Double Blades of Eowyn

Here's a quick and simple combo taking advantage of three powerful cards from Return of the King:




Play Merry and Eowyn in your Starting Fellowship. Stock 4 of Dernhelm's blade in your deck. Each skirmish, you can:

1. Play Dernhelm's Blade to wound a minion Eowyn is skirmishing.
2. Discard Dernhelm's Blade to make Eowyn strength +2.
3. Return Merry to hand to play Dernhelm's blade again. Wound the minion Eowyn is skirmishing again.

If Eowyn is riding a horse that can exert the minion she is skirmishing, this should be enough to kill most minions. Add on some archery, and there's few minions that Eowyn can't kill!

The combo has the added bonus that when you return Merry to hand, he loses all wounds that were on him, making him a great "pin-cushion" for archery damage himself.

Hobbit Hospital

I've been taking another trip down memory lane, to the Fellowship Block, where a deck existed that was quite powerful, but never got much attention. Called 'Hobbit Hospital', the deck used the following cards to essentially ensure that your Fellowship of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin were fully healed every turn:





Coupled with the Merry that was able to bump his fellow Hobbits' strength



and a few Hobbit Swords and Skirmish events, the four Hobbits became quite powerful with their ability to free themselves of all wounds each turn. Despite it's power, the deck was probably not as strong as the Beastagorn decks of the day, which is probably what lead to its being over-looked, but if you ever feel like representing the Shire, don't forget about the healing powers of the Hobbits!

Virtual Cards from Spain!

Since the Lord of the RIngs TCG began, players have been creating 'Dream Cards'. After Decipher officially stopped production of the game, players continued to develop these dream cards so that they had new material to play with.

One of my loyal followers from Spain, Darkpadawan, provided me with the following 10 cards from a virtual expansion he called 'The Animals'. He apologizes in advance for any spelling and grammatical errors he may have made. I applaud and thank him for his stellar job on creating the look and feel of new Lord of the Rings TCG cards. Enjoy!

Site 9

I thought I'd take a look at the cards that are often over-looked: Sites!

Although the site path became much more interesting after the Return of the King block, many players could not bring themselves to move past the first three block of the game (affectionately called 'the movie block').

For those who remained true to the game as it was in its glory, the only option was to use sites that were limited to a specific site number.

Here are two of the most powerful site 9s from the Return of the King block, each if used in conjunction with a burden deck would easily result in a corrupted ring-bearer!

Solo Gandalf?

Before Reflections came out, there was a popular option (a popular, but very, very risky option) of trying Solo Frodo: playing just Frodo in your deck (with possibly one or two starting companions that you intended to kill early). The purpose was to deprive your opponent of twilight so that they couldn't play enough minions to overwhelm Frodo, if at all.

After Reflections and the introduction of alternate ring-bearers, numerous candidates became available for this technique, perhaps the most interesting being Gandalf:



Of course, with such a powerful companion as your Ring-Bearer, there must be a draw-back, and with the Solo method, the only option here is to add three burdens, so you'll need to pack



and other burden removing cards.

With so many cards to make Gandalf a beast, you're obligated to try out Solo Gandalf!

PATHS

I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane, way back to the Fellowship of the Ring set. This card was a staple in most decks, and for a long time considered the most powerful card in the game.



As alternate ring-bearers who had the ability to win skirmishes became more popular, this card saw less use; but there was never anything quite as satisfying as throwing Frodo up against an un-wounded Witch King and playing four of these to kill him!

Dark Followers

Following up on the theme of Followers, I wanted to showcase a Follower for the Shadow side, Saruman. Just like Followers for the Free Peoples side, these cards can be added on to minions during the Maneuver phase. Saruman gives a strength bonus in addition to an exertion to the defending companion. Add him on to a fierce or damage +1 minion and you can easily kill most companions!

Follow You to Whatever End

I decided to add the "Followers" gadget to the right side of the blog so that any readers can add themselves to show their support of the blog.

In conjunction, I thought it would be fun to show off some Followers from the Lord of the Rings TCG.

