I don't have high hope for Message from Elrond.

If I take your exemple with sneak attack and test of will, either you play leadership/spirit too, or you are just putting dead cards in your deck, until you have Message from Elrond. If other don't play lore, Message from Elrond is a dead card too if you don't draw sneak attack/tes of will.

So the best use is with cards you can play and other can too.

Adding a hero that works with location being explored only make asfaloth and dunedain tracker more powerfull, and they already were... other means like new attachement or new ally are far worse and costly than these ones. Chance are, they will continue to make location asfaloth/tracker-proof and these new cards will never be powerfull enough.

I like Idraen, for her stats in the spirit sphere mostly.

Spirit has low threat level heroes, and this is a welcome change imo.

And she has exactly the same stats as Imrahil and a readying ability; on locations rather then allies.

She should be renamed Idrahil or something.

Looks like a good batch of cards to play around with.

In terms of the hero, it definitely seems like it will add some interesting deck building possibilities, but the 11 starting threat bothers me. With a push to return to secrecy, this card does not help. Unless you are going with 2 hero. But for 3 hero, you can't team her up with 2 other heroes to even start at 20. The best would be 22 with Spirit Glorfindel and a Hobbit, most likely Pippin lore. Sure, Elrond's Counsel gets you to 19 opening round, but of course that's if your running Glorfindel in the deck, which is getting kind of old. Would have been cool to have a hero that could break secrecy dependence from him, but the problem is introducing another low threat hero with really good stats means you can pair Glorfindel and said hero together. Glorfindel's impact on the player card pool has been substantial. Making him 5 threat was a giant mistake, 8 or 9 threat would have been enough of a discount and would have allowed for more flexibility in threat distribution of future heroes

Overall, i like her, although for solo play here response will not be a reliable source of readying her each round.

She's not meant for secrecy, period.

I don't have high hope for Message from Elrond.

If I take your exemple with sneak attack and test of will, either you play leadership/spirit too, or you are just putting dead cards in your deck, until you have Message from Elrond. If other don't play lore, Message from Elrond is a dead card too if you don't draw sneak attack/tes of will.

So the best use is with cards you can play and other can too.

Adding a hero that works with location being explored only make asfaloth and dunedain tracker more powerfull, and they already were... other means like new attachement or new ally are far worse and costly than these ones. Chance are, they will continue to make location asfaloth/tracker-proof and these new cards will never be powerfull enough.

Dude. Lore is renown for being able to burn through own deck as fast as hell. You pick monolore and a few "dead" cards wouldn't be a problem at all.

Indeed, message from Elrond is the card I'm digging mostly here.

Another example: all players in my group use spirit, and we all run 3 copies of Test of Will.

How many times has it happend that a devastating treachery popped from the encounter deck, and the player with Test of Will in his hand did not have a rescource left??? Many, many times I tell you.

Now you can play Message from Elrond and simply pass it to another spirit player with a spirit rescource left!

Sooo many possibilities with this card...amazing...

Most of the other cards are ace too by the way!

Remember timing though. Message from Elrond is an event, so you'd have to pass the Test of Will before revealing encounter cards. Then, if that player doesn't use it, it gets reshuffled. That's not entirely bad and it can be used more effectively with scrying abilities, but it's not quite as simple as you say here.

I can see this card being useful for effects that target things you control, or letting other players store extra copies of cards for you - preferably events or "on enter play" effects, since they go away afterwards.

I like it.

I just tried her out solo. A location never showed up for 7 rounds, so her ability was useless. I think she will be better in multiplayer where a location will be showing up regularly, but solo it's very unpredictable and tough to build a strategy around locations leaving play, unless it is scenario specific, but then there are usually not a lot of enemies to deal with.

With Imrahill it's easier to have allies leaving play, and you can design a deck to make it happen regularly to ensure he will be ready for combat. with Idrean there is no guarantee a location will even be in play, or that you will clear it before combat. Also locations will be cleared when there are no enemies in play which basically just wastes her action advantage. She'll need some other readying cards to ensure multiple uses out of her, otherwise her ability is going to be to random to count on when it matters most. It will probably only happen a few times a game.

Maybe a card like wingfoot can help her out, but to bad it's lore. It's cool she is can become a pretty good defender with Blood of Numenor. Though increasing her attack with the tactics card Gondorian Fire would probably be more useful.

