The Lord Of The Rings Goes Out Perfectly With "Age's End!"

The Good: Interesting concept, Powerful cards, Great images, All foils, Easy to collect, Limited!
The Bad: None!
The Basics: The perfect set to cap off The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game, "Age's End" has some beautiful foil cards for collectors!


From the perspective of any number of players and collectors, the downturn of Decipher, Inc., the gaming card company was rather abrupt. Sure, there had been rumors of the company floundering and late-to-market releases of easy sets the company was producing like "The Wraith Collection" (reviewed here!) but most of us had no idea how beleaguered the company actually was until it lost The Lord Of The Rings and Star Trek licenses in rapid succession. Indeed, it was rather suddenly that fans found out about the existence of "Age's End," the final The Lord Of The Rings gaming card set. At least, the company went out with a bang with this set, producing arguably the most simple and best limited edition set the company ever created.

With "Age's End," Decipher got quite creative. The limited edition set might only had forty cards, but they are all foil cards and the images are great, there is every major hero from the cinematic trilogy, as well as most of the major villains. In fact, there are two original Minion cards - two different Trolls designed by WETA! After looking through the set again, the only real omissions are all minor, though it would have been nice to have a final Sauron card! Sure, we can live without one, just like we can live without another Faramir, Saruman, or Elrond, but they sure would have been nice! This is, arguably, just nit-picking because I think this is a perfect set, even though there was no way to play the game with just this forty-card deck.

Basics/Set Composition

"Age's End" was the eighteenth and final set of The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game cards created by Decipher. Envisioned as a game played by two to four people, players created decks of cards utilizing their own version of the Fellowship and prepared to seed the adventure path with obstacles to thwart other players' Fellowship. For those unfamiliar with the concept, CCGs (or TCGs) are basically a late-teen oriented product designed to capitalize on the youthful desire to play with the acknowledged maturity of the target audience. The result is something that is a midpoint between the freedom and creativity of action-figure free play and the structured rules and rigidity of a board game.

"Age's End" is a forty card set focusing on characters, location, artifacts, villains and scenarios presented in the The Lord Of The Rings films. Released as the final set in a limited edition deck, this card set utilizes material from all three films as well as two cards created especially for this set. This presents a well-rounded playing environment from Middle Earth. The set consists of 40 premium rare foil cards, with the most popular characters being presented.

The 40 card foil set features 1 One Ring, 3 Dwarven, 3 Elven, 2 Gandalf, 2 Gollum, 4 Gondor, 2 Isengard, 6 Orc, 3 Rohan, 1 Sauron, 5 Shire, 1 Uruk-Hai, and 7 Wraith Affiliation cards. These are generally broken down evenly between Fellowship (your cards you play with) and Minion (cards you set upon your opponent) cards. Within the various affiliations, there are: 1 One Ring (a unique card with properties governed by the text on the card), 13 Companion (cards depicting primary characters and those who may join your customized Fellowship, like Legolas or Aragorn or Eowyn), 9 Condition (cards illustrating long-term changes to Middle Earth that remain in play more than one turn, like Frodo seeing Wraiths In Twilight or the men of the Fellowship finding themselves Not Bound To His Fate), 2 Event (cards depicting temporary effects on players, like Sauron's Might or Gimli's body count revealed as "That's Two!"), and 15 Minion (cards depicting villains used to obstruct your opponent, like a Grima or the Balrog).

This set continues the game with a very broad sense of the Middle Earth universe as characterized by The Lord Of The Rings films. The boxes are comprised of six forty-card decks. Each deck has all of the same forty foil cards.

Playability

At its most basic level, this is a board game where one constructs the board and pieces out of a selection of cards. The purpose of the game is to survive to the end of the ninth site in the Adventure Path, which (theoretically) indicates the end of the Ring Bearer's quest. The basic idea is to assemble a sixty card deck, lay out the board (Adventure Path) and play against an opponent. The deck is evenly split between Fellowship and Shadow cards, so players ought to have a hand that allows them to play and attempt to thwart their opponent at any given time.

This game uses a "payment" system where cards have a cost. The rulebook recommends something like poker chips or glass beads to establish the twilight pool and wound indicators and I've found small poker chips (not included) work very well for this.

Sites form the board for the game, known as the Adventure Path. Sites are seeded in accordance to the rules of bidding (all of this is clearly established in the rulebook, which is available in the starter decks). The rulebook clearly defines what each deck must possess in terms of numbers of the card types. But basically, one starts by laying out a board, determining which player goes first, then setting them off through a Fellowship Phase (wherein the current player adds any characters they can and moves to the next site), Shadow Phase (Shadow players seed Minions to set against the current player's Fellowship), Maneuver Phase, Archery Phase (archers fire and it becomes the first chance to try to take out enemies), Assignment Phase (villains target Fellowship Companions), Skirmish (they actually battle) and then Regroup.

This is a fairly complex trading card game, but it represents a level of gaming sophistication designed to appeal to younger adults and actually challenge them, which is a decent idea given the complexity of Middle Earth. The problem, of course, is that most people who would be most stimulated by this game do not have the time or effort/interest to learn to play it. As a result, the mid-teens that basically run the CCG players world seem to have had mixed impressions about this game. Many players seem to enjoy that cards have a "cost" to them, adding a sense of risk to playing many of the better cards.

It takes a great deal of time and energy to learn the game, but once one has played a few hands of it, it is a pretty easy concept for an adult to master and the challenge becomes assembling a strong fellowship and accompanying minion deck and being creative (and lucky) about how the cards from one's hand are used.

Rules/Rule Changes

There is no rulebook for this set. There were no rule changes and this set simply follows the rules as revised back in "The Hunters" (reviewed here!). There were no new game mechanics or rule changes in this set; there are not even any new card types! This is just a pure expansion which continues the game, not alters it, making it great for players.

Highlights

Players, collectors and fans of The Lord Of The Rings franchise will appreciate the image quality of the characters and scenarios from the films. The "Age's End" set features new adversaries, like trolls and tentacles to set upon one's opponent!

Easily the best of this set is 18P21 Watcher In The Water, Many-tentacled Creature. This minion card costs only four tokens to play and looks completely badass! With eleven points of strength is can pretty much eliminate any member of the Fellowship, including a mithril coat-wearing Frodo! As well, if played with the two accompanying Tentacles (Reaching and Strong) this can pretty easily decimate a Fellowship and leave your opponent in a very precarious position!

The WETA-designed troll cards are interesting and they are fun, but they are also more costly to play. They were a good idea and one that is well-executed for this set, but the Watcher is just that much better!

Collectibility

This set is limited to the exclusive packs of forty cards and was only originally available for a short time before Decipher lost the license. Prices have come down now on the secondary market, but they still command a decent price (about $50 for the foil set of forty cards) and the boxes of decks are getting harder to find. At least it is easy to collect. As the final set, this will always have some inherent value.

Overview

"Age's End" is decent, limited set for players. As well, collectors and investors will enjoy that this is the final hurrah for a pretty excellent gaming card line.

This set culls material from the The Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition Trilogy, reviewed here!

This is a set of gaming cards I proudly sell in my online store! For my current inventory of them, please click here!

This set was preceded by "Treachery & Deceit" (reviewed here!) and was not followed by anything!.

10/10

For other card reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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The Final Set To Hunt: "Treachery & Deceit" Is The Last Booster-only Box For This TCG!

