By Zach "Rubber Chicken" Shephard

If there’s one format of The Lord Of The Rings Online TCG that I like just as much as Constructed Standard, it’s draft. Many lesser formats (such as Pin the Hobbit on the Mumak) have tried to compete with draft for popularity, but none have succeeded. So what is it about this play variant that many players find so intriguing? For me, it’s the necessity to think on my feet and the inability of my opponents to just build a flavor-of-the-month deck. Your deck must be constructed without the advice of your peers, and it must be built within a certain time limit – it’s the ultimate test in creativity.

Although I obviously can’t help you build your draft deck, I can certainly give you some guidelines to keep in mind. The best place to start would be the sections of the draft that you have the most control over – your Ring-bearer, One Ring, and adventure deck.

THE POWER OF THE RING

When it comes to selecting your Ring for drafting, rare is better (with one particular exception). In Fellowship block, The One Ring, Isildur's Bane gives your Ring-bearer the ability to absorb archery and regroup wounds (the latter of which is common in the Isengard Orc theme). In Tower Block, The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles gives your Ring-bearer that oft-needed additional point of strength (bonus strength for your Ring-bearer should never be overlooked in draft). The The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry from King Block is useful for the same reason.

The only instance in which The One Ring, The Ruling Ring is superior to its rarer counterpart is in War of the Ring Block – an additional point of strength for your Ring-bearer will usually be much more useful than the two points of resistance that The One Ring, The Ring of Rings provides.

SELECTING YOUR CHAMPION

Picking which character you want to carry your Ring isn’t quite as easy as looking at rarities. The following is my choice of Ring-bearers in draft for each block, with a brief description of why they were selected.

FELLOWSHIP: Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir

The ability of Frodo, Son of Drogo is unlikely to be used often in draft, while Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer will only save you a few points of twilight at most. However, should you be lucky enough to draft a Bounder, you’ll be glad you have Old Bilbo’s Heir to heal him every turn. Furthermore, many Fellowship Draft packs include Trust Me as You Once Did, and this version of Frodo conveniently has the Gandalf signet.

TOWER: Frodo, Tired Traveller

Frodo, Master of the Precious is useless for the obvious reasons, while Frodo, Courteous Halfling's ability just won’t come into play often enough. Using Tired Traveller means that you can bid one more burden for every Ring-bound companion you draft, and you don’t have to worry so much about the Palantir Chamber hitting at site nine.

KING: Frodo, Wicked Masster!

This decision is slightly more difficult to make than in previous blocks, but I believe that Wicked Masster is superior to Frodo, Resolute Hobbit. You certainly can’t afford to be adding three twilight when you move just to get rid of a threat, so Frodo, Hope of Free Peoples is automatically out of the question. Wicked Masster’s ability may be pricey, but having a little extra insurance for your Ring-bearer can never be bad. It may cost you eight burdens at site seven to keep Frodo alive, but that’s better than having him in the dead pile and losing you the game.

WAR OF THE RING: Frodo, Protected by Many

After several painstaking hours spent pouring over my data and reviewing my lab reports, I decided to go with Frodo, Protected by Many for this particular block. I find that he’s easily the best option here.

He’s also the only option, currently.

A DANGEROUS PATH

There’s one general rule for building your adventure deck in a draft: use sites that hurt fellowships. If your opponent is seeing your sites, that means they’re ahead (as you can’t count on seeing as much pathfinding in a draft as you do in Constructed Standard these days), and you need a means of stopping them. Also, “helper” sites are often times culture-specific (like Old Forest Road). If you select a site that aids a culture that you don’t end up using in your draft deck (either by choice or inability to do so), you’re only helping your opponents.

In War of the Ring block, this rule applies to Shadow numbers on sites – you should make sure to have plenty of high Shadow numbers so that you can maximize the efficiency of your Shadow phases.

Now that you have the pre-draft work out of the way, let’s talk about what you need to do once the tournament starts.

THE DRAFTING PROCEDURE

Make Note of Your Draft Pack
When you crack open that draft pack, determine the cultures with which you’ve already got a solid start. After all, you don’t want to see a Riders of the Mark (which has a restrictive spotting requirement) in the drafting process, only to wonder, “How many Rohan companions do I have?”

Stick to Forty Cards
The minimum size of a draft deck is forty cards, and that’s exactly where you want to be. The fact of the matter is, you won’t even draft forty good cards – you’ll get your hands on a few good ones and then start throwing in filler for the rest. There’s no good reason to continue putting inefficient cards in your deck once you’ve reached the minimum size.

If You Want to Win, Forget Your Collection
Some people get greedy and grab any rare that’s passed to them in a draft, knowing that it adds to their permanent collection after the tournament. This is not the best way to win. It doesn’t matter how good he is in constructed play, if someone passes you a Cirdan, The Shipwright, you probably shouldn’t take him – it’s doubtful that you’ll be able to get many (if any) Elf events into your discard pile, and he requires spotting two Elves just to enter play. This is just one example of a card that can dominate the constructed scene, but has extremely limited usefulness in draft format.

