The Lord of the Rings TCG Blog

Where to Buy

2011-12-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Lord of the Rings fans!

I've been getting a lot of email lately asking 'Where can I get cards?'

As always, if you want a small set of cards to get you started on the game, just shoot me an email and I'd be happy to send you, free of charge, enough cards to play a few games (I only ask that you pay $5 for shipping).

If you're in the giving/buying spirit, I highly recommend Hill's Wholesale Gaming. In the Lord of the Rings (Decipher) section there are several options. For $50, you can get two orders of 36 packs of Fellowship of the Ring - the first, and best, set. For $36 you can get two booster boxes of Shadows and two of the Shadows Starter Decks (under the 'By the Pack' section). Either will provide you with enough cards to make lots of fun decks.

I hope you have a great holiday break. Here's a small gift to you if you haven't seen it yet: the trailer for the upcoming Hobbit movie!

The Art of the Bluff

2011-10-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been quite some time since I published an update. Life has gotten all the more busy as I have a second son now. Dominion is my game of choice these days, but I'm hopeful that with the upcoming Hobbit movies, Lord of the Rings TCG will see a resurgence and this blog will have a second life breathed into it.

But in the meantime, this is a post I've been meaning to write for quite some time.

Imagine this situation: Your opponent has just moved to Site 7 from Sanctuary and is looking pretty good wound-wise. However, he only has 3 people left in his Fellowship. You've got 12 Shadow to play with, you're looking pretty good. The only problem is: You have NO minions in your hand.

Sound familiar?

It's one of the worst positions to be in. Your opponent can basically waltz to Site 8 unscathed, and tip-toe into Site 9 the next turn without a worry. Do you just scoop up and concede now?

Perhaps, or you could bluff it.

The art of bluffing is a delicate one, that requires both good timing, good poise, and a whole lot of acting.

The bluff essentially consists of you representing enough minions to give your opponent a 'good' fight, but acting as if you'd rather he move on to the next site to give you the sure over-whelming of his Ring-Bearer.

Some keys to bluffing include counting out the available Shadow in the pool into groups that represent the minions (the non-existent ones) in your hand.

For example, if you're playing Wraiths and your opponent gives you 12 Shadow, you might count out one group of six and two groups of two to represent a Nazgul and two Morgul Brutes. For extra finesse, make sure to look back between your hand and the Shadow pool repeatedly, as if you're trying to get the math correct.

If you want to really put on a show, you can take extra pool on the side, and act as if you're seeing how much Shadow you would have total when your opponent moves to the next site.

The bluff ends when you fold up your hand and say, "No Minions." Then you get to see if bluff worked. Chances are against you, but there is nothing more satisfying than when you know you've mastered this art and your opponent replies, "I reconcile."

Machine Gun Enquea

2010-12-14T16:22:00.001-08:00

My! Time flies fast during the holidays, it's already been over a month since the last post.

While it would be nice to do something holiday themed, I thought it would be more fun to share one of the most brutal strategies to have ever hit the lands of Middle Earth: Machine Gun Enquea.

This was a combo that was only possible in the Open environment, but still shocking nonetheless.

Using Ulaire Enquea, Lieutenant of Morgul

and cards that add burdens, the most popular being Morgul Brute,

you get your opponent to 5 burdens. You then begin to exert Enquea to wound companions.

Now, you're saying to yourself, "you can only would three times before Enquea's exhausted, no big deal."

That's when you realize you can use the Ring of Rancor to heal Enquea, adding on the number of wounds you can deal for the cost of removing a burden.

And now you're saying to yourself, "well as soon as you remove the 5th burden, you can't use Enquea's text anymore!". That's where the fun of playing in Open comes in. Using Site Path manipulation, you place your opponent's Fellowship at the Slag Mounds

Now, each time you kill a companion, you add a burden back in. Placing your wounds strategically, you can exhaust multiple companions before unleashing the full fury of the machine gun, killing a companion, adding a burden, then removing the burden to heal Enquea, and repeating the process, until only the Ring Bearer is left to face your minions, not the least of which is the Fierce, Strength 11, healable one with the smoking machine gun.

