MECCG: Solo Starter Game

I'm sitting down with my fresh unlimited (2nd edition) starter deck for Middle-earth: The Wizards collectible card game by Iron Crown Enterprises (a big ol' I.C.E. logo on two sides of the box, which is just fantastic and totally comfortable to have as an American).

They're coming for your cards

The side of the box states that I.C.E. is "the exclusive worldwide license holder for game based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings". Then Peter Jackson came in, belched, bit a carrot, and told them to shove off.

To prep for this first attempt, I've piddled around a few videos and online resources. But I want to get to the core of the game. So I've re-read the rule booklet included with each starter deck. A typed copy of this booklet can be found here. Later in the game's life, I.C.E. released a two player starter that included two simplified decks, materials to play, and a rulebook that went step-by-step through a few turns of the game. It is excellent in helping to visualize how the game actually plays and a scan can be found here. 

To start off the game, you need to divide your cards into piles:

• Sites
• Wizards
• Heroes
• Resources
• Hazards

Sites will remain in their own pile to the side. In a full game, your site pile can have one of every site in the game and multiple of the four sites marked as Havens: Rivendell, Lorien, Edhellond, and the Grey Havens. Playing with just a starter deck, I will restrict myself to only the sites provided in this deck (with the seeded pack providing each Haven). 

90's sitcom dad

Take your heroes and look at the white head-shaped logo on the left side. That is their mind. Select up to seven heroes that have a combined mind of twenty or less. Twenty is your General Influence, used to recruit heroes to your company(ies). To start the game, you can pick 1-5 heroes. Seven is the maximum size of a company. "But the Fellowship had nine members. How is that thematic?" Because Hobbits count as half a person, rounded up. Pretty racist, but it lets you have five non-hobbits and four hobbits to make a thematic company. I noticed that the heroes in my seeded pack added up to exactly 20 willpower. I'm going to guess that's a thing. 

Oh, you can also use leftover general influence for the occasional test. This is not a common thing, so I wouldn't be concerned about sucking up all the influence space. Especially for a starter game.

In a competitive game, players put their ideal starting company face down and take turns flipping them up one at a time, alternating between players. This is because only one copy of each unique hero (actually any unique card) can be in play at time. Not an issue in a solo starter game.

Set any remaining heroes aside. These will be shuffled into your deck. 

My starting company is going to be: Gimli, Beorn, Bard the Bowman, and Beretar. I switched out a few of the seeded heroes for Beretar who is a bit stronger (5/8 vs a 3/8 and a 4/8). Prowess/Body is in the bottom right of a hero card and corresponds to power/toughness or whatever system your game of choice uses.

You can now decide if your heroes will form one company or multiple. And if any heroes will follow others. Following allows you to free up General Influence to play additional heroes. Aragorn has a black hand with a 3 in it, showing the direct influence he has. He can have followers totaling 3 willpower. For now, I'm going to keep my single company as-is.

A character's Direct Influence can also be added to attempts to 

Now, look at you stack of resource cards and find any "Minor Item" cards. You can pick two of these to start the game with, attached to heroes in your starting party. I select "Shield of Iron-Bound Ash" and "Dagger of Westernesse". Both will help me in combat. Technically this is step optional. But it gives you two minor buffs to start with and extra cards overall. Why would you skip this?

Count your total number of resource and hazard cards. In a constructed deck, you should have 25-50 of each, in equal numbers. For starter decks, you use as man as you can. The two starting items do not count towards this number. This will often involve setting aside one or two resources or hazards. This deck has exactly 24 of each. Only one of each unique card can be in your deck. Usually not an issue with a starter deck. 

Now shuffle up the following:

• Two wizard cards (all you'll have in a starter)
• Any heroes not in your starting company (up to 10...you won't have that many in a starter)
• Your resource cards (besides the starting items)

Normally, you would also shuffle in your hazard decks. For a solo game, shuffle that pile by itself and keep it separate.

Draw your initial cards. This is usually 8, containing a mixture of all card types in your deck. For the solo game, draw 5 from your deck and draw 5 from the hazard deck. I am choosing to keep the hazard hand face down by its deck. 

The Goal

Your goal is to gather as many Marshaling Points as you can, representing the influence you've gathered throughout Middle-earth. Looking back at the Aragorn card above, the upper-left of the card shows that Aragorn provides three marshaling points. My other heroes provide one each, giving me a total of 6 to start with. Aragorn's text shows he has a rare negative ability to remove three marshaling points if he is eliminated. Most heroes don't have this. Don't let Aragorn die. 

You can also win if your opponent's wizard is eliminated or if you meet the conditions to destroy The One Ring. If your starter has everything you need to destroy The One Ring...wow. Just wow. You win, even if you lose the game. 

There are several ways to trigger end-of-game in a 2+ player match. For solo, you trigger the end of the game when you complete the second cycle of your player deck. Then you see how high you can get your marshaling points. I personally like to have a specific number and have seen 25 listed for another solo variant, so we're going to try that and see how close we can get. The rulebook lowers the 2+ goal from 20 to 18 for starter decks, so I'll still be happy with a 23 in this solo starter game.

Round 1

Starting Hand: Beregond, Denethor II, Dreams of Lore, Reforging, Thorough Search

Starting Location: Rivendell (where everyone starts)

Skip the Untap Phase the first round

Organization Phase

This is where I can

• play 1 character or 1 wizard
• play applicable resource cards
• decide where (and if) I want to travel
• combine or split companies
• store cards at a haven (making them safe from being lost)
  

These actions can be taken in any order until I declare the phase is over.

My opening hand was actually pretty bad: two characters (one I can't play right now), two cards requiring a Sage (I only have Warriors right now) and a card allowing me to play an extra item at a site (I have no items in hand). While this doesn't give me clear guidance for my next move, it will challenge me to dig a bit deeper in strategy. this also shows me the importance of having a rounder roster of traits in my opening company. Maybe I should have included Denethor in my opening company? I'll be playing these starter decks as their own contained game for a while, so he'll likely make the cut next time.

First, I will play Beregond. I have no general influence left, but I have two characters (Beorn and Gimli) with two direct influence who can take on Beregond as a follower. I am going to place him under Gimli. Only one character or one Wizard can be played per turn. The character can either be played at a Haven or at their Home Site (Minas Tirith for Beregond). 

