Can someone eplain me what the lower part iof his abilitty means? (that when using the ability to play the uper card of the deck, he gets a printed resource icon for teh rest of the turn)

He seems too powerfull

Can someone eplain me what the lower part iof his abilitty means? (that when using the ability to play the uper card of the deck, he gets a printed resource icon for teh rest of the turn)

He seems too powerfull

Gandalf can never play anything but neutral cards from your hand (unless he has a song attached). he only gains the spheres when playing the top card of your deck; "when playing cards this way" = from the top of your deck - never your hand.

The card also says that it has the "printed resource icon". Does that mean that I can play, say, Trained for War if I have it on top of my deck and I also have a Tactics hero (or no other hero)?

i HATE him!!!!

...got your attention eh? im joking... wow, love it... waiting since the start of the game for this... cannot wait... great art also

Can someone eplain me what the lower part iof his abilitty means? (that when using the ability to play the uper card of the deck, he gets a printed resource icon for teh rest of the turn)

He seems too powerfull

Gandalf can never play anything but neutral cards from your hand (unless he has a song attached). he only gains the spheres when playing the top card of your deck; "when playing cards this way" = from the top of your deck - never your hand.

So, playing a tactic cards which is on top of my deck, gives him the tactics resource icon for the rest of the round, correct?

Thats what was my first impression but wanted to be sure.

He is broken

I was also thinking of combining Gandalf with the hobbit heroes. It think it would be fun to play and pretty thematic also.

EDIT:

@7theye you are really not forced to play him. When I make decks I try to make it harder for me so I do not always include auto-include cards, let's say A Test of Will, UC,... It keeps the game challenging enough to not get bored of it. Not that I could get anyway.

Can someone eplain me what the lower part iof his abilitty means? (that when using the ability to play the uper card of the deck, he gets a printed resource icon for teh rest of the turn)

He seems too powerfull

Gandalf can never play anything but neutral cards from your hand (unless he has a song attached). he only gains the spheres when playing the top card of your deck; "when playing cards this way" = from the top of your deck - never your hand.

So, playing a tactic cards which is on top of my deck, gives him the tactics resource icon for the rest of the round, correct?

Thats what was my first impression but wanted to be sure.

He is broken

no. nothing on the card says he gains a resource icon for the phase or the round. only when playing the top card of the deck, does he gain the resource icon of that card.

as soon as you've played the card with one of gandalf's resources, he loses the sphere icon.

That brings me to another rules question that I'm sure has come up before. For attachments with requirements (like Silvan, Rohan, Tactics, etc.) does it get discarded if the attached character loses that trait? Could you use Gandalf to play Spear of the Citadel on him (requires tactics) and then next turn play Burning Brand (requires lore)? They would have to be played from the top of the deck, but that could still be pretty strong.

i remember this - if the trait goes the attatchments stays... i think i asked about song of wisdom/burning brand

ps- nice to see so many memebers online btw... hasnt been like this for a loooong time

He can also now be used in a mono-deck. Imagine him and Spirit Glorfindel and Frodo. They would basically kill any scenario now, and on top of that you can splash whatever you want and also use his ability to play mono-sphere cards.

He is broken just like Elrond and vilya can be and Outlands are. If you cant see how using him would mean victory over most scenarios then I don't think you have realized how powerful he is yet.

That brings me to another rules question that I'm sure has come up before. For attachments with requirements (like Silvan, Rohan, Tactics, etc.) does it get discarded if the attached character loses that trait? Could you use Gandalf to play Spear of the Citadel on him (requires tactics) and then next turn play Burning Brand (requires lore)? They would have to be played from the top of the deck, but that could still be pretty strong.

no, i don't believe they do.

i remember this - if the trait goes the attatchments stays... i think i asked about song of wisdom/burning brand

ps- nice to see so many memebers online btw... hasnt been like this for a loooong time

Right, even Google bots were amazed by the new Gandalf hero!

even if you lose the trait the attachment stays, you only need to have the trait when playing it , a nice trick was to use Narvis Belt on Dain for Lore and play Burning brand, then you were not losing the card.

Cool thing about him is that you can build a deck with cards from any sphere, as long the cards from the spheres not represented by the other heroes are 1 cost, so Gandalf can be sure to play them when they show up.

For instance, you could have a Gandalf - Glorfindel secrecy deck,,and throw in some Rivendell Blades and Vassal of the Windlords and play them when they show up on top of the deck no problem. Through in some Protector of Lorien to discard any cards that can't be played if they get in your hand.

There are going to be so many possibilities like this.

Seems like he will be worth every point of threat he has.

Super excited, he's going to be a game changer for me.

Also, article say TRD is in the way to retailers, but it is still listed as on the boat. It would be awesome to get before or around the same time as GenCon so we can all share in the excitement.

you right he is a game changer....

sigh...more power creep. Gandalf looks to be super powerful - I wish they would release better quests and stop releasing power cards. Whats next, exhaust hero to win game?