Prance on!

2010-11-11T13:24:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted! But in the interim, several new players have received welcome packages from me and I hope they enjoy their new cards. Please feel free to submit deck lists or commentary on the game, and I'll throw it up on the blog!

I thought I'd write about a simple card today that I've been thinking a lot about lately, since it encompasses so many of the things I like about Lord of the Rings: The Prancing Pony.

There are two really brilliant things about this card. The first is that it allows you to automatically pull Aragorn from your draw deck. I've always been a fan of eliminating chance as much as possible from your game. If you're dependent on Aragorn for a strategy for your deck, stocking four of him in your draw deck and hoping that you draw him is sometimes just not good enough. For the cost of a decent starting bid, and then another burden, you can ensure that this key part of your strategy is always available.

The second thing I like about the Pony is that it's available to both players. This is something great about the Site Path in the Lord of the Rings. Both players share the pros and cons of each site. While this may benefit a certain player more (i.e. one player didn't stock Aragorn in his/her deck), it keeps the playing field more level.

The next time you're creating a site deck, think about how you can craft your path to minimize the luck of the draw from your deck, and how the text benefits both you and your opponent!

Free Black Rider Packs!

2010-08-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

The first two people to comment on this post get a Black Rider pack free!

Free Packs!

2010-08-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

I wanted to change things up a bit and give my readers some incentive to check back on the blog early and often, so I'm starting a contest of sorts.

Some time this week, I will be post a new entry titled "Free Black Rider Packs". The first two people who respond to the post with the comment "First" (and "Second" after the first has posted) will get a free Black Rider pack from me! I'll even pay for the shipping.

In order for me to contact you to get your shipping address, you have to be a Follower of the blog, so use the Followers gadget on the left side of this page if you're not a member already. I'll be able to contact you directly using the gadget.

Hopefully this will be fun for all, and if it is I've got plenty more stuff to give away!

Double Blades of Eowyn

2010-07-19T13:22:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

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

2010-03-19T10:44:00.001-07:00

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

2010-02-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T15:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-04-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-03-22T22:44:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-12T04:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-25T03:35:00.000-07:00

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

2007-01-18T00:33:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-29T10:46:00.000-08:00

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."

2006-12-07T16:50:00.001-08:00

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?

2006-12-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-10-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-05-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-02-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

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?

2005-12-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

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

2005-12-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-10-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-06-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Tourney Report 3/28/05 - Resistance is Futile

2005-03-29T21:49:00.000-08:00

Went to my first tournament since the last post that said "Went to my first tournament in a long while..." last night. First tournament with Fellowship x'ed (although I forgot to remove all Fellowship Block cards!!!). The tournament went well with 12 players showing up.

My tournament was uneventful with my only real (read: challenging) match being against a guy named Nate who was playing a hobbit deck with a Gollum/burden shadow. Against my Gondor deck, I was close to corruption by site 4 and finally fell at site 8. I'd give more details, but all you need to know is that burdens are the way to go! With everyone and their mother using a new ring-bearer, corruption is easier than ever. Even 12 resistance Frodo's are having trouble making it to Site 9 without giving in to temptation these days.

One card in particular stands out: Retribution.

At first glance, this may seem like a 'crappy rare'. To fully appreciate it's value, just watch it in action. With powerful orcs like the Orc Artisan and easy to play weapons such as the Orc Spear, Retribution easily becomes at least 1 burden each site. Paired up with fierce orcs, multiple orcs per site, and additional helper cards, you had better start relying on a shadow win, because resistance is futile.

Black Rider Released!

2005-03-24T08:48:00.000-08:00

Black Rider has hit the streets and will be tournament legal soon! Be prepared to upgrade your decks to defend against a whole new meta where resistance actually matters and staples like Greenleaf and Enquea are no longer an issue. See you at the next tournamnet!

