Fellowship Meta (Top Tier and/or Commonly Seen Deck Strategies)

[ramolnar]

You've got a lot of strategies, most of which are not top tier. My opinion incorporates territorials and worlds results.

One of the nice things about LotR is that there are multiple viable Shadow strategies in many formats: Swarm; Beatdown in combat; Wounding; Tricks including corruption and discard. Some formats favor one over another. For instance, King Block has no wounding and almost no hand extension for Swarm - although I managed to win the block tournament with a swarm deck, I don't really know how. WotR block has Goblin Hordes and Cavern Entrance and very little condition removal, making Swarm more viable.

The designers never wanted Tricks to be the winning option, because that would be too much like Magic. Combo drives new players away quickly. LotR was meant to be interactive. For instance, discard was available in Fellowship block, because the redraw rule was considered enough to prevent abuse. But the first errata was making Far Seeing Eyes unique, and the first big brokenness debate was about the Mirror of Galadriel. I agreed with the majority - it was overpowered because it tucked into good decks (Archery and Last Alliance). Although pure discard was never Tier 1 (potential serious event winner), it was Tier 2 (above average deck, can win small events), and NPE (Negative Play Experience) for most players. No later set included serious discard for this reason.

In Fellowship block, a fellowship without substantial condition removal can never be Tier 1. Two very good Shadows - Moria; Breath and Tip Nazgul - require condition removal. The only two ways to remove conditions at better than one-to-one are Sleep Caradhras and Secret Sentinels. This requires Gandalf or elf allies or both.
Finally, going first is a big advantage, so I'm adding points for decks that are able to start Green Dragon Inn. Unlike Expanded, It's tough to kill a strong FP in this block.

Anyway, Tier 1 decks are 9-10; Tier 2 decks are 6-8; other stuff is 1-5. I'm including additions from Legion and I.

GANDALF
FotS: 9. One of the Tier 1 options, but has trouble bidding to go first because it wants to ride the pony.
Grey Pilgrim: 5. Getting a card is a swarm setup, not a strong FP.
Trust Me: 7. Inferior to good FotS builds and hates Saurman's Power.

ELF
Archery: 9. Was 10 before A Ranger's Versatility was errataed, but still tough to deal with. The Key card is Gondor F'ing Bowmen. Seriously - 2 archery for 1 exertion that drops as a condition for free? Who let this get printed? Compare Break the Charge, for instance.

Tank Arwen: 5. Play Rangers instead.
Elven Discard: 4. Play Dward discard instead.
Lady Undomiel: 3. At best, Arwen's a base 9. Woo hoo.

GONDOR
Last Alliance / Rangers: 9 but has trouble with Green Dragon Inn starts. I've seen them but it's clunky. Also, can tech with Foul Creation or Curse Their Foul Feet.

Gondor Tanks: 6. Adding Elves makes this better.
Gondor Choke: 5. Too many Moria issues, plus Hate.

Horn of Boromir: 9. Easier to start Green Dragon Inn, which made it very popular at Worlds. Does struggle late game, but can also play PATHS and stealths.
Batman and Robin: 4. Play the Horn version instead.

DWARF
Dwarf Discard: 7. Tier 2, not Tier 1 against players that know what to do.

Dwarf Tanks: 3.
Dwarf Choke: 3. I might be playing this in league but I don't think it's good. I just wanted to play something different.

SHIRE
Solo Frodo: 5. Tough to kill, but late game is a big problem. Frodo/Sam Promise is the same thing.

Hobbit Alliance: 6. Fierce Nazgul burn through events too quickly. A good beginner deck because it plays few rares, and can splash other companions like 1 Aragorn, but can't kill minions due to lack of damage +1 or archery.

Pipeweed: 8. Great at single moving, bad at double moving. Will win due to opponent bad draws but can get jumped early more than Last Alliance and FotS.

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NAZGUL
Nazgul Tanks (with pump cards): 7. Generally gets an site 2 stop, but loses late to too many decks, including not-so-great decks like choke. Needs to be paired with a strong Fellowship.

Blade/Tip Nazgul: 8. Plays a little faster with conditions. Nazgul are the most techable deck - Relentless Charge? Morgul Gates? Their Power is in Terror? All Blades Perish? You can't play them all. With the right tech, Nazgul are Tier 1. With the wrong tech, they're barely Tier 2.

Twilight Nazgul: 4. I play this for fun, but it's not a winning deck.

MORIA
Goblin Armory: 9. Almost nobody played Relics of Moria in my real life meta, but now I see it's the key card in this deck.

Moria Archery: 6. Loses to too many not-so-good decks that play splash companions like Pippin HoSI.

Isengard/Moria Stupid Swarm: 8. Wins a lot of games out of nowhere, particularly against Archery thanks to Isengard Warrior. Set up FotS crushes it, though. I also include Breeding Pit Bomb and other related decks here.

ISENGARD
Uruk-Hai Keeper: 10. The most consistent, best all around deck. Multiple Saurman's Power is a must. I prefer the Ally Hunter version with Tower Assassin and Uruk Raider because the meta runs lots of ally decks right now, but Uruk Ravager takes better advantage of Keeper.

