Hey community,

I really love LotR-LCG. I do own nearly every deluxe/saga expansion (except the Angmar-Cycle) so far. So I just wanted to ask you guys from what card pool do you build your decks, when playing a specific cycle or saga expansion.

When we started playing, we did build the card pool this way:

Playing: Core + Mirkwood

Card Pool: Core + Mirkwood

Playing: Khazad-dum + Dwarrowdelf

Card Pool: Core + Mirkwood + Khazad-dum + Dwarrowdelf

Playing: Heirs of Numenor + Against the Shadow

Card Pool: Core + Mirkwood + Khazad-dum + Dwarrowdelf + Heirs of Numenor + Against the Shadow

... and so on ...

But we found out that the card pool is getting very big and the deckbuilding process could take a while. I thought of another approach, that uses only Core Set, the deluxe expansion and the Adventure packs of the matching cycle. But I am not sure if I am cutting the available cards to much, so that the quests would be too hard to complete.

And what are you doing on saga expansion. I know there is a card pool recommendation in the rules. But if I got that right, you should only use Core Set + Saga Expansion. In this case the card pool is a bit too small, I think.

I just wanted to ask how you build your card pool. If everyone is doing it like us, we should find a way to speed up deckbuilding.

Best regards,

SlimShady

No limits. No mercy.

But I don't play non-thematic decks, so the pool for each one is fairly small.

Yeah, I restrict myself to thematic or faction specific builds, so it makes deck-building much faster. When looking at adventure packs that I don't yet own, I buy the ones that improve my existing, enjoyable thematic decks. Silvan and Noldor cards make the pack a must buy, even if I don't get to the quest until weeks later.

I play with everything I have, because :

1- I play nightmare quests 75 % of the time
2- I paid for all those shiny cards, so...

If you want to keep it mostly in cycle, use Core + Deluxe + Cycle, and then allow each deck to use a few cards from another cycle. Say, 6 cards in total can be from other cycles. This means that you could pull a Gondorian Shield, Vilya, or other key card that a particular hero might need. Unless you're also not using the entire hero pool, in which case, good luck!

I play with every card I have however I'm relatively new and have only bought up through Dwarrowdelf. So technically I am only playing quests using the deluxe and AP that were released at that time.

Once my collection grows, I will probably just use everything that is available. I understand that some OP cards make earlier quests easy but I like trying to build thematic decks so I aim for that.

I think it would be cool if FFG released a "campaign mode" set with boons/burdens, etc for some of the older APs. The Dwarrowdelf APs seem to follow a loose story so a campaign mode would be neat and then you might need some newer OP cards to get through.

I ply with everything, but I play theme decks which restricts my cardpool a bit. I'm not super-strict though. If I can find a way to explain away x elf and y dwarf might be palling around together I'm good. I just won't go to the extent of crowning Dain the Steward of Gondor, etc.