The final block to be released, Hunters Block consists of The Hunters, Rise of Saruman, and Treachery & Deceit. It is often cited as the most egregious power creep in the game's life span, although players who enjoyed War of the Ring Standard or what is now known as Pre-Hunters Expanded had little choice -- unlike Movie Block, these formats were not supported by Decipher after their time was over. Anyone who wished to continue playing in tournaments had to either play War of the Ring Block and leave behind their cards from sets 4-10 or play the new Standard and Expanded formats which included Hunters Block sets and rotated out sets 4-6 anyway. It is infamous for the Hunter keyword, which many viewed as explicitly elevating the new characters above those from every prior set. However, the unrelated text which accompanied those cards drove most of the power creep itself.
As the end drew nearer for Decipher - both as custodian of LotR TCG and as a company - quality dropped dramatically. While set 15 was supposed to mark a new block, the entire set only included 8 sites and a majority of the sites in starter decks were from War of the Ring Block. Set 17 brought 4 more sites which made it possible to build a deck solely within the block, although players would still have to rely on booster packs to build a legal Hunters Block deck. The Starter_Decks/Hunters_Block#RoS_Uruk_Rampage_Starter_Deck Uruk Rampager Starter Deck in partuclar included 5 copies of White Hand Guard (17C126)
and only 8 sites, failing to give players the cards necessary to actually start a deck at all. Sets 17 and 18 also had limited print runs, all of which left Hunters Block particularly unpopular.
Decklists can be found here at this TLHH subforum.
