Category: Uncategorized

So, this post is late, very late, but better late than never. Very brief announcement here. We are going live once again tomorrow, April 24, at 4pm Eastern. This will be a very special episode of Second Breakfast as we will be announcing a double giveaway (there will be two separate contests) and giving you details on how to enter. We will be playing against the dead marshes and if you do not have that quest, come and join us anyway, we have something prepared for you as well. Come and join us as we will have prizes for new and veteran players alike. Until tomorrow, happy gaming!!

Wow, what a great second breakfast we had yesterday. Unfortunately for the spiders, they did not get any breakfast (let alone second breakfast). Yesterday, we tackled Flies and Spiders, the first quest in the second Hobbit saga box: On the Doorstep. Finally, we won one of these challenges. It felt so good. As usual, I will not go into a lot of detail on our play in this post. If you want that, go ahead and watch the video. I will just be covering some of the highlights here.

We started our quest with a bit of rotten luck, two or three rounds in, we ended up getting a Lazy Lob while we were at the Forest Stream. That poisoned all of our currently questing characters, and as we did not clear the location that round, we were left with very few characters to quest with in the following round. We were able to overcome that difficulty with Caldara being able to pull four allies from my discard for the following round and that gave us enough to power through the stream.

Once we got past the first quest card, I was the first player and had to knock all of my characters unconscious (I also had to remove all of Bilbo’s resources, something I had not realized and had been stacking up extra resources on bilbo for the whole game). The first round by myself, I readied Imrahil for questing, leaving myself vulnerable to attack. Had I pulled an enemy that had 3 or more attack, our game would have ended there. Luckily, I got a treachery that had no effect and we ended up crushing the rest of the quest.

Both of our decks worked quite well for us. My deck did not swarm or utilize pipes as much as it has before (this is the first time that I actually played the deck before the stream), but I got a really good Caldara setup, pulling four allies worth 12 resources total from my discard. I think a bit of the pipe interaction was lost due to not being able to play Bilbo in this quest which I normally would put in this deck. I also was unable to play Jubayr, which is another fun ally to be able to play with Caldara and I normally would have him in this deck as well. Had I looked a little closer at the quest, I probably would have put Power of Orthanc into my deck as well. I did not realize that poison was a condition attachment. Although, we were already having some threat issues so maybe it is better that I didn’t.

Ethan’s deck did surprisingly well. He drew some tough deck restrictions but was able to pull something brilliant out of it. Even though Kahlil was nearly incapacitated the entire game, he still pulled it off. His deck was quite powerful and was pretty good all around. He did not have a ton of attack but still managed to kill spider after spider as he waited for me to finally rejoin him. It may have even been his best Second Breakfast build yet and he figured that it would be one he would save for future plays as well.

Overall, it was a really good game with some really fun and tense moments. The spiders will have to try harder next time. I think this was probably my favorite challenge yet and aside from a few technical difficulties, it went pretty well. As always, I would encourage you to try this challenge for yourself. You can find the deck restrictions down below or in the Youtube video description. I would really like to see some more of the Harad decks. I think it was an interesting combo. If you enjoy Lord of the Rings content and want some more deck inspiration, don’t forget to check out the rest of the Youtube channel where the main show gets posted every Tuesday.

As for how you can best interact with us and Second Breakfast challenges, make sure to check out our Discord server (link below), where we now have an all new Second Breakfast channel. Feel free to post your decks there and share your playthrough experiences with us. We would love to hear from you. Also, make sure to join us on April 24, 4pm Eastern, as we bring you another challenge. This time, we will be going way back in the game’s history and visiting a place that is uncomfortably close to the gates of Mordor. This will be a very special episode as we will be announcing a giveaway. I’ll just say for now that the giveaway will be a product that is now somewhat rare and everyone who owns a core set can use. You don’t want to miss it so make sure to join our livestream for that. See you all in two weeks.