Control the Card Pool
Strange though this may sound, you'll sometimes want to draft cards that you won't actually be using. If you see a Porter Troll in a pack but you don’t have any Orc minions, snag the massive beast. Sure, it probably won’t be going into your deck, but think of it this way: do you really want to be on the receiving end of that Troll? This is a concept commonly referred to as “counter-drafting.” If you won’t be able to use a powerful card, but you know someone else can, pick it up (unless there’s a drafting option in that pack that benefits your deck very well). This doesn't mean you should go draft every rare you see (as that would be a violation of the tip preceeding this one), but if it's something that will win one of your opponents the tournament, make sure to deny them of it.

When in Doubt, Draft Companions
This is more of a subsection of the previous tip. If you’ve already got your full nine companions, and nothing in the pack you’re viewing is particularly attractive, try to grab another companion. By snatching up all of these valuable resources, you’re limiting the options of your fellow drafters. It’ll teach a good lesson to those that wait until the last minute to start drafting their Free Peoples characters.

BUILDING YOUR DECK: FREE PEOPLES

Use the Rule of Nine
First and foremost, remember that you must have nine companions (including your Ring-bearer) in your draft deck if you plan on winning. Your fellowship will feel weak compared to those of your constructed decks, and companions will be dropping like flies. Don’t use any more than nine companions, though – your deck will be thin enough that you shouldn’t have difficulties drawing into the ones you have, and every companion beyond the ninth is a wasted card slot.

Protect the Halfling!
As with any other format, if your Ring-bearer dies, you lose.

In draft, however, you probably don’t have masses of aimed wounding or huge defender bonuses to make sure Frodo stays alive. Hobbit Swords are the type of thing that you never pass in a draft, and any strength pumps you can find for your #1 Hobbit are probably worth grabbing.

Deal Some Damage
Get as many companions with damage bonuses as possible (either naturally, like any version of Gimli, or with weapons, like Gondorian Blade). If you want to double-move, you can’t just beat minions, you need to kill them. Doubling against a small squad often leads to fighting a large army, and that means Frodo’s in trouble. Eliminate that squad on the first move and you won’t have to worry about fighting a massive legion at the next site.

Heed the Rule of Sixteen
Of the twenty cards on your Free Peoples side, try to make sure that at least sixteen are non-event cards (if you absolutely must, you can drop that number to fifteen, but try to avoid doing so whenever possible). You don’t want more than four or five events in your deck, because they’ll go back into your deck on the reshuffle, when you’ll be wanting to draw mostly Shadow cards to stop your opponent in the late-game. This means that cards such as Stand Together and Home and Hearth can be good draft choices, even if you never plan on using their abilities – they play for free, have no spotting requirements, and won’t go back into your deck on the reshuffle.

BUILDING YOUR DECK: SHADOW

Say Goodbye to Synergy
Most Shadow sides in constructed play are comprised primarily of a single culture (with the occasional splash minions showing up) in order to ensure that the deck works well with itself. This allows most minions to make use of the deck’s support cards, and is generally more efficient by having a very focused strategy.

This line of thought has no place in draft.

You want minions that can do some damage, regardless of what culture they’re in. I don’t care if every other minion you have is from the Orc culture, you’re going to grab that Force of Uruk-hai when you see it. Thirteen-strength (which will win nearly every skirmish in a draft) and damage+1 for five twilight is just too good to pass up. Don’t feel confined by whatever culture you have the most cards in – just draft the minions that will have the biggest effect on the game.

Heed the Rule of Sixteen (Again)
The Rule of Sixteen is slightly different for the Shadow side than it is for the Free Peoples side. The idea here is to have at least sixteen minions. It’s important to have a high percentage of warriors ready to go in your draft deck, so that you can really drop a bomb if your opponent decides to make a gutsy double.

Watch for Crowd Control
If you see a Shadow card come by that can limit the number of companions your opponent has in play, snag it – sometimes this is a good idea even if you can’t use the card yourself (this would be a primary example of counter-drafting). Minions like Ulaire Cantea, Black Assassin and Southron Commander do an excellent job of keeping large fellowships in check, and they don’t have any sort of spotting requirements.

Just remember, fear may keep the local systems in line, but it’s Cantea that slaughters their citizens when they start building an army.

HONING YOUR SKILLS

Although the above tips can be applied to each block, they’re very generalized. I’ve found that the true way to become dominant in draft is to play in one block over and over again. After a dozen Fellowship Draft tournaments, I became so familiar with the cards (and their prowess in this particular format) that I could open a pack, take a quick glance at all of the card pictures, and automatically know what was the absolute best option to be picked. Experiment a lot early on, and you’ll find those gems that nobody else drafts because the cards are terrible in Standard play. Just because it isn’t good in Standard doesn’t mean it can’t be great in draft.

So there you have it - stick to the guidelines above, get lots of practice in, and above all, have fun. Good luck, and remember - the best way to enjoy a draft is to open a window.

-Zach Shephard