The Fellowship of the Ring/Product

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Product

The Fellowship of the Ring was primarily distributed in 4 different products:

• Fixed 60-card Starter Decks (with 2 starter-exclusive Premium cards and 3 random rare cards)
• Fixed 60-card Deluxe Starter Sets (with 3 random rares and other goodies)
• Random 11-card Booster Packs
• Semi-random 29-card Draft Packs

Foil cards were distributed randomly in booster packs, and were also distributed as Tournament Prize Support. Tengwar cards were distributed in The Fellowship of the Ring Anthology.

Starter Decks

FOTR Starter Display Box

There are two different standard Starter Deck products: the FOTR Aragorn Starter Deck featuring Aragorn, and the FOTR Gandalf Starter Deck featuring Gandalf. You'll see a picture of Aragorn or Gandalf on the front of the corresponding tuck box.

Each starter deck has a fixed component of 60 cards, including:

• 1 Frodo companion card,
• 1 The One Ring card,
• 9 site cards,
• 2 copies of a special premium card as featured on the deck box (Aragorn or Gandalf)
• 47 mixed common and uncommon cards.

Along with a fixed component (which is made up of different cards for the two different decks), 3 random rare cards are added to each starter. This kept the product useful for new players and veterans alike, as well as being a means of keeping Sealed formats more interesting.

In addition, each starter came with a Premium card which was exclusive to that deck: Aragorn, King in Exile (1P365) or Gandalf, The Grey Wizard (1P364) . Neither of these cards were distributed through Booster Packs, except for the Foil versions which could be randomly inserted as an Common. International versions of these starters were printed in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Chinese, which is more than any other set.

Also included is a Starter Rulebook, which acts as a reference and a guide teaching new players how to play the game. The rules included in the Starter Rulebook are altered from standard play, such as: the site path is shortened to use only 7 Sites, and players flip a coin to choose turn order instead of bidding burdens. For more information on these differences, see Starter_Decks#Starter_Rules_Differences

Individual Starter Decks retailed for $10.99. The Starter Deck Display box came with 6 of each starter deck for a total of 12 starter decks, and would retail for $131.88 (i.e. exactly 12 times as much as a starter). Starter deck boxes themselves came in cases of 6 per case.

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  Click through to see the contents of the FOTR Aragorn Starter Deck

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  Click through to see the contents of the FOTR Gandalf Starter Deck

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  A starter deck display box

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Deluxe Starter Sets

FOTR Deluxe Starter Sets

While Starter Decks were introduced to both act as a low-cost trial product and a reliable source of rares, the Deluxe Starter Sets acted as an all-in-one entry point that would provide not only the various tokens that gameplay would require, but also an introduction into Booster Packs, which were the primary way of finding new cards. The storage box shouldn't be overlooked either, and as it came in 3 different varieties, there was still a reason for the diehard collector to purchase more than one. Notably, the Deluxe set came with neither of the Premium cards that were included in the two basic Starter Decks.

Contents:

• 60 Fixed Cards
• 3 Random Rare Cards
• 11 Card Booster Pack
• Starter Rulebook
• Collector's Card List
• Collectible Storage Box (1 of 3)
• 6 Coloured Glass Player Markers
• 25 Black Tokens (used for Twilight Tokens and Burdens)
• 10 Red Glass Tokens (used for Wounds)

Deluxe Starter Sets retailed for $20.00 USD each at the time of release (November 6th, 2001), and were sold individually.

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  Click through to see the contents of the Deluxe Starter Set

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  A sealed Deluxe Starter Box
  ( Shire variant)

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  The 3 FOTR variants (top) with the 3 TTT variants (bottom)

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Booster Packs

Booster Packs are the primary intended way of collecting cards from a set. Every pack contains 11 cards: 1 Rare, 3 Uncommon, and 7 Common cards.

On average, one in six packs (~17%) will have a diffraction Foil card replacing one of the common cards. The drop rate was rolled once per rarity, meaning that a pack with 1, 2, or 3 foils is possible, as follows:

• 1 Common foil every 13 packs
• 1 Uncommon foil every 18 packs
• 1 Rare foil every 26 packs

Individual boosters retailed for $3.29. The Booster Display Box came with 36 packs, and would retail for $118.44 (i.e. exactly 36 times as much as a single booster). Booster boxes themselves came in cases of 12 per case.

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  A FOTR booster pack

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  A scan of an opened FOTR booster display box

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  A sealed FOTR booster display

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  An opened booster display revealing its contents

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  An unopened case of booster displays

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Draft Packs

The Fellowship Draft Pack was a pack of 29 cards which was intended to be used with a new Booster Draft game mode. In such a draft, players would each open an oversized draft pack and select one card to include in their deck, after which the pack would be passed to other players, everyone drafting in a circle. The cards selected would be combined with a skeleton of cards provided by the player (sites, Frodo, and the One Ring), and supplemented with Booster Packs.

Draft Packs were broken down as follows:

• 1 Rare card from The Fellowship of the Ring
• 2 Premium cards, either Aragorn, King in Exile (1P365) or Gandalf, The Grey Wizard (1P364)
• 26 other semi-random cards

What was meant by "semi-random" is that unlike booster packs which were designed to be randomized, draft packs would include "runs" of cards from the same culture which could conceivably work together in a deck. If the booster pack contents were meat, the draft pack contents were thus potatoes, filling yet not necessarily exciting, spiced with the single Rare.

The Fellowship Draft Pack wasn't released until October 2002, almost a year after the release of The Fellowship of the Ring and just before the release of The Two Towers, and thus it is speculated that, new game mode aside, at least part of the intention was to dump FOTR overstock right before it became obsolete.

Individual draft packs retailed for $4.50. The Fellowship Draft Pack Display Box came with 12 packs, and would retail for $54 (i.e. exactly 12 times as much as a single pack).

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  An individual Fellowship Draft Pack

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  A sealed Fellowship Draft Pack Display Box

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  The bottom of a Draft Pack Display Box

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