Mormegil's Deckbox

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Mormegil 5393

Mormegil's Deckbox

1. Premise

2. Deck Design

3. Preferred Player Count and Rating

4. Deck Overview

5. Deck Matrix

6. Solo Deck Rating

7. An Offline Deckbox - 13 Decks Were Given to the Race of Men

8. FAQ

9. Closing Notes

1. Premise

After I started playing this game, it soon became apparent that there were two aspects of the game I enjoyed more than all other aspects, even more than playing: The community interactions around the game and deckbuilding. In accordance to these preferences, my list of decks had grown pretty large and extremely unorganized. I therefore wanted to take the end of official player card releases as an opportunity to update, categorize, finalize and publish my decks to have a “deckbox” of sorts on ringsdb, that myself (and other players if so inclined) can turn to when looking for a certain theme, archetype, role, synergy, combo or playing style to bring to the table.

This is of course a very long and time-intensive undertaking, however I am now at a stage where – while not finished – I decided to start publishing what I came up with. So expect this deck description (as well as the list of links for decks posted below) to grow and be updated continuously over the foreseeable future. One aspect of this is of course that you can influence the project since it is by no means done – if you have suggestions on specific decks, considerations for the project in a broader sense or want to request an archetype being posted sooner rather than later, feel free to reach out in the comments down below (or on Discord).

It is also important to mention that other people already have contributed in a significant way to this deckbox. Two I would like to call out specifically are Jban and Rouxxor – two good friends I made playing the game that also happen to be excellent deckbuilders. Pretty much every deck listed down below has been seen by and discussed with them. During that process, a lot of decks improved due to their valuable input and deckbuilding expertise. This project would have been a lot more cumbersome and of a much lower quality without their company!

2. Deck Design

In each archetype, I built four kinds of decks:

  • One Solo deck – the most powerful deck of that archetype I could come up with for solo play.

  • One Multiplayer deck – the most powerful deck of that archetype I could come up with for a multiplayer setting.

  • One Thematic deck – a thematic deck that presents the theme of the archetype in a prominent way (while remaining as functional as possible). If an archetype has no real theme (e.g. [Caldara](/card/06107)), there will be no thematic deck.

  • Any number of Alternative decks – here I explore ideas different to the most powerful versions. They are therefore by default not as strong (although sometimes only very marginally weaker), however often more fun, diverse and creative.

  • If there is an idea that needs more than one deck to accomplish it, I might built a Fellowship exploring that idea. Since there are exponentially more Fellowships to be built than decks (and thus creating a catalogue for them is almost impossible), I will not build them for any idea I have (as I do with decks), but much more seldom if a particular idea really intrigues me.

Sideboards

I stuck to a few rules concerning my sideboards.

There are no second or third copies of cards already in the deck in the sideboard – so when swapping cards in or out, cards that are once or twice in the deck automatically can and should also be considered as options in addition to the sideboard.

Every solo deck has three cards in the sideboard, every other deck five. I try to explain how and when the cards of the sideboard are meant to be used in the respective deck descriptions.

If a thematic or alternative deck is geared towards solo and multiplayer, I included your typical solo choices (like Henamarth Riversong) in the deck with the sideboard containing options to enable a better experience for multiplayer.

3. Preferred Player Count and Rating

The Preferred Player Count and Rating for a deck can be found in the beginning of each deck description.

The former is meant to indicate – who could have guesses – the preferred player count the deck was built for :). If a certain number is set in brackets, the deck will be functional in that player count but is not directly built with it in mind. Here is an example:

Preferred Player Count: 2-3, (4)

  • The deck is most efficient and built for a 2-/3-player-game
  • The deck is not built with a 4-player-game in mind but still useful in one
  • The deck is not very useful for a solo-game

The latter should hopefully give you an idea concerning the power of the deck.

The rating is scaled as follows:

=A solo deck that can win almost every quests with ease/a multiplayer deck way above curve

=A very strong deck that will lead you to victory more often than not

=A deck that can hold its own very well, however it might struggle against very difficult quests

=A deck that can contribute, however be prepared to record quite a few losses as well

=A deck that is ultimately more novel (in terms of fun, theme or interaction) than efficient

Note that the scaling method here are quests in Nightmare mode – so a deck with a rating of should hopefully still beat most normal quests.