The Good: Easy to learn, Good image quality, Fun to play, Rarity
The Bad: Problematic collectibility issues (foils offer nothing new), Numbering issues
The Basics: One of the last and most difficult sets to find, "Treachery & Deceit" sloppily supports the end of The Lord Of The Rings TCG.


There is some irony to the idea that what I might argue was one of the best of The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game sets was actually its penultimate and the final one where cards could be bought in boxes with packs. There was one set after this, but it was sold as a complete set and while it capped of the game well, "Treachery & Deceit" was the last by-the-pack set. And while I considered knocking this one up to prefect status, I then remembered the sloppy numbering in the middle of the set.

It's too bad because overall, "Treachery & Deceit" are good cards, but they are not the wonderful ones the series deserved as it wound down. No, Decipher seemed rushed in the production of this set and as a result there is a sloppy quality to the printing of it, despite it having some very cool characters, like The Gollum Affiliation returning to the game!

Basics/Set Composition

"Treachery & Deceit" set was the eighteenth set of The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game cards created by Decipher. Envisioned as a game played by two to four people, players created decks of cards utilizing their own version of the Fellowship and prepared to seed the adventure path with obstacles to thwart other players' Fellowship. For those unfamiliar with the concept, CCGs (or TCGs) are basically a late-teen oriented product designed to capitalize on the youthful desire to play with the acknowledged maturity of the target audience. The result is something that is a midpoint between the freedom and creativity of action-figure free play and the structured rules and rigidity of a board game.

Players might prefer that I describe the game instead as a strategy game that is like a Role-playing game with cards. The break here is that the characters, artifacts, and scenarios are all already conceived by others. The original concept was to find a way to make play socially acceptable for an older audience and it generally worked.

"Treachery & Deceit" is a 167-card set focusing on characters, location, artifacts, villains and scenarios presented in the The Lord Of The Rings films. Released following the debut of the Extended Edition of The Return Of The King on DVD and a bit of a hiatus from producing new sets, this card set utilizes material from all three films, presenting a well-rounded playing environment from Middle Earth. The set consists of 40 common cards, 40 uncommon cards, and 60 rare cards, with the most popular characters being presented as rare cards. This provides a sense of balance and allows different character traits to be exploited among the various versions. As well, there are twenty-seven foil reprint cards of the most popular rare cards, which receive additional exposure as Legends and Legends Masterworks foil cards.

The 140 card non-foil set features 3 Dwarven, 14 Elven, 10 Gandalf, 10 Gollum, 23 Gondor, 18 Men, 16 Orc, 12 Rohan, 8 Shire, 18 Uruk-Hai, and 2 Wraith Affiliation cards, and 7 Site cards. These are generally broken down evenly between Fellowship (your cards you play with) and Minion (cards you set upon your opponent) cards. Within the various affiliations, there are: 2 Artifact (unique items found on Middle Earth, in this case, Galadriel's Silver Ewer and the Crown Of Gondor), 16 Companion (cards depicting primary characters and those who may join your customized Fellowship, like Boromir or Gil-Gilad), 24 Condition (cards illustrating long-term changes to Middle Earth that remain in play more than one turn, like Gandalf declaring this is Our Time or the manner of Orcs being Destroyers And Usurpers), 29 Event (cards depicting temporary effects on players, like the Pull Of The Ring on wraiths or the Rohirrim being forced to Fall Back To Helm's Deep), 6 Follower (supporting people who aid the Fellowship, but do not join it, like a Robin Smallburrow or Elendil's Army), 27 Minion (cards depicting villains used to obstruct your opponent, like a Shagrat or a Wary Orc), 28 Possession (cards depicting objects used to enhance the natural strength or endurance of a character, like Lembas Bread or a Fleet Of Corsair Ships), and 7 Site (cards depicting locations in Middle Earth, they form the "board" for the game).

This set continues the game with a very broad sense of the Middle Earth universe as characterized by The Lord Of The Rings films. The booster pack boxes are comprised of thirty-six packs per box with eleven cards per pack. The eleven cards are portioned out with seven common, three uncommon, and one rare or foil card. A foil card replaces a rare in approximately five packs. The foils are simply reprints of the standard rare cards; there are no cards that are uniquely foils in this set.

Playability

At its most basic level, this is a board game where one constructs the board and pieces out of a selection of cards. The purpose of the game is to survive to the end of the ninth site in the Adventure Path, which (theoretically) indicates the end of the Ring Bearer's quest. The basic idea is to assemble a sixty card deck, lay out the board (Adventure Path) and play against an opponent. The deck is evenly split between Fellowship and Shadow cards, so players ought to have a hand that allows them to play and attempt to thwart their opponent at any given time.

This game uses a "payment" system where cards have a cost. The rulebook recommends something like poker chips or glass beads to establish the twilight pool and wound indicators and I've found small poker chips (not included) work very well for this.

Sites form the board for the game, known as the Adventure Path. Sites are seeded in accordance to the rules of bidding (all of this is clearly established in the rulebook, which is available in the starter decks). The rulebook clearly defines what each deck must possess in terms of numbers of the card types. But basically, one starts by laying out a board, determining which player goes first, then setting them off through a Fellowship Phase (wherein the current player adds any characters they can and moves to the next site), Shadow Phase (Shadow players seed Minions to set against the current player's Fellowship), Maneuver Phase, Archery Phase (archers fire and it becomes the first chance to try to take out enemies), Assignment Phase (villains target Fellowship Companions), Skirmish (they actually battle) and then Regroup.

This is a fairly complex trading card game, but it represents a level of gaming sophistication designed to appeal to younger adults and actually challenge them, which is a decent idea given the complexity of Middle Earth. The problem, of course, is that most people who would be most stimulated by this game do not have the time or effort/interest to learn to play it. As a result, the mid-teens that basically run the CCG players world seem to have had mixed impressions about this game. Many players seem to enjoy that cards have a "cost" to them, adding a sense of risk to playing many of the better cards.

It takes a great deal of time and energy to learn the game, but once one has played a few hands of it, it is a pretty easy concept for an adult to master and the challenge becomes assembling a strong fellowship and accompanying minion deck and being creative (and lucky) about how the cards from one's hand are used.

Rules/Rule Changes

There is no rulebook for this set. There were no rule changes and this set simply follows the rules as revised back in "The Hunters" (reviewed here!). There were no new game mechanics or rule changes in this set, though there was the return of the Gollum affiliation as a full and developed grouping of cards.

Highlights

Players, collectors and fans of The Lord Of The Rings franchise will appreciate the image quality of the characters and scenarios from the films. "Treachery & Deceit" almost none of the principle cast of The Lord Of The Rings, with only Aragorn, Gimli and Faramir appearing from the recognizable Fellowship. The set also features Grima, Lurtz and Gothmog from the other side. This set fleshes out the diverse characters and scenarios in Middle Earth and it does so with larger images than many other trading card game cards have.

The highlight is easily 18R34 Shelob, Menace, though. Shelob is the giant spider that attacked Frodo in The Return Of The King and in the game, Shelob is a powerful Gollum-affiliated minion who can pretty easily kill any Ring bearer. As well, when paired with 18R35 Sting Of Shelob, the Minion becomes one of the easy ways for a Shadow Player to win the game by crushing their opponent!

Collectibility

Rares are evenly distributed in the booster packs, with no starter decks.

