I know that most of the skill of this game comes in the deck-building (and knowing the combinations too), but sticking 3 gandalfs and 3 sneak attacks and well-known cards like that in every deck i do, and seeing them come up in every game, just gets a bit boring after a while. so at the moment i am into limiting myself to just one of each in the deck… as if they are all unique. that way you see wider variety of cards come up when you play, which i think is more interesting.

obviously the deck isn't as strong as it could be, but the card pool is getting pretty big now. we've got loads of ways to reduce our threat, heal our wounds, manipulate the deck… there are loads of cards to choose from now. and as the card pool grows and grows it will get easier to build a decent deck with just one of each.

Does anyone else play like this? and how big would the card pool have to be before you could be persuaded to do it to?

no i dont- but now you mention it, it sounds like it could be fun once in a while!

funnily enough i was just going through my card collection a second ago, and thinking, man ….Gandalf's Search….ive never once used that, or…look at Radagast's cunning…..havnt used that since about emyn muil release..

so yes, i may try this. i usually stick to 3 of each apart from some certain cards i always have one of….but even playing every day, there a lot of cards i never even touch. its especially dissapointing given i permanently have my game set up, so it takes me no time at all to make a new deck

rich

My friends and i dont really play solo, so our experience is a little different, But we just made 3 two sphere dwarf decks, still using some of the big cards like A Test of Will and Hasty Stroke but for instance with Gandalf, I think we each only have one just because we dont seem to need his help as much. These decks are by far the strongest we have ever created, and the only quests that seem tough still are massing (cause multiplayer massing is pretty insane, tho we still have yet to try it with these decks) and Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim ( the riddle mechanic is really neat but at times can be pretty difficult). So all in all, for us at least, we have moved away from a lot of the cards and heroes that we used to consider essential.

I have the mindset that if I only have one copy of a card in a deck, then I probably don't really need that card, and I can put an extra copy in of another card. If you are worried about what to do with duplicate uniques, there are plenty of cards in each sphere that will put them to use (Daeron's Runes, Hama, Erestor, Trollshaw Scout, Protector of Lorien, etc.). If there is a card that has a similar but better effect, I would replace that better card with the worse card that has a similar effect, if that makes sense. I used to play with Gleowine, but I don't really build with him anymore because of cards that aren't unique like Daeron's Runes or Master of the Forge.

I only have a single core set and I try to keep multiple playable decks on hand so I can just do a pick-up game with my friends whenever we want. (I currently have six sitting around.)

So yeah. I usually don't play with super-optimized decks and spread the especially good cards kinda thin.

I've played like this from the start! It is only with very few cards that I use duplicates, and I don't think I have ever had a card in triplicate in my deck. As has been pointed out, it makes the game more interesting to have a wider variety of cards come up, plus it adds to the suspense, or whatever, having only one Gandalf, because you only play him when you really need him, very thematic-like!

But yeah, it probably also explains my dismally poor record at completing quests…