This article will go into detail about gaining the card advantage, how to use it, and risk versus reward. All the following are ways to gain the card advantage.

I. Just Toss It!

One of the worst mistakes a person can make in any CCG, and ESPECIALLY Lord of the Rings is choking themselves for vital cards. This is usually self-induced and avoidable (although doing it to your opponent is always worth it). I have seen people with six or more cards in their hand continually neglect to discard in their regroup phase, and then complain about not drawing anything good. Neglecting to discard in the regroup phase is like shooting yourself in the foot. It is almost always imperative to success to be drawing new cards, and the simplest way of increasing card flow to your hand is to toss a card EVERY regroup phase. If you're going into your fellowship turn and you've got five minions in your hand, it would be a good idea to discard one. You'll draw another one later anyway, so don't worry about it. The only cases where one should even consider NOT discarding would be when one has four or fewer cards in hand, ALL of which are immediately useful. If you have five or more card in your hand, believe me, you can find something to discard. I know it's hard sometimes, but grit your teeth and toss it.

II. Supplemental Drawing

Much of what I wanted to say here has already been said in "The Right Cards at the Right Time" by Marc Thery, so go read that one if you have time. Now including cards ion your deck specifically to draw more cards can be a very strong strategy, but it is also a very risky strategy usually (for fellowship). After all, for that four twilight pool you just gave your opponent with your Elrond, your opponent can put down a Ulaire Attea with a Morgul Gates, or a Band of the Eye, or whatnot. Besides, your Elrond isn't exactly guaranteed to get you cards that will HELP you, in fact it's quite common for him to grab you three shadow cards in a row. So when is the benefit of drawing extra cards worth the risk? I'd say that it's worth the risk if you can set it up early in the game, i.e. when your opponent's minions are still roaming. Otherwise adding lots of twilight pool to draw cards that may or may not help you just isn't worth the risk at this point in the game. Including cards like Support of the Last Homely House can help you to get your fair use of Elrond after you get him down early. As for shadow, almost none of the supplemental drawing strategies are currently worth the amount of twilight pool they take away, except for the goblin scimitar strategy. This is an amazingly strong strategy when used with cards like Goblin Scavengers, Host of thousands, Goblin Armories, They Are
Coming, etc. because you can add twilight pool AND draw cards for playing a weapon. See Alex Tennet's "Don't Pee in the Twilight Pool" for a good example of this kind of deck.

III. Card Choke

Obviously it's beneficial to you to deny your opponent cards. How do you do that? There are two ways. The first is to attempt to force your opponent to discard cards from their hand so they have less to play against you. This is a strong strategy for Sauron, and was a broken strategy for elves in the early weeks of the game before the two key errata’s (Far-Seeing Eyes and Galadriel's Mirror). This strategy however, involves filling a huge twilight pool and then letting your opponent completely refill their hand at the next regroup phase. A list of cards for discarding from hand are as follows:

Galadriel's Mirror
Far-Seeing Eyes
The White Arrows of Lorien
Curse their Foul Feet
Foul Creation

Orc Inquisitor
Band of the Eye
Tower Lieutenant
Desperate Defense of the Ring

All of these are decent cards. There might be more, I just can't think of any right now. Another strategy for choking your opponent for cards is to deny them twilight and consequently deny them the ability to play cards and then draw new ones. The best way to do this for the fellowship is to keep the twilight pool very low using cards like the following:

Glamdring
Sting
No Stranger to the Shadows
An Able Guide
The Gaffer's Pipe
Let Folly Be our Cloak

OR . . . just don't play very many cards at all. This is a risky strategy because you can be left unprepared if your opponent manages to play lots of minions. For Shadow, about the only way to deny your opponent the ability to play cards are Spies of Saruman and Snows of Saruman, which skips the archery phase and cancels skirmish actions respectively. This can prevent your opponent from playing events and the like and is a very powerful strategy.

All right, hope those three ways to gain the card advantage gave you a lot to think about for now. If you read this far, you now get to read a special, true, bonus story!

BONUS STORY: Swim Practice

A True Story by Mark Balderston

"I'm not hyperventilating Coach, I'm just breathing really deeply," I protested in swim practice. My team practices in a fifty-meter pool, and Coach had told the team to swim as far as possible without taking any breaths. I had previously made it all the way to the other end without breathing, so I assumed I could do it easily today. I got on the starting block, took three deep breaths, and dove in. I start to swim at a semi-sprint, and I churn through the water at a comfortable pace. I'm continually blowing out air in small bubbles, in order to make it easier to hold my breath for the forty seconds or so that I'll need to get to the other end. At twenty-five meters, I start to get low on air, but it doesn't really matter. I don't breath. Blow bubbles, blow bubbles. Thirty-five meters and I'm hurting for air. My stomach is tight, and I can feel the carbon-dioxide buildup in my lungs. In my head I know, I don't need to breathe. So I don't. Blow bubbles. Blow bubbles. Five meters to go and I begin to get dizzy. A couple strokes later, my arms are moving at the same speed, but to my brain they appear to be moving like helicopter-blades. I know I should breathe, but it's like I've lost control of my body now. I watch as my arms appear to be moving at light speed. My head is spinning like a gyroscope, but I hit the wall successfully. I raise my head and take a deep breath of fresh air. I made it . . . and then, I lose all awareness. I black out and go under the water. I could have been under anywhere from half-a second to ten seconds, I don't know. Slowly I begin to become aware, like awakening from a long-night's sleep. Everything is black . . . I feel my head bouncing and scclobrinagainst something. I open my eyes . . . and pull my head out from under the lane line. The swimmer who started ten seconds behind me hits the wall. A truly strange experience.



Moral of the Story: Passing out in swim practice is bad. Pay attention to the signs in the pool that say "HYPERVENTILATING TO EXTEND BREATH-HOLDING IS
A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY AND IS PROHIBITED."


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