[2] Decipher's license to The Lord of the Rings expired on July 30, 2007, after which all official promotion and distribution of the game stopped.

However, since the game's print run has ended, sales for online cards have been stopped and the servers closed in June 2010.

A player uses his Free Peoples cards to attempt to traverse the site-path and destroy the One Ring by reaching the ninth site.

The Free People's player (the defender) has the opportunity to choose which of his companions will fight in one-to-one duels, called skirmishes, with the opponent's minions.

Three of expansions (Expanded Middle-earth Deluxe Draft Box, The Wraith Collection, and Age's End) were not available in booster packs.

Where two dates are listed, the first date refers to starter decks and the second to booster packs: In addition, a number of boutique products have been released: 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.

For the Free Peoples side, the common basic strategies are tank, choke, minion wounding and mass healing.

For the Shadow side, the common basic strategies are beat-down, swarm, bomb, companion wounding and corruption.

[3] The LOTR Online TCG software was available and the SOE servers ran until June 30, 2010 when they were shut down for good, though no new cards could be purchased after May 2007.

Though not sanctioned or approved by Decipher, various alternate ways to play the game online have at various points been developed by players.

In July 2002, the first pro tour event was held at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio and it was won by John Lolli.

[8] Lolli used a unique deck designed to pass the ring from Frodo to Sam, and deny twilight to its opponent.

Almost all of the top players were using later banned card called The Mirror of Galadriel, and Lolli used that strategy against his opponents designing a Minion half of the deck to counteract it.

The field was bested by Vince Accetturo and Chris Thompson, both members of the player group Team Bison Bucks.

[9] With the establishment of the Player's Council in 2020 (see below), an organization finally existed that could claim the right to once again crown a World Champion.

[11] On May 22, 2007, Decipher announced that the game's official lifetime would be expiring later that year, with no further product to be produced or sold after the end of June 2007.

[12] Fans were eager to establish a "Players Committee" to continue managing the game (which would mirror the official group established for the Star Wars CCG or the unofficial one made by fans for the Star Trek CCG), but that conflict over whether to pursue an "official" or "unofficial" avenue stymied every attempt to organize for many years.

The mass quarantines during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a resurgence of interest in the game (as it did for many others during that time), and riding that wave a group in the "unofficial" camp finally overcame the historical friction and organized under the name of the "Player's Council" in 2020.