CHALLENGE

Quest: Flies and Spiders

Micah’s deck: Spirit-Pipes-Ally Swarm https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/27355/challenge3spirit-pipes-allyswarm-3.0

Ethan’s deck: Harad-Bond of Friendship-No Events https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/27237/challenge3bondoffriendship-harad-noevents-2.0

LINKS

Discord: https://discord.gg/FwhbTA6jPZ

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CardTalkAnLOTRLCGPodcast

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cardtalk2018

Okay, I am going to apologize already for the confusion I am going to cause with this post. Easter is coming up and we did not want to do a livestream on Easter Sunday, which we were scheduled to do. Additionally, our current schedule is not ideal for Ethan. It would be much better if we switched over to the opposite Sundays from the ones we have been streaming on. To solve both problems, we are going to be skipping this weekend. THERE WILL BE NO LIVESTREAM THIS SUNDAY, APRIL 3. The next livestream will be on April 10 at 4 pm Eastern time. Following that, we will be livestreaming every second Sunday as usual. Thus, our next two livestreams will be on April 10 and April 24. In the meantime, continue playing around with last week’s challenge against The Watcher in the Water. Let us know your thoughts on how it went and decklists that you are using for it. Either post it in the Youtube comments or join us on our Discord server to discuss these challenges, we would love to hear from you. If you have already tried both decks against this quest, I’ll give you another deck to try here. Try building a deck with no unique cards (except your heroes), no events, and Grima. That should be enough of a challenge to keep you occupied until next week. We’ll see you next on the 10th then if not before then on the Discord server and you should join us there. You really should. We want to discuss with you. Ted is not the only one who loves talking about cards (although, he is on there too). So join us. The link is right here: https://discord.gg/TqwkhDGHNa. Just click it. Do it now. In all seriousness though, we do really want to discuss these challenges with you and engage with the community in that way. Until next time, don’t stop playing and having fun.

This is a combat deck not a questing deck, but it does rely on questing successfully to play some of it’s cards.

In this deck I use Hirgon to reduce the cost of higher cards while using Grimbeorn and allies to combat the forces of Sauron. In my opening hand, I would like to see a Skin-changer, Steward of Gondor, Legolas, Send for Aid or Gather Information, Honour Guard and Hauberk of Mail. This allows you to get resource acceleration going with Steward and Theodred, Legolas for card draw and Send for Aid allows you to get an ally in the top 10 when cleared. Honour Guard and Raven Wing Helm help mitigate damage. Gather Information helps to get Legolas or the Armored Destrier for combat control. Generally, Théodred’s resource goes to Hirgon as you want to save Grimbeorn’s resources for his attack backs.

Power grimbeorn the old nightmare

Main Deck

Hero (3)
Grimbeorn the Old (The Withered Heath)
Hirgon (Beneath the Sands)
Théodred (Core Set)

Ally (21)
2x Beorn (Core Set)
3x Beorning Guardian (The Crossings of Poros)
3x Beorning Skin-changer (The Withered Heath)
1x Erestor (The Long Dark)
3x Giant Bear (Fire in the Night)
1x Grimbold (The Flame of the West)
2x Honour Guard (The Wastes of Eriador)
3x Legolas (The Treason of Saruman)
2x Warrior of Dale (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
1x Yazan (The Mûmakil)

Attachment (22)
2x Armored Destrier (Temple of the Deceived)
2x Bow of Yew (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
2x Cram (Over Hill and Under Hill)
3x Dúnedain Mark (The Hunt for Gollum)
3x Dúnedain Warning (Conflict at the Carrock)
2x Hauberk of Mail (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
2x Raven-winged Helm (The Wastes of Eriador)
2x Secret Vigil (The Lost Realm)
2x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
2x Warrior Sword (The Ghost of Framsburg)

Event (5)
2x Feint (Core Set)
3x Sneak Attack (Core Set)

Player Side Quest (2)
1x Gather Information (The Lost Realm)
1x Send for Aid (The Treachery of Rhudaur)

3 Heroes, 50 Cards
Cards up to The Ghost of Framsburg

Sideboard

Ally (4)
1x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)

Attachment (10)
1x Celebrían’s Stone (Core Set)
2x Necklace of Girion (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
3x Song of Travel (The Hills of Emyn Muil)
1x Steward of Gondor (Core Set)
3x Unexpected Courage (Core Set)

Event (3)
3x The Galadhrim’s Greeting (Core Set)

Decklist built and published on RingsDB.

