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!

Saruman Rises

The latest set for the Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game is nearly upon us! While the Decipher team tirelessly works away at bringing us the next set, they've released the first spoiler of what these cards will look like, here's a sneak peek at a new Shadow card that will make any Saruman into a minion to be recokned with:

Downloading Wraiths!

Apologies for the severe lapse in posts recently. While Decipher is gearing up for it's next set, Rise of Saruman, I have been dabbling in other card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Anachronism. Look for new blogs coming soon!

In the interim between The Hunters and The Rise of Saruman, Decipher has released six cards known as the "Wraith Collection" which highlight some of the adventures of the hobbits that was not seen in the Fellowship of the Ring film. Between the Shire and Bree, the hobbits encountered characters such as Tom Bombadil, as well as Wraiths such as:



In addition to being a phenomenally awesome-looking card, this minion is also quite useful, being able to inter-mix with Nazgul Wraiths, and grabbing the most useful one from your deck. Need the right Ulaire Cantea to strip your opponent of weapons or companions? Or do you need the Uliare Toldea that can play for free? What if you need just one more burden to corrupt your opponent? Play the Undead of Angmar, and "download" the Wraith you need!

The Hunters are coming!

Decipher has finally finished its next set for the Lord of the Rings TCG. The Hunters will hit the streets on June 9th. Prepare yourself for some strong new cards that are sure to shake up the meta such as:


With the proper planning, this beast can wreak havoc on your opponent's Fellowship late in the game.

Only time will tell how this monster will do in the competitive scene, stay tuned for updates as the World Championships approach!

Elven Sword takes me down at the TOC

My comeback came to an abrupt halt this weekend as I went a lousy 2-2 at the TOC (with one win a BYE in the first round!). I played my Unheeded/Forest Nazgul deck.

My first real match was against Steve, a guy that has played cards with me for quite some time. We knew each others' styles well so it was a fun matchup. He was playing Archery Elves with Evil Men Archery. I was able to fend off the Evil Men archery thanks to Pippin and Merry bouncing back to my hand, but I made a few key mistakes (Farmer Maggot only has 3 viatlity!) that resulted in me having to stop at Site 7, and my opponent was able to out-run me to Site 9. (1-1)

My next match was against Jonathan, a relatively inexperienced player playing Gondor Wraiths Fellowship and a Sauron Shadow. The Gondor Wraiths were quickly overwhelmed by my RingWraiths. (2-1)

My last match was against Andrew, the only undefeated player, whom I feared for numerous reasons, first and foremost: he had helped me build my deck! Andrew was playing Elven Telepathy with Besiegers. I knew it was going to be a tough match, so I played very cautiously and made very few mistakes. The match came down to the wire as we were both at Site 7. I moved to Site 8 when the Tournament Director told us there was only 3 minutes left in the round. I knew that if I took my time I would have a shot at making it to Site 9, but it would be risky. I chose to hurry through my turn and take a shot at Andrew's weakened Fellowship with my Nazgul.

I was able to destroy Andrew's Fellowship, and had Ulaire Nelya on Andrew's ring-bearer, Galadriel, for the win, when I realized why Andrew had put in this card:



With 7 cards in hand, Andrew was able to discard cards to make Nelya strength 7. With the sword, Galadirel was strength 4, and I only dealt 1 wound instead of the overwhelm. I was crushed, but it was a great match to a worthy opponent. (2-2)

Andrew went on to win the final confrontation, and the TOC. Congrats Andrew!

Unheeded Rocks

So I played in a mini-tournament Sunday. Due to my lack of practice, I went a miserable 1 Win/2 Loss, but the experience was great for getting ready for this Saturday's TOC.

The key takeaway I had was that this card is phenomenal:



Look how angry Merry is!

As usual, at first glance this card isn't so special, it's pretty hard to stock these cards and depend on a minion exerting. But what if you can make the minion exert? Suddenly cards like Smeagol, Always Helps which exert a minion to exhaustion become huge powerhouses. For the cost of 2 threats and one exertion, you can kill almost any minion (besides the uenxertable, unwoundable Balrog when he's underground).

Add on cards like Birthday Present to grab the Unheededs back from the discard pile, and your opponent will be the one that's unheeded as you walk to site 9!