Denethor II would be helpful in getting me a Sage to use, but he has a mind of 4 and I can only free up 2 general influence. I'll need to wait until I find a Wizard (all who have 10 direct influence) to get Denethor down. 

I need cards. You get cards by traveling. My instinct is to split the party to get more card draw, but I look at the information I have available. Recruiting the Beorings or the Iron Hill Dwarves are possibilities I know this deck has. Looking at the sites, both Beorn's House and the Iron Hill Dwarf-Hold have Lorien as their nearest haven. In fact, most of my sites from this deck have Lorien as their nearest haven. Using the starter rules, you need to travel from the nearest haven to reach a site or you can travel from haven to one of two nearby havens. So my best option right now is to travel from Rivendell to Lorien as a single company. I place Lorien face down as my destination site and I end the phase.

Long Even Phase

I have no Long Event cards to play, but this is where I would do that. Skipping phase for now.

Movement / Hazard Phase

Here is where my company attempts their movement. First, I have to draw at least one card ("The Cock Crows"). When traveling to a haven, card draw is based off of my site of origin (Rivendell). I can draw up to the number listed in white in the bottom left (2), so I draw another ("Durin's Axe"). Durin's Axe is a major item that can give me 4 marshaling points when attached to a dwarf. Seems like a great goal for next round.

The hazard deck also draws at least one card and up to the number in grey (2). With the solo rules, the hazard deck draws an additional two cards. I put four cards face down in the hazard hand. 

The starter solo rules encourage you to play your hazard hand in the way that is least advantageous to the heroes. I feel capable of doing that, but I want to add a bit of hidden information to how I play this. So here are my additions. They may read a bit complicated, but it plays very intuitively for me:

• All drawn cards are dealt face-down to the hazard hand and the hand is shuffled when it is time to play hazards
• Cards are revealed and resolved one at a time
• If a creature can attack the company, it does. 
• If a card can be played immediately, it is.
• Any cards that modify something about an attack are set aside and played if the relevant attack is revealed later
• Any creatures or cards that might benefit from being played later (at my discretion) are returned to the bottom of the hand-face up
• Once all cards have been played or turned face-up, I play out the rest of the hand to the best of my ability

During each movement / hazard phase, up to X hazard cards can be played where X is the number of characters in the company being targeted.

How are cards played? Many hazards, especially creatures, depend on the path the company is currently taking. Looking at Lorien, the path to Rivendell shows: Wilderness, Wilderness, Border-Lands, Wilderness and the site itself is Haven. When I play a creature, it must have at least one symbol that matches a symbol along that path. There does not need to be a complete match (a creature with one Wilderness and one Shadow-lands site symbol can still be played now). If a creature has two symbols repeated, then that is a single symbol (Wilderness + Wilderness needs two consecutive Wilderness icons in the path). The hazard player has to declare what symbol is being used, which is called "keyed." Certain hazard and resource cards care about what a card is keyed to, so the symbols match should be chosen with care based on the available information.

Flipping over the top hazard card reveals "Bert" (Burat). Looking at his symbols vs the site path, Burt can be keyed to Wilderness, so he is keyed and played. This is a great example of why I am adding in a hidden information element. Just wait.

Bert will hit with a single strike of 12 power. Looking at my company, Beorn is the strongest and will be assigned the strike. If I resolved the strike, I would roll 2d6 and add Beorn's prowess (7) plus any modifications already existing or played. A roll of 4 or lower would wound Beorn. A roll of 5 would tie and Bert would be put in the hazard discard pile. A roll of 6 or greater would defeat the strike and add Burt to my marshaling points pile. 

Here's another cool thing this game does. While you are highly encouraged to use actual dice, you can instead flip the top card of your deck and look at the number in white on the right side (Burt here has a 9) and that will be your roll. So you truly only need a single starter deck to play this game.

But this strike isn't happening. I have "The Cock Crows" in my resource hand, which can cancel a troll attack. While this will put it in the hazard discard and not earn me any points, I want to use this very narrow card while i have the chance. The card is played and both cards are discarded.

The next card is Lure of Nature. This is going to add two corruption points to a character and cause them to make a corruption check for every Wilderness revealed in the company's site path. Knowing what I know, Gimli would be a great target since he might become very powerful next turn. But the card states it does not affect Hobbits or Dwarves. Beorn, the strongest character and a character who has a clear objective in the deck, is the next best target and the card goes on him. Only one hazard card that adds corruption points can be played on each hero per turn. 

Next hazard card: River. This can be played on the destination site and the company would need to exhaust a Ranger to do anything at the site that turn. I know the company is just using Lorien as a waypoint, so I am going to return River face-up to the hazard hand and not utilize it for now.

Next hazard card: Lost in the Border-lands. I can use this to play one additional hazard card for each border-lands in the site path. Since the current site path only has one border-lands, this card just replaces it self and doesn't really do anything. I am going to save it for now. 

Next hazard card: Ghosts. There are no matching symbols between Ghosts and the current site path, so the card is saved. 

Next hazard card: Brigands. The brigands have both a Border-lands and Wildnerness symbol. There is no revealed information that woul affect my decision on how to key the card, so I am going to pick Border-lands. This card has two strikes of 8. The defending player may choose which untapped characters can take a strike. After that, the hazard player would choose which tapped characters would face any remaining strikes. I have no tapped characters. Beorn and Gimli will be assigned the strikes.

I can keep Beorn up and give him -3 to his prowess for the strike or allow him to be tapped after the strike. There is no reason I need Beorn untapped this round, so he will tap. I roll 2d6 (7) and add Beorn's prowess (7), then any modifications (none) for a total of 14. The strike is defeated. I will need to defeat the next strike to add Brigands to my marshaling point pile.

Gimli will also exhaust for the strike. I roll 2d6 (7 again), add Gimli's prowess (6), and any modifications (+1 due to Gimli's sword) for a total of 14 again. 

The brigands are defeated and added to my marshaling point pile. I now have 7 marshaling points.

Next hazard card: Weariness of the Heart. I can either give a character -1 prowess until end of turn or force a corruption check. This is the last hazard card I would plan on playing this turn and I don't see a benefit in either option yet, so the card is saved. 

I have arrived at Lorien! Rivendell is returned to the site deck and Lorien becomes my loation

Both resource and hazard hands now discard or draw to equal 5. The resource hand is at 5. Hazard hand adds a face-down card. 

Site Phase

There are no actions I wish to take here, so the phase is skipped.

