Council of Elrond

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Edit: Updated decks below
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I found these two MECCG decks in a dumpster. What do you think of them? Worth keeping or should I put them back where I found them?
I'm kidding. I'm the one that put them there. Isn't "found in a dumpster" codeword for "I made a crappy thing but please validate me" ? These two decks are sort of a pair and my goal was to make them using only NON-FIXED and NON-RARE cards from The Wizards and The Dragons. The idea was to use trash cards that I would be willing to part with. So I could either throw the deck in the dumpster or give it away. I wasn't completely successful since there are a few uncommons that are not complete trash, though I did not include Orcrist or Orc Lieutenant or cards like those. The Burgling deck includes 6 non-trash uncommons: Balin, Oin, Sam, Durin's Axe, Blue Mountain Dwarves, and Goldberry. The Rohan deck also has 6 non-trash uncommons: Legolas, Ioreth, Scroll, Great Shield, Ringlore, and Dead Marshes. That's it.

These were built with a preference for commons and preference for Dragons Uncommons (2 per sheet) over The WIzards Uncommons. Basically, these are decks that I would not mind throwing in the dumpster. And so I would also not mind giving them away. They are used to play a 1-deck game with 15MP required to Call the Council before the deck exhausts.

Hard Constraints: 20 resource + 20 hazard card decks using only NON-FIXED and NON-RARE cards from The Wizards and The Dragons.

Goals: Minimize the amount of uncommons. Prefer the Dragons set over the Wizards set. Incorporate as many fundamental MECCG concepts as possible: company composition using GI and DI, organization phase events, long-events, strike sequence events, corruption and check causing events, CC helping events, River, Call of Home, Ring Test, "caravanning" multiple items at a site, avoidance, hazard reduction. Prefer novelty hazard events over basic strike/prowess boosters. Incorporate a few card combos. And no duplicate cards.

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I did some play testing and the decks did work though everyone kept dying or being corrupted despite the hazards being trash commons. But first, notes on the decks.

Both decks have 70 Cards: 5 starting characters and 2 minor items, 3 additional characters, 10 sites, 10 regions, 20 resources, 20 hazards.

===SAM LEARNS TO BURGLE===

Balin takes Sam to the Grey Mountains to burgle dragon's lairs, just like Uncle Bilbo. Balin controls Oin, Sam bears the cloak. Pippin controls Dori and bears Miruvor. Using Mirovor reduces corruption and potentially lets the dwarves survive long enough return to Lorien to play Fellowship. The starting company moves to Zarak Dum in Angmar (easier automatic-attack, fewer regions) or potentially straight to Ovir Hollow in the Grey Mountains (maybe if you play secret passage). There is sufficient GI for Gloin to come into play at his homesite and eventually play Blue Mountain Dwarves. Gloin and any new characters played with him can attempt to meet Goldberry (the only uncommon TW/TD ally also playable at an uncommon site). The deck includes a few ways to get past the automatic attacks (Burglary, Fast Asleep, Halfling Stealth) and a few general combat resources (concealment, risky blow, Fellowship, weapons). Once past the automatic attack, you have ways to play multiple items (bounty of the hoard, thror's map, thorough search). A Short Rest can be used between Ovir Hollow and Gondmaeglom in Grey Mtns. Hopefully you get a weapon or two and then off to Gold Hill for the Shield. If you get the Shield first, it's possible to just get it first and use it to tackle the autos.

The hazards are drakes and animals. The key cards are Worm's Stench (boost Crebain and Carrion Birds), Dragon's Blood (force a body check), and Dragon's Terror (rolling is fun and it taps characters). There is also a Cave Worm in this deck that was missing when I took the picture.

