Welcome To Against The Shadow

I have a love for CCGs going back to the early days of Magic the Gathering. After that I got into Guardians, Middle Earth, Warlord Saga of the Storm, Arcadia The Wyld Hunt, and World of Warcraft. But even though I enjoyed each one of them, I’ve found I very much prefer the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game over all of them. I can’t point to any one thing that draws me in… I think it’s a combination of multiple factors. First, I’ve loved the Lord of the Rings (and the Hobbit) since I read the books as a teenager many years ago and played the Middle Earth Role Playing System (“MERPS”), so I find the subject matter appealing…I even have my own “The Hobbit” pinball machine. Secondly, I love puzzles, and I think that the way the Scenarios are constructed, they give me the impression that they are a puzzle to be solved. The fact that many Scenarios are very challenging only fuels my desire to solve them even more. The other thing I love about the game is how it is designed to be cooperative as opposed to competitive, and most especially how it has been designed with solo play in mind, since I rarely have someone else to play the game with. Finally, I think my favorite part is not having to spend lots of money chasing down rare cards!

So why is this blog here? With the release of the Revised Set, there should be more interest returning to the game. I'm going to focus on an aspect of the game not covered at many other sites:

• Solo Play. I'll be constructing decks to challenge each scenario. I have 2 Core Sets and every game expansion, including the fan-made A Long Extended Party (ALEP), which I paid to have physcially printed through MB Print. I only use physical cards, not OCTGN.
• Cycle Progression Mode. I'll only use cards available within that Cycle’s release.
• Different Heroes. I will use a different combination of Heroes for each Scenario.
• Nightmare Scenarios. I’ll be challenging Nightmare versions of scenarios. The goal is to challenge Nightmares using a single, solo deck. Since the Nightmare version is the same Scenario, just harder, I have the option of using the same deck as on the standard version, or making a new one.
• Rating each Scenario. FFG and player difficulty ratings don't take solo into consideration, and difficulty doesn't always equate to fun. I will have a rating system from 1-100, with 100 being the most enjoyable.

A step by step play through will be included at the end of each article for those who wish to see how victory was achieved. However, the main focus is a discussion around the challenges the scenario presents, the deck building strategy to overcome those challenges, and a summary of my deck's performance. But the main takeaway is that these decks I have constructed are FUN to play! Playing Scenarios with only the Core Set or 1-2 expansions is dull - you see the same old cards all the time, and they lose - a lot. My decks are fun, and I always feel like I have a shot to win. As befits the name of the blog, I'm calling this Cycle Progression Mode the Against the Shadow series.

Why Cycle Progression?

Fantasy Flight Games has stated that Scenarios within a Cycle were always meant to be played with all of the cards in the Cycle. They designed it that way purposely: the entire Cycle was designed at once, then the Core or Deluxe Expansion is released, followed by monthly expansion packs with new Scenarios. There was never an intention that cool cards issued in a later expansion pack, such as Tactics Boromir or Support of the Eagles, be used only with the expansion pack they were released with. Do you really think Support of the Eagles is not a great and Scenario-thematic card to use in A Journey to Rhosgobel, even though it was released after that Scenario? If you play Progression Mode, you deny yourself this intended enjoyment. I get the whole "play them as they were released" argument...I've done that myself. But players doing this are missing the bigger picture.

Expansions were released monthly primarily to take the sting out of costs. In a TCG, if you got a very rare card, you could always make money by selling it. A LCG, on the other hand, doesn't give you the option to make money on your cards, because the cards are fixed and anyone can buy a pack and get the same cards that you have, so you are stuck with the costs you've sunk into it. The expansions are designed to make the cost more palatable by spreading it out over a 6 month cycle. $80 up front for 2 Core Sets and $15/month for expansions for 6 months is easier to swing than $270 up front, and  adding another Deluxe expansion for $30 and 6 more monthly expansions is cheaper than $390 at the start of the year for everything. And that doesn't include Print on Demand or Nightmare Deck releases. What I'm getting at is that Cycle expansions were released monthly - not because they weren't made to be played together - but rather due to spreading out cost and, very likely from a marketing perspective, to generate fresh interest and excitement over a shorter periodic interval.

A LCG can be defined as the mechanics of a TCG with a board game-like feel ("everything's in the box"). This is because the fixed card pool means every player has access to every card needed to build their deck. It allows for more exciting and varied deck building possibilities, because you are not limited to the cards you pull from booster packs. It ensures that games are determined by a player’s deck building skills and play strategies, rather than by spending gobs of money in pursuit of hard-to-find ultra rare cards, without which you are at a disadvantage in terms of deck building and strategy. By restricting your card pool to Progression Mode, you are, in a sense, emulating a TCG...not using other cards in the Cycle is like not spending the money in a TCG to acquire cards to help build your decks and hone your strategy. You limit your deck building and strategy.

And to the Progression Mode player, how exactly do you challenge the Escape from Dol Guldur Scenario in the Core Set in true solo? Warden of Arnor tried this in his "The Line Unbroken" solo Progression series but played two-handed solo, not true solo. Vision of the Palantir tried it as well with his "There and Back Again" series, but he changed so many rules, he might as well be playing a different game. Copterman on Youtube made the objective "get Brok Ironfist into play!" Using Cycle Progression Mode, I beat Escape from Dol Guldur in 2 out of 3 games played, in true solo, with 2 different heroes captured. I will share the deck that accomplished this when I go through that Scenario, and discuss strategy. But first, I have to get through Against the Shadow #1: Passage Through Mirkwood.