen often enough). If your opponent has more pumps than you (or
Gondor's Vengeance), they'll have an easy enough double should they kill a minion, compared to against Moria where even 1 minion left means stay put. The uruks are certainly OK (better than any of the other 4 shadow sides in the league), but not as scary as Moria from Gandalf in Serie 1. I find in Sealed if you have to choose between a decent FP with a decent Shadow or one poor half (on this case the FP), but with a brilliant other, go for the latter. Aragorn's FP is solid, and so is the shadow, but it is not what I'd call awe inspiring.
Serie 2 has a fair choice. The Gandalf FP is incredibly robust. It just won't die and
The Grey Pilgrim is one of my favourite cards. The shadow adds basically nothing, though (you already have 4 of most of the decent cards in the shadow, and
Goblin Spear/Spearman is fun when it works, but is hardly gamebreaking). Gimli doesn't look as though he adds anything at first, but
Tol Brandir is very helpful for the swarm, and I'll leave it at that for now. He really needed to have
Fror, though. If you pull one, he makes your job of surviving uruks a whole lot easier (with an Axe he forces a pump to beat-another reason I don't particularly like Aragorn).
Now for serie 3. First off, everyone goes Legolas. And rightly so-everyone can do with Snows and
Foul Creation (even stronger now that
No Business of Ours appear not to be working-don't play this card, guys!!) Many people say that now Gandalf is dead thanks to
Frying Pan. I disagree for 2ish reasons. The first is what I tried last time in serie 3: Cycle like crazy and use
Gimli, DoE to put a
![[1]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/1.png "1")
or
![[2]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/2.png "2")
cost
![[Isengard]](https://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/Smileys/classic/isengard.png "Isengard")
minion (
Uruk Savage,
Goblin Man etc) on the bottom of your deck, and make sure you haven't drawn it by site 9. This way
Foul Creation won't discard it. Draw it instead at site 9 with a
Goblin Scimitar and now play Snows and everyone else. It's not easy to pull off (especially if they win with an
Uruk Rager or Play
Uruk Soldier). but if you do it can be so satisfying. The second is that you might want to go wounding with
Under the Watching Eye and Goblin Marksmen (a
Moria Archer Troop pull is invaluable here).
Frying Pan won't work if Frodo or Sam is exhausted! I went for the former strategy serie 3 last time, and the latter serie 4. Serie 4 was so much more fun, and had the better win percentage. I said 2ish ways around
Frying Pan as you may well also draw
Throw Yourself in Next Time. I like that card, and if you get it, play it!
By Serie 4 last time, I had a really fun FP as well-I'd ditched Boromir, which was a tough call as I had Saga of Elendil, and I chose not to play the
HttWC that I pulled, but went for
Gimli, SoG, Gandlaf,
the Grey Wizard,
Fror and Legolas, Prince of Mirkood. 3 Gandalf signets for
TMaYOD! Oh, and
Shoulder to Shoulder and
Deep in thought to wrap it all off
I accidentally played that deck in a normal casual game once. It won, and quite happily-Gimli killing the Witch King was the highlight.
However, there really is no right way to play this sealed. All routes are viable, in my opinion, which is why this is my favourite of all the sealed leagues (except perhaps Revised Movie). And obviously, if you pull
Aragorn's Bow and
Worry, ignore all of the above and go for Aragorn. It is a bit of a pity Boromir's Starter is so rarely seen (my first real set of cards). His Cloak is good against the strategy above, but otherwise I do prefer
Foul Creation form Legolas.
Topic: Fellowship Sealed League Strategies on Gemp (Read 6866 times)
