Seastan's Restricted Progression Mode 1.0

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How about adding Mirror of Galadriel & Silver Harp, also If you meant to put tactics Boromir on the list he should be in The Dead Marshes.

While the Mirror+Harp is a good combo, in my opinion it's only broken if it's being used to search out some other broken combos, which are banned.

Tactics Boromir is banned only once Heirs of Numenor is released. You are free to use him up until then.

What does Heirs of Numenor do to make Boromir banned? Why then? Is it just because the accumulation of all the cards that can support him have hit critical mass?

@bzgamingThere are a few reasons. Heirs of Numenor is the box where battle and siege questing are introduced. The challenge of these quests is to figure out how to handle combat when your primary attackers or defenders are exhausted from the quest. Tactics Boromir is an obvious power card for these quests since he can perform triple duty - quest, defend, and attack.

Furthermore, if he were not banned here in Heirs of Numenor he'd surely be banned in the very next expansion, The Steward's Fear, which contains Gondorian Shield. The ability to defend for 4 nearly unlimited times from turn one with a 1-cost attachment is too much of a power combo in my opinion.

Boromir's ability is the primary culprit, which is why he is banned outright rather than just banning certain combos. With a decent sized card pool it becomes too easy to boost his attack and defense - you'd need to ban the Signals, weapons, armor, Support of the Eagles, even Keeping Count. And threat reduction starts to become commonplace as the cardpool expands, making his drawback negligible. So that's why I decided to ban him where I did.

@SeastanOk, I understand the format now. @bzgaming - I would guess he banned Tactics Boromir after Heirs because of your point and Gondorian Shield.

@Seastan Thanks for the explanation.

I didn't have any problem with the outright ban of Boromir; it's totally understandable. I was just confused about the timing. Judging by your own arguments about building his attack/defense, I would expect an earlier ban, especially since threat reduction wasn't really enhanced much by any Heirs of Numenor cards and all the cards you specifically mentioned were released in the first cycle.

Battle and siege make sense, though, as a tip-the-scales reason to start banning him if you don't think it's necessary to ban him sooner.

@SeastanDid you consider banning A Test of Will? Or adding a restriction such as Limit 1 per deck ?

@mikedrjI seriously considered it yes. Ultimately I thought that it would lead a slippery slope of banning all staple cards rather than just the combos that are cornerstones of "rule them all" decks. I think a list similar to this that bans all the popular staples could also be fun and interesting, but I didn't want to go that far just yet.

Furthermore, I feel that many people already have already played in progression mode with this idea in mind of avoiding power decks, and I didn't want to end up invalidating those decks by banning such a common staple.

I like the idea and this might actually make me try doing a "progression mode" which I haven't done before. A few suggestions on other combos that might need reining in:

Loragorn&Frodo: Even without Legacy of Numenor, Loragorn can be bonkers with Frodo and basically let you break defending. My Loragorn/Grima/Frodo deck I made two cycles ago still beats most modern quests easily.

Doughty Ranger & Eleanor/Merry & Wingfoot: I know it just got released, but this combo could do serious damage down the line and should be stopped. Ignoring treacheries for the entire game is reason enough to halt the combo.

Again, great idea and I'm ready to give this a shot.

@emorlecallorGood suggestions. Loragorn has the potential to be broken but in other decks he can be just fine. I'll see what I can do to curb combos with him.

I love it! Other games have a ban-list, why not LotR? Could go a long way towards fixing some of the minor balance issues that seem to have crept into the game.

I like that you tended towards banning combos rather than individual cards whenever possible. It's always sad to lose access to a card altogether.

I'm sorry to see Ents get a nerf, though. Are they really that much stronger than other traits?

Great idea! I think you're banning the wrong Prince Imrahil with Caldara though, unless I'm missing something tricky.

@SechenThanks, fixed!

For those who think this is still not enough of a challenge: ringsdb.com

I´m confused here, why you have Vilya on this deck if you don´t have Elrond?

Thanks. This is a great idea! The order of the expansions here is that the "official" in-game sequence? For example the order of the saga expansions and POD expansions relative to the normal expansions? Or is there some other logic behind the ordering?

@KristianThe order here is based on the product release date.

I should mention also that many of the cards in this list have now been errata'd to make them more balance. So maybe there is no need for it anymore.

Which Boromir is banned? From the base game or from Numenor?

Boromir