This new mechanic was added in the Bloodlines expansion and essentially replaced Allies. Instead of being actual characters that could be targeted by spells, Followers were just played to the support area, and called upon during the Maneuver Phase to perform some bonus.



While seemingly un-powerful, Daddy Twofoot provided a nice update to the Unheeded Deck I previously blogged about.

Follow me and check back often to see what other characters became followers of the Fellowship.

My Old Sword, Sting!

It's been a while since I last posted, and I see that two commenters have been trying to reach me! Please try my contact email again, there was an issue with GoDaddy routing the emails.

And of course I couldn't make a post without showing off a great card, so I give you Sting, Elven Long Knife!

One of the few cards to give a bump to strength, vitality and resistance, Sting is a must for any deck that has Frodo or Bilbo as the Ring-Bearer. Paired with the right cards that add threats during the Regroup phase, this card can also provide some killer combos!

Support the Last Homely House

For those who have stumbled onto this blog and are yearning for more, I highly recommend visiting this site. The forums are a great way to meet other people playing the game, and the top level of the site is a comprehensive database of every Lord of the Rings TCG card ever made. Enjoy, and tell them Psyjedi sent you!

The Elves of Ages End

I thought I'd throw up some more of the cards from Ages End. Here are two faces familiar to any LotR TCG player. Although they don't go particularly well together in a starting fellowship, each could easily find their way into any deck.

An In Depth Review of a Multi-Player Game

Thanks to Nightmare, who sent the following game report. Sounds like an exciting game and a reminder to always stock your deck full of minions when playing multi-player!

Gandalf leads his Rohirrim Men to victory!



Our LOTR games died down for a bit because of school work, but now they're back in full swing - we even have a new member in our playgroup.

For this game, I was playing my Gandalf Rohan/Besieger deck against Ninad's Gondor Wraith/Uruk deck and Will (the new guy) who was borrowing my Gondor Knights/Ringwraiths deck.

Starting:
Me: Gandalf, Leader of Men; Eowyn, Desperate Maiden
Will: Denethor, Steward of the City; Faramir, Prince of Ithilien
Ninad: Dead Man of Dunharrow; Oathbreaker
(all of us are playing variations of frodo, no abilities are used)

Will bids 2 to got first, Ninad bids 1 to go second, I bid 0 and go last

Will's turn 1: Starting location is Steps of Edoras. Will plays a hobbit sword and moves to Rohirrim Camp; Ninad plays Worthy of Mordor for 0 and an Uruk Pikeman with an Isengard Sword for all 6 tokens. Will assigns Denethor to fight, playing War and Valor to defeat and kill the Pikeman. Will moves again to The Dimholt. I play Great Siege-Towers for 1 token, leaving 3 in the pool. Will sits.

Ninad's turn 1: Ninad plays Gandalf, Defender of the West and another Dead Man of Dunharrow. I play Orc Destroyer, and Will plays Ulare Lemenya, Black Enemy. Ninad assigns Gandalf to the Orc Destroy, loses and takes a wound. Ninad assigns one Dead Man to Ulare Lemenya. Will plays a Houses of Lamentation, and Ninad plays an End of Game, winning and killing the Nazgul. Ninad moves again. Will plays Morgul Predator; Ninad assigns the Predator to Gandalf and the Destroyer to Oathbreaker, taking a wound on each and stopping.

My turn 1: Hobbit sword, Swift steed on eowyn; move; Ninad plays crushing Uruk; Gandalf takes the wounds, I move again; Ninad plays another Crushing Uruk; I assign frodo and eowyn; I play longspear on eowyn; he exerts both to get rid of sword and longspear, and stop

Will's turn 2: Will plays Isildur and a knights spear on faramir; moves to Isenwash; Ninad plays squad of uruk-hai; Will assigns Faramir; playing dagger strike to win and wound the uruk twice; Will moves to City Gates; Ninad plays Patrol of Uruk-Hai, 2 Vicious Uruk; I play Gorgoroth Garrison; Will assigns Faramir to Squad and Patrol, Denethor on the Garrison, and Isildur and Frodo each on a Vicious Uruk; Faramir dies, Will assigns two threat wounds on Frodo, and one on Denethor; Denethor loses and takes a wound, Isildur loses and takes a wound, and Frodo loses and takes 2 burdens; Will stops

Ninad's turn 2: He heals Gandalf of 2 wounds and moves; I play Shagrat and Some Secret Art of Flame; Ninad assigns gandalf, takes 2 wounds and stops.