Isengard Orcs: 5. The right draw is great, but there aren't a lot of right draws. In a bad draw, Damage +1 companions slaughter them.

Ferny Frost: 2. Cute, not good.

SAURON
Sauron Discard: 6. See Dwarf discard.

Sauron Tanks: 4. Keeper beatdown is much much better, as Sauron can't get big enough to overwhelm Aragorn, Boromir, or Gandalf.

Sauron Wounding (Grind): 6. There are too many Secret Sleeps floating around.

[simplegarak]

I know it's been awhile but did banned/x-lists get changed?  Because last I played, Sting, KoI, and cancellation weren't allowed.

Dynamic Duo: Fun, but not competitive.  Loses to Nazgul almost every time as it cannot really abide fierce skirmishes.  3/10

How are they getting Nazgul out?  Usually they don't have enough until your 2nd move, they can barely get any out and even then Gandalf can take any but the WK on without a strength pump and survive (resulting in the same 2 wounds you would have had otherwise)  Not to mention, well I had only 1 copy of G.Staff so I had to build around that, but if you have enough, Staff Asunder nukes nazguls easy enough or stock You Cannot Pass!

Solo Frodo: Makes Frodo nearly unkillable and chokes like nothing else.  You never complete a skirmish until site 6 thanks to Hobbit Stealth and Filibert Bolger.  Hilarious and weirdly competitive as you opponent's hand will get so clogged.  6/10

Wait... so cancelling skirmishes involving the RBer is legal again?

In Fellowship block, a fellowship without substantial condition removal can never be Tier 1. Two very good Shadows - Moria; Breath and Tip Nazgul - require condition removal. The only two ways to remove conditions at better than one-to-one are Sleep Caradhras and Secret Sentinels. This requires Gandalf or elf allies or both.

I always ranked the Under the Watching Eye/Orc Bowman decks above Breath/Tip Naz, but yes, shadow conditions were very strong in block 1.

[bibfortuna25]

Cancelling Ring-bearer skirmishes is allowed in Fellowship Block and Towers Standard.

[simplegarak]

Cancelling Ring-bearer skirmishes is allowed in Fellowship Block and Towers Standard.

Oh nice, I had missed that rule adjustment.

[sgtdraino]

Cancelling Ring-bearer skirmishes is allowed in Fellowship Block and Towers Standard.

That is a specific quirk of gemp, btw, not an official rule. Officially, Comprehensive Rules 4.0 did away with ALL Ring-bearer skirmish canceling, regardless of format, under the definition of Ring-bearer.

[simplegarak]

Cancelling Ring-bearer skirmishes is allowed in Fellowship Block and Towers Standard.

That is a specific quirk of gemp, btw, not an official rule. Officially, Comprehensive Rules 4.0 did away with ALL Ring-bearer skirmish canceling, regardless of format, under the definition of Ring-bearer.

Cancelling Ring-bearer skirmishes is allowed in Fellowship Block and Towers Standard.

That is a specific quirk of gemp, btw, not an official rule. Officially, Comprehensive Rules 4.0 did away with ALL Ring-bearer skirmish canceling, regardless of format, under the definition of Ring-bearer.

Ah, understood.

I think it was done away with much earlier (part of what inspired me to invent dynamic duo) but that was long ago in the second age...

[Legion]

You can cancel the RB skirmish in King Block, but I think Slunk Out of Sight is the only card to do it.

[bibfortuna25]

Cancelling Ring-bearer skirmishes is allowed in Fellowship Block and Towers Standard.

That is a specific quirk of gemp, btw, not an official rule. Officially, Comprehensive Rules 4.0 did away with ALL Ring-bearer skirmish canceling, regardless of format, under the definition of Ring-bearer.

The idea behind that quirk was to replicate exactly how the game was during the first couple years of its existence. I'm still waiting for the Sets 1-4 no X-list format, FWIW. I would love to do the Uruk Regular, KoI, Deep of Helm bomb again!

[Knight-Who-Says-Nee]

First I'd like to say that your analysis is great sgtdraino.  Thanks for making it.

I would like to share some of my experiences with Gandalf TGP.  I made a choke deck with him many years ago; around the time of the two towers bock.  I run only Gandalf TGP and Frodo.  It is my only FotR block deck and I love it.  It does have some weaknesses.  The primary problem is the bridge.  The bridge gives out a lot of pool and that is problematic.  It does not matter what shadow you face, 8ish pool is a lot to give out and defend.  Also, swarm can sometimes hurt it too. 

Here is an earlier draft of my Gandalf TGP deck.  I have since made a few slight adjustments...
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,2399.0.html   

[sgtdraino]

Interesting, I'm surprised you went with Wizard's Staff instead of Gandalf's Staff.

[Knight-Who-Says-Nee]

Interesting, I'm surprised you went with Wizard's Staff instead of Gandalf's Staff.

Interestingly the purpose of Wizard Staff is to keep Frodo alive and nothing else.  If it keeps him alive for one round it is well worth it; typical scenario is defense against swarm decks.