Hunters Block

With the release of The Hunters, War of the Ring Block officially became a legacy format. But something peculiar happened: no block replaced it. Despite having its own version of The One Ring, The Ruling Ring (15S2) , Hobbit Sword (15C145) , and a rare version of the ring (The One Ring, The Ring of Doom (15R1) ) - hallmarks of every base set - The Hunters did not mark a new block. Instead it is the same size as expansions of War Block; Rise of Saruman and Treachery & Deceit are seemingly expansions of that. Starter decks from the era included sites from sets 11-13 and there were only 8 sites in all of set 15. 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 get them. Sets 17 and 18 also had the most limited print run of any other sets, compounding the issue. Nevertheless some players did just that and, in doing so, created the first unofficial block: Hunters Block.

As the end drew nearer for Decipher - both as custodian of the game and as a company - the quantity and quality of their work dropped dramatically. It is not known whether the Shadows site rework was always intended to do away with the traditional notions of "blocks" from the movie years or if Hunters was supposed to be a block but Decipher couldn't create enough cards in time. In addition to the limited availability of boosters from sets 17 and 18, the Uruk Rampager Starter Deck included 5 copies of White Hand Guard (17C126) and only 8 sites, failing to give players the cards necessary to actually start a deck. No starter decks were produced in time for the release of set 18, the only expansion set without one at all.

Beyond the production issues, the sets in Hunters Block themselves are often cited as the most egregious power creep in the game's life span. Players who enjoyed Standard or Expanded before its release had little choice, though -- unlike Movie Block, legacy versions of those formats were not supported by Decipher after their time ended. Anyone who wished to continue playing in official events 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 Standard rotated out sets 4-6 anyway). The Hunter keyword is among the most infamous additions, 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.

Decklists can be found here at this TLHH subforum.

Formats

Sets	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	10	9	11	12	13	14	15	17	18	16	19
Historical Decipher Formats	Fellowship Block			Towers Block			King Block				War of the Ring Block				Hunters Block
	Towers Standard
	King Standard
	Movie Block
				War of the Ring Standard
							Standard
	Expanded
	Open

Player's Council Formats (including PC Errata)	1	2	3	V1	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
	PC-Fellowship
	PC-Movie
	PC-Expanded

Unofficial Formats	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	10	9	11	12	13	14	15	17	18	16	19
	French									French
	Austrian (Movie)
								Austrian (Shadows)