Of course, I only tried her once but the forecast is looking bleak for solo play for my tastes. Other, than trying to make a deck that may be theme oriented, I'm not sure why I'd use this hero over Spirit Glorfindel, i don't see anything that gives her the slightest advantage at this point. Of course that's a tough comparison, but i was hoping for something to shake up the spirit hero hierarchy a bit more. Oh well.

Try spirit/lore deck.

Try spirit/lore deck.

Already did. Proxy wingfoot too.

I'm just happy Spirit finally got another character who can actually fight...

I take back my previous post about needing more exciting cards. Some of these are fantastic.

I'm not sure you should be. Your previous post talked about "power" cards, not "exciting" cards. To me there are a lot of good, exciting cards in the set, but I don't see any slam-dunk-this-card-will-make-every-deck power cards. Especially for the solo player.

Still, I do want to build a true Dunedain deck at some point and this pack helps that goal.

Dude. Lore is renown for being able to burn through own deck as fast as hell. You pick monolore and a few "dead" cards wouldn't be a problem at all.

Yeah, and it means if you draw a drawing cards, you'll draw more. But if you draw non-drawing card, you'll be stuck. Meaning that either you play cards drawing hero or you are stuck with less cards slot. And for 3 sneak attack, it would take 6 cards slot. Lore is so versatile that I have a hard time doing 50 cards deck.

Dead cards are dead cards. Even in a heavy card drawing deck. Either that, or you just forfeit and replay until you have the hand you desire, but that's not how I play. Too much a risk for me.

There is still other use that make me want to play Message from Elrond, but I don't find this strong enough yet. I'll wait for some feedback.

Dude. Lore is renown for being able to burn through own deck as fast as hell. You pick monolore and a few "dead" cards wouldn't be a problem at all.

Yeah, and it means if you draw a drawing cards, you'll draw more. But if you draw non-drawing card, you'll be stuck. Meaning that either you play cards drawing hero or you are stuck with less cards slot. And for 3 sneak attack, it would take 6 cards slot. Lore is so versatile that I have a hard time doing 50 cards deck.

Dead cards are dead cards. Even in a heavy card drawing deck. Either that, or you just forfeit and replay until you have the hand you desire, but that's not how I play. Too much a risk for me.

There is still other use that make me want to play Message from Elrond, but I don't find this strong enough yet. I'll wait for some feedback.

i can't figure out this card either.

you have to have a sphere match, so others can play it. the card goes away at the end of the round. and you have to plan on sharing or not being able to pay for something yourself. far too situational/reactionary (instead of proactive) for my tastes.

that, and i don't like playing lore.

Dude. Lore is renown for being able to burn through own deck as fast as hell. You pick monolore and a few "dead" cards wouldn't be a problem at all.

Yeah, and it means if you draw a drawing cards, you'll draw more. But if you draw non-drawing card, you'll be stuck. Meaning that either you play cards drawing hero or you are stuck with less cards slot. And for 3 sneak attack, it would take 6 cards slot. Lore is so versatile that I have a hard time doing 50 cards deck.

Dead cards are dead cards. Even in a heavy card drawing deck. Either that, or you just forfeit and replay until you have the hand you desire, but that's not how I play. Too much a risk for me.

There is still other use that make me want to play Message from Elrond, but I don't find this strong enough yet. I'll wait for some feedback.

It's very hard to NOT draw with lore if you're aiming for it. You're just judging from a perspective of active deck, I'm talking from a support deck perspective. Support decks make sacrifices for the greater good.

[idraen] has exactly the same stats as Imrahil and a readying ability; on locations rather then allies.

She should be renamed Idrahil or something.

I was going to mention the same thing (other than the name change, that's just silly). Both of them get more powerful in multiplayer decks because they increase the odds of their response triggering. With Warden of Arnor and a Glorfindel+Asfaloth, any time a location with 3 or fewer progress is the first to be revealed that round, you can ready her.

She is inherently weaker than Imrahil in a way, though. Since her ability works best with locations, revealing locations is what is most likely to ready her. But with more locations being revealed, fewer enemies are revealed, and therefore her readying is less likely to be useful. With Prince Imrahil, an ally leaving play is often due to chump blocking, which means that there are enemies to be dealt with, so Imrahil now gets ready to do battle.