Back to the Basics - Online and Championships

It's been almost two months of silence as I plummeted towards that limbo where bloggers let their blogs die. But I have crawled back from the nothingness, bringing updates!

I have actually been out of the Lord of the Rings TCG for quite some time now, but with the Territorial Open Championships fast approaching, I wanted to get back in and see how I could do.

The first step on my comeback journey was signing up for The Lord of the Rings TCG Online. This is a great program that allows you to play Rings anytime you want, with a real opponent, via the wonders of the Internet. If you choose to sign-up, tell 'em Psyjedi sent you! Not only does the program work just like the game, but the beautiful pictures are still there and they even have tournaments online. I highly recommend that anybody wanting to try out the game sign up, you can start for as little as $9.99.

After having refreshed my memory on how to play the game and good strategies, my next step was to pick up some packs to build a competitive deck with. I went to my favorite online store Potomac Distribution and was able to pick up 5 boxes of the latest sets for only $100.

The third step is waiting for the cards to be shipped here via UPS. Once they get here I plan to go to some local league nights to get some experience playing face to face with an opponent, figure out what the current Meta is, and figure out how to beat it.

While I figure out how to make my comeback victorious, ponder this card with me:



Along with Enduring wraiths like Ulaire Enquea, Thrall of the One I could make my comeback quite burdensome for my opponents!

Expanded Middle Earth Arrives!

Well, it's been nearly 2 months since my last post, mostly due to a delay in the shipping of new cards from Decipher. But the wheels are finally turning once more as Decipher releases the Expanded Middle Earth Draft Box. This exciting new product contains a 15 card set of special cards that are related to the books, allowing a wide variety of new deck possibilities including everyone's favorite man of Dale, Brand:



For those unfamiliar with Brand, he is actually from The Hobbit. While not the most powerful of companions, Brand opens up a great new deck-type: Dwarves and Gandalf Men. Along with Gimli or any of the other Dwarves, Brand can give everyone that little boost in strength that makes a difference, and ensure that you are never swarmed again. For the full list of EME cards, visit http://lotrtcg.fanhq.com/TCG/CardLists.aspx?gameID=7&listID=55 .

What is the Meta?

For players new to the game (and even some of the old), there's this word flying around: 'meta' that doesn't seem to make any sense. Rather than sitting there nodding your head and pretending you understand what it means, here's some help.

The 'meta' refers to the current playing environment, particularly the types of decks being played, the cards that are being used most often, and what's popular in general. Understanding the meta allows a player to refine his or her deck to account for cards that are becoming strong (perhaps too strong).

For example, the prior post mentioned Madril and how powerful he can become given an Ithilien blade. If the meta of your local playing environment included many players with Madril decks, you could account for this by playing cards such as this:



By playing this wicked Nazgul card, you are countering the meta in several ways. First, you have given yourself a method by which you can remove the threats that are keeping your minions roaming. Second, you have a method by which you can play minions for cheap. This allows you to play more Nazgul, so even if your minions are still roaming, your opponent may not be able to discard all of them. Additionally, playing Nazgul in general is a good counter to this meta. Each one that survives should easily be winning skirmishes against a deck that is dependent on not fighitng.

So the next time you're playing at your local card store, ask yourself, 'What is the Meta?' and think about how you can beat it!

Roam If You Want To

As some of you may know, the release of The Hunters set was pushed back as Decipher makes sure that the set is as awesome as we all expect it to be. Unfortuantely that leaves little to write about or report on. While you wait for the set to be released (hopefully before 2006) think about this new combination that brings rangers back into the fold with a vengeance:



and



You read that card right, it says discard. That means that once you have five or six threats on the board, Madril makes all those minions roaming during the Maneuver phase and you can discard any of them for the low cost of two vitality.

I'll leave it as an excercise for the reader to find the companions that Madril can bring along to provide the vitality, and the cards that this fellowship needs to add just a few threats. Once you've got those cards, just sit back and think about how many minions you can discard as your fellowship roams over to site 9 unopposed!

Errata Rapidly Needed

For the more experience LotR TCG players, get ready for another 'broken' card. With The Hunters comes Rapid Reload:



By itself, the card is pretty powerful. For two or three twilight you can get out an Evil Man, and with this combo on the table, all left over twilight becomes an exertion (essentially a wound) on an unbound companion. No big deal right? Just don't give your opponent too much twilight.

