Sunday, December 11, 2011

Holydays...

Since I have a lot of thing to do for the holydays, I don't have much time for this blog. So I will probably come back only in january. Have a nice Holydays

Thursday, December 1, 2011

My challenge part 4 : Gloin the resourceful

Sorry for the lack of activity, but some problems in my family had taken a lot of my time.

This last deck is about abusing Gloin ability - Draw to have cards to play, heal Gloin so he can take more damage and your defend with Gloin so that he gets some wounds and resources and the same time so that you can use more cards. I didn't have time to test it, but since I just get the last two chapters in the Mirkwood cycle, I am ready to pass to something else.

So there the deck list:

Gloin the resourceful
Hero (3)
Aragorn (Core) x1
Gloin (Core) x1
Beravor (Core) x1


Ally (26)
Brok Ironfist (Core) x2
Faramir (Core) x2
Longbeard Orc Slayer (Core) x2
Silverlode Archer (Core) x3
Snowbourn Scout (Core) x3
Son of Arnor (Core) x3
Guard of the Citadel (Core) x3
Daughter of the Nimrodel (Core) x3
Longbeard Map-Maker (CatC) x3
Gandalf (Core) x2


Attachment (14)
Celebrian's Stone (Core) x2
Dunedain Mark (THfG) x2
Dunedain Quest (AJtR) x2
Dunedain Warning (CatC) x2
Dark Knowledge (Core) x2
Self Preservation (Core) x2
Song of Wisdom (CatC) x2


Event (10)
Campfire Tales (THfG) x2
Common Cause (Core) x1
Grim Resolve (Core) x2
Sneak Attack (Core) x3
Valiant Sacrifice (Core) x2

Saturday, November 19, 2011

My challenge part 3 : The way of Tactic

This is my third installment in my personal challenge in which I must build four distinct deck. There is my third decklist :

Hero (3)
Gimli (Core) x1
Legolas (Core) x1
Eowyn (Core) x1


Ally (28)
Beorn (Core) x1
Descendant of Thorondor (THoEM) x3
Gondorian Spearman (Core) x3
Horseback Archer (Core) x3
Landroval (AJtR) x2
Winged Guardian (THfG) x3
Wandering Took (Core) x3
Lorien Guide (Core) x3
Gandalf (Core) x2
Radagast (AJtR) x2
Veteran Axehand (Core) x3


Attachment (8)
Blade of Gondolin (Core) x2
Born Aloft (CatC) x2
Citadel Plate (Core) x2
Horn of Gondor (Core) x2


Event (14)
Feint (Core) x3
Swift Strike (Core) x2
To the Eyrie (AJtR) x2
Quick Strike (Core) x3
Meneldor's Flight (THoEM) x2
Stand and Fight (Core) x2
First, I must tell you that I don't like the tactic sphere, for now. I think that this sphere is too much focus on combat. Personally, I prefer more a balance sphere. But I still see some potential in it so I tried to build a deck anyway.

How did it work?
I try the deck four times against a Journey down the Anduin

Game 1
I killed the troll easily after I had block it with Gimly once, But by doing so, Gimly had become an easy prey to the Treachery card evil storm. I lost at the second stage because I had flip two times the brown lands while I had an active location

Game 2
The second time I had quest with everyone on my first turn, but I failed leading the field wide open for an undefended attack by the troll. I gave up

Game 3:
Like game 2, it was a complete disaster because of bad decision from my part.

Game 4
I was in control until I flipped a second Hill Troll.

My final thought about the deck
The deck is great at fighting for sure, but still have some problem when dealing with location. I might be able to pass the quest without changing the deck, but I would mean that I would have to learn more about using a tactic base deck.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

My challenge part 2 : The lore deck

Let's start with the decklist :

The power of Lore

Hero (3)
Denethor (Core) x1
Glorfindel (Core) x1
Thalin (Core) x1


Ally (25)
Daughter of the Nimrodel (Core) x3
Erebor Hammersmith (Core) x3
Gildor Inglorion (THoEM) x2
Gleowine (Core) x2
Haldir of Lorien (AJtR) x2
Henamarth Riversong (Core) x2
Miner of the Iron Hills (Core) x3
Gondorian Spearman (Core) x3
Veteran Axehand (Core) x3
Gandalf (Core) x2


Attachment (5)
A Burning Brand (CatC) x3
Forest Snare (Core) x2


Event (20)
Beorn's Hospitality (Core) x2
Gildor's Counsel (THoEM) x2
Infighting (AJtR) x2
Lore of Imladris (Core) x3
Lorien's Wealth (Core) x3
Secret Paths (Core) x2
Strider's Path (THFG) x3
Blade Mastery (Core) x3
Strategy
The deck is kind of simple. I use the Lore's strength to draw cards and to heal my characters,

How did it workout?
I try this deck twice against the Journey to Rhosgobel adventure,

Game 1
I had some problem dealing with the flyers. So I had to block with Wilyador and to attack with Haldir. But I lost Denetor around the third turn and Gonfindel at turn 6.