End of Turn Phase

Both hands have the option of discarding a single card. Then cards are again drawn/discarded to equal five. 

"Reforging" takes a character type I don't have and a lot of steps to get any value, so I am going to discard that and draw a new card: "Iron Hill Dwarves." Nice! Yet another goal to consider for next turn.

The face-up hazard cards seem fine to me for now, so I'll keep that hand as is.


Round 2

Untap Phase

Beorn and Gimli untap. Since I'm at a Haven, any wounded characters would move from wounded to untapped here. Fortunately my party is fully healthy. 

Organization Phase

A few decisions to make here. First, Beorn is going to attempt to remove Lure of Nature. I tap Beorn and roll 2d6,  discarding the card if the roll is higher than 4. There are no penalties and this is not a corruption check. Roll: 4. Shoot. Beorn keeps the card.

I can travel to the Iron Hill Dwarf-Hold to attempt recruiting the Iron Hill Dwarves or I can travel to a location where major items are playable and try to get Durin's Axe. If I split the party, I could do both. But splitting the party means the hazard hand will draw extra cards two separate times (since two companies will face hazards). Plus, I want Gimli to recruit the Iron Hill Dwarves and bear Durin's Axe. Another character could get the axe and transfer it to Gimli. 

We're going for the Axe.

I'm transferring the Dagger of Westernesse from Gimli to Beretar. Technically this triggers a corruption check on Gimli. His corruption with the Dagger is 1 and it is not mathematically possible for a 2d6 to do that, so we'll just skip the test. If I waited to do this later, I would need to add the three corruption points of the axe to test, making Gimli roll a 5 or higher to pass.

There are 5 sites in this starter that have Lorien as their nearest haven and where a major item can be played. I want to find one with the shortest site-path, the least number of different region/site types, and the fewest automatic strikes. Moria feels doable and is set as my destination. 

Long Even Phase

Nothing to play or discard. Skipped.

Movement / Hazard Phase

Moria is revealed as the destination site. There are two Wildneress icons, so Beorn must make two corruption checks and get over 2 each time. Snake eyes kill, folks. First check: 7. Second check: 5. 

The resource hand draws two cards: Alatar (YES) and Test of Lore. The hazard hand draws 5 cards (3 for Moria and 2 for solo) and is shuffled face down. The hazard limit for the company is 5.

First hazard card: Wargs. Keying to Wilderness. Two strikes of nine. The resource player can only choose untapped characters to be assigned a strike and then the hazard player can assign any other strikes. I pick Beretor and Bard to take the strikes.

Beretor will tap after the strike.2d6 roll for 11 + Beretor's 5 prowess + 1 for the Dagger to equal 17. Bard will also tap after the strike. Shield of Iron-Bound Ash is tapped to give Bard +1 prowess. 2d6 is rolled for 3 + Bard's 3 prowess +1 for the Shield = 7. Bard is wounded! 2d6 are rolled again to see if Bard is eliminated. 2d6 are rolled for 7 vs Bard's body of 6 +1 body from the Shield.. Bard scrapes by! Only one of the Wargs' strikes was defeated, so the card is discarded.

Next hazard card: Lost in the Border-lands. This would have no effect currently and is saved.

Next hazard card: Huron. One strike of 10. Ugh. I do not want to tap Gimli, so we'll have Beregond attempt to face this strike. Beregond will tap after the strike. A roll of 2 + 4 for Beregond's Prowess is a very failed strike. Beregond is wounded. Body check: 8 vs Beregond's 8. Another close call! Huron is discarded.

Next hazard card: Ghosts. They will be keyed to the Shadow-holds. Three strikes of 9. Characters wounded by their attacks make a corruption check with a -1 modifier. I need to try to defend one with Gimli, who will tap (boo). The other two are assigned to Bard and Beregorn, who will both get -2 for being wounded. Gimli rolls an 8 + 5 prowess to defeat the strike. Bard rolls a 9 + 1 to defeat the strike. Beregond rolls 11 + 2 to defeat the strike. Wow. Did not expect that. Ghosts are addded to the MP pile (8 total MP). 

Next hazard card: Weariness of Heart. We'll give Gimli -1 prowess until end of turn. 

Next hazard card: New Moon. I can tap an elf, but there is no elf in the company (and no untapped character in the company).

Next hazard card: River. While it would stop the company from doing anything at the site this turn, the company is fully tapped and can't do anything. Saved.

Next hazard card: Arouse Denizens. Does nothing here. Saved.

Next hazard card: Call of Home. This is good. It can potentially remove Gimli to hand. I make a roll, then add the character's unused general influence (zero, since Gimli has Beregond following him) and any roll under 10 returns the character to my hand. So we need to see a 10 -12 for Gimli to stay around. Roll: 6. Gimli returns to hand and Beregond remains in the party. MP reduced to 6. 

Hazard limit reached. The party is pretty devistated.

I now have 8 cards in hand and would love to keep most of them, but I need to discard 3. Keeping: Gimli, Denethor II, Altar, Iron Hill Dwarves, and Durin's Axe. Discarding: Dreams of Lore, Test of Lore, Thorough Search.

The hazard hand can look at the final unrevealed card: River. No discard or draw needed.

Site Phase

The company is in no condition to take automatic attacks and opts to do nothing.

End of Turn Phase

No discard for the resource hand. Hazard hand discards River and draws a card face-down.


Round 3

Untap Phase

Beorn, Beretar, and the Shield untap. Bard and Beregond are wounded and remain tapped.

Organization Phase

Beorn will not attempt his test to remove the corruption points. Beregond is moved under Beorn as a follower, to free up general influence.

Gimli is played at his home site, Iron Hill Dwarf-Hold. 

No plans are made for travel.

Long Event Phase

Nothing to see here.

Movement / Hazard Phase

No movement made, no hazards played (that's how the cool kids say it in the MECCG circles).  No drwas or discards needed.

Site Phase

Gimli is going to enter the Iron Hills and attempt to recruit the Iron Hills Dwaves. There are no automatic attacks here. He has 2 direct influence and a +2 for recruiting this faction. The faction has a +2 when an attempt is made by a dwarf. So, again, snake eyes kills and everything else wins here. Gimli taps for the attempt. Roll: 9. A rousing success! The faction is put into play, adding 4 MP (12 now). 

