I somehow managed to score super low on Anduin Using primarily an all Spirit Deck. I did however use Beorn as my beefcake to take the hits of the Hill Troll . I also continued to rock out my Threat using The Galadhrim's Greeting . The key ingridient to my deck was Stand and Fight. . With Stand and Fight I was able to bring out Beorn after discarding him with Eowyn 's ability to discard and up her Willpower. I also run Gleowine to help run through my cards for Beorn and or Stand and Fight. I run all three heroes and always leave Eleanor ready to deal with those pesky Necromancer's Reach es among other things in hopes to keep my damage low. Any The Favor of the Lady that comes up goes to Eowyn. I reshuffle the deck once I use both Galadhrim's Greetings using Will of the West . So with all this the most of it is getting my threat down low and managing it and keeping a bunch of cards in hand. In the end I had all cards in hand except what was in the discard pile, and on the last level if I wanted to just pull it along I suppose I could have reducing my threat to even less and having the last creature sit there until I was ready, but I got impatient and rocked his little world. Dunhere is GREAT for creature management once they are unable to engage you. Now If I could only figure out how to take on the Prison solo.... so hard.

If you see anything you dont understand let me know and I will explain more. Also This was not a 50 card deck as I only have 1 core set and Didnt want to muddy up the mechanics with a second sphere. So might not be as good if running a 50 card deck. but hopefully with the next set I will be able to make it work on a full Spirit Mechanic.

Update: Realized I didnt add victory points... but I did play again and got a score of -11. Even better. Dream team for me. At the end i can just kite the last creature and zap my threat with gandalf and the Galadhrims Greeting. Beorn for the win!

How did U use Beorn in all spirit deck?

Sky said:

As mentioned above Stand and Fight allows me to play allys from the discard and it has in paratheses (can be from any sphere). So I play Beorn and Gleowine.

Ok. But whose discard pile it was?

You can use discard pile - correct. But who did put that card there in a single player game??

He discarded Beorn into his discard pile from his own hand by using Eowyn's ability (discard a card to gain +1 willpower). Quite sneaky...

Grats on finding that loop. I hope it will be fixed and plastered in the first FAQ.

No need to fix that loophole. That's the way LCGs should work. Think outside the box. Cool deck idea.

I think it is not correct to allow one deck to play any card it wants (ally so far) for no additional penalty.

Sky that's exactly how it works !!

Deckbuilding is ALL about getting the biggest bang for the lowest cost!

Recently I grabbed Faramir from someones discard pile while I had 6 questing characters a turn. How nice was that !

Troymk1

In a MP game it is fully legitimate. If You choose someone's "Dead" Ally and pay its cost -> U get it under control.

My concern is whether can U have in Your deck cards, YOU CANNOT legitimately play.

Great play, brilliant work on playing Beorn this way...no need to ban this IMO, it's exactly what makes good players stand out in CCGs/LCGs. I would also not call this broken as the route through the discard pile requires quite a lot of work (draw Beorn, use Eowyn or other discard effects to get him into discard, then play the fishing event...you would normally look at quite a number of rounds before Beorn hits the table.)

For me it is too far from the deckbuilding and to cloce to ruleabusing .

I respect Your opinion. But in mine it abuses the play and the balance of the decks. All those cards are +1 will forced events in Your hand. If you limit. their number to 5-6 they are just free added value (in the worst case).Add some allies like DotN and she would give the deck healing ability. The greatest drawback of spirit deck neutralized! The more powerful allies will show up in the game the more powerfull the SPIRIT phase will happen.

Should You run out of the SaF cards there is always DTomb waiting. So in the longer plays You can easily get 2-3 of them into every play.

I don't think designers will find it as a part of metagame though. Time will tell. Great kudos for finding it are still given

This combo is not broken in any way, so there's no need for banning or a FAQ. This is because you have to "pay" more to play Beorn this way. While the deck with a corresponding sphere only needs Beorn's card and 6 resources, the spirit deck needs Beorn's card, Eowyn's ability and an additional card and still you have to pay 6 ressources. So thats 4 conditions to meet instead of 2.

Only 3. Her ability is free and always available. AND you will not waste Your spirit cards to use it.

Sky said:

Well Eowyn can die and it only works once each round. If you consider this combo broken, then what's with Aragorn and Celebrian's Stone?

Spirit has a good base ability and some nice faction cards but imo it isn't as ridicolous strong as Leadership and Lore.

I took this idea one step further and built a full 50 card deck. It's a lot tricker as it's harder to see your key cards, but it's actually a very solid deck. Like all things in this game (for now at least) it is dependant on luck to an extent: a horrible draw from the shadow deck or your own deck will undo you, but I think it is fairly consistant.

The basic premise of the deck is simple: utilize spirits amazing threat reduction to keep yourself under the radar while questing with their powerful questers (Eowyn, Northern Tracker and Lorien Guide.) Discard all of your 'out of sphere' guys to fuel Eowyn's ability, then bring them into play with Stand and Fight. Use Dwarven Tombs and Will of the West to get your Stand and Fight's back. Dwarven Tomb can also be used to re-use Galadhrim's Greeting. The most powerful part of this deck is that you have more control over the game than with any other deck I've played. You keep your threat low, snipe bad guys with Dunhere, avoid nasty cards with Eleanor, Test of Will and Hasty Stroke. I beat the second scenario fairly easily the first time I played this, though it (barely) beat me the second time, mostly due to the second Hill Troll cropping up right at the beginning of quest 2 right around the time I ran completely out of cards due to not seeing my Gleowine.