The Nazgul Swarms

2005-02-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

With the rotation out of the Fellowship block and the subsequent loss of Morgul Gates, things were looking grim for the Nazgul. At a pricely average of 6 twilight per Wraith, they simply were too expensive to be effective. That is, until Dark Approach.

Dark approach is Morgul Gates.... only better. With the ability to control the site path on both the Free Peoples and Shadow side, you can easily deploy a 4 forest stie path within the first half of the game. From that point on, each of your Nazgul comes at a hefty discount using this card. With the new Black Lord or the Toil 2 Captain of the Nine Riders, your Witch King and Nazgul will be able to drop on the table in groups of 4 at least, leaving things looking dark for your opponent!

Fierce Assassin

2005-02-10T16:53:00.000-08:00

Decipher has finally begun spoiling the next set, Black Rider, and thus far it has been quite underwhelming. All of the cards have pretty much been a newer, more up to date version of the cards that are about to be rotated out of the set from the Fellowship of the Ring block.

However, one card finally caught my attention: Ulaire Cantea, Black Assassin. With the rotating out of the Fellowship block, one thought on everyone's mind has been, "What are we going to do without Ulaire Enquea?". Here is the answer:

For the ridiculously low cost of spotting ANY other Wraith card (such as the new conditions), you can instantly kill any companion Cantea is skirmishing if your opponent inflates his fellowship beyond 5. Beyond 6, and your opponent can kiss two of his companions goodbye because this black assassin is Fierce.

What's more, is if you can manage to bring your opponent's companions down to resistance zero (a strategy for another article), you can choose which companions are on their way to the dead pile.

With a 5 cost Nazgul this strong, you had better start figuring ways out to make it to site 9 with only 5 companions, because any more and they'll be assassinated.

X'ed!

2005-01-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

For those new to the game, the 'X-list' is a list of the cards that are not allowed in Standard Tournaments. Basically, these are cards that are just too powerful and make the game stale and boring.

For those acquainted with the game, you realize that Galadriel, Lady Redeemed belonged on this list the second she was printed:

Besides having the invaluable special ability to take out conditions, this monster of an elf could be started in ANY starting Fellowship for free! That fact alone made her a staple in nearly any deck. Her departure should help increase deck diversity and curb the power of those accursed Elves!

Also X'ed was the powerful Final Account which allowed anybody playing Gandalf (i.e. everybody) to have a virtually unlimited supply of any Shadow card in their deck.

With the Vegas Premiere Series coming up, it should be very interesting to see what these changes do to the meta!

I said I'd hook you up, didn't I?

2005-01-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

My first 'care' package was received. Someone wanting to get into LotR TCG came here, emailed me and I sent him a box full of cards. Among the more noticable things in the box were 2 starter decks and a Red Arrow from Reflections:

While it's not the most powerful card in the game, it certainly gives you exciting options in Help in Doubt and Need decks, allowing you to move forward without providing too much twilight until the Skirmish phase.

I'd like to start giving away more cards! One of my ideas was to start posting a card on here every few days and giving it away to the first person that can post an answer to a trivia question as a comment to the post. However, I think that will have to wait until I get some more visitors! In the meantime, please feel free to email me if you're interested in getting into the game.

For Gondor!!! (Again!)

2005-01-04T13:11:00.000-08:00

I participated in my first constructed tournament in who knows how long yesterday. It was a small tournament, barely sanctioning, and not much to report on. I was playing the Gondor deck with the Boromir, Faramir, Aragorn, Denethor start mentioned in a previous post. It worked out alright, but the one card that simply boggled my mind was Anarion, Lord of Anorien:

Anorien is Isildur's brother. This special card was only released as a promotion thus far and it is absolutley spectacular.

With Denethor, you can play this bad boy at Site 3 with a Saga of Elendil and Narsil. From that point on, any time you play a skirmish event, each minion skirmishing him gets -5 strength while he get's boosted up.

