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New Player - A Few Questions After 1st Game

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 2:46 pm
by CardboardClash
Thank you in advance for taking a look at this thread. I played through the scripted game from the 2-player starter set and had a blast with a buddy of mine. The collection I have is primarily commons and uncommons for The Wizards and The Dragon sets right now. I haven't purchased any Challenge Decks or anything else, but I have a few questions, mostly about where to go from here:

1. Do players coordinate ahead of time which wizards they will include in their decks, so that we don't both run 3 copies of Gandalf in there and then only one player gets to have a wizard? I assume the answer is no, and that would be why you'd want to have 2 of a wizard and 1 of another.

2. I understand the purpose of the Site cards. Do the Region Cards serve any purpose apart from filling out a card collection? I got a decent number of Site cards, but only a few Region cards. Also, I assume I'd want to have a full set of Site cards for each player, since they can freely look through them when selecting where to move? Are there ones I definitely want to make sure I have for both of us at the early point in our gaming experience?

3. I had to proxy my wizards into the deck because I have no wizards. Are they only found in fixed sets, such as the challenge decks? If so, would that mean I need to buy three of the same challenge deck in order to have three copies of said wizard?

4. I plan on using the cards I have from The Wizards set and building us both a new deck to use next week for our first unscripted play. What size deck would you recommend we start with? Which two wizards would be the ideal ones for learning the game?

5. Going with the above, are there any "must-have" staple cards that I should make sure I get into my collection first for these early plays? I know there are a ton of gaps in the collection, and I assume that (apart from Challenge decks) the ideal way to grow the collection is through boosters when possible and through singles. This is mostly to see what singles I should target first to make sure I have at least a copy to use in decks.

6. How soon should I look at incorporating cards from The Dragons set? I assume we'll want to play at least a few without to get the mechanics and flow down, but expanding the card pool for options is always a good thing!

I think that's all for now. Thanks in advance!

David

Re: New Player - A Few Questions After 1st Game

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 4:52 pm
by the JabberwocK
Hi David!

First of all,

Welcome to our forum! Thanks for joining! We hope you like it here, and I'm happy to hear you have recently started playing this great game with a friend. :D

Here are some answers for you:

1) Yes and No. In organized tournaments, players do not coordinate avatars. If both players end up using the same one, then whoever draws his wizard first will have a decisive advantage. That is why many players put extra wizards in their sideboard and pull them out if needed. However, in more casual environments, discussing avatar is sometimes done. In my personal playgroup of 8-10 guys and gals who meet up once a month, it is standard for us to check avatars prior to a game and if there is a duplication, allow one player to swap out or grab a different deck. This is to increase the overall enjoyment of the game, since my group's primary goal while playing is to have fun. So in non-formal environments, it is up to you to approach this how you prefer.

2) For most players, Region cards are not used at all. They can be used as a reference if you're unsure of whether or not two regions are adjacent, since each region card lists adjacent regions on it. Ideally, yes, each player would have a full set of all 97 site cards. For beginners, I would recommend: Barrow Downs, Beorns House, Blue Mountain Dwarf Hold, Bree, Buhr Widu, Carn Dum, Dead Marshes, Druadan Forest, Eagle's Eyrie, Edhellond, Edoras, Glittering Caves, Goblin Gate, Grey Havens, Himring, Isengard, Lorien, Lossadan Cairn, Lossadan Camp, Minas Tirith, Moria, Mount Gram, Mount Gundabad, Old Forest, Rivendell, Ruined Signal Tower, Sarn Goriwing, The Lonely Mountain, The Stones, Wellinghall, Wose Passage Hold, Zarak Dum.
I would also suggest getting 2 or 3 of the dragon lair sites found in the Grey Mountain Narrows and Withered Heath regions (you don't really need them all as a new player).
I would also suggest getting multiple copies of the 4 hero havens (especially Rivendell and Lorien).
Also, if you already own a copy of a Faction or Ally card you know you want to play, you will need to check to make sure you get a copy of the site they are playable at.

3) Yes, the wizard avatars are only found as part of the Fixed sets, but they are not only included with the Challenge Decks. The base sets of The Wizards and Lidless Eye were released in two forms: Booster Boxes of 36 packs in each box (no fixed cards included), and Starter Boxes of 10 Starter Decks in each box (each starter deck includes a small fixed set and 2 copies of the Avatars). So an entire Starter box for The Wizards (all 10 decks) would provide 20 Wizard Avatar cards. I would not attempt to purchase Challenge Decks in order to acquire Wizard cards. I will send you a PM and offer you some options to get the different cards you need.

4) Personally, I would entirely skip the Starter Rules and jump straight in to the Standard Rules. I would build a deck with 30 Resources, 30 Hazards, 3 Wizards, 4-5 other characters, plus everything in your starting company (which includes 2 minor items). Pallando, Alatar and Radagast are the best for learning the game. Especially Pallando. Radagast requires lots of decision making about which cards to discard if you are traveling through wildernesses, which can sometimes be difficult for new players. His ability can be very useful, however, and his +1 to corruption is great.

5) I will try to post a sample beginner deck I quickly built for a friend who is new to the game (and it performs well, he crushed me the first time he played it, lol). I am unable to post it right now, but will try to do it in the next couple days. This will hopefully give you some idea of basic, good cards to use while getting started. The best way to grow your collection is debatable, but generally speaking, I would not try to do it through opening boosters as that is an expensive way to go about it and you end up with random cards you may not need.

6) Sooner the better. There is no drawback to using cards from the Dragons expansion. There are a lot of great Resource and Hazard cards from that set. Anything that is Dragon Lair specific might be cards you don't use right away, but there are a lot of good cards in general.

Best of luck and post again if you need more info! Welcome to the game!

Re: New Player - A Few Questions After 1st Game

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 5:21 pm
by Theskyscreams
I am also a beginner and look forward to some updates on this thread.
I had a lot of questions when I started and most things to me now are clear

I would download a map over using region cards.

Re: New Player - A Few Questions After 1st Game

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:02 pm
by Papylon
5. Going with the above, are there any "must-have" staple cards that I should make sure I get into my collection first for these early plays? I know there are a ton of gaps in the collection, and I assume that (apart from Challenge decks) the ideal way to grow the collection is through boosters when possible and through singles. This is mostly to see what singles I should target first to make sure I have at least a copy to use in decks.
Early on learning the game I would not say there are any must have cards. Meaning before one starts to go up against decks that have specific strategies (like low hazard limit with Hobbits). Just remember to have good mix of marshalling points in your deck. That´s one of the mistakes I did early on: Spread out your points on allies, factions, items and miscellaneous point cards.
6. How soon should I look at incorporating cards from The Dragons set? I assume we'll want to play at least a few without to get the mechanics and flow down, but expanding the card pool for options is always a good thing!
The Dragons set is rather beginner friendly. There are some new strategies in the set but nothing overly complicated. Dark Minions adds the number of rules (although you don´t need to use them as they are card specific) but also has a fairly large number of cards that compliment you Wizards collection nicely. It´s with Lidless eye, Against the Shadow, Balrog and White Hand you get completely new ways of creating decks. Just Wizards and Dragons gets you rather far. One nice thing with Dragons is creating neat Dwarf-centric dragon slaying treasure collecting decks.

And welcome to the game!