Beorn's company attempts to enter Moria. 4 orc strikes of 7. Everyone needs to face one. Beorn does not tap. Roll: 9 + 7 prowess -3 = 13. Success! Beratar will tap. Roll: 11 + 5 prowess + 1 from the Sword. Success! Bard taps his shield for +1. Roll: 8 + 3 prowess -2 for the wound +1 from the shield = 10. Success! Beregond rolls: 6 + 4 prowess = 2 for the wound = 8. Success! Site entered. Beorn taps himself an Moria to claim Durin's Axe. this provides 2 MP when not attacked to a dwarf, bringing the current total to 14. It adds 2 corruption points to Beorn. 

End of Turn Phase

Resource hand draws up three cards: "Horses", "Annalena," "Beorings." Well, new goals are being presented all the time now.

Round 4

Untap Phase

Beorn, Beretar, and the Shield untap for company 1. Gimli untaps for company 2.

Organization Phase

Alatar is played to his home site of Edhellond and makes Company 3.

Beorn will tap to attempt removing his corruption card: 6. Lure of Nature is discard (a fitting hazard for Beorn, though). 

Now I'm going to play a little fast and loose with destination sites. Non-haven sites are unique and can only be traveled to by one company at a time and only used by one company throughout the entire game session. Havens can be traveled to by multiple companies but you need a card to represent that. This deck came with two Rivendell cards but only one Lorien. I want Company 1 and 2 to both return to Lorien this round, so we'll just fudge the card requirement and send them on their way.

Before the phase ends, I'm playing Horses on Company 1. This will lower their hazard limit to 2 but will also give hazard creatures played against them +2 prowest this turn. 

Site Phase

Lorien is revealed as the destination for Company 2 (C2). Three resource cards are drawn: "Beautiful Gold Ring," "Ent-Draughts," "Fair Travels in Shadow-Lands." All a bit useless right now. The hazard deck draws 5 cards face down and shuffles. Hazard limit for C2: 2 (the minimum allowed).

C2 hazard card: New Moon. No elves to tap saved.

C2 hazard card: Arouse Denizens. Not applicable. Saved.

C2 hazard card: Weariness of the Heart. Gimli gest -1 prowess until end of turn.

C2 hazard card: River. Not applicable this turn. Saved.

C2 hazard card: Crebain. We'll key it to Border-holds. One strike against Gimli of 5. Gimli will tap after the strike. Roll: 6 + 5 prowess -1 from Weariness = 10. The strike is defeated and Crebain are added to the MP pile (15). Gimli arrives safely at Lorien. The Iron Hill Dwarf-Hold has been used and is discarded.

Lorien is revealed as the destination for C1. C1 draws two resource cards: "The Great Eagles" and "Dark Quarrels." The hazard hand draws 5 cards and shuffles. Hazard limit: 2 (thanks to Horses).

C1 hazard card: River. Not applicable. Saved.

C1 hazard card: New Moon. No elves to tap. Saved.

C1 hazard card: Assassin. Okay, this is the $45 rare opened in this deck and a very powerful attack. The hazard player chooses a hero to take three strikes of 11. The defending player can tap 1-2 heroes to remove 1-2 of these strikes. But it cannot be keyed to this path! Saved. 

C1 hazard card: Wolves. Keyed to Wildnerness. Three strikes of 8. Time for a fancy move. If Alatar is at a Haven, he can jump over to a company facing a strike and take one. We're doing that. Another will be assigned to Beretar. The Hazard player assigns the final one to Bard. Beretar will tap and rolls 7 + 5 prowess. Success! Alatar will tap and rolls: 5 + 6 prowess. Success! Alatar then needs to make a corruption check, but he has zero corruption points and passes. Brand will tap his shield to get +1 prowess and rolls: 3 + 3 prowess - 2 for being wounded + 1 for the shield for total of 5. Failed! Body check: 8. Brand is eliminated! He is removed from play and his shield passes to Beregond. The wolves were not fully defeated and are discarded. 

C1 hazard card: Doors of Night. Comes into play and stays there. This is a permanent event and will stay in play until removed by an effect. It will enhance certain hazard cards.

C1 makes it safely to Lorien! Moria has been utilized and is discarded. 

There are 8 resource cards in hand. Kept: Denethor II, Annalena, Beorings, Dark Quarrels, Fair Travels in Border-lands . Discarded: . The Great Eagles, Ent-Draughts, Beautiful Golden Ring.

There are 11 hazard cards in hand. Kept: Assasin, Long Winter, Orc-Warriors, Orc-Raiders, Orc-Guard. Discarded: A ton of stuff. And the hazard discard pile is shuffled into a new deck (which was now empty).

Site Phase

No actions

End of Turn Phase

No actions

Round 5

Untap Phase

Beregond heals to a tapped positoin. Everyone (and everything) else untaps. 

Organization Phase

Annalena is brought into play following Alatar, bringing the MP total to 16.

Beorn rolls a corruption check to pass Durin's Axe to Gimli: 9. Success! This raises the MP to 18. 

Beregond makes a corruption check to pass his Shield to Beorn. He gets -1 to corruption checks so a roll is needed. Snake eyes kills: 8. Success!

Beregond is removed from following Beorn and brought under general influence. Beorn and Gimli form their own company (C1) and everyone else forms a second one (C2).

Beorn's House is set as the destination site for C1. C2 will remain at the haven for the present.

Long Event Phase

nope.

Movement / Hazard Phase

Beorn's House is revealed. Resource hand draws one card: "Fair Travels in Border-lands". The hazard deck draws three cards. Hazard Limit: 2. 

C1 hazard card: "Bert" Burat. Troll with one strike of 12. I could cancel this with Dark Quarrels, but I think I can handle it and I'd like the extra experience. Gimli is assigned the strike and rolls, choosing to tap after the strike: 6 + 5 prowess + 4 prowess from the Axe = 15. Bert is defeated and added to the MP pile (19). 

C1 hazard card: Call of Home, targeting Beorn. Beorn does have 2 direct influence, but let's see how this goes. Roll: 8 + 2 direct influence. Beorn stays around!

The resource hand is at 5 cards and will stay as is.

The hazard hand discards Wargs to return to 5 cards.

C1 successfully reaches Beorn's House! 

Site Phase

Beorn taps himself and his home to attempt to recruit the Beorings. Roll: 6 + 2 direct influence + 2 bonus from Beorn + 1 bonus from Beorings = 11 v 7. Success! Beorings are put into play, raising the MP to 21. 

End of Turn Phase

Resource hand draws one card: Athelas. 

