As a skin-changer, and avid hunter of orcs, wargs, and other fell beasts, I am obviously a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game. When I am tired after a long day scouring the Misty Mountains of the servants of evil, I like nothing more than a nice mug of mead and an epic game of my favorite LCG.
After witnessing the heroic deeds of the fine folks at the Cardboard of the Rings podcast and Tales from the Cards blog I have been inspired to share my thoughts on the game. A consistent theme that I have noticed from newer players on the various LotR forums is the difficulty of the game. As an experienced orc-slayer, I feel it is my duty to the adventurers of Middle-Earth to aid them in their quest to rid the land of the scourge of Sauron.
So come, weary travelers, welcome to my hall! Rest your tired legs, have some mead and honey cakes, and enjoy hearty tales of bravery and fellowship.
Hall of Beorn 
Glade to see another blog pop up! Also, I’m glad to see you hyphenate Middle-earth. Instant street cred 😉
Thanks shipprekk! Yeah, I’m a huge fan of the books, though it can be hard to hold such small objects with my massive paws. In any case, I will do my utmost to keep names, places, etc. accurate to, or at least respectful of, the source material.
Hey it is Brandon from Cardboard of the Rings, thanks for the shout-out, the blog looks great!
Hey Brandon, I’m a big fan! If I run into the CotR guys at GenCon this year, I’m buying you all big mugs of mead! Thanks for showing your support, I really like how friendly and welcoming (almost all of) the LotR LCG community is. I get a lot of enjoyment out of this game and I am inspired to see the hard work of others, like you guys with the podcast, and Ian with Tales from the Cards. Thanks again for the support and welcome to the hall.
Hello,
I am not sure whether this is the best place to write the comment I am writing now. I am responding to the secrecy idea deck. I am basically stating my experience. I too have often found this to be a lesser strategy. It has slowly become better but it still lacks cards, especially allies, I find.
The only serious and continuous success I had was with Spirit Glorfindel. He seems to be the key right now for I fell 3 hero will always be better than 2 hero, unless some game-changing cards show up.
I was often thinking of using Théodred also as I find Timely Aid perhaps the most valuable secrecy card to date – or the most fun. And Théodred is really great hero also.
Still, the best deck I have come up with was with Bifur and Denethor (for solo play, mind). It is a bit ironic as the only secrecy card I am using (though three copies of, of course) is Risk Some Light. As we know, the chances of losing the game early are often greater than any other time. Thus, having Risk Some Light on round 1 when you can play it for free is the key. More so, it allows you to save Denethor of combat on round 1 since you should have a good card previewed already, unless you are unlucky.
I have beaten most of the current quests soundly with this line-up. Massing at Osgiliath, the quest I play (and have played) more than any other is certainly easiest with this specific deck.
However, the new quests with the battle and siege mechanics are very tough like that. And I do not see any card coming soon to change that. I can perhaps beat Pelargir once in two games but have very little chance against the rest.