Beyond that, die-hard, obsessive collectors who want the thrill of collecting can collect the Legends and Legends Masterworks foils. These are eighteen and then nine foil reprints of the most popular characters. The problem here, though, is that they picked the eighteen and then the nine are foil reprints of the foil reprints with an alternate "O" numbering, so essentially the most valuable foils (Legends Masterwork, which are on average only one per box) are also the most reprinted rares within "Treachery & Deceit" set. As well, it is somewhat disappointing that if Decipher is going to bother to alter its annoying tradition of making foil reprints of each and every single card (yea for that!) that they would not follow a late Star Trek Second Edition model and make a few cards that are unique to the foil set, perhaps previewing the subsequent series.

This set also seems to have been VERY shortprinted, enhancing its overall value. Despite this there were a few printing errors, most notably the numbering for several of the cards in the 80s and 90s where there are a few missing numbers and then different cards in the Orc and Men cards that have the same numbers. This is just plain sloppy and it drags down an otherwise decent set.

Overview

"Treachery & Deceit" is a pretty wonderful support set of The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game cards and were it not for the printing errors, it would be a real doozy. Regardless, its status as the last boxed, by-the-pack The Lord Of The Rings TCG product guarantees its future collectibility and success in the secondary market!

This set culls material from the The Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition Trilogy, reviewed here!

This set was preceded by Rise Of Saruman (reviewed here!) and followed by "Age's End" (reviewed here!).

This is a set of cards I sell in my online store! For my current inventory, please click here!

7/10

For other card reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Very Fun, The Return Of The King Anthology Can Be A Great Way To Get Many Cards!

The Good: Interesting bonus idea, Good way to get a lot of product, Fun game
The Bad: Massively overproduced, Not at all necessary
The Basics: A good way to collect some of the expensive packs, like "Reflections," The Return Of The King Anthology boxed set is a touch sell to collectors, but a good deal for dealers.


Sometimes, there are oddities in the trading card game market. With The Lord Of The Rings Customizable Card game, there are very few mysteries. It is a very direct game with fairly strong marketing backing it up. But when they decided to reboot the game after they finished with The Return Of The King cards, it was a surprise to some that they bothered to release a The Return Of The King Anthology boxed set. After all, if they were trying to capitalize on the new game mechanic and promote that, why release a boxed set of the old product during the new push?! Mystery as it may be, it makes sense that Decipher had some product to blow out of their warehouse, much the way it did with The Two Towers Anthology (reviewed here!). With The Return Of The King block of cards, Decipher came up with The Return Of The King Anthology. Far less limited than the sellout The Fellowship Of The Ring Anthology cards, The Return Of The King Anthology is a perfect product for those looking to get a lot of cards from The Return Of The King sets of TCG cards inexpensively. They are a boon for players, have a unique item for collectors and have been blown out by Decipher in such a way that now they make a good investment for investors who are able to buy in extreme bulk.

At the end of the day, though, The Return Of The King Anthology boxed set is a very simple and direct repackaging product. The boxed set consists of:
6 packs of The Return Of The King,
five packs of "Reflections,"
and one pack of "Mount Doom," as well as 1 checklist for the cards in The Return Of The King block, and the exclusive Tengwar Reprint set.

The checklist is a real boon, especially to those who do not want to have to log onto the internet every time they want to figure out what they are missing. But the reason to buy The Return Of The King Anthology boxes are the Tengwar Reprint set. Unique to this boxed set, it features seventeen of the most popular and powerful cards from The Return Of The King block reprinted with all of the text in Tengwar (the Elven language of Middle Earth).

Basics/Set Composition

Not even technically a set of The Lord Of The Rings TCG cards, The Return Of The King Anthology followed the "Shadows" set. It was a clear attempt to sell-off extra stock after the release of The Return Of The King on DVD and the rebooting of the game. Fans who already had master sets of The Return Of The King, "Siege Of Gondor," "Reflections" and "Mount Doom" quickly figured out that there was only the Tengwar sets exclusive to this product. As a result, most only purchased one box, took the Tengwar set and dumped the rest. One supposes that Decipher was just happy it was no longer their problem anymore.

It is possible, one supposes, to collect the bulk of The Return Of The King block of 671 cards set (the four sets had 365, 122, 62 and 122 cards, respectively) by opening The Return Of The King Anthology, but it would take quite a bit of time and would be greatly disproportionate to the value of these packs. Moreover, one would be stuck with an excessive number of the Tengwar reprint sets. As well, there are no "Siege Of Gondor" cards in this boxed set, nor any of the starter decks. At best, one could eventually pull 545 of the 671 cards in this block.

The The Return Of The King Anthology Tengwar Exclusive cards are mostly reprinted from The Return Of The King, though Shelob and The King Of The Dead make it into the anthology from "The Siege Of Gondor." Because these are impractical to play with (they aren't in a real language and few will be able to read the Tengwar script!), they are clearly more for collectors and for me, the Anthology Tengwar reprint cards are what I get signed by the celebrities when I meet them. For the sake of completion, though, the reprint set includes: 1 The One Ring, 9 Fellowship, and 7 Minion cards.

Playability

What is the point of the The Return Of The King Anthology then? Decipher - always adept at marketing - tried to sell these to the collectors. Fairly transparent about simply selling off the old product and doing their best to raise capital, Decipher, Inc. presented this as a set for the collectors. While the cards in the packs are perfectly playable, the cards in the Tengwar reprint set are unplayable, save one supposes, by elves.

Rules/Rule Changes

The rulebook for this game is forty pages long and it is not this boxed set. Essentially, though, the sets in this boxed anthology product follows the rules updated through the "Mount Doom" set (see link above).

There are no rules changes or card type additions in The Return Of The King Anthology boxes because every single card is a previously-released card.

Highlights

Strangely, I do have a highlight for this set. The Tengwar reprint of 8R25 Shelob, Eater Of Light is too cool to not mention. Sure, the Arwen card reprinted from "Mount Doom" might be better because it could be autographed by Liv Tyler should I ever meet her, but Shelob is such a powerful adversary and the image is too cool to not mention. Moreover, because the cards are essentially unplayable, it's a matter of what looks neat to sell this set and Shelob never suffers for its look! The giant spider creature rules this set.


Collectibility

The The Return Of The King Anthology are fairly hard to find now, even in the secondary market. Collectors do not truly need them, so very few people stockpiled these; they seem to be a product that mostly just came and went very naturally. Largely, this repackage was seen for what it was and collectors and investors wisely avoided it.


Overview

As a buyer, I actually like The Return Of The King Anthology boxed sets. Collectors will certainly only need one, though there are many dealers like myself who sell the Tengwar sets for about the cost of a whole boxed set and open up the other packs. This is a nice way to get product in at low cost and had it not been so massively overproduced in the first place, it probably would have retained a greater sense of value.

These cards use images from: The Return Of The King, which is reviewed here!

This set was preceded by "Shadows" (reviewed here!) and followed by "Black Rider" (reviewed here!).

This is a set of gaming cards I sell in my online store!  Check out my current inventory by clicking here!

7/10

For other card reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Simple Repack Theatre Vol. 3, The Two Towers Anthology Is Wonderful For Fans!

The Good: Interesting bonus idea, Good way to get a lot of product, Fun game
The Bad: Massively overproduced, Not at all necessary
The Basics: A decent way to stock up on The Lord Of The Rings TCG cards from The Two Towers block, The Two Towers Anthology has a neat,collectible Tengwar set as a fair gimmick.