Fellowships will be graded by the same metrics, although their preferred player count will logically never drop below 2..

4. Deck Overview

If you are currently using your mobile phone, the following section might be more orderly if viewed in desktop mode.

I sorted the decks by archetype. An archetype seems most commonly classified as certain themes/traits (like “Outlands” or “Woodmen”), however for this section, I decided to also include more abstract archetypes (e.g. “Mono Sphere”, “Combo” or “Tactics Aragorn attacking decks”).

The bold headlines in the following list indicate the overarching archetypes for the following decklinks, before the decks is described the type of deck (solo, multiplayer, alternative or thematic), afterwards (in that order) the player count that deck is suitable for and the power rating (for my rating system see above).

Archetypes released and listed below:

  • One Decks

  • Beornings

  • Caldara

  • Dale

  • Dúnedain

  • Dwarves

  • Ents

  • Háma

  • Hobbits

  • Outlands

  • Rohan

  • Rohan Staging Attack

  • Side Quests

  • Silvans

  • Vilya

  • One Original Core Set Only Decks

  • One Revised Core Set Only Decks

  • Revised Content Only Decks

  • Revised Content Only + Contract Decks

One Decks

NOTE: There are no published stats for the following decks including all scenarios, but I regard the decks/deckbuilders very highly and am thus confident in linking them as One Decks. While I believe that BoF-Vilya is relatively comfortably the best option for a One Deck, I encourage you to check these other decks out as well, they are all extremely powerful and unique!

Beornings

NOTE: Decks built on transforming Grimbeorn the Old into an absolute powerhouse will not be part of this section since I consider them to be more general combat decks and not so much built around the Beorning synergy.

Caldara

Dale

Dúnedain

Dwarves

Ents

Háma

Hobbits

Outlands

Rohan

Rohan Staging Attack

Side Quests

Silvans

Vilya

One Original Core Set Only Decks

One Revised Core Set Only Decks

Revised Content Only Decks

NOTE: The Revised Content Player Card Pool will eventually consist of the released products thus far as well as "The Return of the King" Saga Expansions. I included player cards from all repackaged expansions, even those not yet re-released. I put suitable options in the sideboards if you want to play offline now.

Revised Content Only + Contract Decks

5. Deck Matrix

This table should hopefully provide you with a more in-depth analysis of the decks, their role as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Here is an overview what each column indicates:

  • Archetype: The archetype of the deck (as already sorted by above)

  • Deck Type: The type of deck (i.e. solo, multiplayer, thematic, alternative)

  • Deck Name/Link: The name of the deck in which its ringsdb-link is embedded

  • PPC: The Preferred Player Count for the deck (as explained above)

  • : The Power Rating for the deck from 1-5 (as explained above)

  • : The willpower capabilities of the deck ranked from 0-5

  • : The attacking capabilities of the deck ranked from 0-5

  • : The defensive capabilities of the deck ranked from 0-5

  • : The supporting capabilities of the deck ranked from 0-5. This is a little vague but includes numerous things such as healing, location control, scrying, encounter deck manipulation, cancelling capabilities as well as the ability to support other players with cards or resources

The table should also give you an indication on which decks to pair and which decks to play in which situations. For that, I use the , , and capabilities ranked from 0-5.

These are the capability numbers I target for a very difficult quests added up for all decks in play:

  • In 1P-games, I target values of: ≥ 2, ≥ 1, ≥ 2, ≥ 1

  • In 2P-games, I target values of: ≥ 4, ≥ 2, ≥ 3, ≥ 2

  • In 3P-games, I target values of: ≥ 6, ≥ 4, ≥ 5, ≥ 4

  • In 4P-games, I target values of: ≥ 8, ≥ 6, ≥ 6, ≥ 7

These numbers are of course not applicable to all quests and all fellowships, they are more meant as an approximation/a rule of thumb to help whenever problems occur. In higher player counts, I mostly (but not always!) prefer running specialized decks to having decks that all cover a bit of everything.

