I've been invited to take part in a four-player run through the LOTR saga (so-far) but after finding out who the other three players are using I'm kind of stuck for a strong hero combo (preferrably which can play well solo since I'll play some games before the event using the deck).
The heroes who are already taken (or otherwise ellegible) are:
What's your card pool? It looks like your group is trying to do something thematic. Your 9 walkers + Glorfindel are already taken, so pick some other groups that have a strong role in the narrative.
Denethor (Leadership) / Imrahil and a third (Damrod would work well for access to card draw, or Faramir leadership to make it mono-leadership) for a questing powerhouse.
Silvans with Celeborn-Galadriel-Haldir (you'll have to coerce your Legolas player to toss some bows your way).
Noldor questing with Elrond/Arwen/Galadriel (or sub Arwen for Galdor or Erestor to lean toward Lore instead of Spirit).
The deck I've been having great success with lately is Erestor/Beregond/Arwen.
Since your friends seem to be sticking to theme, you might consider filling out Elrond's council. The remaining missing characters are Bilbo, Gloin, Elrond, Erestor, and Galdor. (Lots of Lore at that council).
Elrond + Gloin make a pretty fun team, and they'd go well with any of the other heroes as suits your fancy.
Alternatively, you could build a deck of some of the powerful characters who supported from the sidelines. Arwen, Elrond, and Galadriel could form the basis for a really powerful Noldor deck.
I forgot to say that I have the whole pool (much to my surprise I got the last three quest packs on Saturday).
you didn't give us any information about what sort of deck you like... I've had sucess with a Haldir/Galadriel/Arwen deck that seems like it wouldn't be in conflict with anything though.
Or Rohan with Theoden/Eowyn/Erkenbrand for a strong questing+utility deck. That could handle some solo scenarios.
Mostly I build decks that specialize when I play in multiplayer, so they don't work in solo. But I have tried that Rohan deck in pure solo with some success. It does need help with attack power (can't always draw Herugrim on turn 1...)
Dwarf deck? I like the Silvan deck idea, especially if you can get another player to spot you some weapons, as GrandSpleen mentioned.
You also can't go wrong with Beregond and/or more Spirit for more cancellation, willpower, and location control. Eowyn and Eleanor are good multiplayer Spirit heroes. Galadriel, of course can also be amazing, especially of you're willing to share her wealth with the other players.
To answer the question about what kind of decks I play I tend to play a variety of decks (since I mostly play solo or two-handed, I think I've played true multi-player about two times).
Just go for Noldor. They're powerful and no hero conflicts.
I decided to go with Arwen, Elrond and Glorfindel.
Uhhh... Glorfindel's already taken.
With a few of those heroes being multi-sphere, what do you feel the group are missing? Is it very heavily combat oriented? is Questing and cancels taken care of? Can you tell us which heroes (and of which sphere) are already paired?
I'd suggest Beregond, Mablung and Treebeard off hand and just focus on all the ents. Use Tireless Hunter and Westfold Outrider to snag enemies to make up for your lack of ranged.
Otherwise, I'd suggest a support deck that uses Damrod for trap recursion and also do Victory Display stuff to enable all the other decks to utilize Keen as Lances.
Edited by SlothgodfatherI think he must have meant Galadriel. A good triplet imo.
I did mean Galadriel. This is what happened when I had to pull a deck together rather quickly when the Shadow Of The Past playthrough was pulled forward to tonight and I had about 40 minutes to get a deck together.
The deck set up was:
Deck #1
Aragorn (Tactics)
Gimli
Legolas
Deck #2
Merry (Spirit)
Pippin (Lore)
Sam Gamgee
Deck #3
Boromir (Tactics)
Gandalf
Glorfindel (Spirit)
Deck #4 (as in, me)
Arwen Undomiel
Elrond
Galadriel
The game went well, I stuck Unexpected Courage on Galadriel and quested each turn and (since deck #2 put a UC on Elrond and I put Light of Valinor on Arwen) used Tale of Tilluviel to give Aragorn action advantage. The four decks worked well together somehow (even though my deck needs some changes, I put a lot of uniques with 1 copy each and still had a sixy-seven card deck) and won the game. I should be playing The Old Forest
on Saturday so (if my luck stays true) the campaign will probably be finished by Sunday.
Finished by Sunday? Are you only doing The Black Riders box + print on demand quests within that part of the story?
Also, nice job stealing Light of Valinor from the Glorfindel player, hah!
I must have suffered a brain fart. It must have been a UC from someone else (the whole game went by in a blur since I'm really new to multi-player games) since cards were going from one deck's heroes to another all game.
I meant that with my luck with The Old Forest all the heroes will probably be dead (I think my track record for TOF is 11-2).
As far as the saga run-through goes, The Old Forest went better than I expected, we had enough time to go through Old Forest and Fog On The Barrow Downs. Between the two quests no heroes were lost and all the swag was grabbed (since Gimli was hitting Old Man Willow for 11 at the end of Old Forest we managed to get enough damage down to claim Old Bogey-Stories).