Well, that challenge went…um…swimmingly? If our definition of swimmingly is being drug down into the depths of a stagnant pool to swim evermore with The Watcher, then yes, it went swimmingly. Anyway, welcome to the blog version of Second Breakfast where every other Monday, I will be spending a little bit of time recapping how our playthrough went and posting the challenge here for you all to read and maybe give it a go. I won’t go into to much detail here on the playthrough, if you want that, go check out the video of the livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAekPpwr62M

So, as stated earlier, things did not go very well for us during this challenge, although it was not as bad as our first challenge. Our first play resulted in a quick reset due to some rotten luck from the encounter deck and Ethan’s deck really falling flat. On our second run my deck was really not up and running until later in the game, after I had already lost Gildor. Still, Ethan’s deck took off and we nearly won (although it has been pointed out that due to an overlooked willpower, we should have lost during round 7), but the deck was being ruthless, giving us all the wrong Doors of Durin cards. On the last quest phase, we pulled a stagnant creek which ended up raising our threats by five, killing both of us (I would not recommend bringing the one ring to this quest, but for this challenge, you just kind of have to deal with it). If I had a test of will (but you never have them when you need them), we would have been able to make the Doors of Durin test immediately after, and won the game.

Even though we failed again though, we had a lot of fun with this challenge. As I have said multiple times, this is one of my favorite quests in what is easily my favorite cycle (also the first cycle I ever got). This one was a real roller coaster and about 5 or 6 rounds in, we had both kind of given up and just decided to play it out anyway, taking it to a very near-victory in the end. Yes, I know what you are thinking, I am ignoring our round 7 mistake. Yes, I am going to pretend that just wasn’t a thing. And yes, I am okay with it (although I appreciate being notified about it, thanks Carl). Back on topic, these are the kinds of moments that really remind us why we play and love this game. It was tense and we were on the edge of our seat the entire time.

So what was the challenge? Well, if you are new to Second Breakfast, this is a series where we play a random quest with random deck restrictions assigned to each of us. The goal of this is to hopefully spark different ideas for deckbuilding and maybe get people to think differently about certain cards and how they can be used to build decks. For example, I have never used and probably never would have used hero Bombur or mainly Lore dwarves in a deck before. But after seeing it actually work alright for Ethan, I may revisit that someday and I don’t see Bombur as being utterly useless anymore. The other aspect of these challenges is that it really narrows the focus of a deckbuild. If you are like me and want to include every card in every deck or are a newer player who is overwhelmed by the amount of cards there are in the game, these challenges can really help you narrow those options down and give you a starting point (maybe a really terrible starting point but a starting point nonetheless) for constructing a deck. Therefore, while it may be more of a challenge in the sense that it is harder to construct a really good deck, it also can make the deckbuilding process significantly easier as well.

The challenge for this week, which has been made obvious by now, was to play The Watcher in the Water, the third adventure pack from the Dwarrowdelf cycle. My deck restrictions were to play with the “master” trait, Thorongil, and “put into play” effects (basically effects that allow you to play cards for no cost). Ethan’s deck had to use hero Bombur, be an ally swarm deck, and be a healing deck as well. Keep in mind that when we play these decks on the livestream, they are always untested and we have no previous experience with them.

For that reason, there are a couple things I would have changed about my deck. First, I should have looked at the quest again more closely because I did not remember the dramatic amount of threat increases that this quest can throw at you. Had I seen that, I would have included some more threat reduction in my deck. Second, you can see in the livestream the moment I pick up Elfhelm in my second game and realize that in order to use his “put into play” effect, I have to use a Rohan resource (I was not running a single Rohan hero). For that reason, he is definitely going to get booted from this deck as he is then practically useless (there are a lot better ways to get his stat line for a cost of 4 or less).

Apart from those two changes though, I actually kind of enjoyed this deck. I really liked being able to play Thorongil on Elrohir giving him just a ton of defense, an extra readying ability (which I used incorrectly once), and less of a starting threat cost than hero Elrohir (sacrificing only 1 attack and 1 hit point). I also liked being able to have a lot of solid, unique allies that I always had the option to use power of command on (even though I think I only ever used it once). This deck really generates a solid amount of willpower (and for future reference, I will be putting Light of Valinor on Elladan instead which I believe will be far more useful). Overall, I think the deck does pretty well provided you get Thorongil and Steward of Gondor.