Round 6

Untap Phase

Beorn and Gimli untap for C1. Beregond untaps for C2.

Organization Phase

Denethor II is played unter Alatar in C2, bringing the MP total to 22. 

C1 sets Lorien as it's destination site.

Long Even Phase

nada.

Movement / Hazard Phase

Resource hand draws one card: "Great Road". The Hazard hand draws three cards. Hazard limit: 2. 

C1 hazard card: Orc-Guard. Cannot be keyed. Saved.

C1 hazard card: Assassin. Hmm. I do have the card to cancel it, but defeating enemies might be my best way of getting the final MPs I need. Sure. I'll take it. As a hazard player, I target Beorn (who is weaker than Gimli). Gimli taps to cancel one strike. Beorn faces the first strike, choosing to tap afterwards. Roll: 7 + 7 prowess for 14. Success! Beorn taps his Shield for +1 prowess against the second strike. Roll: 7 + 7 prowess -1 for being tapped + 1 from the shield = 14. Success! Assassin is added to the MP pile (23 total MP). 

C1 hazard card: Orc-Raiders. 4 strikes of 6. Since there are more strikes than characters, first each character is assigned a strike. Then, the two remaining strikes can be used as -1 penalties. Even with those penalties, Beorn is still a 5 if he took both and Gimli would be a 6 if he took both, so the strikes would be defeated. Orc-Raiders added to the MP pile (24 total). 

Lorien is reached and Beorn's house is discarded!

5 resource cards in hand, so no changes.

Hazard hand discards: Orc-Guard.

Site phase

No actions to take

End of Turn Phase

Resource hand will discard Fair Travels in Shadow-lands, just to filter through the deck more. Draws: Saruman. Only one Wizard can be played, so this is a dead card in hand and will be discarded next turn (if able). 

Round 7

Untap Phase

Everyone and everything untaps.

Organization Phase

24 MP already. I basically just need to draw out and defeat one more enemy to hit my goal. Beletar is going to move from C1 to C2. C1 will then set Rivendell as its destination site.

Fair Travels in Border-lands is played, reducing the hazard limit by 1 (to a minimum of 2) for this company.

Long Event Phase

some games this is relevant.

Movement / Hazard Phase

The resource hand draws two cards: Precious Golden Ring and Gates of Morning. The hazard deck draws four cards. Hazard limit: 2.

C1 hazard card: Lure of Nature, played on Beorn.

C1 hazard card: Long Winter, which would not affect this company. Saved.

C1 hazard card: River, which would not affect this round. Saved.

C1 hazard card: River #2. Saved.

C1 hazard card: Orc-Warriors. 3 strikes of 7. Keyed to Border-holds. All three heroes are assigned a strike and choose to tap, granting automatic victory. Orc-warriors are added to the MP pile. 

The resource deci discards Saruman.

The hazard deck discards both Rivers.

C1 reaches Rivendell!

Site Phase

No actions to take here.

End of Turn Phase

In a 2+ player game, you can choose to call the Free Council once you amaass 20 Marshalling Points. For a solo starter game, you are supposed to exhaust your player deck twice to trigger the end of the game. I'm having fun, but I'm at 25 MP with5 cards left in the first run of my deck. Let's just call a council!

The Free Council

To start with, each character must make a corruption check.

Alatar, Annalena, and Denethor II have no corruption points and automatically pass. Beregond gets a -1 but has no other points and automatically passes. Beretar has 1 from Dagger of Westernesses and automatically passes. Gimli has 3 from Durin's Axe and must roll: 7. Success! Beorn has two from Lure of Nature and one from Shield of Iron-Bound Ash and must roll: 7. Success! 

Characters: 8 MP
Items: 4 MP
Factions and Allies: 6 MP
Defeated Enemies: 7 MP

Total MP: 25

Sweet, sweet victory!

Closing Thoughts

Yeah, I'm hooked. The gameplay was fun and engaging. I love the sandbox-like feel of picking what you want to accomplish. So many choices are not "right" or "wrong,"  but up to how you want to proceed and how much you want to press your luck. A lot of these decisions have pros and cons either way (such as splitting a company to pursue different objectives). And the game still looks beautiful.

More cards have come in and I've brought the game up in most of my gaming discussions lately. Turns out a regular gaming buddy of mine played MECCG regularly in the past and has an extensive collection still. He dug it out and we're going to try getting some 'real' games in soon. Starting off, we're going to use the Challenge Decks that came out near the end of the game's lifecycle. These are preconstructed decks that only have three rares, like starter decks, but are focused around specific strategies for resources and hazards. Then we'll move onto other formats down the line.

This blog is staying dedicated to The Lord of the Rings: the Card Game and not switching over to MECCG all the time! But it has been fun to share my re-discovery of this predecessor. 

Distraction: Middle-earth CCG

My little animal brain is easily distracted by shiny things. And when something gets my attention, I often disappear into it and lose all sense of time. So, for me, this has been, "I'll get back to my LotR LCG games in just a bit here after I'm done enjoying this other thing for a little." When it's really been months. I figured, while still focused on other things, I would write about a few of the more relevant distractions.

Recently, I've been feeling a bit nostalgic for the Middle-earth collectible card game put out by Iron Crown Enterprises back in the mid-nineties. This would have been right after or right during my reading of The Lord of the Rings for the first time. While the game had a very short lifetime ('95-'98), it turns out the game still has a worldwide following with regular events. 

Middle-earth: The Wizards was the first release of the game. In it, you play as one of the five wizards with a goal of gathering enough influence to convince the free council that you have the best plan for defeating Sauron. Alternately, you can bring The One Ring to the Cracks of Doom and destroy if (if you're lucky enough to pull the cards needed for that). 

"Play me," it whispers

I lurked around the international Facebook group until I saw a collection of around a thousand Limited (1st edition) cards and jumped on it. A few days later, someone in my state was selling a well-priced Unlimited sealed starter deck and I snagged that up. That just showed up in the mail and I figured I would catalogue the opening.

Two packs for the price of one (box)

Upon opening a MECCG starter box, you receive two wrapped packs. The first, smaller one is one of five seeded packs that gives you some essentials. We'll talk about that in a bit. The second pack has your uncommons, rares, rules booklet, and commons. A feature of this game is that you can play a full game with just a starter deck using the basic set of rules (Starter vs Standard). The booklet also comes with instructions for a solo mode as well as official optional rules you and your opponent can decide to include. I'm pretty sure I didn't realize that at all as a kid and, instead of playing a ton of solo games, I had an ever-growing collection that was looked at often but only actually played with once or twice.

