If I were to make a 2 or 3 sphere deck, which 3 to 4 cards would you recommend I use for each sphere? I don't mean heroes. I mean the cards you put in your deck. Keep in mind that a 3-sphere deck probably can't afford afford a single-sphere card with a cost of 4 or greater. So, what low-cost (1-3) cards are great in multi-sphere decks?

Leadership: Sneak Attack, Steward of Gondor, ?, ?

Lore: Self-Preservation, Forest Snare, Daughter of Nimrodel, ?

Tactics: Blade of Gondolin, Feint, Veteran Axehand, ?

Spirit: Unexpected Courage, Northern Tracker (I know he costs 4, but he's worth the wait), Stand and Fight, ?

Blade of Gondolin, Feint, and Veteran Axehand are all great Tactics cards.

Thanks fo the help! I made those additions above.

Leadership- Sneak Attack, Steward of Gondor, Valiant Sacrifice, Celebrian's Stone, Faramir.

Tactics- Feint, Blade of Gondolin, Gondorian Spearman, Beorn.

Spirit- Stand and Fight, The Galadhrin's Greeting, Unexpected Courage.

Lore- Erebor Hammersmith, Forest Snare, Lorien's Wealth, Daughter of the Nimrodel.

Hmmm.

Sneak attack is good, but almost exclusively for getting Gandalf out-it's pretty mediocre on most allies. Beorn is potentially useful, too.

Steward of Gondor is amazing.

Faramir is definitely *very* good- easily in the top three in Leadership.

Valiant Sacrifice is cheap card-draw, but I don't think it's at the same level as the other three. Worth including, probably, though.

Puzzled at the list of "good" tactics cards- I don't think I agree with *any* of those. The best tactics card to my mind is Horn of Gondor. Blade of Gondolin is quite good *in the tactics deck*, but for everyone else it's worse than say, Celebrian Stone for making progress. Feint is not bad- probably the best Tactics event, but I don't it measures up to the best cards in the other decks. Citadel Plate is worth a mention, expensive though it is, as it allows one to do otherwise impossible things, like survive a Hummerhorns attack.

In Spirit, Unexpected Courage and Northern Tracker are easily the best two cards. Stand and Fight is good mostly for recurring Gandalf, but it's far worse at this than Sneak Attack. The Galhadrim's Greeting is just much worse than Gandalf.

A lot of Lore cards are quite good, though none as good as the best Leadership or Spirit cards. Daughter of Nimrodel, definitely. I wouldn't include Self-Preservation, as it's worse than Daughter of Nirmodel in almost every way. Forest Snare is also up there. The other one I'd definitely include is Protector of Lorien. Oh, and Henamarth Riversong is absurdly cheap, even if it his ability isn't great.

Sorry, that i'm asking here, but when i would like to play a solo game with 2 different sphere heroes how many cards should i use minimum for player's deck?

If you are just playing by yourself, use as many as you want. The FFG police won't break down your door to tell you that you are playing wrong.

The rulebook suggests a 50 card minimum deck for tournament decks, and many players think that this is a good number. It is probably how many cards I will use in my deck, once I get a second core set to give me more customization opions.

DrNate said:

I've gotten to the point where it is becoming difficult for me to play without lore in my deck. Good card draw is just that addictive and that much of an advantage. Beravor, Lorien's Wealth, Gleowine, all great cards. Even for leadership, Valiant Sacrifice, which is cheap and helps replenish your hand after you've lost an ally.

I've played the Spirit deck quite a bit and I really like Dwarven Tomb. For the cost of 1 resource you can get back any card you'd like. Not sure why I don't see this getting much love.

I agree that Stand and Fight is probably my 2nd favorite card in the spirit deck.

And Galadhrim's Greeting would be my third favorite. 3 resources is a lot, but the trade-off is excellent.

jhaelen said:

60 is the min limit for most other LCG/CCGs. I think that 50 is fine. Typically the min deck size limit exists in order to give you a lower chance at drawing a specific card. Also, in a Nightmare run you do not reset your deck; you probably don't want to run out of cards.

Gearhead said:

Dwarven Tomb could be a decent card. You trade 1 Resource to choose a Spirit card in your discard pile. The card disadvantage (from playing a card) is nullified because you just got another card.

Unfortunately, Spirit doesn't have great cards to fetch. The only card I'd grab would be Strength of Will. You could argue Stand and Fight, but now you're paying the cost of the Ally plus 1. You usually don't have too many good dead allies anyways.