My turn 2: I heal Gandalf for 2, Eowyn for 2, and frodo for 1; I play strong arms at city gates and move; Will plays Lemenya with a Nazgul Blade; use eowyn and dernhelm's blade to kill lemenya (exertion from steed); I move; Ninad plays Tyrannical Uruk, Will plays Ulare Nertea; Eowyn takes 1 wound from the Uruk; I play all save 1 on gandalf, will plays houses of lemntation, I take a wound; I stop.

Will's turn 3: He plays Aragorn with Anduril and a steed, a Gondorian Knight, and Ingold; ninad plays an uruk pikeman and a vicious uruk with a berserker torch; I play a gorgoroth axeman and a gorgoroth sapper. Aragorn kills the vicious uruk, but Isilur dies to the pikeman. The knight and Ingold each take a wound from the besiegers, and Will stops.

Ninad's turn 3: Ninad heals Gandalf's wound and plays spectral sword on his Oathbreaker. I play orc taskmaster and exert it once to give Will enough shadow tokens to play Ulare Nelya, Black Hunter with a Steed of Mordor. Ninad assigns the Oathbreaker to my Orc, and I remove 2 tokens from Great Siege towers to pump him; he plays end of game to win combat and uses the +1 damage to kill my orc. Ulare Nelya wins, the first round against Gandalf, and Will draws twice; in fierce combat phase, Ninad uses uses his Oathbreaker and pumps it with Sentinels of Numenor to defeat the Nazgul. He then stops.

My Turn 3: I play an Enraged Horseman with a Swift Steed, Deor, and Gandalf's Hat; will plays Ulare Lemenya, Black Enemy and equips it with a discarded Steed of Mordor; Ninad plays Uruk Pikeman and Our Foes are Weak on Gandalf. I put Eowyn against the Uruk and discard the Swift Steed after it exerts the minion to kill it. I then use a Longspear (as a skirmish action) and Wind in His Face on my Horseman to kill the Nazgul. I move and use Gandalf's Hat to clear the shadow pool. Ninad plays Patrol of Uruk Hai and Swarming Uruk (both of which are annoyingly unwoundable); The horseman fends off the Swarming Uruk with help from Deor,but Gandalf takes 2 wounds so I stop.

Will's turn 4: Will plays 2 gondorian blades, one on Ingold and one on the Gondorian Knight, and a Knight's Spear on Denethor. I play 2 Gorgoroth Sappers, a Gorgoroth Engineer, a Gorgoroth Garrison, an Orc Butcher, and a tower walkway (i draw 2 because of osiligoth crossing) resulting in a total of 5 strength 9 HP 2 minons, with 6 tokens to give them +1 from Great Siege Towers! Aragorn kills 1, but when 4 of his other companions take wounds, Will is forced to stop.

Ninad's turn 4: Ninad plays a Hobbit Sword and a O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! I play an Orc Rager, an Orc Savage, and an Orc Fanatic. Ninad assigns the Savage to Gandalf, and I discard both and remove two tokens from Great Siege Towers to make my Savage an 18 and potentially overwhelming Gandalf. He responds mysterious wizard and merely takes a wound, then moves again. I play another Orc Rager and and Orc Destroyer, while Will plays Ulare Nelya, Assailing Minion with The Witch King's Beast, Fell Creature. Ninad assigns the Rager to Frodo, who takes a wound, and Gandalf to the Nazgul, preventing the wound with Intimidate. The Savage and Destoryer each are wounded by a wraith. In fierce comabt, Ninad assigns Frodo to the Nazgul and uses two Noble Intentions. For reference, Frodo is now strength 13 (+1 from the ring, +2 from the Hobbit sword, +1 from O Elbereth!, and +3 from each NOble Intentions) and defeats Ulare Nelya!