With the The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game, there was surprisingly little waste. Unlike other flagship products for Decipher, Inc., like Star Trek and Star Wars, the The Lord Of The Rings TCG had very few repackaged products, which might be why it remains one of the stronger trading card games in the secondary market. With The Two Towers block of cards, Decipher came up with The Two Towers Anthology. Far less limited than the sellout The Fellowship Of The Ring Anthology cards, The Two Towers Anthology is a perfect product for those looking to get a lot of cards from The Two Towers sets of TCG cards inexpensively. They are a boon for players, have a unique item for collectors and have been blown out by Decipher in such a way that now they make a good investment for investors who are able to buy in extreme bulk.

At the end of the day, though, The Two Towers Anthology boxed set is a very simple and direct repackaging product. The boxed set consists of: 2 packs each of:
The Two Towers,
"Battle Of Helm's Deep,"
"Ents Of Fangorn,"
1 starter deck (usually from The Two Towers),
1 The Two Towers Deluxe Draft Pack,
1 checklist for the cards in The Two Towers block,
and the exclusive Tengwar Reprint set.

The checklist is a real boon, especially to those who do not want to have to log onto the internet every time they want to figure out what they are missing. But the reason to buy The Two Towers Anthology boxes are the Tengwar Reprint set. Unique to this boxed set, it features eighteen of the most popular and powerful cards from The Two Towers block reprinted with all of the text in Tengwar (the Elven language of Middle Earth).

Basics/Set Composition

Not even technically a set of The Lord Of The Rings TCG cards, The Two Towers Anthology followed the "Ents Of Fangorn" set. It was a clear attempt to sell-off extra stock before the release of The Return Of The King. Fans who already had master sets of The Two Towers, "Battle Of Helm's Deep," and "Ents Of Fangorn" quickly figured out that there was only the Tengwar sets exclusive to this product. As a result, most only purchased one box, took the Tengwar set and dumped the rest. One supposes that Decipher was just happy it was no longer their problem anymore.

It is possible, one supposes, to collect the entire The Two Towers block of 621 cards set (the first three sets had 365, 128, and 128 cards, respectively) by opening The Two Towers Anthology, but it would take quite a bit of time and would be greatly disproportionate to the value of these packs. Moreover, one would be stuck with an excessive number of the Tengwar reprint sets.

The The Two Towers Anthology Tengwar Exclusive cards are mostly reprinted from The Two Towers, though Gollum and Smeagol make it into the anthology from "Battle Of Helm's Deep." Because these are impractical to play with (they aren't in a real language and few will be able to read the Tengwar script!), they are clearly more for collectors and for me, the Anthology Tengwar reprint cards are what I get signed by the celebrities when I meet them. For the sake of completion, though, the reprint set includes: 1 The One Ring, 7 Fellowship, and 10 Minion cards.


Playability

What is the point of the The Two Towers Anthology then? Decipher - always adept at marketing - tried to sell these to the collectors. Fairly transparent about simply selling off the old product and doing their best to raise capital, Decipher, Inc. presented this as a set for the collectors. While the cards in the packs are perfectly playable, the cards in the Tengwar reprint set are unplayable, save one supposes, by elves.

Rules/Rule Changes

The rulebook for this game is forty pages long and it is included in the starter decks that are in this boxed set. Essentially, though, the sets in this boxed anthology product follows the rules originally laid out in The Fellowship Of The Ring (reviewed here!) set.

There are no rules changes or card type additions in The Two Towers Anthology boxes because every single card is a previously-released card.


Highlights

Strangely, I do have a highlight for this set. The Tengwar reprint of 4R154 looks great. This is the Grima, Wormtongue card and it looks great. No more functional than any of the other cards in the set, it is one of the cards I am most excited about getting signed when I meet Brad Dourif at a convention!

Collectibility

The The Two Towers Anthology are fairly hard to find now, even in the secondary market. Collectors do not truly need them, so very few people stockpiled these; they seem to be a product that mostly just came and went very naturally. Every The Two Towers Anthology boxed set included one of the Draft packs, but largely, this repackage was seen for what it was and collectors and investors wisely avoided it.


Overview

As a buyer, I actually like The Two Towers Anthology boxed sets. Collectors will certainly only need one, though there are many dealers like myself who sell the Tengwar sets for about the cost of a whole boxed set and open up the other packs. This is a nice way to get product in at low cost and had it not been so massively overproduced in the first place, it probably would have retained a greater sense of value.

These cards use images from The Two Towers, reviewed here!

This set was preceded by "Ents Of Fangorn" (link above) and followed by The Return Of The King (reviewed here!).

These cards are sold in my online store! Check out my current inventory of the exclusive cards by clicking here!

7/10

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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"Rise Of Saruman:" The Penultimate Booster Box Set Remains One Of LOTR: TCGs Rarest! (And Best!)

The Good: Easy to learn, Good image quality, Fun to play, Rarity
The Bad: Problematic collectibility issues (foils offer nothing new), Impossible to make complete set from boosters decks
The Basics: Only the fact that the foils are all reprints (nothing unique to the foil set) keeps "Rise Of Saruman" from being a perfect set of Trading Card Game cards!


As the ship was sinking at Decipher, Inc. on its gaming cards, they began to take fewer and fewer chances. As a result, the last few products they produced when it became clear that they were losing The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game license were extremely rare. In such circumstances, it seldom matters how good the cards actually are; the rarity of them virtually insures they will be a collector's item and the product will be commercially successful, at the very least.

In the case of "Rise Of Saruman," there is genuine quality to the cards as well as a near-impossible set to complete because of the rarity. It is almost as if Decipher decided to give everyone a gift with this set: collectors got something exceptionally rare, players got some wicked new cards and investors had a solid investment that exploded the moment the set was released. This is one of the shortest printed sets in The Lord Of The Rings TCG and also one of the best; everyone wins!

Basics/Set Composition

"Rise Of Saruman" was the seventeenth set of The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game cards created by Decipher. Envisioned as a game played by two to four people, players created decks of cards utilizing their own version of the Fellowship and prepared to seed the adventure path with obstacles to thwart other players' Fellowship. For those unfamiliar with the concept, CCGs (or TCGs) are basically a late-teen oriented product designed to capitalize on the youthful desire to play with the acknowledged maturity of the target audience. The result is something that is a midpoint between the freedom and creativity of action-figure free play and the structured rules and rigidity of a board game.

Players might prefer that I describe the game instead as a strategy game that is like a Role-playing game with cards. The break here is that the characters, artifacts, and scenarios are all already conceived by others. The original concept was to find a way to make play socially acceptable for an older audience and it generally worked.

"Rise Of Saruman" is a 175-card set focusing on characters, location, artifacts, villains and scenarios presented in the The Lord Of The Rings films. Released following the debut of the Extended Edition of The Return Of The King on DVD and a bit of a hiatus from producing new sets, this card set utilizes material from all three films, presenting a well-rounded playing environment from Middle Earth. The set consists of 45 common cards, 45 uncommon cards, 46 rare cards and 7 starter deck exclusive cards spread through two different starter decks, with the most popular characters being presented as rare cards. This provides a sense of balance and allows different character traits to be exploited among the various versions. As well, there are twenty-seven foil reprint cards of the most popular rare cards, which receive additional exposure as Legends and Legends Masterworks foil cards.

