So, I think they have spoiled enough cards for the LOTR precons that we can get a pretty6 good idea what each is going to do. Which precon sparks the most interest for you? Has anyone started brainstorming upgraded versions?
When I saw Bilbo, I started building a silly lifegain deck. Now that they have spoiled more cards I realize that a lot of the cards I put in that idea are going to be in the "Food and Fellowship" precon. I can also see people coming up with some interesting ways to use Lobelia, Defender of Bag End. Gollum, Obsessed Stalker seemed like it could be amazing as a commander when I first glanced at it, but getting a 1/1 through for combat damage is a pain in the rear and gaining life every turn in mono-black is tricky. I am sure someone else will come up with a great idea for him, but I don't think I am going to try yet.
"Riders of Rohan" is a 'Merica deck. Eowyn, Shieldmaiden seems decent for a human tribal deck. It has a Monarch sub theme built around Aragorn, King of Gondor. I have been thinking of building Dwarf Tribal for a while, but I think Gimli of the Glittering Caves will be one of the cards people cut if they are upgrading this precon. He doesn't really fit into anything else this deck is doing, although there are quite a few legendaries to trigger his ability. Overall, it looks to me like this deck is trying to do too many things. It might be like some of the 40K precons where you split it into 2 decks and fill in the gaps.
"Elven Council" Looks like it is mostly elf-ball, with a voting sub-theme. Easy to upgrade, but the result will look like a thousand other decks. Arwen, Weaver of Hope gives us another way to cheese
persist creatures, so that is interesting. Radagast, Wizard of
the Wilds could be built around, but it doesn't really seem like he fits into this deck well. Gandalf, Westward Voyager will have some "go Big or go Home" Simic decks built around him, but I don't see how he fits in here. Legolas Greenleaf is similar to the Gimli I mentioned above, but he actually fits the theme of this deck. Haldir, Lorien Lieutenant looks kinda like a cross between
Joraga Warcaller and
Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Not sure he will replace Ezuri as a go-to mono-green elf tribal commander, but he goes in the 99 in those decks for sure. Cirdan, the Shipwright looks interesting. He has enough toughness that he should survive at least a few attacks to trigger his ability. The first vote everybody will tend to vote for themselves, so I would hold off casting him till I have another permanent in hand worth giving an opponent 2 cards to cheat in. After that the rest of the table might start voting for you, giving you cards. It is risky as hell, but very interesting.
My fingers are tired and this has become a wall of text people are going to hesitate to read, so I am going to stop there for now.
English
Deutsch
Español
Português
Italiano
Français