The most obvious shocker is how many out of sphere guys are here. Honestly there isn't much else to fill the deck up with and it works pretty well. Even if you only see 2x Stands and 2x Tombs, that's 4 very powerful guys you can put out. Gandalf is also essential for his threat reduction and utility. All these guys are getting discarded to Eowyn anyway, so they are serving another purpose as well.

Heroes (not the greatest combo, but **** it's nice to start with such low threat)

Eowyn

Eleanor

Dunhere

Allies

Lorien Guide x3

Northern Tracker x3

Wandering Took x3

Out of Sphere Allies

Gandalf x3

Gleowine x3 (Yes he's unique, but it's worth it to find him.)

Faramir x3 (See above)

Beorn x2

Daughter of Nimrodel x3

Attachments

The Favor of the Lady x3 (All goes on Eowyn)

Unexpected Courage x3 (All goes on Dunhere)

Events

Stand and Fight x3 (Key)

Dwarven Tomb x3 (Key)

The Gladhrim's Greeting (Key)

Will of the West x3 (Allows the deck to theoretically work infinitely)

A Test of Will x3 (Always nice to have 1 of these in hand + 1 extra resource available)

Hasty Stroke x3 (Same as above)

Light in the Dark x3 (Kind of useful to buy yourself an extra turn to reduce your threat or get rid of a guy once your threat is reduced below his level...but I certainly wouldn't have 3x in here if there was a better card available.)

Strengths:

* Allows you to utilize several very powerful key characters from other spheres without having to worry about the resource crippling dual-sphere decks suffer from.

* Spirit threat reduction buys you much more time than most decks, allowing you a few extra turns to get your combo's in place. Once you have a strong established base, you can theoretically reduce your threat forever and be untouchable while still dealing with threat buildup through your awesome location-killers and Dunhere.

* You start out with an awesome quester right away, ensuring you won't suffer from any early game threat bumps.

Weaknesses:

* Like all decks that are not Lore, this suffers horribly from a lack of card draw. Gleowine is very necessary, but the deck really needs something else. This game could really use a neutral Gleowine-like character.

* If you get a crappy draw, you're in trouble. The mulligan rule helps that a lot, but sometimes you'll end up with a hand full of out of sphere characters and nothing to do with them. Though you have a few extra turns to deal with that because of your low threat, it can still kill you if the shadow deck gets a good draw.

* The deck is fairly expensive. This isn't that big of a deal - 2 turns is worth a Beorn, and this deck isn't putting characters out as fast as other decks, instead relying on fewer, more powerful characters. But it is still expensive, and honestly only Leadership has a great resource engine.

Possible Changes:

* Swapping Eleanor for Aragorn. You lose a major advantage (your starting low threat) and you are open to a turn 2 Troll attack unless you draw well, but you gain a major resource boost with the attachements he can bring in. Aragorn works best here because of his 'gain the spirit icon' attachment, but theoretically you could bring someone cheaper in just to unlock Steward of Gondor + their 1 resource guy.

* Swapping Eleanor for Berevor. This is a more viable option in my mind as your threat isn't nearly as bad (27) and Berevor singlehandedly solves your card draw problem. She can also purchase Gleowine turn 2 'honestly', and makes Daughter of Nim make more sense. But your Spirit resources take a pretty sizable hit, as it now takes a solid 3 turns of production to get Beorn out, and it makes it much harder to 'save' a couple resources for your cancellation cards.

Thoughts?

Ahzrab said:

Or Steward of Gondor + Anything

Nice session report. Would you mind listing your deck makeup?

Oh I forgot another possible change to that above decklist: add Theodred instead of Aragorn. Your threat is still super low, he singlehandedly fixes your resource problem with his ability and SoG. The only thing you're missing is more card draw, which can still bring the deck to a crippling halt.

ClydeCloggie said:

I agree. This is a "legitimate play" because it uses quite the 3 card combo that you have to set up. Brilliant insight to find this one too!

CAlexander said:

With Theodred, you could use Sneak Attack to bring Beorn in on the cheap for one turn, as long as you don't use his ability, then return him to your hand and then discard him on the next turn.

After thinking about it, ensuring it worked and playing around with some cards, I think this deck works best splashed with Spirit, namely Theodred.

* Your resources are much more stable, as mentioned earlier. Between SoG and his own ability you more than make up for losing the 1 Spirit per turn that Elanor provides.

* Celebrian's Stone is awesome on Eowin.

* Snowborn Scout is really good and can still be played turn 1. He synergizes well with Spirit's 'anti-location' theme. Also, in a pinch, you can buy Faramir 'honestly'.

* Most importantly, it allows access to Sneak Attack. This not only hands you the awesome Sneak Attack/Gandalf combo, but allows you to Sneak in the allies that might be clogging up your hand if you don't see early Stand and Fight's.

* One last thing: you have super Rohan-trifecta flavor!

I've put together a prototype now and will post results in a separate thread. Sorry for the highjacking

I do not want to break Your holiday, but before engaging even more should You answer whether page 4 of instruction clearly bans it?

Spheres of Influence
There are four different spheres of influence in The
Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and each has its
own distinct flavor and identity. Most player cards fall
under one of these spheres, represented by a unique
icon, as well as by a unique color on its card border.
Each hero has an emphasis in one of these four spheres.
A hero’s sphere dictates the types of cards that hero
allows a player to use.

If You do not have proper hero You cannot use OOH cards in Your deck.

But you are using a card from your own sphere. The issue is whether the abilities on said cards allow you to bring in allies from other spheres. Stand and Fight clearly says that it does. Sneak Attack is not specific, but does not contradict it, either. You are paying the cost of the card, not the cost of the ally. And if indeed the idea is to ban the use of allies belonging to different spheres in decks, then I find that to be a restraint on creativity and ingenuity that should not happen in a card game unless there are specific game breaking results derived from it. I don't see any, so far.