===RINGS FOR ROHAN===

In an alternate timeline, Eomer and Eowyn stumble into the Council of Elrond and are instructed to bring Legolas to investigate the area around Isengard for traces of a magic ring. Legolas controls Eowyn. I have Hama with the Starglass and Ioreth with the Herbs but this can be moved around. Star Glass can cancel the undead at Dead Marshes (Scroll), Amon Hen (Ringlore), and Gladden Fields (Gold Ring). The first turn probably involve a trip to Lorien since someone will be wounded and need healing. Once there, the deck includes Fair Travels in the Borderland and Anduin River (for Dead Marshes) to reduce the hazard limit. For combat, Lapse of Will is surprisingly strong and escape can be coupled with Ioreth's effect and the Herbs or Warm Now be Heart. There is enough GI for Imrahil to come in at Dol Amroth and play the Knights. He can also move to Pelargir to influence the Lebenninese. The Dwarven Ring can be played using Ringlore if that comes first or you can try to use Scroll with a test. There is a backup Gold Ring. Halbarad is your backup Sage. Bomber is even there if you want to risk corruption with the Dwarven ring.

The hazards are Orcs and Wolves. Key cards include Host of Bats (1 extra orc hazard, and gives an extra body check at -1), Left Behind (with Orc Warband, Orc Guard, or Dire Wolves + Wolf-Riders), and Worn and Famished (play before you need to heal anyway, or when you can use Healing Herbs to untap the key character).

===PLAY TEST===
Gloin came in early and played Blue Mtn Dwarves. The company got stuck at Zarak Dum. Eventually play Magical Harp but Pippin and Balin were eliminated. Sam, Dori, and Oin return to Rivendell to play Fellowship with Gloin joining. On the way to Gold Hill Sam is eliminated and they lose Fellowship. Next turn no hazards and Dori takes the hit to let Gloin and Oin play Enruned Shield and Durin’s Axe using Bounty of the Hoard. Rohan calls the Council and on the last turn they move to Gondmaeglom but are tapped out. Both Gloin and Dori corrupt at the Council. FINAL MPs: Blue Mtn Faction (3), Dwarven Axe (4), Oin (1), creature kills (3).

Imrahil also came in early and played Knights of Dol Amroth. The starting company moved to Lorien to draw cards. They then blindly moved to Gladden Fields. No luck drawing a ring that turn but the next turn they play a Precious Gold Ring. Imrahil moves to Pelargir and plays the Men of Lebennin. The main company moves to Glittering Caves to play Great-Shield of Rohan but are tapped out. Tapped out again and Eowyn dies. Next turn they have in hand the Dwarven Ring, Scroll, Test, and Ringlore. Ioreth tests Legolas’s ring and its the Dwarven Ring. Legolas plays Great Shield and the Council is called. Legolas corrupts with both the Ring and Shield at the Council. FINAL MPs: Dol Amroth (3), Lebennin (2), Imrahil (2), kill (2).

Conclusion: they work.

Good stuff! Just a comment, if the goal is also to teach the game in my opinion is actually better to have a lot of 3x the same card to actually minimise the numbers of cards one will have to read over their first games. Cheers,

sarma72 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 6:51 pm Good stuff! Just a comment, if the goal is also to teach the game in my opinion is actually better to have a lot of 3x the same card to actually minimise the numbers of cards one will have to read over their first games. Cheers,

The goal is to teach but my real goal is to give the decks away. In that case, it's hard to give away decks if you need 3 copies of certain cards. And having no duplicates leads to more novel experiences using the same deck.

Even though I have a lot of The Wizards cards (bought thousands of non-rares booster cards in bulk at one point) and The Dragons (opened a bunch of boxes) I still do not have nearly enough Fixed cards to be handing those out (I only have 3 Wellinghall) and I do not even have enough uncommons to be building decks with multiple copies.

So, that is my real goal: a throw-away deck that actually works and is decently fun.

Nice, very nice !!!!

I have made some cheap decks to learn but to put some crap card in decks. They work if you don't play against big competitive deck.
1 pblm for an all common deck : no ally so points are doubled for your opponent.

This kind of experiment shows that the game is very well balanced and you don't need 60 rare to win a game

Baba wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 3:48 pm 1 pblm for an all common deck : no ally so points are doubled for your opponent.