Enough about me though (and I can’t speak for Ethan’s deck as I did not play it but I think it did pretty well), I won’t bore you with any more details regarding our playthrough. Again, if you want that, you can go watch it yourself. However, I will put all of the challenge details in a shortened form here at the end of this post. If this kind of challenge format is something that interests you, please go try it for yourself. If you do, be sure to let us know how it went and leave a link to what decks you used. You can do that either in the comments of the Youtube video (linked below), or chat with us in our new Discord channel (also linked below). And lastly, if you are liking these challenges, be sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel so that you don’t miss any. That way, you can also check out the main podcast which puts out quality content every week and is just a lot of fun to listen to. There is a reason that this show is called Second Breakfast, its great, but there is no Second Breakfast without a first one (and trust me, the first one is so much better so go check it out). Most importantly, go play the game. That is what Card Talk is really about, getting people excited to play more game and build more decks. While you are at it, maybe give this challenge a try and come back in two weeks for a new one.

Challenge #2:

Quest: The Watcher in the Water

Deck 1: Hero Bombur, Healing, Ally Swarm (Ethan’s deck: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/26598/challenge2bomber-healing-allyswarm-1.0)

Deck 2: Master, Thorongil, “Put into Play” Effects (My deck: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/26599/challenge2master-putintoplay-thorongil-1.0#)

Links:

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CardTalkAnLOTRLCGPodcast

Discord server: https://discord.gg/ArrDgDKFCg

This week’s livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAekPpwr62M

Just a quick little announcement for this weekend. If you missed the first one or if the first Second Breakfast left you hungry for more, then you are in luck. We are coming back this Sunday with a second Second Breakfast livestream at 2pm Eastern, March 20. Second Breakfast is a live playthrough series in which we take on a new challenge every two weeks, with random deck restrictions, trying to beat a random quest. That means that every two weeks there will be a completely fresh challenge that we want to invite you to participate in. Plus, with all that has been happening, from topics that were discussed on the pod, recent announcements from FFG, and the taste of the previous challenge lingering (I can still taste the defeat), we have a lot to talk about on the livestream. So come and hang out for a while; we look forward to seeing you there. Our goal is to really interact with and engage the community and hopefully spark some new deck ideas with these challenges in this all-new random game mode. Make sure to tune in to find out what this week’s deck restrictions are going to be (and believe me, Ethan has some really interesting ones) as we try to take down one of my personal favourite quests: “The Watcher in the Water.”

FFG Announced today that Angmar Awakened will be the first cycle repackaged into a campaign and player card expansion boxes. The campaign box will contain the 9 quests from The Lost Realm deluxe and 6 adventure packs plus the new campaign cards. The player card box will have all the heroes and player cards released in the cycle. As far release date, the Asmodee webstore listing for the player card expansion has June 17th, 2022.

Linked in the official announcement were 4 spoilers, 2 of the boon cards and 2 of the burden cards. Hardy like many of the other boons from the LOTR Saga provides a permanent boost to a hero. Determination is a very interesting new boon. The ability not only affects the target of the ability, but other characters with another copy attached or that have had it attached in previous games of the campaign! It is going to be very interesting to see how powerful this card can become throughout the course of campaign. The burdens also have one that is similar to others in the LOTR Saga and one that has an effect based on the campaign log. Losing Time like the Saga burdens has a pretty bad when revealed effect plus surge. Arnor Ravaged looks to flip side of Determination. It’s effect that could be worse as the campaign goes along depending on how damage for it is accumulated.

The card fan contained 2 more boons. Silverthorn is boon that looks to synergize with the cycle’s victory display cards like None Return and Rossiel. Mail of Earnur is partially obscured but it appears to be say,

Attach to a hero. Restricted.

Attached hero gets +2

Response: After a play[er?] … heal 1 damage from att[ached hero?]

Likely it gives the attached hero +2 defense or hit points considering it is an armor attachment.

That is all that is known currently about the new Angmar Awakened boxes. I will update this post with any new spoilers or leaks as they become available.