Hi!

We purchased the base set and for some reason 1 SAGA set (I understand that you are supposed to get more than one SAGA to play them together but we just wanted to see what they were like). Now with more time on our hands, we are hoping to get back into the card game! We have however a few questions!

1. How worthwhile are deluxe expansions?
   1. Are there any deluxe expansions in particular which were more enjoyable from experience?
2. Is it really a necessity to get the base set 3 times for 3 copies of each card?
3. How worthwhile are the cycles; what do they usually include?
   1. Are there any cycles in particular which were more enjoyable from experience?
4. Are the new standalone scenarios any good?
5. How difficult are the nightmare decks? Do they provide a nice challenge?

Sorry if there are a few questions which are a bit stupid and simple; but I will be extremely grateful to anyone who takes their time to answer some of these!

1-you have to get the deluxe boxes to play the packs in the cycle but good news they are fun!

I love grey havens, harad, lost realm. Numenor is really tough. Isengard has one dud quest. I love khaza dum

2-it helps but if you have a decent card pool you don't have to. You could always take some of the junk cards from the core and magic marker "steward of gondor" on them, works fine in a pinch.

3-I prefer to play in order, but this can be challenging as print runs can be scarce. Not sure what the question is, the cycles and deluxes are basically very similar. Player cards and scenarios. I'll let someone else weigh in more on this

4-i love the standalones, they are usually very very difficult so they wpuldnt be my first choice to jump into

5-nightmare usually significantly increased the difficulty but sometimes just changes the quest with a slight difficulty increase. They aren't necessary and most players don't play them. They are good to go back to to get more value to quests you have beaten and grown tired of. Some make improvements to the originals

Not TCG tho.

15 minutes ago, player1683311 said:

1-you have to get the deluxe boxes to play the packs in the cycle but good news they are fun!

I love grey havens, harad, lost realm. Numenor is really tough. Isengard has one dud quest. I love khaza dum

2-it helps but if you have a decent card pool you don't have to. You could always take some of the junk cards from the core and magic marker "steward of gondor" on them, works fine in a pinch.

3-I prefer to play in order, but this can be challenging as print runs can be scarce. Not sure what the question is, the cycles and deluxes are basically very similar. Player cards and scenarios. I'll let someone else weigh in more on this

4-i love the standalones, they are usually very very difficult so they wpuldnt be my first choice to jump into

5-nightmare usually significantly increased the difficulty but sometimes just changes the quest with a slight difficulty increase. They aren't necessary and most players don't play them. They are good to go back to to get more value to quests you have beaten and grown tired of. Some make improvements to the originals

So you need to get a 'related' deluxe set for each cycle?

Yes, you'll need some of the encounter card sets from the related Deluxe box to play the quests in that cycle. Which means you'll generally want to buy the Deluxe first. Of course, you may want to pick up some of the adventure packs while available if you're waiting for a deluxe box to be reprinted, in which case you can still use all of the player cards from those packs. But you won't be able to play the quests.

4 hours ago, Dainank said:

• How worthwhile are deluxe expansions?
  1. Are there any deluxe expansions in particular which were more enjoyable from experience?
• Is it really a necessity to get the base set 3 times for 3 copies of each card?
• How worthwhile are the cycles; what do they usually include? 
  1. Are there any cycles in particular which were more enjoyable from experience?
• Are the new standalone scenarios any good? 
• How difficult are the nightmare decks? Do they provide a nice challenge?

The duluxes and cycles are all worthwhile (of course, to play quests in a cycle you need the corresponding deluxe). I would go with Khazad-dum+Dwarrowdelf, Grey Havens+Dreamchaser, or Wilds of Rhovanion+Ered Mithrin (the current cycle).

Yes, I would buy at least a second core to open up better deck-building options (and to get those extra two threat trackers). Three is nice, but the only reason to get that third copy of some of the cards (some of them are really worth it, though). Note that the core is the only set that has less than three copies of any player card.

The standalone scenarios are very good, but very hard. The newest, the Wizard's Quest is fairly easy, though; and it's really innovative. It was pre-released at Gen Con this year, but should be available in a month or two.

Some just make easy scenarios normal difficulty, others make the quest nigh impossible. In all cases, they are much worth the money. They have great art and theme, and go along way in fixing some quest mechanics.