Part of me feels like the 3 attack strength is just too much, given her ability. I think that she would have still been amazing, yet more balanced, at 2 attack strength, the other stats staying as they are.

Could Idraen be useful in quests that are "boss fights" like Carrock, We Must Away, etc? In these quests, you often want to quest/clear locations to manage your threat, but also need significant combat presence for the enemies standing between you and victory. For the nightmare versions of these quests, I imagine her attack power + spirit icon are a great combo.

I like her a lot. She is a truly well-rounded spirit hero - the first really. She's higher threat, but her stats and traits make her a great anchor hero who serves as the backbone of your lineup, able to effectively pull double or triple duty when possible. Her ability is very nice and given spirit's location control and questing abilities, she shouldn't be too hard to build around.

Part of me feels like the 3 attack strength is just too much, given her ability. I think that she would have still been amazing, yet more balanced, at 2 attack strength, the other stats staying as they are.

No, 3 attack is just right. We already have a spirit 2-attacker, and he's not used well.

About her ability: you have to be a little tricky about it. Timing location exploring and stuff. First what comes to mind is Legolas, but there is tons of others to go around.

Part of me feels like the 3 attack strength is just too much, given her ability. I think that she would have still been amazing, yet more balanced, at 2 attack strength, the other stats staying as they are.

Stats on heroes almost always receive balance through starting threat. She is weaker than Prince Imrahil (as I explained), though her presence in the Spirit sphere makes her more powerful in a way. I see nothing that indicates to me that she is unbalanced.

I'd be interested in hearing some hero line-ups that feature her.

I'm running through the list of possibilities, and trying out some options, but have not landed on anything that really clicks for me.

Any thoughts?

Part of me feels like the 3 attack strength is just too much, given her ability. I think that she would have still been amazing, yet more balanced, at 2 attack strength, the other stats staying as they are.

I definitely see where you are coming from here.

I just feel like 3 attack strength starts to depart from the theme of the Spirit sphere a little bit. With 2 attack strength, if she readies when a location is explored, then she could add to the attack strength of another Spirit hero, and that would help Spirit at least be able to deliver some 3-4 attack strength blows against enemies. I think that her being able to quest and then provide a sort of "attack support" would have been good enough. 3 attack strength just feels a little bit much for Spirit, and I feel departs slightly from the theme of the sphere.

Legolas can ready her during Combat.

Denethor could boost her chances of readying.

I'd be interested in hearing some hero line-ups that feature her.

I'm running through the list of possibilities, and trying out some options, but have not landed on anything that really clicks for me.

Any thoughts?

My suggestion (totally untested) would be Idraen with Glorfindel and Loragorn. Lots of location control of course (including the new Warden of Arnor and greyflood wanderer), rumour from the earth + wingfoot for Aragorn, alongside LoV on Glorfindel and location exploring stuff gives a lot of action advantage. For the rest, standard Lore and Spirit stuff, with emphasis on Rangers and traps to control enemies as well as locations. Seems pretty plausible in theory.

I would agree that 3 was too much attack for her if there were like ANY other Spirit attack options other than Glorfindel. I've been playing mono blue a lot recently and you have Glorfindel, the Trackers who you'd rather be questing with, Elfhelm, and Damrod. Leadership sometimes has a similar problem but at least they have For Gondor! and some big heroes to at least temporarily boost to where you can kill stuff. Blue needed someone else. One extra decent attacker won't push them over the edge or put them in Tactics' zone or anything like that.

I'd be interested in hearing some hero line-ups that feature her.

I'm running through the list of possibilities, and trying out some options, but have not landed on anything that really clicks for me.

Any thoughts?

My suggestion (totally untested) would be Idraen with Glorfindel and Loragorn. Lots of location control of course (including the new Warden of Arnor and greyflood wanderer), rumour from the earth + wingfoot for Aragorn, alongside LoV on Glorfindel and location exploring stuff gives a lot of action advantage. For the rest, standard Lore and Spirit stuff, with emphasis on Rangers and traps to control enemies as well as locations. Seems pretty plausible in theory.

I thought of the same three heroes, only for purposes of lower starting threat and more access to card draw I switched loragorn for Beravor. And because I like to play solo two-handed I thought Elladan, Legolas and Elrohir would be a good team to go with it, especially with the new elf mail card.