Ok I know this sounds like a simple question, but how many cards are in a co-op customized deck? I know tournament decks are a minimum of 50 as per the rule book. I also know that just starting out a pure deck is not even close to that. I have two customized player decks using all the spheres and it has been working out well. My decks are 29 cards a piece in the spirit of trying to keep it around what a pure deck amount is.

I have manged to play the first two quest lines pretty well and I know Dol Guldur is a pain so I am looking at starting the Shadows of Mirkwood and I want to know what my two deck for co-op should be in regards to number of cards.

Lastly what is your opinion on having each person have two Gandalfs.

gup said:

I would shoot for two 50-card decks as soon as possible. But without a prospect of tournaments on the horizon, there is little incentive to keep a 50-card minimum. Still, it's what most people play with so it's sort of the standard now.

As far as two Gandalf cards each, that's usually what I do when I build two decks. In some cases I may do three in one and one in the other. For example, I may give three to a Leadership deck in hopes of using Sneak Attack with Gandalf. I sense, though, that your main concern is that only one Gandalf is allowed per deck. That's a common misconception since the starter decks have 1 each, but the rules are clear: you can have up to 3 of any card in your deck.

I absolutely don't mean to hijack this thread, but I had a question about the number of allowed cards as well, and it's pretty trivial so I didn't want to start a new thread about it.
I have read the rulebook through and skimmed it for clarifications multiple times, and I might be wrong but I don't think there is a clear answer to the question what the maximum amount of cards in a deck is.
Do most people play with around 50 card decks, or can you go far above that number? I know that building ridiculously large decks is probably a bad idea since the sinergy between the cards isn't as tight and you need more luck when you're waiting to draw that one particular card, but is it considered cheating when you exceed a particular size?
I am playing solo btw.

There's no maximum limit for your player deck. So have fun shuffling your 200 cards.

Deck size is a interesting question in this game. 50 is the minimum and a "optimal" deck will be 50 or at least very close.. BUT card draw is insane in this game. I played a 3 payer game a week ago were we had 4 UC on beravor and bilbo in the table... that is 12 cards a turn... not including Brand's untap effect or mathoms... So potential for more.

When you have card draw like that running a large deck is not a problem, as you are drawing so many cards. This has lead to a deck set up for 2player that can be modified for 3+ were you have a streamlined attack and defense deck running 50 cards and the 3 copies of UC, Steward and Belt, you can also run 2x Steward and 2x belt if you wish, it just depends on how fast the decks need to be for the give quest, you might also want to run Protector in the streamlined deck. This deck targets the 2nd deck for all UC and the steward and the Belt. The reason these cards are in the 50 card deck is it ensures that these get drawn.

Now the 2nd deck is huge.. we are talking like 100 cards, you can get away with more even.. but a 100 cards is a good size I feel. You include your own copied 2x steward and Belt and UC as well to increase the draw. The idea is to load Beravore up with as many UCs cards as you can.. getting to a 6-8+ card draw is your goal. I think you can see where it goes form there.

This is a legit and VERY successful deck set up that works best with 100+ card decks...

My main point is that card draw in this game is crazy. If for example you are playing solo and running Bilbo (one of the BEST solo hero with out a doubt) you can easily go over he 50 card limit as you are drawing a extra card every turn. So while "50" is the what you should aim for.. feel free to go over it as there are many decks were this number is a loose number and some deck require way way more cards to function properly.

booored said:

jhaelen said:

yeah right, I also forgot to say that to cast UC you need to run a spirit hero or run a mana fixing attachment.