Beginner is looking for advice trading/start to play

[Negator]

Hi all,

i am new to the game and this forum. I am from germany and came to that game starting with the lord of the rings LCG 2012 and as a fan of good Artwork. I like the LotR LCG because of its great Art and because its great to play solo. After collecting some good artbooks from the films (not those with only pictures) i stumbled over this game with so many cards with many great pieces of art.
And then i remembered that i was collecting these cards 15-20 years before and in a corner of my hobbyroom i found that box with cards, unopened for at least 15 years. I had a lot of fun to sort them, searched for cardlists and put them in binders. To my surprise i have a complete collection (german cards, one card each) of The Wizards, Dragons, Dark Minions, LE and Against the Shadows only missing one card form Dark Minions (unterirdische Hallen, The Under-courts) and a lot of german promos.
So i started on ebay (my prime source for all kinds of collecting i do) to search for this one card and for cards to start playing with. I didnt find much and here are some questions to all of you, who know the game and the market for it much better then i do.

1. Does anybody have this card: unterirdische Hallen, The Under-courts in the german version? Please let me Know:)

2. I only saw a few, very expensive, complete sets of that game. What are realstic prices for the five sets i have in german?

3. I read the challenge decks are a good starting point for beginners to play. What do you you think? Are they good for soloplay? I didnt see much
of those either, all around 25-30 Euros. Is this the normal price?

4. I bought a german box with the content of 2x starter Wizards, 4x sealed booster Wizards, a Map, Dice and MP-Copunter for 30 Euro.
Was that price ok? Are those cards a good starting point to play or do i need more cards?

5. Can i play with my collection of all cards, but only one of each or do i miss too many cards? I am not happy with the thought of putting the
cards out of the binder to play with them. So i prefer buying some cards besides my collection. Should i buy uncommons or commons? From which
sets? What are normal prices? Does anybody have some? The cardlanguage for playing can be english. In my MTG times i prefered english.

6. The White Hand only exists in english? What would be a good price for a booster box? Can i get a complete set out of one box? Are those cards
worth playing? I am thinking about buying a box, make a set and take the rest of the cards as a startingpoint for playing.

7. I only play solo. Are there good rules for soloplay? I am used to play "two-handed" from the LCG. Is this managable and fun in MECCG too?

I will better stopp here, these are enough questions for my first post:) I hope i can find some answered here, thanks in advance!

[elvanor]

I dont know at all the price for German sets and cards.

About the commons and uncommons question, these are very cheap or free unless for Against The Shadow. I can even give you or sell you for a very low price commons / uncommons in english if you want, I am sure tons of people on this forum have a lot of surplus of that as well.

Fair price for a booster box of The White Hand would be about 90 EUR I think (English).

[tyhjaarpa]

I dont know at all the price for German sets and cards.

About the commons and uncommons question, these are very cheap or free unless for Against The Shadow. I can even give you or sell you for a very low price commons / uncommons in english if you want, I am sure tons of people on this forum have a lot of surplus of that as well.

Fair price for a booster box of The White Hand would be about 90 EUR I think (English).

I think the white hand booster box varies from 60-90€ but you can get full set of white hand for maybe 50€. And no, you most likely wont get full set from booster box.

[elvanor]

For info, I got full set but from TWO booster boxes. One is not enough indeed.

[stephanesteph]

You will be able to play interesting games with only common / uncommons. But only to learn the rules and for the first games.
You will need then more cards and rare cards to play more interesting games.
Challenge deck are pretty good to start with. I began with them. But soon, you will want to build your own decks with your own cards.
Owning only one copy of each card is not enough. You will want to make several decks and you will need more cards.
I understand that you want to keep you collection in your binders, this is exactly what I do, but you have to buy lot of cards ( boxes ? ) to make several decks and to explore the game and the expansions.
I was fortunate to buy 10 boxes ( 5 wizards and 5 dragons ) in french for 253 € two weeks ago. And I'm happy to have tons of rare cards to make the decks I want to make, and to explore the game as I want.

For solo play, buy the wizard companion. There are rules to play solo games.
Take a look at this site : https://meccg.wordpress.com/

[Adanhedel]

PM sent

[Negator]

Thanks for the input sofar:) I am still interested in other opinons.

The dragon expansion seems to be the least expansive one. Are the cards a good point to start or do i need a lot/more wizards cards?