Wrong. Add on an oldie but a goodie, Demoralized:



Now your fellowship is in trouble, because each exertion ads back a twilight. Drop two of these conditions out and each exertion only costs one twilight. Drop one more...You get the picture.

Together these easy to obtain, easy to play cards can exhaust a fellowship FOR FREE.

You've got two options: Play only Ring-bound companions (not likely with the majority of them being roated out with the Tower block), or get rid of all Evil Men before the Archery phase (more likely, but more expensive). The best option? Have Decipher X-list or errata Rapid Reload before your fellowship gets too demoarlized to make it past Site 5!

Preciousssss

In honor of some of the incredibly disturbing Gollum costumes from Halloween, a Gollum card!



At first glance, this may not seem like the most intimidating card. Take a second glance. This bad boy will deal one wound to any companion with strength 8 or more. Key companions like Aragorn, and then pretty much anyone with a weapon, can be killed by this card!

As a Regroup event you'll need to play it at sites 5-7 to slow your opponent down. But for the easy task of keeping Shelob alive, all you need to do is stack one or two copies of this card in your Shelob/Gollum decks and your opponent will be seeing his Fellowship fall to Unseen Foes!

Forth the Three Hunters!

So for those confused, 'The Hunters' refer to Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn as they hunted down the Uruks who had kidnapped Merry and Pippin. The Hunters first set will focus strongly on this trio, using cards such as this:



For the first time in the Lord of the Rings TCG history, this card has been printed across multiple cutlures coming in an Elven and Gondor version.

This multi-faceted card allows you to take advantage of the three hunters in a whole array of new ways from being able to shoot down minions before fighting them, to overwhelming them in the fight, to gathering a storm in hand before moving on to fight them again. With three ways to make use of this card, it will surely be a must in both Hunter and non-Hunter decks!

The Hunt Begins

Decipher has announced the beginning of their fifth Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game block: Hunters. This is probably the set where strength battles will start getting out of hand! Just check out the new version of Gamling:



Just imagine that with a little help, Gamling will be a base 10 strength beast, tearing through minions. Add on a steed and a spear and Rohan should be right back in the mix of things.

Look for the release of this new set in November of 2005 and get ready to hunt or be hunted!

Gandalf's Got the Ring!

What would have happened if Gandalf hadn't wussed out and given Frodo the ring? Find out, with Gandalf, Bearer of Obligation:



This powerful new version of Gandalf opens up a horde of new deck possibiliies as you finally have a starting Gandalf that won't eat up any of your 4 twilight alotment. While it will be burdensome to maintain his cost of moving, the added bonus of being able to start with the key member of this 'spot' heavy culture for free more than makes up for the price.

Having Gandalf from the get go, you can now start Radagast, more Ents, or even some fun companions like Erland, Dale Counselor and carve through the site path with Gandalf holding the ring!

Bloodlines!

I've been quite quiet recently, since nothing new was happening in the world of Lord of the Rings. However, Decipher has recently started spoiling the next expansion for the LotR TCG: Bloodlines!

Here is a peek at one of the new Shadow cards, Voice of the Dessert:



Bloodlines focuses on grouping cards into powerful combos and the Voice of the Dessert is no exception. With just one other Evil Man this exceptionally low cost minion slows the Fellowship down at any region.

Keep checking in for updates to see what combos will make your deck more powerful. Bloodlines release July 15h, 2005.

Buying Cards

I've received several emails from my blog's viewers asking where to buy Lord of the Rings TCG cards. The answer is: In the store of course! But apparently, not everyone lives close to a good card shop. In that event, you'll have to go to the internet (which you can obviously do since you are reading this).

If you're looking for just a few packs, or some singles, I recommend www.ccgobseession.com. They have a good selection with relatively good prices. If you're looking to buy in bulk, then I recommend www.potomacdist.com. This site is supposedly only for distributors and retailers, but they don't seem to mind selling to the average Joe as long as you spend more than $100; they'll even throw in free shipping!

That being said, if you're new to the game, you're best served by trading for the cards that you need instead of buying incessantly. And don't forget that if you ever need cards, you can just ask me.