Due to CSS-related issues, I had to insert the matrix as an image, rather than code. The links to the decks in this matrix therefore don't work but you can either find them above or you can find the matrix with active links here.

table

6. Solo Deck Ranking

If your are currently using your mobile phone, the following section might be more orderly if viewed in desktop mode.

Ranking multiplayer/thematic/alternative decks is something I find almost impossible to do due to the high amount of variables involved in higher player counts. Power is however much more easily quantifiable when it comes to solo decks, which is why I created this ranking ordering all the solo decks presented above by power.

1. One Deck/Vilya: A Modern One Deck

6. RCO One Deck/Vilya: The RCO One Deck

7. Silvans: Hosts of Galadhrim
.5.

8. Dúnedain: Bond of Rangers
.5.

.5.

10. Caldara: Classic Caldara
.5.

11. Dale: Doomingdales
.5.

12. Dwarves: Doomed Dwarves
.5.

13. Rohan Staging Attack: 3 Hunting Rohirrim
.5.

14. RCO Dale: Welcome to Dale

15. RCO Dwarves: Delving Deep

16. RCO Noldor: Chasing Dreams

18. RCO Noldor: Lords of the Eldar

20. RCO Creatures: Radagast the Brown

21. Beornings: Grim Beornings
.5.

22. RCO Hobbits: The Shirefolk
.5.

23. RCO Silvans: The Tree People
.5.

24. RCO Rohan: Riders of the Mark
.5.

25. RCO Gondor: Wise Captains
.5.

26. One Revised Core Only: My Best Revised Core Deck

27. One Original Core Only: Best Original Core Solo Deck
.5.

28. RCO Dúnhere: Spears of the Mark

7. An Offline Deckbox – 13 Decks Were Given to the Race of Men

Some time ago, Jban and myself challenged ourselves to build a set of 13 decks that can all be built with one complete collection offline.

The aim was to make the decks accessible, fun and diverse for newer players and veterans of the game while still being strong enough to compete against (almost) all quests in the game (be it in easy, normal or nightmare mode). We wanted this set of decks to keep a playing group entertained for a long time, to be suitable to introduce new players to the game and to be a viable option to take to conventions of any level.

Check out the entire project here.

Balanced

Willpower

Combat

Defense

Locations

8. FAQ

Q: Are the ALeP fan-expansion, the ALeP "Free To Choose List" or any other community-created contents part of this project?

A: At this moment, no. I enjoy the ALeP project and am even involved (albeit in a small capacity), however my motivation was to build definitive decks with a "finished" official cardpool. I do plan to introduce a section with ALeP decks after finishing the original project though! If you want to check out some good ALeP decks in the meantime, I can recommend this list by my good friend Rouxxor going over some multiplayer options for ALeP.

Q: Can I influence the project in any way?

A: For sure! If you want to see a specific archetype sooner rather than later for example, just reach out to me and I will see what I can do.

Q: I have a cool deck idea that you seemed to have missed. Can you still add it?

A: Of course, if I have missed something I am always open to adding it to the list. I am happy for all the support and ideas I can get!

Q: How I can reach out with suggestions, criticism or questions?

A: If you don't want to just comment in the comment section here, the best way to reach me for game-related matters is on Discord (my usertag is .mormegil).

9. Closing Notes

Thank you for your time, I am looking forward to your comments, questions and suggestions! As always, please be patient with my English skills which (I fear) are often reflective of me being a non-native speaker.

Thank you again at this point to Jban and Rouxxor for advising.

Thank you (a big thank you) to the people behind ringsdb.com and dragncards.com - I am aware of some of the great work done by Seastan, Beorn and Alsciende in that regard, but am probably missing a few people. Without the immense timesaver those platforms are, I would simply not have had the time for this project!

ENJOY!!!

60 comments

Mar 06, 2024 Alonewolf87 2375

Amazing idea, such a great resource for the community. Thanks for all the effort you spent on this and on your past projects!

