It seems like every month I get a particular kind of request: Someone wants to get started in the game, they want a lot of cool cards, but they don't want to spend a lot of money. They just want to play this great game, and they want to get all the cool cards they can cheap, without getting into the collectible madness. I've usually been able to help them, because I love helping new players get going. But it's a pain, it's definately not worth my time, and I end up charging more than I'd like to. So, I've taken some time, gathered and organized a LOT of material (special thanks to Thorsten Strom!), and made over a dozen special cheapo beginner sets.
For $29 (plus shipping) you get:
If you and a friend each get one of these, you're good to go for a lot of good Middle Earth gaming. The fixed portions are key. There are 5 different fixed portions and it's a major headache for new players on a budget to get them all. They're also getting a bit hard to find. (See The Wizards Fixed Packs List.) You have to have at least a few of these to play, as they are the only place to get Wizard character cards. Also, they have factions and sites that you can only get in particular fixed packs. Ditto for characters like Aragorn, Glorfindel and Beorn. In short, these are the most basic cards. As for the commons, why not have a bunch? I've got a ton of them. And many of the best cards are common. The set of each uncommons is very helpful. Many of the coolest and most important cards in this game you only need one of (they are 'Unique'). A set of uncommons gets you a lot of these very cool, very helpful cards. It can be a pain for new players to get all of these. (I remember it took me forever to get Glamdring.)
Together, the cards in this set gives you a large amount of good characters, a large site deck, and enough strategic options to keep playing a long time.
This is not really for someone who eventually wants to get hugely into this. You're better off buying more comprehensive sets to begin with, for more money. If you get this first and then complete your collection buying singles, it will cost you more than if you just got a set to begin with.
I'm also going to add an optional 60 card rare stack for $20. (There will be no duplicates.) This is basically if you have some extra money to spend and want to get some more cool cards. They will tend to be cards of lesser value or that aren't used as often in competitive play, which is one reason you're getting them for cheap. They're still cool though and add twists to your play. There'll be some valuable ones too though. I guarantee that you'll get either Frodo or Bilbo. The other reason you'd be getting these kindof cheap is that they'll also tend to be cards that I have extras of in my stock. This helps even out my stock.
Either later or now (along with your Wizards cards), you could get sets of non-rares from Dragons and Dark Minions. These are the other two sets that have a lot of good cards for the normal "hero" alignment. That is, not as a Ringwraith or Fallen Wizard, which later sets introduce. Because of this, getting some sets of non-rares from these sets add a lot of fun, power, and options to your decks. Without costing much. $6 for a Dragons non-rare set and $8 for a Dark Minions non-rare set.
And while I'm at it, I'm going to put together 'Later Set' packs for, say, $10. This will include common hazards from Lidless Eye, and resources/hazards from Against the Shadow and The White Hand. This will allow you to have some of the very cool cards from later sets without paying the hefty price tag to get them. These will all be cheap cards of course, but many are powerful and cool.
There are a few other things you could do, like get more uncommon sets for $10 each, or $9 of it's just the non-uniques.