Game 2
I was holding a little better this time thank to Denethor and Henamarth for deck management, But I finally lost because of the death of Wilyador.

My final though
I think that the deck was doing well, but it was missing some ranged character to deal with the enemy. I think that it would be a good support deck.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

My Challenge part 1

The Challenge

I have a personal puzzle to solve and I think that it might be interesting to write about it. So there it is: I have to build 4 deck since I am the only player that have cards in my playgroup. So what the problem? There is some rule that I want to respect.

First, I want that each deck feel different.

Second, each deck must be strong on his own.

Third, I must take in consideration that I only possessed 2 core set, 1 hunt for Gollum, 1 conflict to the Garrock, 1 journey to Rhosgobel and 1 Hills of Emyn Muil. And since I'm not sure when I will get the new adventure pack, those are the only one I can rely on (sorry, no Boromir),

With those restrictions, I have chosen a strategy to achieve my goal. Since every sphere have a different feel, I first thought that I could build mono sphere deck. But since my card pool doesn't really allow it, I have chosen to build 4 deck each based on a respective sphere with a little splice for another one. Also, I have chosen to not include unique cards in more that 1 deck to allowed the player who has it to play it when he wants. The only exception to this rule is Gandalf. Each deck will have 2 Gandalf in it.

The deck

So today I'm going to show you the first of these 4 deck. You might recognise it since it is a variant of the deck I already posted, Imrahil Rohan's commander.

Hero (3)
Dunhere (Core) x1
Frodo Baggins (CatC) x1
Prince Imrahil (AJtR) x1


Ally (24)
Lorien Guide (Core) x3
Northern Tracker (Core) x3
Escort from Edoras (AJtR) x2
The Riddermark's Finest (THoEM) x3
Westfold Horse-Breaker (THfG) x3
Eomund (CatC) x2
Keen-eyed Took (THoEM) x3
Snowbourn Scout (Core) x3
Gandalf (Core) x2


Attachment (7)
Unexpected Courage (Core) x2
Ancient Mathom (AJtR) x3
Steward of Gondor (Core) x2


Event (19)
Fortune or Fate (Core) x1
Will of the West (Core) x2
Ride to Ruin (THoEM) x2
Dwarven Tomb (Core) x2
Hasty Stroke (Core) x3
Stand and Fight (Core) x3
The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x3
A Test of Will (Core) x3

The strategy

Like the last time, this deck focus on lowering your threat level and to use your cards to sacrifice your ally when you need it to ready Imrahi.


Does it work?

I try this deck solo again the Conflict at the Garrock adventure. I had a good board to beat it. When I enter the Garrock, my threat level was lower than 34 and my board had a good amount of ally. So I decided to engage Stuart. I didn't kill him on the first turn, but it only had 2 wounds left. But on my next turn, I flip an orc with surge and then a hill troll join the party. Since my threat level was high enough to get the troll and the orc attention, I had been overwhelm. I still kill Stuart and the orc, but even with Gandalf help, the troll ability to increase the player threat level had been my downfall. On the twelfth turn, I wasn't able to quest successfully and my threat level increase over 34 and the 3 others troll joined the fight which leads to a slaughter.

Overall, I think that this deck works well. If it wasn't for the hill troll, I'm sure that I would have been successful.

Stay tuned for next week deck when I will explore the possibility of the Lore sphere,

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

News about Lord of The RIng the Living Card game

First, there a new official FAQ on the fantasy flight games website.


Then, thank to The Fellowship of the cards, I had watch a interview with Nate French and Lukas Litzsinger who designed the game. You can find in it some intersesting information, like if there will be tournament or if they will be able to use some of the Similarion character or events. You can find it at:

http://www.stickam.com/viewMedia.do?mId=192245648&pId=78031

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Imrahil, Rohan commander

When I look for the first time at Imrahil, I automatically made the comparison with Aragorn. Statistically, they are very similar. Both have 2 willpower, an Attack Strength of 3 and a defence of 2. They also have some similarity in their abilities since they both have an ability that allows them to ready themselves. The big difference is that Aragorn offer a little more (1 hit point and sentinel) for a higher threat cost (12 instead of 11).

Is Aragorn better that Imrahil? Probably yes, but I think that sometime, Imrahil ability to ready himself could be more useful. And that will be my challenge today: to build a deck that takes advantage of Imrahil ability.