My Turn 4: At this point, everyone is at site 7, so I realize if I don't push to 9, someone else will. Since my free people better than my shadow, I play Eomer, Guardian of the Eastmark, a Swift Steed on Eowyn, and a Hobbit sword on frodo and prepare for the worst. Luck was on my side though, and the only minion they had was a Morgul Predator! I let my Enraged Horseman take a wound, exert Eomer bounce the Predator, use Gandalf's Hat to remove remaining shadow tokens. My opponents both concede since they don't have the minions to get past my 4 companions to Frodo!

Victory!

It's been a long time since I've played in a tournament, and even longer since I've posted about playing in a tournament, so it's very satisfying to report that I played in a tournament this past weekend and won!

In order to attract more of the "old school" players, the format was Movie Block (Only Fellowship of the Ring through Mount Doom sets). While a fun format, it severely crippled my Unheeded/Shadowplay Fellowship deck. But I didn't let that stop me! My Fellowship was completely decimated each game, with Merry, Faramir, Pippin, Smeagol and more finding their way to my Dead Pile.

Luckily, I paired them up with my old Besiegers deck, which brought the pain to my opponents using cards like this one:



I forced each of my opponents to concede after their Ring-Bearers were besieged, and took first place!

Psy-jedi's Player Advocacy Program - Free Cards!

I received an email from someone interested in playing the Lord of the Rings TCG who was wondering if I could send them some cards. It's the first time I've received such a request in over a year, but made me hopeful that there are still people out there who want to learn this great game.

If you're interested in learning how to play, shoot me an email at rayliu@4gxg.com . I'll send you all the cards you need to start playing (you just need to pay shipping $5 in the U.S., $11 internationally).

If you fall in love with the game, as I have, and want to acquire some more cards, I'll continue to provide them to you for free. However, I'll require that in addition to paying postage, you write up a brief summary about one of the games you played with the starter sets I provided you. Your content will go right up on this site, as encouragement for future players to join in as well. In this way, I hope to get people even more involved in the game.

So what are you waiting for? Shoot me an email and get into this game today!

Designing a New Card Game

With the Lord of the Rings TCG ending its glorious run, I decided that I need to find a new card game to play. With many of the current options unsatisfactory and/or impractical, I decided I might as well just create a new card game! But after some thought, I decided it would be much more cool if the entire card gaming community around the world designed a card game together! So I put together a site, and am offering $10,000 to those who want to participate in a fun and cool project. Visit my new site at 4gxg.com!

Ages End

Sad for some, expected by others, Decipher has officially announced that they will be discontinuing the production of the Lord of the Rings TCG. But they're not going without giving us some great cards, such as the new Pit Troll featuring an exclusive image made by Weta, the company that provided the special effects for the movies:



Stay tuned for more pictures of the all new and gorgeous cards that will herald the end of an age!

A Chance for Faramir to Show His Quality

The latest companion to obtain "Ring-Bearer" status has arrived!



Oddly enough, this version of Faramir lacks the Ranger or Knight keyword. However, with the powerful Ranger deck mentioned in an earlier post featuring Madril, Faramir will quickly become the most powerful Gondor Ring-Bearer; the perfect chance to show his quality!

The New King of Rohan

We've seen many examples of minions straddling multiple cultures such as Saruman and The Mouth of Sauron, but this is the first time we've seen a new culture for Aragorn!



This card single-handedly makes Rohan a viable culture once more, introducing numerous strategies for incorporating powerful Aragorn cards into your pure Rohan decks.

"I come back to you now, at the turn of the tide."

This card simply gave me chills when I first saw it:



In addition to making me feel all tingly, this Gandalf is also quite powerful, being able to pull out a Shadowfax, Glamdring, or any other Gandalf possession you need to fight your opponent's minions. Stack the proper tool set in your deck, and Gandalf's return will turn the tides!

Rule of 10?

Spoilers for Rise of Saruman are now coming on a regular basis, and have revealed this ground-breaking new card:



With this card, you can now break the traditional "Rule of 9" by removing companions from the dead pile, allowing you to play more companions. Mixed in with the already powerful refuge deck, your old "toolbox" Fellowship can now sacrifice itself at will, just to come back later. With the right amount of site control, you can even play a total of 12 companions!