The 148 card non-foil set features 5 Dwarven, 7 Elven, 11 Gandalf, 8 Gondor, 3 Isengard, 17 Men, 18 Orc, 7 Rohan, 1 Sauron, 5 Shire, 18 Uruk, and 6 Wraith Affiliation cards, and 4 Site cards. These are generally broken down evenly between Fellowship (your cards you play with) and Minion (cards you set upon your opponent) cards. Within the various affiliations, there are: 9 Artifact (unique items found on Middle Earth, like the Ring of Terror or Anduril), 16 Companion (cards depicting primary characters and those who may join your customized Fellowship, like Faramir and Eowyn), 14 Condition (cards illustrating long-term changes to Middle Earth that remain in play more than one turn, like the Spirit Of The White Tree or how the Land Has Changed), 11 Event (cards depicting temporary effects on players, like Pandemonium or having Lothlorien Guides), 3 Follower (supporting people who aid the Fellowship, but do not join it, like Meneldoror Gwaihir), 38 Minion (cards depicting villains used to obstruct your opponent, like Ulaire Cantea or an Orkish Invader), 14 Possession (cards depicting objects used to enhance the natural strength or endurance of a character, like Ceremonial Armor or a Spear Of The White Hand), and 4 Site (cards depicting locations in Middle Earth, they form the "board" for the game).

This set continues the game with a very broad sense of the Middle Earth universe as characterized by The Lord Of The Rings films. The booster pack boxes are comprised of thirty-six packs per box with eleven cards per pack. The eleven cards are portioned out with seven common, three uncommon, and one rare or foil card. A foil card replaces a rare in approximately five packs. The foils are simply reprints of the standard rare cards; there are no cards that are uniquely foils in this set.

Playability

At its most basic level, this is a board game where one constructs the board and pieces out of a selection of cards. The purpose of the game is to survive to the end of the ninth site in the Adventure Path, which (theoretically) indicates the end of the Ring Bearer's quest. The basic idea is to assemble a sixty card deck, lay out the board (Adventure Path) and play against an opponent. The deck is evenly split between Fellowship and Shadow cards, so players ought to have a hand that allows them to play and attempt to thwart their opponent at any given time.

This game uses a "payment" system where cards have a cost. The rulebook recommends something like poker chips or glass beads to establish the twilight pool and wound indicators and I've found small poker chips (not included) work very well for this.

Sites form the board for the game, known as the Adventure Path. Sites are seeded in accordance to the rules of bidding (all of this is clearly established in the rulebook, which is available in the starter decks). The rulebook clearly defines what each deck must possess in terms of numbers of the card types. But basically, one starts by laying out a board, determining which player goes first, then setting them off through a Fellowship Phase (wherein the current player adds any characters they can and moves to the next site), Shadow Phase (Shadow players seed Minions to set against the current player's Fellowship), Maneuver Phase, Archery Phase (archers fire and it becomes the first chance to try to take out enemies), Assignment Phase (villains target Fellowship Companions), Skirmish (they actually battle) and then Regroup.

This is a fairly complex trading card game, but it represents a level of gaming sophistication designed to appeal to younger adults and actually challenge them, which is a decent idea given the complexity of Middle Earth. The problem, of course, is that most people who would be most stimulated by this game do not have the time or effort/interest to learn to play it. As a result, the mid-teens that basically run the CCG players world seem to have had mixed impressions about this game. Many players seem to enjoy that cards have a "cost" to them, adding a sense of risk to playing many of the better cards.

It takes a great deal of time and energy to learn the game, but once one has played a few hands of it, it is a pretty easy concept for an adult to master and the challenge becomes assembling a strong fellowship and accompanying minion deck and being creative (and lucky) about how the cards from one's hand are used.


Rules/Rule Changes

The rulebook for this game is forty pages long; it's not so much the function of a review to rehash all that as it is to evaluate it. The rules are fairly clear and the game basically follows the same format at laid out in the rulebooks that were updated in "Bloodlines" (reviewed here!).

There are no new rules in "Rise Of Saruman." There are not even any new card types! This is just a pure expansion which continues the game, not alters it, making it great for players.

Highlights

Players, collectors and fans of The Lord Of The Rings franchise will appreciate the image quality of the characters and scenarios from the films. The "Rise Of Saruman" set features a great deal of the principle cast of The Lord Of The Rings, like Gandalf, Aragorn, and Eowyn. One of the very cool aspects of "Rise Of Saruman" is that it provides a Rohan Affiliation Aragorn, which is well-conceived. This set powerfully fleshes out the diverse characters and scenarios in Middle Earth and it does so with larger images than many other trading card game cards have. As the title, suggests, though, this is Saruman's set! And there are four to choose from, making it very much his set!

But the best of the bunch is definitely 17R116 Saruman, Master Of The White Hand. For only four shadow tokens, one can bring this Saruman into play. He's physically strong with eight points of damage and he can take a little beating with four points of endurance, making him an actual match for Aragorn! But even better, this particular Saruman lowers the resistance of all companions and he has the ability to knock out a Condition card being wielded against an Uruk. That alone makes this Saruman a force to be reckoned with.

Collectibility

Rares are evenly distributed in the booster packs, making only one of each of the two starter decks necessary for those collecting a master set, as the starter decks each have a many cards that cannot be found in the booster packs.

Beyond that, die-hard, obsessive collectors who want the thrill of collecting can collect the Legends and Legends Masterworks foils. These are eighteen and then nine foil reprints of the most popular characters. The problem here, though, is that they picked the eighteen and then the nine are foil reprints of the foil reprints with an alternate "O" numbering, so essentially the most valuable foils (Legends Masterwork, which are on average only one per box) are also the most reprinted rares within The Hunters set. As well, it is somewhat disappointing that if Decipher is going to bother to alter its annoying tradition of making foil reprints of each and every single card (yea for that!) that they would not follow a late Star Trek Second Edition model and make a few cards that are unique to the foil set, perhaps previewing the subsequent series.

This set also seems to have the most shortprinted, enhancing its overall value. This is THE The Lord Of The Rings TCG to buy, if one is an investor!

Overview

"Rise Of Saruman" is an amazing set for players, collectors and investors, making one of the most popular and valuable sets for those who like Trading Card Games. Good luck finding it, though! Those who have them . . . this is a set that seems like it is only going up in value. Decipher made everyone who was into the TCG happy with this one!

This set culls material from the The Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition Trilogy, reviewed here!

This set was preceded by the Wraith Collection (reviewed here!) and followed by "Treachery & Deceit" (reviewed here).

This is a set of gaming cards I am seldom able to get in, but when I do, they are available here!

8.5/10

For other card reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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No One Truly Needs The Fellowship Of The Ring Draft Packs!

The Good: Some very cool cards (especially rares), Compelling themes, Easy to play game
The Bad: Absolutely nothing new in this box, No guarantee of a rare/foil in a pack
The Basics: Despite the possibility of pulling a few starter deck exclusive cards that are challenging to find, the Fellowship Draft packs are a dud product.


For those who follow my reviews of gaming cards (thank you for that, by the way!), you would know that in my vigor to be thorough here and review every product within a certain franchises' Customizable Card Game (or Trading Card Game as the case is with The Lord Of The Rings), I often end up reviewing products that do not quite fit my structured reviews and I end up stretching a bit to make a review that is both thorough and informative. With many of the gaming card sets that are released as anthologies, there are additional cards, unique to the set or package I am reviewing, which allows me to flesh out the review. Unfortunately, sometimes a product is just a cheap, worthless repackaging of older cards and those reviews are brutal to try to write.

So, for example, with the completion of the Fellowship block of The Lord Of The Rings cards (the Fellowship block being defined as the first three sets of The Lord Of The Rings gaming cards), Decipher decided to clear some of its stock and it released the first The Lord Of The Rings anthology product, the Fellowship Draft Packs. This is a terrifically lazy product, which simply presents a random assortment of gaming cards from the first three sets.