To make an "out of the box" game possible,  there are five seeded pack options you can open in a starter deck. These contain two wizards, the right amount of heroes to play, essential locations and a bit of synergy to give your deck some direction. The seeded cards in these packs are not available in booster packs or the rest of the starter deck, so you had to "collect them all" for a full card pool back in the day and there was no way to tell which pack was in a given starter. This was fixed for the next (and only other) large release, where an open window in the back of the box showed you which of the seeded packs you were getting. 

The Saruman / Alatar seeded pack

The box of limited cards I received had the cards necessary to re-assemble two of the seeded packs. I was hoping that the unlimited starter would have one of the other three options and it did! I used some opening videos to help me assemble two starter-like pools out of the limited cards (building them as 1:1 as I could off the video, then making appropriate swaps for cards I did not have). This gives me three starter decks to experiment and learn with. My hope is to not go as crazy with this game as I have with others. In fact, I may end up proxying the complete set and just making irregular purchases over the years to swap out for my proxies. The game has retained a lot of value on the secondary market and it's not cheap to collect.

Bears and Dwarves and Bards, oh my!

Above is a sample of the synergy and potential that can be found in a seeded pack. Beorn can help recruit Beorings, who need to be recruited at Beorn's House. All three are paired together here. The same goes for Gimli recruiting Dwarves of the Iron Hills at the Iron Hill Dwarf-hold. This deck now has two objectives it can aim for right off the bat. Then there's Bard the Bowman. He can help recruit the Men of Northern Rhovanion, who are recruited at Lake-Town. But neither the men or the town are included here. Bard can still be used as a hero and now you have some specific cards to keep an eye out for.

When you open the randomized pack, you get nine uncommons and three rares. The mixture of resource (bronze), hazard (grey), site (white), and hero cards (blue) are not set in this section. But after the rulebooklet, you have the common section that alternates between bronze and grey cards (with a couple of sites). Decks should have an equal mixture of resource and hazard cards and a sealed deck provides you with a roughly correct mix (you'll have a few more resources, but you also set two aside out of the deck). 

This pack happened to be a good example of the secondary market value still present. My final rare was Assassin, which still commands around $45ish on the 'bay. It not only features beautiful Angus McBride art, but it's a powerful card to play against your opponent and can be played in areas that are often relatively "safe" for them. I'll explain a bit more of how that works in another post.

So don't throw away the box of MECCG sitting in the back of your closet. 

Alright, next post will be me going through re-learning the ropes of a solo game. This game is notoriously difficult and full of decision points. While the starter rules help with this, the difficulty of those is equal to the complexity of most regular game rules. 

See ya on the journey! 

Final Pack: The Crossings of Poros

 

After much searching and bargaining and resigning, my player card collection for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is complete (again)! The Crossings of Poros, one of the harder Adventure Packs to track down, earned that honor. Since it is still factory sealed, and since I have been spending the past few weeks doing a massive overhaul of my game room vs actually playing, this seemed like a perfect pack for a card-by-card impression review. I am not by any means an expect in deck-building for this game nor in seeing crazy synergies, but I enjoy looking at a good card and thinking how I can put it to use. 

Quickbeam

4 attack and the ability to ready at will makes Quickbeam a fighting beast. Really needs to be paired with strong healing to take full advantage of his abilities. And I remember some Ents having synergy with damaged Ents, so this is also a great way to trigger those bonuses on command as well. A high threat, but you want to be engaging enemies left and right.

Halfast Gamgee

Made for the decks really committing to the Player Side Quest strategy. And if you are all-in, then you get a unique ally for a discount (up to free). Would love this ability stabled on something non-unique, to feel like I am getting a bigger potential benefit for the effort. A hobbit, but not really part of the hobbit secrecy efforts. Eh. Not impressed.

Bulwark of the West

This is not the type of card I would think of putting into a deck on my first run of a quest. After a nasty condition attachment costs me the game, then a card like this comes in (if I'm not playing Lore). Still not excited about the prospect of discarding an ally, so I would be looking for synergies that care about that.

Beorning Guardian

I just mentioned not being a fan of discarding allies, but having the option to use an enemy for a little extra progress in tactics is inciting. Would definitely want this in mono-tactics builds. I always think of heading back to the Carrock when I think mono-tactics. Maybe this guy will make the cut for a future Nightmare attempt.

Followed

A perfect pairing with our bearish friend above. And another way to use the threat of an enemy against the quest. Seems like another mono-tactics goodie in my mind.

Flight to the Sea / Wind From the Sea

The effect is strong, but my issue with these types of cards is that you have little control of when they appear. I would want to pair this with a way to know what is coming next or a way to manipulate the encounter deck. Left to chance, I could see this coming out at a time where it has no practical affect on my board state. Maybe playing this when the encounter deck is thinned down and the difficulty of the quest is high enough where any little edge matters.

Emyn Arnen Ranger

Really only fitting in a heavy trap deck, but seems like a good inclusion when that is the case. Still, not amazing for a situational effect.

The Dam Bursts

Speaking of Ent damage, here is yet another way to get Quickbeam up. I do like these dual-trait cards and the deck-building directions they push you in. Makes me want to shift through the various Hobbits and see what hobbits would have the best synergy with Ent damage (although I don't remember healing being a big aspect of Hobbits). 

Magic Ring

Now this is the star of the pack. Repeated, powerful effects for the low cost of a threat increase. Rightly only one per deck. That does mean you may go a whole game without seeing it. But worth the chance in many decks.

Parting Thoughts

There are packs that favor one sphere over another and this is, by far and away, a Tactics pack. The rest of the inclusions (besides Magic Ring) seem situational at best. With the Ring available in the Dwarves of Durin starter deck, I wouldn't consider this an essential pick up for player cards alone. With that said, this pack has me looking forward to my next mono-tactics excursion. 

Solo POD Quest 011: The Woodland Realm

 Opening Thoughts

The Woodland Realm just showed up in the mail and, despite owning them in a previous collection, I realized I never gave any of the custom scenario packs a crack. This seems like a good opportunity to try out my latest Outlands build.

I am also taking this show on the road! My son and I are heading off for a short summer vacation and it's been a while since I was jamming a game out on a hotel table.

The Decks

Outlandish!