What about Noble Steed or Noble Hound? They're both commons, I believe. While Dark Minions may be harder to come by for Noble Hound, many players have a boatload of White Hand commons, I would imagine, making Noble Steed a good ally option.

Kjeld wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 4:48 pm

Baba wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 3:48 pm 1 pblm for an all common deck : no ally so points are doubled for your opponent.

What about Noble Steed or Noble Hound? They're both commons, I believe. While Dark Minions may be harder to come by for Noble Hound, many players have a boatload of White Hand commons, I would imagine, making Noble Steed a good ally option.

In this experiment I learned that Goldberry is the only non-fixed non-rare ally in METW and METD that also has a non-fixed non-rare play-site.

I think Noble Hound is a good card and DM is fairly rare. So it's not exactly a "dumpster deck" card.

Noble Steed is a good idea though. I think you're right -- it's more available. Though for sites you really only have Amon Hen, Buhr Widu, and Shrel Kain -- not bad. Here's the real test though. I have a bunch of MEWH cards from opening multiple boxes and how many do I have in my Bulk Bin? Zero. Wow, this surprised me even. Because I've opened at least 2 maybe 3 boxes of MEWH. I actually have 6 noble hounds in the bulk bin and I'm not even sure I opened a box (must have been from collections I bought).I do have 3 Noble Steeds in my deck building collection and maybe a few more in decks that I've built... but I just dont have extras for a dumpster deck.

Who's hoarding all the Noble Steeds?!

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One unfortunate things about MECCG is that there is no way to make a common-only deck. It's just not possible. Of course you can make a Fixed + Common deck but many of the Fixed cards are seemingly less available than rares. How many copies of Haldalam and Galva are out there compared to Aragorn and Glorfindel?

I believe I have enough bulk uncommons to make 5-6 copies of each of these decks. Which is actually not a lot consider just how many hundreds (thousands) of bulk cards I have.

People are always asking how to get into the game and the Challenge Decks have been a relatively low entry point for 10 solid decks. But they are hard to find these days. I just thought that it would be nice if long time players could make decks from bulk cards to help new players. So I'm trying this.

The decks are not bad. A bit slow in the beginning ~25% of the time. But I also feel like these decks can easily get slowed down and so I don't want their hands getting too clogged. And they feel less boring than the "Starter Set" decks to me.

Yeah you're right for noble hound and noble steed but In france for a french player, it's impossible for a beginner to find DM cards.
Unfortunately 90% of beginner players are reluctant to add a foreign language to a game that includes rules that are sometimes difficult to assimilate (at least that's the experience I have after playing and starting a 20 people over the past 25 years)

On the other hand, people who bought cards in France (sealed when they were still available or bulk pack) do not lack fixed cards... Here we find a lot of common and fixed and some uncommon that's why it's possible to build "cheap deck" including fixes (but only with dragons and wizard's cards)

Ah that's an interesting difference. Here is the US I think many people were seeking rares and resorted to boosters. In hindsight, maybe not as useful.

And many fixed cards are good, while many METW rares are edge cases.

I've been tuning those decks found in a dumpster as a give-away/prize for first-time players to get into the game. Again, these are common/uncommon only decks (no rares or fixed) from The Wizards and Dragons only. The idea being that long time players could build these decks from bulk cards (ok, ok, many of these cards not junk).

I made a 3rd deck: Elves going to the harbours past the White Towers; in addition to Hobbits and Dwarves in dragon country; and Magic rings around Rohan. I think all of the decks play well against each other and are smooth enough but with variety. I'm playing in a 1-deck game, Council can be called at 18MP (similar to the Starter Deck rules).

I'd appreciate any comments on the trio of decks, ideas to change or swap cards, and suggestions for who/how to give these away.
Note: I want to have Pick-pocket in one of the decks but I just don't think it's going to be playable. Cave Worm was in these decks before but I thought it was a bit strong. The other deck does have Ice drake though... maybe Cave worm is a good swap.