11 thoughts on “E27 – David Asfaloth”

1. 

   Hi Guys –

   In regards to Imladris Star Gazer: I’m not too worried about the broken combo factor, for some of the reasons that others have mentioned. What is kind of troubling is that with the LCG format, the card pool grows so slowly that Star Gazer “takes up a card slot” in the adventure pack. She could have been a unique character from the books. She could have been a new type of card that we haven’t seen yet. She could have been an add-on to a strategy or a race or a keyword that hasn’t gotten a lot of synergistic combo partners yet: minstrels, dunedain, hobbits, Noldor/Silvan, Dale, etc. Instead, she’s a second dance partner for Zigil Miner, who all ready had Gildor. I’m too impatient for more cards. He didn’t need another dance partner.

2. 

   In regards to future of the game: I think the announcement of the next adventure pack cycle – when it comes out – will fill in some of the gaps and worries surrounding this. Right now we’re flying blind, we don’t know anything further than the Hobbit tie-in. So we’re at a deficit compared to where we were at halfway through the Mirkwood cycle.

3. 

   Challenge Accepted:
   I would like to defend Love of Tales, now I am not saying that this card is amazing or a must include… I am saying that this card isn’t unplayable or garbage and I think it has the potential to be a pretty good card… for two reasons… first if you are playing with more players and they have a few songs. You would be gaining resources for other people playing songs, the card generates resources for any Songs that are played (and if someone, which is usually me, is playing a dwarf deck with Durin’s Song that could be 3 resources for playing a 0 cost card). Plus with Song of Wisdom or Narvis Belt (yes I said it.) you could put this card on that character as well which could be worth while. The second will be that this card has a lot of potential because we should continue to see more and more Songs being released in the future, I mean LOTR is filled with songs.

   And as a side note it would be a way to shift resources from one hero to the other (like Bifur), which could be beneficial. Play Durin’s Song from a Leadership hero only to have a Lore resource generate on another hero.

   Like I said just throwing out some thoughts on the potential of this card… I am not calling garbage yet.

   • 

     Thanks for sharing your thoughts, lpknight21!

     My only complaints with Love of Tales are the following:

     1. It is limited to Lore heroes.
     2. Unless you play with multiple Lore heroes, you’re only able to benefit from having one of them in play; however, Song of Wisdom can overcome this and generate you resources in the meantime.
     2. Bifur, being a Lore hero (and my most often played thereof), helps me to fix resources – this makes Song cards (especially Wisdom), less necessary/valuable to include in my deck.
     3. This card becomes much more powerful in 3 or 4 player games, but I have enough trouble finding a second player as it is!
     4. If you draw Love of Tales late, it’s benefit is severely diminished.

     However, I will say – as more and more Songs are released, this card is one that will certainly have to draw continual reevaluation.

     In any case, when it comes to any “quick and dirty card dismissal,” keep in mind that the following is a brief synopsis of Brandon’s “guidelines” for COTR (this is meant to be more funny than serious!):

     1. Dramatic or exaggerated opinions and statements tend to elicit more of a community response and subsequent interaction with us podcasters on average than, say, my own typical “every card has some use” opinion ; )

     2. The show is already typically two hours long (or more!), so blunt dismissal/limited discussion of “garbage/unplayable” cards is sometimes purposefully quick, and therefore dirty. If I had it my way, COTR would probably be a three hour long biweekly spectacle.

     …on that note, it’s probably a good thing I’m not the only host on the show!

4. 

   Here’s a deck I had been playing around with before listening to this week’s episode. I used to call it ‘The Bards’ but I guess I should’ve been calling it ‘The Bikespokes’. It’s mainly a deck to be played in a 2-player game, but has been successful solo against some quests.
   The Bards
   Heros
   Glorfindel
   Beravor
   Bifur

   Ally (20)
   Gandalf x3
   Radagast x3
   Rivendell Minstel x3
   Erabor Hammersmith x3
   Winged Guardian x2
   Vassal of the Windlord x2
   Gleowine x2
   Gildor Inglorion x1
   Haldir of Lorien x1

   Attachments (20)
   Love of Tales x3
   Song of Battle x3
   Song of Earendil x3
   Song of Kings x2
   Song of Travel x2
   A Burning Brand x2
   Ancient Mathom x2
   Unexpected Courage x1
   Ring Mail x1
   Protector of Lorien x1

   Events (12)
   Elronds Counsel x3
   Word of Command x3
   Durins Song x3
   Sneak Attack x2
   Will of the West x1

   • 

     Thanks for taking the time to post your deck!

     I have some questions, if you don’t mind my asking:

     1. What kind of deck do you generally play that alongside, for greatest success/enjoyment?
     2. What do you do with all of those Songs (i.e., Kings, Travel, Earendil)?
     3. If you get lucky with drawing Love of Tales early, What do you do with all of the generated resources?
     4. What scenarios do you excel/struggle against?