On Topic:

Leadership: Sneak Attack, Steward of Gondor, Ever Vigilant, Snowbourn Scout*

Lore: Daughter of the Nimrodel, Forest Snare, Protector of Lorien, Henemarth Riversong**

Tactics: Blade of Gondolin, Feint, Veteran Axehand, Quick Strike***

Spirit: Unexpected Courage, Northern Tracker, Stand and Fight, Strength of Will****

*Snowbourn Scout is much better than he looks initially. At 1 Resource, you get to add a progress token to a location, have a 1-time chump-blocker, and possibly fodder for drawing (with Valiant Sacrifice).

**Henemarth Riversong is the only 1 Cost ally that has any ATK or Willpower. It's ability is (barely) useful in a solo game. Unfortunately, it is a unique, which means that I would only run 1 or 2.

***Quick Strike costs 1 resource, and can allow you to kill an enemy before it can attack you.

****Strength of Will is not the best card, but it's probably the next best thing that Spirit has. Finishing locations as quickly as possible is always a good thing.

I beg to differ: Spirit has a lot of cool cards to fetch: e.g. unexpected courage, if ever discarded via encounter deck, or the galadhrim's greeting, esp in 2nd scenario it can buy you A LOT of time to set up a perimeter against the troll... or stand and fight for gandalf, thus again eliminating the troll or nazgul the quicker... or will of the west, putting your entire discard pile into the deck (good for nightmare mode) again...

Vyron said:

Unexpected Courage is a fine card to fetch, but it has to be destroyed/discarded first. In this case, the Tomb is insurance, but you're betting against yourself. Also, you're not really buying any time with Galadhrim's Greeting if you are spending all your resources in two different turns casting it, fetching it, then casting it again.

I think Riversong is a bit under rated.

His ability rocks in single player because if used during the planning phase, it tells you pretty much exactly what to expect to happen in the round and therefore allow you to plan for it.

Knowing the staging card for the round before it comes allows you to play exactly which cards you need to play from your hand, which characters you can commit to the quest and which you need to keep back, in prep for attacking/defending.

The games main challenge comes from the randomness for which it is difficult to plan. Riversopng removes that randomness (in solo mode anyway).

pumpkin said:

If you don't have Denethor the risk is too high.If you exhauste Riversong and the top card you are going to see is the necromancer's reach then the only plan is that you must kill riversong.

servant of the secret fire said:

Yer, but he only costs 1 resource so just have a few in your deck. He pays for himself even if you just get a few turns before Necromancer's reach

pumpkin said:

Personally I exhaust him at the end of the combat phase to see the encounter card you will get next turn. The Refresh Phase is just after that so you won't have to worry about the Necromancer's Reach.

Apophenia said:

Smooth.

I've done that with Denethor a few times and it just didn't occur to me to do the same with Riversong. Maybe I've been playing too much, i think my brain is beginning to melt away....

I usually peak with Denethor 1st.

If the card is annoying, I put it on the bottom and then peak with Henemarth to know what to do next.

If the card is "nice", I let it stay and save Henemarth for later action.

sWhiteboy said:

Bryon said:

I am yet to try, thus only guessing. If choosing three spheres I'd probably stay away from Tactics although (on second thought) they have some good cheap cards. I'd definitelly not play the Veteran and I totally support Northern Tracker even though he is 4, he is a great card. Surelly play with Leadership and the Steward and place it on Dunhere or Aragorn with his Stone. Do Henamarth and Beorn too whether you do tactics or not, just Sneak him in for an attack of 8. Surelly do Ever Vigilant - for Gandalf and Beorn, great card. Unexpected Courage. Forest Snare. Well...

wymiatasz said:

If you stick to 50+ card rule, I will recommend the following: choose your 17 cards and include three copies of each, you'll get 51. I find it best to use three copies of each even though you do not want to get some cards more than once. I barelly ever get over 17 cards per game, so your chances of drawing a card that is not included three times are very low to my test (and playstyle). And you can always get rid of cards via Protector of Lorien or even some forced travelling or other effects.

jhaelen said:

That's why I said LCG/CCGs, and not just LCGs.

Also, I think 50 is fine in the long run, but it currently sucks because the card pool is so small. In order to build a 50 card 2-sphere deck, you have to use most of the cards from both spheres.

Good idea, thanks!

lleimmoen said: