The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game

For the first three years the game's releases followed the movies. A 365 "base set" was released each November containing material from the upcoming movie. These were followed by two 122 card expansions at four-month intervals. Each base set and the following two expansions formed a "block" named for that base set.

Cards were sold in eleven card booster packs consisting of one rare, three uncommon and seven common cards. In approximately one in six packs a common was replaced by a foiled version of a random card from that set. Each set also had two sixty-three card starter decks containing two copies of a promotional face card, three random rares and sixty fixed commons/uncommons (sets 5 and 6 had sixty card starters with three alternate image rares in place of the random rares).

Between the second and third expansions of The Return of the King block an extra set, Reflections, was released. This consisted of 52 new cards, all foiled, half of which were designated rare plus and half rare. The new cards took material from all three films and material produced by Weta specifically for the game and did not belong to any block. Reflections boosters contained two of the new cards (with one R+ every 2.4 packs) and sixteen repackaged random cards from the first six sets. One of these old cards was always non-English.

In November 2004 the new base set, Shadows, marked an overhaul to the game. All sets would contain sixty rare, uncommon and common cards each in addition to varied amount of fixed cards, only available in Starter Decks. Instead of foiling every card, each expansion would only have eighteen pre-selected rare foil cards that would be randomly inserted now into one in every seven booster packs. Shadows also had four, rather than two, different starter decks. The material used for the cards would also now cover the entire trilogy instead of being tied to the films' releases.

Additionally, a system of rotation was announced to be introduced to the game. Starting in March 2005 the entire Fellowship block ceased to be legal for use in the Standard tournament format. Then, each November the oldest block remaining will also be "rotated out". Decipher claimed this helped keep the card pool down to a manageable size and would keep established players buying new cards. Detractors claimed it was a money grab and didn't like being forced to purchase what they felt were inferior cards.

Where two dates are listed, the first date refers to starter decks and the second to booster packs:

1. The Fellowship of the Ring (November 6, 2001) - The first base set that introduced the core mechanics of the game. The cards were divided between [Dwarves], [Elves], [Gandalf], [Gondor] and [Shire] cultures on the Free People sides and [Isengard], [Moria], [Ringwraith] and [Sauron] cultures on the Shadow side. The set is notable for having the largest number of Ally type of cards, characters who did not travel with the Fellowship and only provided aid through special abilities. Each subsequent set would see fewer and fewer Ally cards released, until they were completely phased out.
2. Mines of Moria (March 6 & 13, 2002) - The first game expansion introduces the Artifact type of cards, which functioned similarly to possessions, but did not suffer penalties from cards directly targeting them. This expansion significantly boosted the [Dwarves] and [Moria] faction, most notably featuring the Balrog, which posed a significant danger to the Free People at the unavoidable "The Bridge of Khazad-dûm" site.
3. Realms of the Elf-lords (June 19 & July 3, 2002) - This set significantly boosted the [Elves] and [Isengard] cultures by adding a large number of Elven allies, introducing Isengard orcs in addition to the Uruk-hai and featuring the first playable versions of Saruman.
4. The Two Towers (November 6, 2002) - The second base set brought the first significant overhaul of the game scene. The set contained no cards of [Moria], [Ringwraith] and [Sauron] cultures; instead new Shadow cultures of [Dunland] and [Raiders] (which combined the Southrons and the Easterlings) were added along with the [Rohan] Free People culture, and each culture now contained cards which could contain a number of that culture's tokens. The site path from The Fellowship of the Ring was completely replaced with the new sites from The Two Towers, and sites could now be controlled by Shadow Players and liberated by the Free Peoples.
5. Battle of Helm's Deep (March 12, 2003) - This set brought back the [Sauron] culture and also introduced the new [Gollum] culture, which reflecting the character's duality consisted of both Free People and Shadow cards, which could alternatively reinforce or combat one another.
6. Ents of Fangorn (July 2, 2003) - This set brought back the [Ringwraith] culture and introduced new versions of the Ents which were more pro-active in combat than the previous versions, which had specific requirements to be allowed to skirmish. It also contained new cards of the [Moria] culture, including a version of the Balrog who could be played on sites other than Underground.
7. The Return of the King (November 5, 2003) - In addition to completely replacing the site path once again, the third base set added the new mechanics of threats (tokens that had to be assigned as wounds when a companion or ally was killed) and initiative, which either Free Peoples or Shadow player had based on the number of cards in their hands. This set contained no cards of [Dunland], [Isengard] and [Moria] cultures, but added Minas Morgul orcs to the previously Nazgûl-only [Ringwraith] culture.
8. Siege of Gondor (March 10, 2004) - This set significantly boosted the [Raiders] culture by enhancing it with the Corsairs of Umbar and added the Dead Men of Dunharrow to the [Gondor] culture. It also introduces Shelob as the only other minion for the [Gollum] culture and featured characters with the powerful keyword enduring, who increased in strength after gaining each subsequent wound.
9. Reflections (May 12, 2004) - Released in between two expansions of The Return of the King block, this special set was the most innovative at the time. Characters from the Prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring such as Elendil and Gil-Galad were introduced for the first time and characters from the books that were abscent from the movies such as Glorfindel and Tom Bombadil were added through the designs created by Weta Workshop specifically for the game. Most importantly, characters other than Frodo were allowed to be the Ringbearer for the first time, featuring versions of Galadriel, Boromir, Smeagol and others who could bear the One Ring instead. More alternative Ringbearers would be added in later sets.
10. Mount Doom (July 14, 2004) - The final set of the "movie" release era introduced new powerful versions of several characters such as Éowyn, Arwen and Sam that would remain the preferred choices for many of the deck strategies.
11. Shadows (November 3, 2004) - The release of the new "base set" saw the most significant overhaul of the game, which would remain to be seen unfavorably by many players. Existing faction-based Shadow cultures of [Dunland] [Isengard], [Moria], [Raiders] and [Sauron] were replaced with more generic [Orcs], [Uruk-Hai] and [Evil Men], leaving only [Ringwraith] and [Gollum] unchanged and making the majority of the old cards incompatible with the new cultures. Companions other than the Ring-Bearer now also had Resistance, which was affected by both Free People and Shadow cards. Most importantly, instead of a numbered site path based on an individual movie, the nine sites from all three films could now be played in any order and replaced continuously by both Free People and Shadow cards. While this allowed for new gameplay strategies, many felt that the core aspect of the game no longer made sense story-wise.
12. Black Rider (March 18, 2005) - The first post-"Shadows" expansion was notable for reprinting many prominent cards from The Fellowship of the Ring block, which because of the recently introduced block rotation were no longer legal in the Standard tournament format.
13. Bloodlines (August 12, 2005) - This set introduced the new Follower card type - minor characters who could provide their Aid to the Fellowship for a cost that must be paid each turn. It also included the only cards that could change their card type in the form of conditions that could turn into minions and back.
14. Expanded Middle-earth Deluxe Draft Box (February 17, 2006) - Similar to "Reflections", this 15-card set used artwork by Weta Workshop to represent characters from the books not included in the films, such as Halbarad, Grimbeorn and Dáin Ironfoot.
15. The Hunters (June 9, 2006) - Released after a significant delay due to the financial problems experienced by Decipher, Inc., this new base set introduced a new powerful keyword Hunter and doubled the amount of available Followers.
16. The Wraith Collection (August 26, 2006) - This Deluxe set had only six cards and consisted entirely of Minions of the [Ringwraith] culture, half of whom used artwork by Weta Workshop to represent the Barrow-wights.
17. Rise of Saruman (March 1, 2007) - Released after another long delay, this set featured the only Free People character to be represented by more than one culture by introducing the [Rohan] version of Aragorn. It also contained no less than five different versions of Saruman, one for each culture, including the only Shadow follower in the game.
18. Treachery and Deceit (May 2007) - Rushed to release before the impending expiration of the license, this set suffered from a lack of playtesting and contained the largest number of overpowered or "broken" cards, for which official errata had to be released almost immediately. This set also received the smallest printing of all and remains incredibly hard to find in circulation.
19. Age's End (June 2007) - Released mere weeks before Decipher's license expired, this final "farewell" set consisted of 40 Promo-rarity cards available in a single Deluxe box. It featured the final versions of many prominent characters, some of which have been noted to be the most powerful than any of those that came before.

In addition, a number of boutique products have been released:

• Oversized Cards (August 2001 - Summer 2003)
• Promotional Cards (Spring 2002 - Summer 2007)
• The Fellowship of the Ring Anthology (July 23, 2003)
• The Two Towers Anthology (February 25, 2004)
• The Return of the King Anthology (September 2004)
• The War of the Ring Anthology (September 2005)

The seven-month delay of The Hunters expansion release (from November 2005 to June 2006) made the game suffer a significant drop in popularity amongst its players as well as eventually force Decipher Inc. to remove the expansions The Great Eye and Shelob's Lair from its intended expansion since Decipher's license for Lord of the Rings related material was scheduled to expire on June 30, 2007. Following the release of the final expansion Age's End in June 2007 the game was discontinued and Decipher was forced to stop all production, distribution, and advertising.