[Theo]

Because lots of useful cards are unique and you can only have 1 in a deck, a complete set is a good place to start. Max 3 of non-unique cards, of which there really won't be that many in a straightforward deck. Some I often see that come to mind:

HAZARD
Unexpected Outpost
For generic creature strategies, maybe multiple Assassin, Cave Drake
for specific creature strategies it's usually pretty clear what needs duplicating, a couple creatures themselves plus whatever prowess/attack booster is available
Corruption cards (for corruption-heavy strategies)
Foolish Words
Twilight to thwart some opponent strategies
Doors of Night to use said strategies yourself

RESOURCE (hero versions; minion often has parallels)
Smoke Rings / Longbottom Leaf
some avoidance cards, e.g. Concealment
Risky Blow for warriors, Dwarves Are Upon You for dwarves
possibly influence/corruption boosts, e.g. A Friend or Three
Marvel's Told to thwart some opponent strategies
sometimes certain allies that can be multi-played at a site, e.g. Noble Hound / Noble Steed

[CDavis7M]

From Germany? Have you heard of the Lure of Middle Earth? https://lureofmiddleearth.com/

It is a event for both the ICE Middle Earth CCG and the FFG Lord of the Rings LCG (The Card Game). If you live nearby, definitely check it out. I'm sure that you could meet someone willing to help you get some commons/uncommons.

1. Does anybody have this card: unterirdische Hallen, The Under-courts in the german version? Please let me Know:)

Sorry, not me.

2. I only saw a few, very expensive, complete sets of that game. What are realstic prices for the five sets i have in german?

It is hard to tell. But some sets of German cards are available here: https://www.gwaihir.net/product.php. That will be a good reference on pricing.

3. I read the challenge decks are a good starting point for beginners to play. What do you you think? Are they good for soloplay? I didnt see much
of those either, all around 25-30 Euros. Is this the normal price?

They are great! Somewhat complicated for a true beginner but not complicated enough for more players. They are great for solo play because they come with a variety of pre-built hazard strategies that are legitimately good. Not only that, these decks seem to be fairly robust. They cover many different situations and can adapt to their opponent. They are a great value. You can also find them at https://www.gwaihir.net/product.php.

4. I bought a german box with the content of 2x starter Wizards, 4x sealed booster Wizards, a Map, Dice and MP-Copunter for 30 Euro.
Was that price ok? Are those cards a good starting point to play or do i need more cards?

Yes, that sounds like a great price. I paid much more than that for the similar box in English.

5. Can i play with my collection of all cards, but only one of each or do i miss too many cards? I am not happy with the thought of putting the
cards out of the binder to play with them. So i prefer buying some cards besides my collection. Should i buy uncommons or commons? From which
sets? What are normal prices? Does anybody have some? The cardlanguage for playing can be english. In my MTG times i prefered english.

You're going to need more cards. If you get the challenge decks, you'll still want more cards for deck building. Try to find a local group if you can, or attend the Lure of Middle Earth.

6. The White Hand only exists in english? What would be a good price for a booster box? Can i get a complete set out of one box? Are those cards
worth playing? I am thinking about buying a box, make a set and take the rest of the cards as a startingpoint for playing.

White Hand is fairly cheap, about on par with The Dragons. The problem is that White Hand is really not helpful for building decks. It's focused on "Fallen Wizards" and most of the cards are not that useful. The Wizards has a ton of useful cards, obviously. The dragons also has a lot of useful cards but plenty of duds. Dark Minions really doesn't have very many essential, though Smoke Rings and An Unexpected Outpost are really very common and useful in most decks.

7. I only play solo. Are there good rules for soloplay? I am used to play "two-handed" from the LCG. Is this managable and fun in MECCG too?

Playing "two-handed" can get very tedious and there is a lot to track. I like to split up my deck into resource and hazards and then play them against the hazards / resources of a challenge deck. For testing, it's also helpful to just play your own deck without an opponent, just imagine how the first few turns would play out.

If you really only ever see yourself playing solo, I would skip the challenge decks and just look at the "Solitaire" scenarios.

Our subforum here: https://councilofelrond.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=88

Geocities archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20091026173 ... narios.htm

Website with scenarios created by our friend here Darkyeoman: https://meccg.wordpress.com/

An interesting variant by Simon over at BGG: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/211412 ... solo-rules

The dragon expansion seems to be the least expansive one. Are the cards a good point to start or do i need a lot/more wizards cards?

METW cards are much more important to have than The Dragons cards. Definitely focus on getting a lot of METW cards before anything else. You will need Fixed cards (found only in starter decks). Several important characters, factions, and sites are only found in the fixed-portion of starter decks. There is a lot of fun to be had with just METW. And many great decks can be built using only 4-6 cards outside of METW. If you are struggling to find players locally to help you out, don't forget about www.gwaihir.net.

[Negator]

Hi all,

many thanks for all the answers. That helped a lot to make my mind and decide how to start the game. I did not have much time right now, but found someone near my living place and hope we will find a way to play some games. i got a overview over the rules and i think i will start off with the challenge Decks. And if i like the game the next thing will be to focus on the Wizard set, perhaps a complete set, so that i have two sets and some other cards.

That should be a solid starting point or what do you think?

For collecting purposes i would like to buy two booster boxes from the white hand. Has anybody those to sell?

Thanks again, and still interesting in your answeres and advise:)

[Gamling the Old]

Beste webshops at this moment are Gwaihir and Eagle cards

https://www.gwaihir.net/product.php
The White Hand booster box (36 boosters) English Product 89.00

http://www.eaglecard.org
No booster boxes, but many of the WH rare cards