Index -> Miscellaneous -> Play Formats

Play Formats

There are several play formats available in The Lord of the Ring Online TCG. These are:

Constructed Formats

• Standard
  Standard is the format for most Premier Series tournaments and is the default format for casual games. Presently, sets 4 through 12 are valid in Standard Format (that is, all sets except for Fellowship of the Ring, Mines of Moria and Realm of The Elf Lords -- see Rotation for more details). A Standard format deck must also observe the Standard Exclusion List (Click here for the DGMA's current list) and may not contain any copies of cards from that list. Players must also use sites from the currently released Block (currently, this means a site path made of cards from Shadows, Black Rider and Bloodlines sets).


• Expanded
  Expanded format allows for all cards from all sets (including those that have been 'rotated' out of Standard). Expanded format decks may not contain any cards on the Expanded Exclusion List and they may contain no more than 1 copy of any card on the Expanded Restricted List. Players must also use sites from the currently released Block (currently, this means a site path made of cards from Shadows, Black Rider and Bloodlines sets).


• Open
  Open format allows the use of all cards. Players must also use sites from the currently released Block.


• Online Standard
  Online Standard is the same as the Standard format plus the online-only cards (those which have a "D" as their Rarity) are legal to use.


• Online Expanded
  Online Expanded is the same as the Expanded format plus the online-only cards (those which have a "D" as their Rarity) are legal to use.


• Online Open
  Online Open is the same as the Open format plus the online-only cards (those which have a "D" as their Rarity) are legal to use.

Block Formats

• Fellowship
  Fellowship Block format allows only cards from The Fellowship of the Ring, Mines of Moria, and Realms of the Elf-lords sets . Players must also use sites from this block.


• Towers
  Tower Block format allows only cards from The Two Towers, Battle of Helm's Deep, and Ents of Fangorn sets. Players must also use sites from this block.


• King
  King Block format allows only cards from The Return of the King, Siege of Gondor, and Mount Doom sets. Players must also sites from this block.


• War Of The Ring Block
  War Of The Ring Block format allows only cards from the Shadows, Black Rider and Bloodlines sets. Players must have an Adventure Deck with sites from this Block only.

Special Formats

• Culture Shock
  In the Culture Shock Format, all cards in a player's Free Peoples side must be from the same culture (not counting your Ring-bearer and One Ring), and all cards in the player's Shadow side must be from one culture. Sites must be from the current block and the Standard Exclusion List applies.


• Highlander
  In the Highlander format, players may have no more than one of any particular card, counting subtitles, in their deck. Sites must be from the current Block.


• No-Rares
  This format follows are guidelines as Standard but no cards with R or R+ rarity may be included in your deck. Promo, Premium and Starter Rarity cards (P and S) are legal except in the case of Promo cards that are alternate images/editions of Rare cards (Sauron, the Lord of the Rings comes in a P card form but that card is identical to the R card from Reflections and so is not legal in No-Rares)


• Movie Block
  Movie Block format uses cards from sets 1-10 (all of the 'movie' blocks plus Reflections) and a King-block legal. You may not include cards from the Standard Exclusion List prior to the release of Shadows (you can use the Deck Validation option in your Deck Builder for a list of these cards.


• Reflections Sealed Formats
  With the release of Reflections, three new formats have been added. King Block Open, Tower Block Open, and Fellowship Block Open. These formats are only used for Reflections Sealed and Reflections Draft Play. The only part of your deck that needs to validate for the specific block is the Adventure Path, the rest of your deck may use any cards that would be legal in an Open game.

Draft Format

Draft formats are special variations of Block/Sealed play. Drafts are either strictly one block or Reflections-Block meaning that a site path of a particular Block is used but otherwise, the cards can be from any block as well as the Reflections set. In Draft, you first select cards from boosters that are passed around to all players and then make a deck and play. You must bring a 'Foundation Deck' of eleven cards (a valid nine-card site path, a ring-bearer and a One Ring (all of the proper Block)) to any Draft game. One major difference in deck construction in Draft is that your Draw Deck need only be 40 cards and you can at any time shuffle your discard pile into your draw deck. See Draft Play for more information.

See also Constructed Play, Draft Play, Sealed Play, and Rotation.