The highlight of my tournament was when I had I Will Go on Anorien and placed two Evil Men on him, one with 14 strength and one with 15 strength. I played 4 skirmish events to reduce their total strength to 5, while Anorien was strength 12, overwhelming both minions! What more could you ask for in a companion?

One Scary Spider

2004-12-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

Haven't had a chance to update the blog in quite some time. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

This post's subject is probably one of the most valuable minions there is (though many people wouldn't think it). If you haven't guessed yet, I'm speaking of course of Shelob! Or to be more precise: Shelob, Her Ladyship.

Try and ignore the ugliness of this beast and concentrate on her game text. With a card as simple to get on the table as Gollum, you suddenly have the ability to make any of your opponents characters essentially useless. Not to mention that enduring, fierce minion bit.

This advantage is undeniably huge against any fellowship as there will never be a single game in which eliminating a companion isn't a good thing. Suddenly your opponent's Defender +3 Aragorn or 15 strength against Nazgul Arwen has to sit on the sidelines as Shelob and your minions tear up the weaker of the fellowship.

Though hard to work into all decks, Shelob and Gollum should never be ignored as a strongly viable addition to any shadow side!

The Leader and the King

2004-11-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got my first real taste of Shadows when I attended a local sealed deck tournament. I won't go into the murky details of how I had my butt handed to me in the two games I played. Instead I wanted to focus on one of the starter decks that Shadows offers.

Shadows is the first set of the Lord of the Rings TCG that has four starter decks (each prior set had two). This is great in terms of sealed deck play, because it provides a wide range of deck diversity and means your tournament won't be the same game over and over. Unfortunately, as with any sealed deck product, there is a high probability that there will be an unbalance of power between decks. This is the case with the Shadows sealed decks where the Gandalf, Leader of the Company starter reigns unquestionably supreme.

For those still new to the game, the basis of each deck is a Free People's side and a Shadow side. In sealed deck play, you are given a set theme for each of these sides. The theme for the Shadow side of the Gandalf deck is Nazgul, which have always been a very powerful group of minions, albeit expensive.

In sealed deck play, this culture becomes all the more potent due to the lack of defense available for the Free People's side. Thus, when Player A has the Wringwraith culture against Player B's fellowship, Player B will invariably be at a disadvantage. Take for example The Witch King, Captain of the Nine Riders.

Though he doesn't come in any of the starters, he is the prime example of the power of the Nazgul. Once the fellowship moves in to region 2, chances are they will be giving the eight twilight this beast costs. And once he hits, the table, you can start kissing your companions goodbye. At strength 14, he instantly overwhelms any companion you can assign to him except for Gandalf and Aragorn (unless you have the extra defenses such as weapons and events that sealed deck lacks as previously mentioned).

As his title suggests, The Witch King is accompanied by eight other deadly Nazgul. Coupled with a powerful Gandalf, who is your best bet when it comes to protecting your fellowship, it's easy to see why the Gandalf starter is the grandest choice in sealed deck play!

From Four to Free

2004-11-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

Time to get into some strategy! Though this blog is still getting started and mostly for beginners to the game, I thought it would be nice to look at one of the new tactics that is available with the release of Shadows. In particular, the introduction of an all new version of Aragorn: Strider.

What makes Strider so special you ask? Look closer at that twilight cost. That's not Aragorn's typical cost of four, it's a one! For the low price of an extra twilight each time you move, you now have a Ranger that can easily fit into any starting fellowship. Even better, start Strider with Faramir, Captain of Gondor and you now have a FREE Aragorn.

Add on Boromir, Bearer of Council as your ring-bearer and then Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith to your starting fellowship and your Noble Leaders are instantly set up. You can even use Denethor to pull Noble Leaders out as soon as you reach site 3. If you've got an artifact in your hand (or extra vitality on Denethor) you can also pull Elendil, the Tall and go for your jump to site 6.