     • 

       No Problem
       1. I don’t generally play 2-handed solo. My friends and I will usually build decks before a game night pair them up, then choose a quest and see how we do (usually play the same quest a couple times). I think ideally this will pair well with a 2 Leadership, 1 Spirit deck. The Song deck quests well and has decent combat ability. It has no ability to cancel treacheries, so a couple bad treachery draws and you could be in real trouble. It also doesn’t have a ton of healing, but I try not to take a lot of damage to heroes. One thing that isn’t obvious by looking at the card listing of this deck is that you can cycle your deck fairly fast. Several cards either let you draw more or dig in the deck for a card you need. If this happens, your deck will probably have about 30 good cards left (with a high probability of get Gandalf w/sneak attack).
       2. Ideally, as more songs in the future, I’d replace duplicates of something else. For now, they are used for resource generation and quickly thinning the deck. Earendil is awesome if you can get all 3 Love of Tales out (2 extra resources and a card). Having just 2 Love of Tales out is fairly powerful.
       3. Extra resources hasn’t been a problem. You only start generating extra resources if you have 2 Love of Tales out. I will generally hold on to songs early (if only 1 Love of Tales is out), unless I actually need to play a card from the associated sphere. If I have extra resources, I will usually exhaust Beravor and get some more cards (hopefully playable ones).
       4. I haven’t played against all the scenarios, but have done very well solo against Hunt for Gollum and Road to Rivendell.

       This obviously isn’t the most powerful deck that can be built, but it is fun to play with. I see it having more potential as more useful songs are added to the card pool.

5. 

   I think you guys are worrying too much about the lack of support for the game. FFG doesn’t update FAQs frequently enough for ANY of their games, especially the LCGs which have new content coming out monthly. I can’t say I’m not surprised that there is no tournament scene for the game due to it’s coop nature and how easily the random encounter deck can create a ‘you lose’ combo, so I don’t feel slighted by the lack of support in that aspect. I am a bit disappointed that there won’t be another Gencon event with a new scenario, but last year’s could be explained as a marketing stunt for the new release of the game.

   Which brings us to the casual play idea, which has one glaring flaw: you can’t just show up to a group, toss out your deck, and expect to play. Because of the restriction on heroes and other unique cards, there’s a good chance major components of your deck will be unusable, and unless you carry around your entire collection of cards to game night to create a backup deck, you’re just SOL. With the game’s nature counter-intuitive to both casual AND competitive play, what are we supposed to do?

   • 

     Agreed. i was quite unfamiliar with the living card game format before I picked this game up. All I knew was that it was a game in which expansions were all the same, so everyone had the same pool of cards as long as they bought an expansion.

     I figured that the deck-building element would allow us to build on-the-fly a bit more with this game. The idea that I have to construct a deck specifically tailored to the individual scenario and really plan it all out is one I do not enjoy. I had hoped this game would take on a level where any deck can still contribute a lot to a quest, so that a casual “show up with your deck” event could still happen.

     Instead we have the complex skills required to deck build in a format similar to MtG and other CCGs, but we have a card pool that rivals on-the-fly deckbuilding games.

6. 

   It seems like the best idea for any sort of organized play is to create stacked event decks and allow for two forms of entry. For groups from two to four people, allow for team registration; and for “lone wolves”, provide a list of hero sets that a person has to build his or her deck around so three or four people can still do a pick-up game without clashing horribly thanks to using the same heroes. If the registry included an option for showing who registered and what hero team(s) he’s choosing, like say Team I, II, IV, XI, or LVI, then other players would know to choose a different set of heroes to build around or risk having to sit out games. I doubt FFG has the resources or will to do that, which is a shame, because it seems like they were onto the beginnings of a good model with last year’s GenCon event with both a focus on a special adventure and providing that same event deck as the prize for participating.

7. 

   I remember reading somewhere early on (and now the more I think about it, the less sure I am that it was official) that “tournament play” was going to be based on 2 player format, with both players registering as a team. There would be no knowledge of the quest beforehand, so you have to build your decks blind, hoping for the best. Once you get to the event, you were going to get a sealed encounter deck, custom made for the tourney, play 3 rounds, and keep the best score.

   When I heard about the Osgiliath pack at Gencon, I figured it was test run for how a tournament encounter deck would be: self-contained, completely new, and excruciatingly difficult. But since then, FFG seems to be having a difficult time deciding on a scoring system, the has been nothing announced for either tournament news OR new self-contained encounter packs, so I guess it’s probably never gonna happen.

   In other news, I’m definitely looking forward to Foundations of Stone. After how mediocre Dwalin was, I’m glad my favorite sphere is getting some attention. Might try out a three hero secrecy deck using Glorfindel, Eleanor, and Theodred.

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