1) How to activate Imrahil ability?
Imrahil can ready himself whenever a character leave play that means that it ready himself when:
-         Where a character is put in a discard pile
-         When a character returns in it owner hand
-         When a character returns to it owner deck

2) Which cards could help me active is ability?
This is a quick overview of the cards that can be useful for Imrahil

a) Leadership
-                  -   Sneak attack
-                  -   Keen-Eye Took
-                  -    Rear guard

b) Spirit
-                  - Ride to ruin
-                 -  westfold horse-breaker
-                - Escort from Edoras
-                - Rivermark's Finest
-                - Eomund

c) Tactic
-                - Born Aloft
-                - to the eyrie
-                - Meneldor's Flight
-                - Beorn
-                - Beornong Beekepeer
-                - Landoval

d) Lore
-                - None

3) Building a Deck
     After a quick look at the card, I believe that the best sphere to use Imrahil ability is the spirit sphere since it offers a lot of card and it is the one that has the most control over when an ally leave play. And since they are all Rohan related, I think it is a good idea to make a rohan deck.
So here the deck list I made:

Imrahil, Rohan commander V1.0

Hero (3)
- Eowyn (Core) x1
- Prince Imrahil (AJtR) x1
- Theodred (Core) x1

Ally (26)
- Eomund (CatC) x2
- Escort from Edoras (AJtR) x2
- Lorien Guide (Core) x2
- The Riddermark's Finest (THoEM) x3
- Snowbourn Scout (Core) x3
- Keen-eyed Took (THoEM) x3
- Faramir (Core) x2
- Northern Tracker (Core) x3
- Gandalf (Core) x3
- Westfold Horse-Breaker (THfG) x3

Attachment (5)
- Steward of Gondor (Core) x2
- Unexpected Courage (Core) x2
- Ancient Mathom (AJtR) x1

Event (19)
- Sneak Attack (Core) x3
- Valiant Sacrifice (Core) x2
- Ride to Ruin (THoEM) x2
- Stand and Fight (Core) x2
- The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core) x2
- Will of the West (Core) x2
- Dwarven Tomb (Core) x2
- A Test of Will (Core) x2
- Mustering the Rohirrim (THfG) x2

     When I build this deck, I try not to focus to much on the recurring Gandalf combos (sneak attack, Stand and Fight) and neither on threat lowering (The Galadhrim's Greeting) but I know that those strategy are very powerful and that I needed to incorporate them.

     I also wanted to have some extra resources (steward of Gondor), some recurring (stand and fight, Will of the west, dwarven tomb) since I would send a lot of cards in the discard pile, some control (test of will), some location management (northern tracker) and some card drawing (valiant sacrifice and ancient mathom - I wasn't sure which one was better for the deck so I try them both)


4) The Playtest
I have tried this deck against the Journey down the Anduin. Let's see how this deck stand against the troll.


Game 1:
     The first draw was an event, so I had to search for the troll. The I went questing and I flipped the second troll...
     I must admit that I was a little concern, but thank to Gandalf and sneak attack, the deck could stand, even if Theodred had been killed by an Eastern Crows (getting a +3 attack value because of a shadow card),
Unfortunaly, I had to quit the game before the end, but I thought that I could hold on a bit longer.


Game 2:
     The second game was a breeze, thank to Gandalf. I make him sneak, stand and fight, and he also came on his own. It was all about him. I didn't even use Imrahil ability. My final score was 29
This game makes me realize a major flaw in my deck: it rely to much on Eowyn. Not for questing, but for her resources. Most of the cards in my deck are spirit cards and I only have one way to get this kind of resource.


Game 3:
     This time, I try to not use Gandalf unless I didn't have any other solution, so the game wasn't that easy.
To beat the troll I had to use Eomund twice using stand and fight. I was questing with all heroes and ally (except Eomund) and when the troll attack, I just had to block with Eomund to ready all my character to make a massive attack. When I was done with the troll, my threat level was at 42 and there was a Marsh Adder in the staging area. Luckily, he didn't attack yet thanks to the second stage of the quest because I would have been in a lot of trouble since I had some problem to play my Spirit cards. Imrahil and Theodred where full of resources token, but the mere 2 token thank Eowyn gave me (1 + 1 from Theodred ability) wasn't enough. So to dig more into my deck, I use a dwarven tomb to get back an Ancient Mathom to try to draw a Steward of Gondor, which I did a few turns later. But even then, I still had some resource problem, but it was a little better.

      In the last part of the quest, I had to use Gandalf twice to reduce my threat level. At the last turn, Theodred had been killed because the worg that attacks me flip a shadow card that bring back into my hand a tapped ally and since my only ally that was tapped was used to block him, I had to return that ally to my hand and make that attack unblock.

     My final score was 42, which I think is acceptable. In this game I fully use Imrahil ability and I find him quite useful. I think that, in this game, Imrahil was little more useful than Aragorn even if he was only questing and attacking because of the lower threat level.


5) Final thought
     In the end, I enjoyed playing this deck. The only things that I would change is that I would remove 2 Mustering the Rohirrim, 1 Ancient Mathom and 2 Lorien guide to add 2 song of travel, 1 valiant sacrifice and two Silverlode Archer so that I have less trouble with my resource management.

     After reflexion, there might be another change that I could make: I could change Thedred for Dunhere. Statistically speaking, they are the same. The advantage that Dunhere has on Theodred is that he is already a spirit character so that I don't need to quest with him to get my extra spirit resource. But what makes me hesitate is that theodred give a fourth resource token. What do you think about it? Theodred or Dunhere?