Heroes
Elrond 
Hirluin the Fair 

Contract
1x  Messenger of the King

Allies
3x  Anfalas Herdsman
2x  Envoy of Pelargir (HoN)
3x  Ethir Swordsman
1x  Faramir (Core)
1x  Forlong
3x  Gandalf (Core)
1x  Gildor Inglorion (HoEM)
1x  Henamarth Riversong (Core)
3x  Hunter of Lamedon
3x  Knights of the Swan
2x  Warden of Healing
3x  Warrior of Lossarnach

Attachments
1x  A Burning Brand
3x  Steward of Gondor (Core)
3x  Vilya (SaF)

Events
2x  A Good Harvest
3x  A Very Good Tale (OHaUH)
3x  Daeron's Runes (FoS)
3x  Deep Knowledge
2x  Heed the Dream
1x  Men of the West
3x  Sneak Attack (Core)

RingsDB

The Quest

Ready to roll some dice and see what fate builds for me!

player setup
Selected Forlong for Messenger of the King (only a threat of 5!). 
Set starting threat to 26
Opening hand: Anfalas Herdsman, Warrior of Lossarnach, Sneak Attack, Gildor Inglorion, Gandalf, A Burning Brand, Gandalf. Two Outlands allies and Gandalf for card draw (or damage, if really needed). Seems good!

encounter setup

I laid out the stage 2 and 3 options, then rolled a D20 with each card assigned a set of 8. 9 was rolled for stage 2, so the middle option was picked. 

Then a d20 was rolled to pick the seven encounter sets, with rerolls as needed until seven options between 1-14 were chosen: 3, 1, 8, 10, 11, 12, 7

Shuffle up. Stage 1A: I search the deck for a challenging zero cost location or enemy and add Mountains of Mirkwood to the staging area. Advance to 1B.

Round 1

Resources and card: Sneak Attack. Alright, time to get a full grip of cards going. 

Anfalas Herdsman goes down.

Questing phase! I sneak in Gandalf, opting to draw three cards: Envoy of Pelargir, Vilya, A Good Harvest. Not the craziest of hands. 

Questing with Gandalf and Elrond for a total of 7. Reveal: Mirkwood Flock. Surge. Mirkwood Flock. Surge.Pack of Wargs. Total threat: 7.  No progress placed (but no threat raised). Gandalf returns to hand.

Travel to Mountains of Mirkwood (enough enemies in the staging area right now).

2x Mirkwood Flock engage me. Shadow cards are dealt. Sneak Attack Gandalf in again to defeat one of the Flock. Gandalf will defeat the other in a bit.

Mirkwood Flock attacks! Hirluin defends. Shadow: Return to staging after attack. Dagnabbit. Useless Gandalf returns to hand.

Ready. Raise threat to 27.

Round 2

Resources. Draw: Deep Knowledge

Play Deep Knowledge, raising threat to 29, and drawing: Daeron's Runes, A Good Harvest. Play Daeron's Runes, drawing: Hunter of Lamedon, A Very Good Tale. Discard: A Very Good Harvest. Play Envoy of Pelargir, adding a resource to Elrond. Play Warrior of Lossnarch. Play A Very Good Tale, exhausting Envoy and Warrior. Discard:  Hunter of Lamedon, Deep Knowledge, Deep Knowledge, Faramir, Ethir Swordsman. Shoot. Farmir is hard to say by to, but I do need more allies in this swarm deck. Hunter and Ethir go into play.

Holding Hunter of Lamedon back and questing with everyone else for a total of 10. Reveal: Despair, which blanks text boxes. Total willpower lowered to 6. 5 in the staging, so one progress placed on the active location.

Mirkwood Flock engages me. Shadow card dealt. Hunter of Lamedon defends. Shadow: Return to staging after attack (booo). Hunter is destroyed and the Flock goes back to staging.

Ready. Raise threat to 30.

Round 3

Resources. Card: Sneak Attack. Play Vilya on Elrond.

Envoy and Elrond stay up. All Outlands characters quest for a total of 9. Reveal Black Forest Bats. Hirluin is removed from questing, lowering willpower to 7. Total threat: 6. One progress placed on the active location (2/4). 

I optionally engage Pack of Wargs. Mirkwood Flock and Black Forest Bats engage me. Shadow cards dealt. I sneak in Gildor Inglorion and exhaust him to look at my top three cards: Gandalf, Warrior of Lossnach, Vilya. I exchange Vilya with Hunter of Lamoden. I re-order the cards: Warrior (bottom) -> Hunter (middle) -> Gandalf (top). Exhaust Elrond and Vilya to reveal Gandalf. Put him into play and deal four damage to the Black Forest Bats, destroying them.

Pack of Wargs attack! Envoy defends. Shadow: +1 attack and a new shadow card. New shadow: Blank. Wargs destroy Envoy, then make another attack. Gandalf defends. No damage dealt. Mirkwood flock attack undefended. Shadow: No effect. Two damage placed on Forlong. Gildor is returned to hand.

Well, I had hoped to eliminate a little more, but at least the staging area is super clear. With how fast my graveyard is filling up, I should have included 1x Will of the West. Lesson learned!

Gandalf is discarded. Ready. Raise threat to 31.

Round 4

Resources and draw: Hunter of Lamedon. Play Hunter of Lamedon. Discard and put Warrior of Lossarnach into play. Exhaust Elrond and Vilya to reveal: Daeron's Runes. Play it and draw: Head the Dream, Anfalast Heardsman. Discard: Vilya. Play A Good Harvest and Head the Dream. Search the top five cards and add Steward of Gondor to hand. I want to get Gildor down soon for Elrond shenanigans.

Quest: Committing 8 willpower of Outlands. Reveal: Dark-Wood Grove. Total threat: 4. Place 2 progress on Mountains of Mirkwood, exploring it. Place 2 progress on stage 1B (2/10). Travel to: Spider-den. Search deck for Black Forest Bats and add it to the staging area.

Black Forest Bats engage me. Shadow cards are dealt. 

Pack of Wargs attacks! Hunter of Lamedon defends. Shadow: Defending Character cannot ready. Hunter takes 1 damage.

Mirkwood Flock attacks! Warrior defends. Shadow: +1 attack. No damage dealt.

Black Forest Bats attack! Herdsman defends. Shadow: Additional attack if character destroyed. No damage dealt.

Ready (not you, Hunter of Lamedon). Raise threat to 32.

