This is just a little video I did up with some of my ideas on making budget decks while going to the type of game play you might be looking for. In general, there are only ideas tossed out for new players but the actual deck building will be left to the player, as that is part of the fun!

I cover 3 types of deck ideas and which packs to get to have that type of experience. The Gamer type of deck, which is about winning. A thematic deck, which has good potential to win but the focus is on the over all theme more so than optimization. And finally a combo-like deck where cards trigger effects and there are moving parts that appeal to some people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyqBLSxv3kM

In a summary for those not interested in seeing what I came up with the basics are the following. Keep in mind I tried to keep this under $100 (Canadian) including the core set:

Budget Gamer Deck:

Main Trait: Outlands

Sets: Heirs of Numenor, The Stewards Fear

Budget Thematic Deck:

Main Trait: Hobbit

Sets: The Black Riders, The Dead Marshes

Budget Combo Deck:

Main Trait: Dwarf

Sets: Over Hill and Under Hill, Return to Mirkwood (or Khazad-dum if slightly over budget)

If you wanna see how I came up with this stuff the details are in the video. Peace!

Jason

Cool idea Jason!

I find the Loragorn/Spirfindel/Frodo deck can be another strong and thematic choice, even if you just buy Conflict at the Carrock, Watcher in the Water, and Foundations of Stone.

http://seastan.github.io/#/deck/id:Y9ehpOhqce

Cool idea Jason!

I find the Loragorn/Spirfindel/Frodo deck can be another strong and thematic choice, even if you just buy Conflict at the Carrock, Watcher in the Water, and Foundations of Stone.

http://seastan.github.io/#/deck/id:Y9ehpOhqce

That looks pretty solid to me! Thanks for sharing. I find that deck is going to have little to no issues with dealing with most quests. Very good.

I like this. I would love to hear what other budget combos people have.

Not wanting to kill the idea, but a problem with these low-cost decks is that you can't play the quests from the Adventure Packs without the respective box expansion... so unless people don't care much about playing just the quests from the Core Set over and over, I'd try to begin with the APs from the Return to Mirkwood cycle or Saga/DeLuxe boxes (which adds both player cards and new quests)

EDIT: btw, for people who are interested in powerful player cards mostly, The Steward's Fear, The Watcher in the Water and Foundations of Stone are arguably the best 3 APs released so far in that regard imo

Not wanting to kill the idea, but a problem with these low-cost decks is that you can't play the quests from the Adventure Packs without the respective box expansion... so unless people don't care much about playing just the quests from the Core Set over and over, I'd try to begin with the APs from the Return to Mirkwood cycle or Saga/DeLuxe boxes (which adds both player cards and new quests)

EDIT: btw, for people who are interested in powerful player cards mostly, The Steward's Fear, The Watcher in the Water and Foundations of Stone are arguably the best 3 APs released so far in that regard imo

To be fair, his recs all DO include deluxe or Saga boxes, and even the one non-Mirkwood AP comes paired with its respective deluxe box. So that's four more quests on top of the core trio for each set.

Not wanting to kill the idea, but a problem with these low-cost decks is that you can't play the quests from the Adventure Packs without the respective box expansion... so unless people don't care much about playing just the quests from the Core Set over and over, I'd try to begin with the APs from the Return to Mirkwood cycle or Saga/DeLuxe boxes (which adds both player cards and new quests)

EDIT: btw, for people who are interested in powerful player cards mostly, The Steward's Fear, The Watcher in the Water and Foundations of Stone are arguably the best 3 APs released so far in that regard imo

Aye. Thanks for the reply though I did keep that in mind. I wanted the people to have a decent deck all the while not have wasted quests.

It isn't easy to keep things very cost effective while having the perfect deck but I attempted to give opinions based on play style. I will perhaps will give it another go some time soon with other ideas.

Here is are a few other cost effective ideas.

That being said, traits you should avoid trying to build for on a budget:

Gamer Deck - Silvan , While the silvan decks are crazy powerful and do well in solo and multiplayer they are somewhat costly to get started. This is mostly because the silvans you want are spread through out the cycles (of course, this is intended as part of marketing). I will say that this is my main deck, if I were to have one, and if I were to recommend a deck to spill extra money into, it would be these elves!

Recommended Sets: Extra Core, Celebrimbor's Secret (Plus The Voice of Isengard)The Dunland Trap, The Three Trials, Trouble in Tharbad, The Nîn-in-Eilph, Celebrimbor's Secret, The Antlered Crown, (Recommend The Dread Realm AP as well but it is out of set so...)

Costs (Including Both Core Sets): Something like $220 Canadian (or $300 for the full meal deal), a costly game of musical chairs, Silvan style.

Thematic Deck - Gondor , This trait costs a lot of money (many different packs) to get working properly. They never really become the unstoppable force you would expect from them. Early game they are normally slower than other decks and while long term you will have an army, there are cards you might be fighting for with other players. Seeing how Steward of Gondor is such a key card to keep resources on Leadership Boromir to use his ability, Visionary Leadership and Gondorian Fire you might be fighting to get it first in multiplayer games. You get a lot of Gondor in the Heirs of Numenor Deluxe pack, it is still missing too many key cards.

Recommended Sets: Extra Core Set , Heirs of Numenor, The Land of Shadow, The Morgul Vale, The Steward's Fear, The Lost Realm, The Wastes of Eriador, (Optional: Escape from Mount Gram)

Costs (Including Both Core Sets): Roughly $270-290 Canadian (ouch!) and event the deck you can make with this STILL has a lot of holes but fairly workable.

Combo Deck - Rohan, While the best cards are found in the early sets, it doesn't cost too much to make a Rohan deck the only problem I have with this trait is the over all strength. I have seen a few versions of decks that use Rohan fairly well but it is strictly for flavor it seems. Some of the combos, like the Hama lock (Hama/Feint/Charging the Rohirrim -very strong-), Staging attacks, and the Mount Fishing are very feasible strategies that Rohan can provide. The downfall is I find the allies of Rohan fall short for their card costs. A lot of the times you will want to mix and match with some Gondor allies to fill in the gaps, which can be well but that just means a higher buy in for new players.

​ Recommend Sets: Conflict at the Carrock, A Journey To Rhosgobel, The Long Dark (plus Khazad-Dum just for the quests), The Treason of Saruman, Return to Mirkwood, The Voice of Isengard.

Costs: $210 (or $250 with all playable quests) Canadian. You get some of the combos that make Rohan fun but not all.

Let me know any other ideas. I am open to hear them!