Decipher released the Fellowship Draft Packs which were simply collections of twenty-nine random cards from the first three sets. This product combines cards from the Fellowship Block, which were the "The Fellowship Of The Ring" (reviewed here!), "Mines Of Moria" (reviewed here!), and "Realms Of The Elf-Lords" (reviewed here!) sets. There are no cards unique to the packs, there was no guarantee of a foil card or rare in any of the twenty-nine card packs and they were originally released in boxes that held twelve packs. This was a cheap repackaging solely of already released cards and it pretty much sucked.

Of course, I won't do that, so . . .

Basics/Set Composition

Not even technically a set of The Lord Of The Rings TCG cards, Fellowship Draft packs followed the "Realms Of The Elf-Lords" set. It was a clear attempt to sell-off extra stock before the release of The Two Towers. Fans who already had master sets of "The Fellowship Of The Ring," "The Two Towers," and "Realms Of The Elf-Lords" quickly figured out that there was nothing unique in these packs and they avoided them. Yet, strangely, when Decipher was overstocked following The Two Towers Block of sets, they tried the same thing again . . . hard not to admire that level of gumption.

It is possible, one supposes, to collect the entire standing 609 cards set (the first three sets had 365, 122, and 122 cards, respectively) by opening Fellowship Draft packs, but it would take quite a bit of time and would be greatly disproportionate to the value of these packs.

The Fellowship Draft packs are, in fact, completely random assortments of cards from all three sets of The Lord Of The Rings the Trading Card Game. The only benefit one might see to this is that virtually every pack has at least one of the Starter Deck Premium cards in it. In fact, many have duplicates, as well as feature duplicates of other cards in the sets. So, it was not unheard of to end up with a pile of common cards with six of the same common and three of a starter deck premium rare.


Playability

What is the point of the Fellowship Draft packs then? Decipher - always adept at marketing - tried to sell these to the players. The concept of the draft pack was that despite the appearance of being random, there would always be enough such that with one draft pack and any one starter deck, a player could make a complete, perfectly playable deck of The Lord Of The Rings gaming cards and be ready to play.

The concept here was to shake players up and encourage them to occasionally play away from the safety of their carefully-constructed decks that they had painstakingly created. No, in this fashion of play, they had to make do with whatever fate handed them and many players rejected this because . . . well, they had spent so much time and money assembling their decks the way they wanted it for a reason; they knew the strategy they liked to employ.

But players who were eager to try something different or who were eager to think on their feet welcomed the Draft packs. And despite the obvious attempt to try to sell more starter decks, this is a pretty sound strategic concept on the part of Decipher, trying to keep the original purpose of trading card games in mind; to create a game that stimulated the players. Being forced to think outside one's deck certainly stimulated players!

Rules/Rule Changes

The rulebook for this game is forty pages long and it does not come in this box. This - again - compels players to buy starter decks. There are, however, no rule changes in this packaged set and the game is played essentially as it was when the "Fellowship Of The Ring" (see link above) set was released.

There are no rules changes or card type additions in the Fellowship Draft packs because every single card is a previously-released card.

Highlights

Strangely, I do have a highlight for this set. Because the "Realms Of The Elf-Lords" cards are so dang hard to find, the Fellowship Draft packs may be a good way for collectors now to hunt down cards from that set. Specifically, the 3P121 Legolas card. Originally exclusive to just the "Realms Of The Elf-Lords" starter decks, this Legolas card is almost impossible to find now because those starter decks have long been out of print and gobbled up on the secondary market. 3P121, though, does pop up in Fellowship draft packs, making it possibly the most probable way to track one down now.

Collectibility

The Fellowship Draft packs are fairly hard to find now, even in the secondary market. Collectors do not truly need them, so very few people stockpiled these; they seem to be a product that mostly just came and went very naturally. Every "The Fellowship Of The Ring Anthology boxed set included one of the Draft packs, but largely, this repackage was seen for what it was and collectors and investors wisely avoided it.

Overview

The possibility of pulling a single card (as well as the occasional foil card for the insane collectors who are still trying to complete foil sets from the Fellowship block) is all that keeps this product from being deemed completely worthless. As it is, only the truly die-hard and desperate fans will use this to try to complete or enhance their collections. Given that there are no guarantees on odds or contents, this truly is the ultimate The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game crapshoot!

These cards use images from The Fellowship Of The Ring, which is reviewed here!

This set was preceded by "Realms Of The Elf-Lords" (link above) and followed by "The Two Towers" (reviewed here!).

3.5/10

For other card reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Just Because It's Easy, Doesn't Mean It's Great: "The Wraith Collection" Is All Right.

The Good: Interesting concept, Powerful cards, Great images
The Bad: Only six cards! Cannot play the game with only this set.
The Basics: An interesting and fun set, though hardly limited, The Wraith Collection creatively expands The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game!


As Decipher, Inc. was in the process of losing its most impressive licenses for trading card games, it began to innovate. Selling directly to its customer base, it attempted to use its online store to sell limited edition products that they could produce and turn around quickly. One such product was "The Enterprise Collection" another was "The Wraith Collection" for The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game.

With "The Wraith Collection," Decipher actually got creative. The set might only have six cards, but they are foil cards and the image on each and every one is of a creature designed by WETA Workshop, the special effects company that worked on The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. In other words, this set is not one that includes anything that was actually seen on the big screen! It is all conceptual computer-generated images and it makes for an interesting little set.

Basics/Set Composition

"The Wraith Collection" was the sixteenth set of The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game cards created by Decipher. Envisioned as a game played by two to four people, players created decks of cards utilizing their own version of the Fellowship and prepared to seed the adventure path with obstacles to thwart other players' Fellowship. For those unfamiliar with the concept, CCGs (or TCGs) are basically a late-teen oriented product designed to capitalize on the youthful desire to play with the acknowledged maturity of the target audience. The result is something that is a midpoint between the freedom and creativity of action-figure free play and the structured rules and rigidity of a board game.

Players might prefer that I describe the game instead as a strategy game that is like a Role-playing game with cards. The break here is that the characters, artifacts, and scenarios are all already conceived by others. The original concept was to find a way to make play socially acceptable for an older audience and it generally worked.

"The Wraith Collection" is a six card set focusing on villainous characters implied in the The Lord Of The Rings films (reviewed here!). This set is designed to expand the vision of Middle Earth and as a result is made up of minions who did not actually appear in the movies, but might as well have given the quality of the images on the cards! The set consists of 6 exclusive rare cards and it is sold as a complete set.

The 6 card foil set features 6 Wraith Affiliation cards. They are all Minion (cards you set upon your opponent) cards. They are all six Minions, which means they are characters, adversaries one plays against the current Fellowship player.

This game uses a "payment" system where cards have a cost. The rulebook recommends something like poker chips or glass beads to establish the twilight pool and wound indicators and I've found small poker chips (not included) work very well for this.

Sites form the board for the game, known as the Adventure Path. Sites are seeded in accordance to the rules of bidding (all of this is clearly established in the rulebook, which is available in the starter decks). The rulebook clearly defines what each deck must possess in terms of numbers of the card types. But basically, one starts by laying out a board, determining which player goes first, then setting them off through a Fellowship Phase (wherein the current player adds any characters they can and moves to the next site), Shadow Phase (Shadow players seed Minions to set against the current player's Fellowship), Maneuver Phase, Archery Phase (archers fire and it becomes the first chance to try to take out enemies), Assignment Phase (villains target Fellowship Companions), Skirmish (they actually battle) and then Regroup.