With a consistent way to get to site 6 in each of your games, it's hard to not cheer 'FOR GONDOR!'

Shadows Released!

2004-11-08T13:11:00.000-08:00

The latest expansion set for Lord of the Rings TCG was released last week. This set should shake things up nicely for the game. The biggest change (and best in my opinion) is the introduction of an all new adventure path. Now, instead of having a set of Site 1s, a set of Site 2s, etc., you simply have an adventure deck and get to choose which site your opponent moves to! This adds a whole new strategy to your way of playing that you never had control over before and should give your adventure deck choices a much greater impact.

A downside to the new set is the introduction of several new minion cultures. To me, this seems like a cheap way to get around extensive playtesting of new cards (not having to worry about how powerful new cards make the old cards). The artwork is also underwhelming.

I'll be buying cards from this set to get access to the new site path as well as some of the amazing cards, such as the beautiful Arwen, Staunch Defender:

Hope to see everyone out at the Shadows Release Tournaments!

Tournament Report 10/25/04

2004-10-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

I went to my first tournament in months if not years last night. It didn't sanction with only 4 people showing up, which was fine by me as I was only curious to see what the Meta had changed to since I'd been gone.

I was playing a Dwarf/Besiegers deck with Bearer of Grudges, Gandalf, Leader of Men and two Dwarf Guards in my starting fellowship so that I could play Saved from the Fire to grab my Reflections Dwarves and their rings. It worked out all right, but I think a Bearer of Grudges with another of the dwarves and Durin III start would be more effective. Durin III is a beast.

I played twice against the nasty Elven/Gollum deck that won Worlds. That deck is absolutely horrendous; it's hard to think of a single down-side to playing that deck. I really hope that the Shadows set does somethign to curb it's power. I lost to it both times, by being corrupted of all things (Gimil's low resistance is such a crutch).

I also played against a fairly new player who had a Wraith/Wounding Nazgul deck. I beat it pretty quickly with my besiegers (he couldn't get his wraiths out fast enough).

I'm off to another tournament this Wednesday. I probably won't make too many changes to my deck due to time constraints, but I would like to make a Moria Archer deck to try and take down the elves. Keep on gaming!

Welcome to my Lord of the Rings TCG Blog!

2004-10-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog everybody! I thought this would be a fun and original way to do something related to one of my favorite card games of all time: Decipher's Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (http://www.decipher.com/).

A little about myself - My name is Ray Liu, many of the players from back in the day may recognize me from various conventions as well as my internship at Decipher during the summer of 2002. I'm also Psy-Jedi on sorcery.net's #lotrtcg chatroom.

I've been playing card games most of my life beginning with Magic back when I was in the 7th grade. I was introduced to Decipher CCGs for the first time with Star Trek CCG at the same time. I didn't enjoy the intricacies of that game as much as Magic at the time, so I sold my cards and faded away from card games for a while.

Then in the summer of 1999, I was at the San Diego ComiCon when I walked by the Decipher booth and was drawn in by their latest CCG, Young Jedi. Though simple, I really enjoyed the game play. I was also a huge Star Wars fan at the time so the game was a perfect fit for me. After dropping gobs of money into the game, I got back in to Star Trek CCG, and then into Star Wars CCG.

One November night, a month before Fellowship of the Ring had hit theaters, I was at a Star Trek tournament and thought to myself, “Liv Tyler is hot, I’m going to buy some packs of this new Lord of the Rings game and get her card.” Amazingly enough, I ended up pulling Gwemegil out of my first 3 packs. From that point on I was hooked.

I met a whole force of great people during my college years playing Decipher’s games (especially during my internship between my junior and senior years). During my senior year, I started to move away from gaming and took up poker (and other various college activities).

Now, I’m one of those responsible adult types with a job and I don’t have as much time to sit around and think of deck types as I used to. But I’m sure going to try. This blog will be a chronicle of my journey back into TCGs. Shoot me an email at psyjedi@gmail.com if you want to get in touch. See you at the next tourney!