Mar 07, 2024 Swordthatwasbroke 734

This is pretty cool! One aspect I really appreciate is the inclusion of functionality at different player counts. As a true solo player, it’s pretty helpful to know beforehand which decks are going to work. I’m particularly excited to see what you come up with for Dunedain, as they are what I consider to be the most challenging solo archetype in the game.

Mar 07, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@Alonewolf87 Thank you! That means all the more coming from someone who puts a lot of effort into the community and various projects as well.

@Swordthatwasbroke Thank you! Yes, my Dúnedain decks are finished for the most part, if you want to see them sooner rather than later, I will push them up in the schedule a bit. Little spoiler ;): In lower player counts, I tend to focus more on their synergy around side quests, with a little bit of the having enemies engaged theme sprinkled in, in multiplayer that swaps, being mostly the other way around.

Mar 08, 2024 rueful_knight 22

This is absolutely incredible. Thank you. As a newer player, I'd love to see some great decks highlighting Revised Content only, for all of us newbies with FOMO.

Mar 08, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@rueful_knight Excellent idea! After the release of Dale later today/tomorrow, I will release some Core Set Only/Revised Content Only stuff during the next week!

Mar 08, 2024 Kyeamo 15

Fantastic resource. Thanks for uploading. I found your ent deck suggestions very useful. Choosing hero lineups for ents is an interesting deckbuilding challenge.

Mar 08, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Update: DALE has been added.

@Kyeamo Thank you for the kind words. Yes, Ent lineups were quite interesting to figure out, especially in solo, where it took quite some testing before I settled on my final lineup.

Mar 08, 2024 jpkeaney 13

Wow, what an amazing resource!!! Incredible!

If you are looking for suggestions, some things I'd be interested to see:

  • Noldor, Gloin, Gandalf, Three Hunters, monosphere, other racial archetypes like Silvan, Rohan, Hobbit, etc

Mar 08, 2024 ktsmo 1

Such a cool project and huge inspiration/guide for trying different kinds of decks! I'd love to see some Isengard/doomed themed decks.

Mar 09, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@jpkeaney, @ktsmo Thank you for the mind feedback! All deck archetypes you mentioned are ones I plan to cover, with some of them already finished. They will be released in the coming weeks!

Mar 09, 2024 ricardojpmatos 1

Hi,

First of all, thank you for you work, this is amazing!

I'm a new player (RCO) and as @rueful_knight said, I would love too to see some decks for revised content and, if possible, a One Deck for RCO? It's something I've been searching since I've discovered that kind of decks but have found nothing for RCO.

Mar 10, 2024 jpkeaney 13

Two other comments:

  1. `@Mormegil your English is great! I love reading your analytical, Seastan-esque essays!
  2. It seems like RCO really destroys all of the top tier archetypes except dale/dwarves. Vilya pretty much has to have gandalf and Merry, which starts at too high threat for some quests, the contracts, outlands, and caldara are totally gone. Seems like a really different meta...

Mar 14, 2024 SamWAR 1

I wonder if there's anything close to a One Deck using only revised content cards... Might seem odd, but in my country for instance the game is only being published with regularity now, and it's not really possible to acess old sets like Darrowdelf, until FFG decides to reprint it. Either way, amazing job here.

Mar 14, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@ricardojpmatos @SamWAR @jpkeaney A One Deck using revised content only will be with you in the coming days, maybe next week. I almost finished the runthrough with one and will publish it as soon as the last quests are finished and a writeup has been done.

Mar 19, 2024 SamWAR 1

That's awesome, thanks for all the effort.

Mar 21, 2024 Crus 72

Impressive, thanks!

Mar 21, 2024 Mormegil 5393

RCO Decks are now part of the Deckbox!

I have added 13 new decks, all built out of the RCO pool, among them even a RCO One Deck (https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/45965/thercoonedeck-1.0) that I have taken through all the RCO quests. Hopefully there are some newer players interested in these decks, they have been a lot of fun to build.

@ricardojpmatos, @SamWAR, @jpkeaney I hope that covers some of the aspects you wished to see included here.

Mar 21, 2024 ricardojpmatos 1

@Mormegil absolutely! Thank you again for your effort!