Round 5

Resources and card: Vilya. Steward of Gondor goes on Elrond and exhausts to give him two resources. A second Anfalas Herdsman is played. Elrond + Vilya put Gandalf into play, choosing to draw three cards: Envoy of Pelargir, Ethir Swordsman, A Very Good Tale. Swordsman #2 is played. Play A Very Good Tale, exhausting both Swordsmen and discarding: Knights of the Swan, Warrior of Lossarnach, Steward of Gondor, Hunter of Lamedon, Men of the West. Knights of the Swan and Warrior #3 are put into play. Forlong is now turned on! 10 Outlands allies in play now. Swarm be swarmin. 

Quest: Hirluin, Forlong, and two Warriors of Lossarnach for a total of 12 willpower. Reveal; Darkwood Grove. Total threat: 6. One progress is placed on Spider Den, exploring it. It is flipped over and Mendor is put into play under my control. Five progress is placed on stage 1B (7/10). No travel this round. I want to clear up the three enemies engaged with me and not risk adding more. 

Forlong readies. Shadow cards are dealt. 

Pack of Wargs attacks! An Anfalas Herdsman defends. Shadow: No effect. One damage dealt. Wargs attack agan and the other Herdsman defends, taking one damage.

Mirkwood Flock attacks! Knights of the Swan defend. Shadow: Discard an Ally if undefended. No damage dealt. 

Black Forest Bats attacks! A Warrior defends. Shadow: Discard an Ally if undefended. No damage dealt.

Forlong, Gandalf, and Mendor defeat the Pack of Wargs. 

Gandalf is discarded. Ready (you too, Hunter). Raise threat to 33. 

Round 6

Resources and card: Knights of the Swam. Steward gives Elrond two resources. Envoy of Pelargir is played, adding a resource to Elrond. Knights of the Swan are played. A Burning Brand is attacked to Forlong.

Quest: Hirluin, Forlong, Swordsmen x2, and a Herdsman quest for 14. Reveal: Giant Web, which becomes the active location. Total threat: 6. Four progress is played on the Giant Web, exploring it. Four progress is placed on 1B, exploring it. Advance to 2A: Find Despair in the top 5 cards and reveal it (a very punishing card for Outlands. Advance to 2B. 

No travel.

Shadow cards are dealt.

Black Forest Bats attack! Elrond defends. Shadow: Either raise threat by 2 or give enemy +2 attack. I go for threat, raising it to 35. No damage dealt.

Mirkwood Flock attack! Mendor defends. Shadow: None. No damage dealt.

Three Warriors of Lossarnach + Envoy destroy the Black Forest Bats. 

Ready. Raise threat to 36.

Round 7

Resources and card: Heed the Dream. Heed is played and a Herdsman is put into hand. Herdsman #3 is put into play. Elrond and Vilya are exhausted to reveal: Either Swordsman, who is put into play. Steward gives Elrond two more resources. 

Quest: Hirluin, Forlong, Mendor, and Swordsman x3 quest for 22. The Eves of Mirkwood. Total threat: 8. 10 progress is placed on 2B (stage limit). 

Eves of Mirkwood is traveled to. Random discard: Vilya (yes!). 

Shadow card is dealt to Mirkwood Flock. Flock attacks! A Warrior defends. Shadow: Exhaust a character (Envoy). No damage dealt. Both Knights of the Swan destroy the Flock. 

Ready. Raise threat to 37.

Round 8

Resources and draw: Envoy of Pelargir. Envoy #2 is played, adding a resource to Elrond. Steward adds two more resources to Elrond. Gildor Inglorion is played and exhausted to reveal: Knights of the Swan, Warden of Healing, Steward of Gondor. Gandalf (in hand) is switched with Knights of the Swan. Cards are replaced: Gandalf (bottom) -> Steward -> Warden (top). Elrond and Vilya echaust to put Warden of Healing into play. Knights of the Swan is played. Full Outland is achieved! 

EXODIA!

Questing: The same characters as last round + Hunter of Lamedon commit 26. Reveal: Ungoliant's Spider. Total threat: 9. Four progress is placed on The Eaves of Mirkwood, exploring it. Ten progress is placed on stage 2B, exploring it. Advance to 3A: Enchanted Stream is set aside and revealed (this will delay me a round). 

Travel to Darkwood Grove. Encounter card revealed: Turned Around. No progress removed from 3B, but it now has 25 quest points.

Optionally engage Ungoliant's Spawn & deal it a shadow card. Attack! An Envoy of Pelagir defends. Shadow: +3 attack. Envoy is very dead. Various Outlanders gang up on the Spider, killing it.

Warden of Healing removes two damage from Furlong (thanks to Elrond) and one damage from Hirluin.

Ready. Raise threat to 38. 

Round 9

Resources and card: Steward of Gondor. Exhaust Steward in play to give Elrond two resources.

Quest: Cards are discarded until a location is revealed and added to the staging rea: Dry Watercourse. Furlong and Ethir Swordsman x3 quest for 16. Reveal: The Eves of Mirkwood. Total threat: 9. Four progress placed on Dark-wood Grove, exploring it. Hirluin is exhausted to travel to Enchanted Stream. 

Ready. Raise threat to 38.

Round 10

Resources and card: Gandalf. Stewards exhausts to give Elrond two more resources. Gandalf comes down and reduces my threat to 34.

Quest: Reshuffle encounter deck. Discard cards and add Mountains of Mirkwood to the staging area. Alright, holding back Warden of Healing and Envoy of Pelargir. Questing with everyone else for 66 (rock on). Reveal: Hatred Rekindled. No enemies engaged. Surge: Black Forest Bats. Remove Forlong from the quest, lowing total willpower to 62. Toal threat: 10. 6 progress placed on Enchanted Stream, exploring it. 46 progress placed on 3B. 

VICTORY!

Final Score: 124 (90 from completed rounds, 34 threat, no damage on heroes, no points in. the victory display)

Parting Thoughts

While picking Forlong as my Messenger of the King was fun from an Outlands perspective, it set me up for a very rough start while my Outlands forces became established. Then the switch flips during the quest and I am obliterating it. That's how most ally swarm decks work, but it is especially obvious with Outlands.

As for the quest, I had a blast. Feels like Passage Through Mirkwood -> The Oath -> Woodland Realm are a progression in difficulty with similar themes. I'll return to this post in the future and build a new deck using the seven sets not randomly selected this time around.