This is a fairly complex trading card game, but it represents a level of gaming sophistication designed to appeal to younger adults and actually challenge them, which is a decent idea given the complexity of Middle Earth. The problem, of course, is that most people who would be most stimulated by this game do not have the time or effort/interest to learn to play it. As a result, the mid-teens that basically run the CCG players world seem to have had mixed impressions about this game. Many players seem to enjoy that cards have a "cost" to them, adding a sense of risk to playing many of the better cards.

It takes a great deal of time and energy to learn the game, but once one has played a few hands of it, it is a pretty easy concept for an adult to master and the challenge becomes assembling a strong fellowship and accompanying minion deck and being creative (and lucky) about how the cards from one's hand are used.

Rules/Rule Changes

The rulebook for this game is forty pages long; it's not so much the function of a review to rehash all that as it is to evaluate it. The rules are fairly clear and the game basically follows the same format at laid out in the rulebooks that were updated in "Bloodlines" (reviewed here!).

There are no new rules in "The Wraith Collection." There are not even any new card types! This is just a pure expansion which continues the game, not alters it, making it great for players.

Highlights

Players, collectors and fans of The Lord Of The Rings franchise will appreciate the image quality of the characters and scenarios from the films. The "The Wraith Collection" set features new adversaries, like corpses, wisps, and undead spirits to set upon one's adversary.

But the best of this set is 16R5 Spirit Of Dread. Sure, it costs seven to play, but beginning with the second Site, it can be brought into play and has a strength of fourteen, which means it can easily take out the most powerful members of virtually any Fellowship (even an Ent!) and with three vitality and the fact that it's enduring, it's seven shadow tokens well spent! As well, while it remains in play, Fellowship players cannot heal, if there is one other Wraith Affiliation minion around. And if you need to boost another Wraith, exert Spirit Of Dread and it'll add strength to another wraith! Powerful card!

Collectibility

This set is limited to the exclusive packs of six cards and was only originally available through the Decipher website. Prices have come down now on the secondary market, but this is widely available and it will likely take quite a bit of time to appreciate in value. At least it is easy to collect.

Overview

"The Wraith Collection" is decent, limited set for players, but collectors and investors will likely find it too simplistic to get excited about. It is a good, but not great, set.

This set was preceded by the "The Hunters" (reviewed here!) and followed by "Rise Of Saruman" (reviewed here!).

6/10

For other card reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Worth Hunting For: "The Hunters" Is A Hard-to-find The Lord Of The Rings TCG Set!

The Good: Easy to learn, Good image quality, Fun to play, Rarity
The Bad: Problematic collectibility issues (foils offer nothing new), Impossible to make complete set from boosters decks.
The Basics: Despite a printing error in the common set, "The Hunters" endures as one of the most valuable The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game sets!


As The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game neared its inevitable end with the collapse of the product from the end of the movies (new material does seem to be the lifeblood of merchandising), Decipher, Inc., which was producing the cards, began to limit their production runs. In the long term, this has the effect of increasing the value of the later sets which also happens from the fact that these cards are not reprinted or repackaged in any other products. The set where the lack of supply began to be truly noticeable was "The Hunters."

Fans of The Lord Of The Rings TCG picked up "The Hunters," the fourth full "second edition" set of cards and the start of the "Hunters" block to try mixing their game up with things like new versions of the primary heroes and a new sense of threat from the villains of Middle Earth who were hunting them.


Basics/Set Composition

"The Hunters" set was the fifteenth set of The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game cards created by Decipher. Envisioned as a game played by two to four people, players created decks of cards utilizing their own version of the Fellowship and prepared to seed the adventure path with obstacles to thwart other players' Fellowship. For those unfamiliar with the concept, CCGs (or TCGs) are basically a late-teen oriented product designed to capitalize on the youthful desire to play with the acknowledged maturity of the target audience. The result is something that is a midpoint between the freedom and creativity of action-figure free play and the structured rules and rigidity of a board game.

Players might prefer that I describe the game instead as a strategy game that is like a Role-playing game with cards. The break here is that the characters, artifacts, and scenarios are all already conceived by others. The original concept was to find a way to make play socially acceptable for an older audience and it generally worked.

"Hunters" is a 221-card set focusing on characters, location, artifacts, villains and scenarios presented in the The Lord Of The Rings films. Released following the debut of the Extended Edition of The Return Of The King on DVD and a bit of a hiatus from producing new sets, this card set utilizes material from all three films, presenting a well-rounded playing environment from Middle Earth. The set consists of 60 common cards, 60 uncommon cards, 60 rare cards and 14 starter deck exclusive cards spread through two different starter decks, with the most popular characters being presented as rare cards. This provides a sense of balance and allows different character traits to be exploited among the various versions. As well, there are twenty-seven foil reprint cards of the most popular rare cards, which receive additional exposure as Legends and Legends Masterworks foil cards.

The 194 card non-foil set features 2 One Ring, 9 Dwarven, 17 Elven, 12 Gandalf, 15 Gollum, 18 Gondor, 23 Men, 26 Orc, 22 Rohan, 12 Shire, 26 Uruk-Hai, and 6 Wraith Affiliation cards, and 8 Site cards. These are generally broken down evenly between Fellowship (your cards you play with) and Minion (cards you set upon your opponent) cards. Within the various affiliations, there are: 2 One Ring (unique cards representing the powerful One Ring and are governed by special rules), 2 Artifact (unique items found on Middle Earth, in this case, the Mirror Of Galadriel and the Gift Of The Evenstar), 36 Companion (cards depicting primary characters and those who may join your customized Fellowship, like Eomer and Gandalf), 34 Condition (cards illustrating long-term changes to Middle Earth that remain in play more than one turn, like the Chamber of Records and the establishment of an Orkish Camp), 30 Event (cards depicting temporary effects on players, like it being Later Than You Think or hobbits having a Second Breakfast), 7 Follower (supporting people who aid the Fellowship, but do not join it, like a Hobbiton Brewer or Dinedal), 59 Minion (cards depicting villains used to obstruct your opponent, like a Sentry Uruk or Gollum), 18 Possession (cards depicting objects used to enhance the natural strength or endurance of a character, like a Great Axe or Elven Bow), and 8 Site (cards depicting locations in Middle Earth, they form the "board" for the game).

This set continues the game with a very broad sense of the Middle Earth universe as characterized by The Lord Of The Rings films. The booster pack boxes are comprised of thirty-six packs per box with eleven cards per pack. The eleven cards are portioned out with seven common, three uncommon, and one rare or foil card. A foil card replaces a rare in approximately five packs. The foils are simply reprints of the standard rare cards; there are no cards that are uniquely foils in this set.


Playability

At its most basic level, this is a board game where one constructs the board and pieces out of a selection of cards. The purpose of the game is to survive to the end of the ninth site in the Adventure Path, which (theoretically) indicates the end of the Ring Bearer's quest. The basic idea is to assemble a sixty card deck, lay out the board (Adventure Path) and play against an opponent. The deck is evenly split between Fellowship and Shadow cards, so players ought to have a hand that allows them to play and attempt to thwart their opponent at any given time.

This game uses a "payment" system where cards have a cost. The rulebook recommends something like poker chips or glass beads to establish the twilight pool and wound indicators and I've found small poker chips (not included) work very well for this.