Mar 24, 2024 Bayoup 1

You're the best, thank you very much for all this work and all your effort.

Mar 26, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Hobbits have been added to the deckbox.

Raise the Shire! :)

Apr 08, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Two Hobbit decks have been added, as well as the first Fellowship of the deckbox (https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/19280/friendoffriends) - where better to start with a thematic fellowship that only runs Frodo and Sam as heroes.

Vilya will be with you in the coming days.

Apr 10, 2024 Narook88 3

This is amazing thank you so much for sharing ❤️

Apr 10, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@Crus, @ricardojpmatos, @Bayoup, @Narook88

Thank you for all the kind words :)

Apr 11, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Vilya has been added. You can expect the usual stuff (very strong decks, some of them One Decks) but one thing might be a little more interesting:

This deck running Vilya alongside Ally Elrond

Apr 26, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Silvans have been added to the deckbox. Sorry for the long wait, but Silvans are one of the most tricksy archetypes to play (as well as maybe my favorite Trait-based archetype in the game) so I wanted to do justice to them.

I extensive write-ups, ridiculous combos or janky archetypes are your thing, I can only encourage you to check them out!

Apr 27, 2024 ricardojpmatos 1

Hi @Mormegil, eager to see those Core Set only decks!

Now, another request for RCO, after the Core Set decks could make some RCO + contracts decks, if that makes sense to you?

Since contracts are the easiest cards to proxy, I think that would be cool for RCO players to play with them.

Apr 27, 2024 rueful_knight 22

Love the contracts +RCO idea! I second that.

Apr 30, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@ricardojpmatos, @rueful_knight Sure, I can build some decks for that I suppose (especially since it probably won't take much work with most decks being modifications of existing ones).

May 07, 2024 YodaSkyy 1

@Mormegil The Deckbox is so much fun! Great work. I browse it several times a day lol. I'd love to see your Gondor and Rohan decks (I'm doing my 1st playthroughs of Numenor and Isengard sometime this summer.) Again, great work.

May 07, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@YodaSkyy Thank you! My way of advancing will probably be Core Set Only decks -> RCO with contract -> Rohan. So you should get that sometime soon at least, with Gondor hopefully close behind :)

May 08, 2024 Mormegil 5393

I added decks for solo, multiplayer, as well as a 2p-Fellowship if you only have one Core Set available to you. If you only have one revised Core Set available to you, I will publish some options for that shortly. After that, the plan is to revisit RCO+Contract decks before I move onto some "regular" archetypes again, probably starting with Rohan. Enjoy :)

May 12, 2024 Mormegil 5393

2 Updates: Posted some Revised Core Set Decks. Also, we have another One Deck by Alonewolf87 that I added to the box. Enjoy :)

May 16, 2024 Tegyrius 126

Is there is published 4-player fellowship that can be all quests? (Within the normal one deck rules.)

May 16, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Not as far as I know. Building a 4p Fellowship to beat all quests will not be that difficult however (with the amount of interactions and combos available then), the problem will be going through all the scenarios playing 4-handed. That would take half a lifetime ... and it would also not be very interesting, since at least one deck should be a variation of a combo deck, which makes the whole thing very dull

May 16, 2024 Alonewolf87 2375

Me and my wife did with these decks

ringsdb.com

May 16, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Well there you go @Tegyrius. The possibilities are endless ... I think One-Decking gets progressively easier with the number of players you add, that has been my experience so far at least

May 19, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Added a 3P-Fellowship with Core Cards only. Later this week, expect some RCO decks starring themes of the upcoming Ered Mithrin Expansion (like Dale, Beornings or Woodmen). After that, I will finally move on to the RCO+Contract decks as well as Rohan

May 24, 2024 Mormegil 5393

I updated the RCO deck pool with a Dale deck and a Creatures deck (due to the release of the Ered Mithrin expansion). The Dale deck in particular really serves as an introduction to the archetype including a long writeup if anybody wants to delve into that archetype without prior experiences! You can find it here ...

ringsdb.com

May 24, 2024 YodaSkyy 1

@Mormegil Excellent! I'm excited for the campaign box. For attachment-heavy decks, do you have a specific way of keeping track of the character stats? Like tiny 6-sided dice or something? Or do you just roll with the brainburn? :)

May 24, 2024 Mormegil 5393

I either play on dragncards.com (where there are built-in token options) or handle the brainburn ;)

May 31, 2024 Mormegil 5393

I added two new RCO deck with themes from the new Ered Mithrin Expansion, one Beorning and one Haldan deck. Enjoy!!

