The Battle of Helm's Deep expansion was a mixed bag, in my opinion. Dwarves and Elves didn't really get too much from the expansion at all. As far as the Knights of Gondor go, I've yet to see a good deck based around those, but I suspect the Fortifications might be decent combined with a Help in Doubt and Need strategy. The Ent companions are particularly good, if only for the fact that they're more guys you can fetch with A Wizard Is Never Late. I really don't like any of the Rohan cards except Arrow-Slits (great for getting rid of Wargs, Mumaks, Hides, etc etc) and Thundering Host. The play-during-maneuver ability really doesn't impress me. As for Hobbit and Smeagol and stuff, I've seen decks that use it, but playing lots of Hobbits and Smeagol tends to have to move too slowly against large fierce minions like Nazgul.
As far as the new Shadow strategies go, I like the Dunland guys that the opponent can discard to get rid of them, but I'm not entirely sold, since there just aren't enough to make a whole strategy of them. Isengard gets Grima, Chief Counselor, who *really* punishes people for playing too many cultures, but from what I've seen, people aren't playing that many cultures anyway. As for Wargs, I haven't seen them in action yet, but a friend of mine swears by them. The Sauron Orcs are great, having trackers with 3 vitality is great for playing cards like Under the Watching Eye and exerting for Hate, and more ways to draw cards drastically helps your cardflow. As for Mumaks, they are a drastic improvement for the underpowered Raider culture, but they're just far too vulnerable to Arrow-Slits.
Anyone else have any opinions?
[ April 29, 2003: Message edited by: Phrim ]
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