Sites form the board for the game, known as the Adventure Path. Sites are seeded in accordance to the rules of bidding (all of this is clearly established in the rulebook, which is available in the starter decks). The rulebook clearly defines what each deck must possess in terms of numbers of the card types. But basically, one starts by laying out a board, determining which player goes first, then setting them off through a Fellowship Phase (wherein the current player adds any characters they can and moves to the next site), Shadow Phase (Shadow players seed Minions to set against the current player's Fellowship), Maneuver Phase, Archery Phase (archers fire and it becomes the first chance to try to take out enemies), Assignment Phase (villains target Fellowship Companions), Skirmish (they actually battle) and then Regroup.

This is a fairly complex trading card game, but it represents a level of gaming sophistication designed to appeal to younger adults and actually challenge them, which is a decent idea given the complexity of Middle Earth. The problem, of course, is that most people who would be most stimulated by this game do not have the time or effort/interest to learn to play it. As a result, the mid-teens that basically run the CCG players world seem to have had mixed impressions about this game. Many players seem to enjoy that cards have a "cost" to them, adding a sense of risk to playing many of the better cards.

It takes a great deal of time and energy to learn the game, but once one has played a few hands of it, it is a pretty easy concept for an adult to master and the challenge becomes assembling a strong fellowship and accompanying minion deck and being creative (and lucky) about how the cards from one's hand are used.

Rules/Rule Changes

The rulebook for this game is forty pages long; it's not so much the function of a review to rehash all that as it is to evaluate it. The rules are fairly clear and the game basically follows the same format at laid out in the rulebooks that were updated in "Bloodlines" (reviewed here!).

As well, there is a new mechanic in "The Hunters;" appropriately enough entitle "Hunters." This mechanic is described in the rulebooks, but it basically boils down to a quicker way to pursue Fellowship characters and keep Shadow cards in play.

Highlights

Players, collectors and fans of The Lord Of The Rings franchise will appreciate the image quality of the characters and scenarios from the films. "The Hunters" set features a great deal of the principle cast of "The Lord Of The Rings," like Legolas, Smeagol, and all four hobbits. The set also features Gollum, Trolls and all sorts of Uruk-hai! This set powerfully fleshes out the diverse characters and scenarios in Middle Earth and it does so with larger images than many other trading card game cards have. While I usually go with a Minion as my highlight, there is a powerful Fellowship Companion who finally gets a chance to shine in "The Hunters!"

The highlight is 15R38 Treebeard, Enraged Shepard. The Ent leader makes his appearance and he is powerful. With a cost of only five Twilight Tokens, the player gets a Companion that has a fair shot of taking on a Troll or a whole bunch of little annoying minions. As well, Treebeard represents the best chance most Fellowship players have of not being overwhelmed by Sauron or the Balrog if an opponent plays either of those!


Collectibility

Rares are evenly distributed in the booster packs, making only one of each of the two starter decks necessary for those collecting a master set, as the starter decks each have a many cards that cannot be found in the booster packs.

Beyond that, die-hard, obsessive collectors who want the thrill of collecting can collect the Legends and Legends Masterworks foils. These are eighteen and then nine foil reprints of the most popular characters. The problem here, though, is that they picked the eighteen and then the nine are foil reprints of the foil reprints with an alternate "O" numbering, so essentially the most valuable foils (Legends Masterwork, which are on average only one per box) are also the most reprinted rares within "The Hunters" set. As well, it is somewhat disappointing that if Decipher is going to bother to alter its annoying tradition of making foil reprints of each and every single card (yea for that!) that they would not follow a late "Star Trek Second Edition" model and make a few cards that are unique to the foil set, perhaps previewing the subsequent series.

This set also seems to have been VERY shortprinted, enhancing its overall value. Despite this there were a few printing errors, most notably the numbering for a Shire card (No Visitors) putting it right in the middle of the Uruk-Hai run. Outside that, it's a very solid set.


Overview

"The Hunters" is a very cool set of gaming cards and offers one of the most fun adventure scenarios in the Middle Earth world. It might take quite a bit to track down the cards to assemble a set, but this is one with enduring playability and collectibility, setting it apart from many CCGs!

This set culls material from the The Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition Trilogy, reviewed here!

This set was preceded by the Deluxe Draft Boxes (reviewed here!) and followed by "The Wraith Collection" (reviewed here!).

This is a set of The Lord Of The Rings gaming cards I occasionally get in stock. For my current inventory, click here!

7/10

For other card reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Simple Repack Theatre Re-emerges For "Expanded Middle Earth!"

The Good: Some interesting and powerful new companions and minions.
The Bad: A lot of extra cards collectors are likely to have, Disproportionately expensive.
The Basics: Despite repackaging packs from prior sets, the new characters unique to Expanded Middle Earth make the cards worth hunting down!


It's a great time to review things like The Lord Of The Rings repackaged product "Expanded Middle Earth," which took packs of slow-selling products and repackaged them with exclusive new cards.

Basics/Set Composition

Decipher, Inc. had a habit of repackaging old products and boosting sales with new cards exclusive to new packaging. Deluxe Draft Packs, in this case The Lord Of The Rings "Expanded Middle Earth" Deluxe Draft Packs included four unopened packs of gaming cards and ten exclusive cards unique to this set. There were three different decks and the boxes included four of each deck type.

Each "Expanded Middle Earth" Deluxe Draft Deck included packs of:
Shadows
Black Rider
and Bloodlines as well as one of three exclusive packs featuring Halbarad, Grimbeorn, or Elrohir.

The Expanded Middle Earth set consisted of six Shadow cards and nine Fellowship cards, all of which are Minions and Companions, respectively. The set includes 1 Dwarven, 3 Elven, 2 Gandalf, and 3 Gondor-affiliation companions to boost one's Fellowship. As well, there are two minions each from Men, Orc and Uruk-Hai affiliations. All of the images are characters who never appeared in the films, but were produced by WETA to appear as if they did!

Playability

This is a supplemental set and does not contain enough cards to play The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game.

Rule Changes

There is no rule book with the Expanded Middle Earth set so one needs to have prior knowledge in order to play the game. The cards are written such that the rules as updated in "Bloodlines" apply. There are no new rules in this set.

Highlights

As a supplemental set, this wisely focuses on characters, which is what pretty much everyone wanted anyway!

The most useful and powerful card in this set might well be 14R5 Brand, King Of Dale. For only two twilight tokens, this Gandalf-affiliation Man may be brought into play. He is powerful with his strength of six and vitality of three. Moreover, he has a special skill that is great for anyone playing with a Gandalf and Dwarf deck. Brand's simple presence makes Dwarves and Gandalf-affiliated Men +1 strength! As well, when Companions are outnumbered by Minions, Brand increases the Archery total by that amount, giving Fellowship players a sudden chance to turn the tables on the Shadow player.

Collectibility

This set was sold in the Deluxe Draft packs and truth be told, collectors only need one of each deck to get a whole set, making the full box of many draft decks a waste of money. Still, these were shortprinted, making them a great investment!

Overview

Fans of The Lord Of The Rings and the trading card game will enjoy the "Expanded Middle Earth" set for the additional characters it presents, even if they weren't in the films!

This set was preceded by "Bloodlines" (link above) and followed by "The Hunters" (review pending!).

This is a set of gaming cards I proudly sell in my online store. Click here to see my current inventory and support the store!


5/10

For other card reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here to see an organized listing of links to all of the various card reviews I have written!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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