May 31, 2024 ricardojpmatos 1

Hi @Mormegil, the link for the Haldan deck it's not working.

May 31, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Thanks @ricardojpmatos, fixed it

Jun 04, 2024 Mormegil 5393

The next really big archetype (Rohan) has been released, including a bit of musing on the archetype in this decklist. I also released the first of the much-requested RCO+Contract decks.

Regarding the RCO+Contract decks, I chose to publish them not as a bulk as usual but one-by-one. The reason for that being that I want to keep a continuous flow of RCO content (and I can only do so many writeups).

Jun 05, 2024 Calaquendi 14

Thanks again this content is great! Making me want to break away from the gravitational pull that is Silvan/Nolder Elf decks to try something different

Jun 05, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Great to hear! I understand, Noldor ans Silvan are two of my favorite traits as well!

Jun 27, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Beornings have been added to the box! I hope you will have fun with Beorn, Grimbeorn and some cuddly monsters!

I had quite a lot to do during the last weeks so apologies for the very infrequent updates, I should have some more time now!

Enjoy!!!

Jul 17, 2024 Mormegil 5393

I added the Rohan Staging Attack archetype and another RCO+Contract deck to the box. Enjoy!

Aug 14, 2024 Mormegil 5393

Háma has been added

Aug 15, 2024 mahman1224 1

I really like your decks! Please, don't stop!

Aug 15, 2024 Calaquendi 14

Do you have any thoughts or templates for a spirit Legolas and leadership Gimli deck for true Solo? Saw one from a few years back with Arwen and ring of Thror to support wide range of attachments and was wondering on your thoughts given breadth of your deck building.

Aug 15, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@mahman1224 Thank you, that is very cool to hear :). I definitely plan to continue!

@Calaquendi Yes, I will get to them at some stage as well. I suggest (for solo) to go with 3 Hunters and run a draw hero alongside them (probably Galdor or Erestor) to ensure a quick flip, thus "fixing" questing. Arwen or Galdor should also work fine, but I usually prefer tri-sphere for 3Hs

Sep 06, 2024 Mormegil 5393

The biggest update since a long time has been released with 10 new Dúnedain decks added.

One of my favorite archetypes to play, I find this archetype very diverse in terms of playing styles which is why the decks are quite the different experiences I find, from classic engagement decks to combo decks to location management decks to Grey Wanderer shenanigans.

It was also requested by quite a few people to be added soon (on here @Swordthatwasbroke reached out for example) so I hope you enjoy it :)

Sep 07, 2024 DerHansi 41

I love these decks, but really have to try them. Planning a run of Tale of Years, so I hope...

Sep 09, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@DerHansiThank you and good luck with that :)

Sep 09, 2024 Grandson of Gror 1

Just wanted to say thanks for making these decks. They have helped a new player get into the game.

Sep 09, 2024 edawg99 1

Mormegil, you are a master deck maker. I really appreciate the hard work you put into these decks. My friends and I are having a blast using them! Each of us have found several of your decks to be well built and fun to play. Thank you for your hard work.

Sep 10, 2024 Mormegil 5393

@Grandson of Gror, @edawg99 Thank you both for the really kind words, they are very much appreciated!

Sep 24, 2024 Mormegil 5393

I added 4 new RCO decks, which can be used alongside contracts (the cards most easy to proxy, which is why people like @ricardojpmatos and @rueful_knight expressed interest in those).

Enjoy!

Oct 12, 2024 Mormegil 5393

I published some Side Quests decks. A very strong archetype (this deck is the strongest non-Vilya solo deck I released to date) but also extremely fun and diverse. Enjoy!