Hi all, here's something I've been wondering about lately. If I play primarily 2-player with my s/o at home, both of us using the same cardpool, how difficult or impossible would it be for me to make a tri-sphere deck, considering she uses Tactics/Leadership deck?

We have 2 Core Sets, but only 1 copy of all the first cycle packs, Khazad-dum and a few Dwarrowdelf packs.

We're in it more for co-op play and I'm hugely into LOTR so I enjoy the story/quest aspects, so not really looking for min/max or broken combo decks (don't have the cards for that probably, anyway). We play on easy mode most of the time.

tl;dr, I guess, is it impossible or supremely difficult to make a tri-sphere deck out of the same cardpool as another player using a dual-sphere deck?

Give it a try and see how it works out! My partner and I played through most of the early game with two dual sphere decks, but trisphere is plenty doable in this game. In fact, I feel like trisphere is the way to go when playing solo with a smaller card pool.

If your trisphere includes both tactics and leadership, that would make life difficult. If your tri-sphere is leadership/lore/<spirit/tactics>, it's probably manageable. You'd have ~15 cards in your deck from the shared sphere, while she would have 20-30, and given two core sets and ~9 APs plus a deluxe you won't run out of cards.

How much the two decks compete for different cards really depends on the construction. If you're sharing tactics and having to share the tactics dwarves between you, it may not be optimal. OTOH, if you're matching a Dain/Bifur/Eowyn deck with dwarvish allies with an Eagle-heavy Dwalin/Thalin/Gimli deck, I think you can make two solid decks out of the same card pool.

Her deck mostly uses the Eagles we have at our disposal with the packs mentioned. Plus, some of the other basic Tactics allies like Gondorian Spearman. She's mostly like on Leadership cards and allies, actually, except Steward of Gondor, stuff like Dunedain Mark, and Campfire Tales, those things.

I actually think you guys are right, in that I could potentially add Leadership into my Lore/Spirit deck and have enough Leadership cards to benefit me, like Dunedain Quest, since she takes care of combat for the most part and I am heavy on questing.

Bifur + Rivendell Minstrel + Songs is a pretty good way to go to smooth out your ressources in a tri-sphere deck with an early card pool like yours. But to answer your question, yes it's certainly possible. Have fun with the deck building!

2 hours ago, philkav said:

Bifur + Rivendell Minstrel + Songs is a pretty good way to go to smooth out your ressources in a tri-sphere deck with an early card pool like yours. But to answer your question, yes it's certainly possible. Have fun with the deck building!

I definitely was thinking of adding in the songs so that each hero could potentially be a double-sphere hero, making it easier to pay for things. I am become heavily attached to Beravor in Lore, though. I love the card draw.

But this is also another issue, I should branch out my hero usage.

Also, really appreciate everyone's help here, but, if I'm running tri-sphere Lore, Spirit, Leadership, but want to utilize the songs, would you include 3x copies of Travel, Wisdom, and Kings, to increase draw chance, or is that clogging too much space?

Realistically, it's probably easier if you don't need all the Songs, and this can come down to the balance between your spheres - for example if you have noticeably more Lore/Spirit than Leadership then you shouldn't really need Song of Kings and thus it becomes easier to justify more Wisdom/Travel to increase consistency. Another point worth considering is that if you are using Rivendell Minstrels then that further increases the consistency potentially more than having more copies of the Songs themselves, since a Minstrel can get you whichever Song you need at the time/haven't drawn yet (so long as you can afford the Minstrel). If your few Dwarrowdelf packs include Shadow and Flame then Master of the Forge can similarly make it easier to consistently find those Songs even if you have less copies of them.

In the end, there's no hard and fast answer - it depends on the deck you're building.

This is where Bifur and Rivendell Minstrel would come in handy. If SoG usually goes on Beravor, I'd include 2x Rivendell Minstrel and 1x of Travel and Kings.

Well, in our 2 player games, I don't get SoG haha she usually plays it on her Tactics hero to pay for the high-cost armor and eagles, etc.

But I've started contemplating the tri-sphere deck as a solo play deck if possible.

Okay I put something together but with solo-play in mind. Any feedback is nice.

I really like the Rohan allies I have access to, giving options for powerful questing, or readying abilities and progress tokens when sorely needed. Since these allies have effects that cause them to leave play, it can net more actions out of Prince Imrahil (who is a hero I have not yet used).

Tri-Sphere Solo

Main Deck

Hero (3)
Beravor (Core Set)
Éowyn (Core Set)
Prince Imrahil (A Journey to Rhosgobel)

Ally (19)
3x Escort from Edoras (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
2x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
2x Henamarth Riversong (Core Set)
3x Snowbourn Scout (Core Set)
3x The Riddermark's Finest (The Hills of Emyn Muil)
3x Westfold Horse-Breaker (The Hunt for Gollum)

Attachment (11)
3x Ancient Mathom (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
3x Protector of Lórien (Core Set)
3x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
2x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)

Event (26)
3x A Test of Will (Core Set)
2x Dwarven Tomb (Core Set)
3x Hasty Stroke (Core Set)
3x Lore of Imladris (Core Set)
3x Secret Paths (Core Set)
3x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
3x Stand and Fight (Core Set)
3x The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core Set)
3x Valiant Sacrifice (Core Set)

3 Heroes, 56 Cards
Cards up to The Hills of Emyn Muil

Decklist built and published on http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/4278/tri-sphere-solo-1.0