Intro to Spirit 2018 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

One of my favorite things to do with LotR is to introduce the game to new players, welcoming them into the game which I love so much. One deck I created last year that seems to have some popularity is my Three Hunters: Learn to Play deck (http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/3906/the-three-hunters-learn-to-play-1.0). This is a deck that is part of a two-player fellowship, that serves as a much more fun deck to teach to a new player than a core set only starter. For its counterpart see: http://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/7915/intro-to-tactics-2018-1.0

Out of the two decks in the fellowship, this is the deck that I would encourage the more experienced player to play. It is not overly complicated, but rather it may not be as exciting for a new player to be the questing focused deck. This deck also plays a lot of attachments on the other player's deck.

Even though this deck has Rider of Rohan I don't necessarily say that a mulligan for a side quest is all that important, since the other deck is searching hard for Keep Watch, but seeing any of the 3 side quests in your opening hand is not a bad thing.

I have found that a card I like to see early is Silver Harp, it allows the player to negate the penalty of Círdan the Shipwright's ability, giving them strong card draw. Also, anytime you can play a Northern Tracker, I would say that it is a good idea to do so. With this being a mono all it takes is a discard from Arwen Undómiel to pull it off.

In the beginning of the game I always quest with Arwen and Cirdan, while leaving Merry back for possible reduction. Since this deck takes some setup before it is really in a position to deal with combat, Merry's ability is very important. Seeing a Hobbit Pony can also assure that he is not sitting around like a lame duck, if an enemy happens to not be revealed.

Snowmane, Unexpected Courage and Windfola are all cards that probably best benefits the team if they are played on the heroes from the other deck. Within this deck Cirdan is the best candidate for Unexpected Courage, because of his versatile combat stats.

The deck specializes in questing, management and cancelation. As far as approaching combat goes, Jubayr, Háma, Cirdan or chump blocking are your options. The deck is slightly better at killing enemies than it is at defending.

Elven-light in conjunction with Arwen is a way in which you can increase your card draw throughout the game, but I have found that I would rather see Silver Harp early than Elven Light.

This deck should not have any problem, mustering up a lot of pretty fast, taking the load in questing while the other deck takes the load of combat.