And when will they finally get rid of the card draw craziness in this game? Why is there no hand size limit? Just keeps getting more and more out of hand

If you think just these cards are overpowered, wait till you see the other Gandalf attachment we're getting in the box

Also, I absolutely love the art on all the cards, especially Gandalf. I was dreading that we would get yet another Magali artwork (not that she's bad, but she's not very good at drawing bearded men, and I dislike the pose in Hobbit Gandalf), but instead we got this magnificent piece that reminds me of the Ralph Bakshi poster of his LOTR movies.

We have a Nightmare mode...so we need Gandalf...

The problem is that there are ways to draw so many cards that its gets silly. Ive seen guys with 20 cards in there hand at one time. This simply compounds the problem.

I am not sure if you listen to the podcasts (ie - Grey Company, not so much COTR) but they often talk about this. One guy (I think Dan) mentioned how the Elrond deck is basically over once you get three rounds in and set it up. Imagine throwing this in with Vilya, you don't even need the **** Stargazer anymore. Its just stupidly powerful. They also go over how a hand size limit is needed.

If you made a good outlands deck and then added in Gandalf and Hirluin are you telling me that you wouldn't crush things? He can also now pay for those allies on top and just imagine the sheer power of drawing an additional card each turn with his staff.

I want quests - better quests that are fun and challenging. That is how you keep this game going. Not giving us insanely powerful cards.

is ok man. you are like a me. No prob we have Nightmare mode for that. it is difficult even with that Gandalf. for now only outlands is overpower but.....is only one deck which i can win Return to Mirkwood Nmode. And very very close call....

The problem is that there are ways to draw so many cards that its gets silly. Ive seen guys with 20 cards in there hand at one time. This simply compounds the problem.

I am not sure if you listen to the podcasts (ie - Grey Company, not so much COTR) but they often talk about this. One guy (I think Dan) mentioned how the Elrond deck is basically over once you get three rounds in and set it up. Imagine throwing this in with Vilya, you don't even need the **** Stargazer anymore. Its just stupidly powerful. They also go over how a hand size limit is needed.

If you made a good outlands deck and then added in Gandalf and Hirluin are you telling me that you wouldn't crush things? He can also now pay for those allies on top and just imagine the sheer power of drawing an additional card each turn with his staff.

I want quests - better quests that are fun and challenging. That is how you keep this game going. Not giving us insanely powerful cards.

is ok man. you are like a me. No prob we have Nightmare mode for that. it is difficult even with that Gandalf. for now only outlands is overpower but.....is only one deck which i can win Return to Mirkwood Nmode. And very very close call....

yes perhaps I am over-reacting. There is nightmare which is best suited to my play side and not just crushing things. Thanks Glaurung for bringing me back to earth lol.

The inability to use sneak attack with him also helps in terms of minimizing his power. He does open up tons of new deck types though and is a game changer, which perhaps he should be.

If it weren't for the fact that Gandalf can't be used to pay for cards in your hand (unless they're neutral), I'd feel like he was overpowered, but since he only has spheres when he is playing cards off the top of the deck, his neutrality is neutralized... that neutral nonsense wasn't on purpose...

Anyway, I find card draw to be very give and take with Gandalf. The more cards you have in your hand, the less he can contribute to paying for cards. On the other hand, resource generation = card draw for him in a way. The more resources we have (especially on Gandalf because he can pay for any of them), the more cards we can pull off the deck and play. Cards that shuffle the deck or rearrange the top cards of the deck become a tool for determining what cards are in your hand, versus which cards you'll draw next.

*Interesting and useless infinite loop:
Miruvor on top of the deck can be played for 1 resource, then can be used to grant a resource and be put on top of the deck... repeat. This could be also be used as a means of transferring Spirit resources to other heroes, which is cool, but the not the biggest deal. It does mean, though, that you could attach the resource generation cards all to one spirit hero and be able to spread the resources however you want, simply by having a Miruvor, so a Steward of Gondor + Resourceful on a Spirit hero could be pretty powerful.

*Also Interesting

Gandalf's Search matches with Gandalf by name and also synergizes pretty well. Sadly this card costs too much to really be useful.

*Interesting and useless infinite loop:

Miruvor on top of the deck can be played for 1 resource, then can be used to grant a resource and be put on top of the deck... repeat. This could be also be used as a means of transferring Spirit resources to other heroes, which is cool, but the not the biggest deal. It does mean, though, that you could attach the resource generation cards all to one spirit hero and be able to spread the resources however you want, simply by having a Miruvor, so a Steward of Gondor + Resourceful on a Spirit hero could be pretty powerful.

I thought about this, but Gandalf's text says "once per phase" and "play ... as if it were in your hand", so you could only play Miruvor once in the planning phase.

I started looking at all the cards that i've said, "if I could only find an easy way to have access to this in another sphere".

Many are 0 cost events. Dareons Runes can no pretty much be an auto include in every Gandalf deck regardless of sphere. Deep Knowledge for sphere's that don't have easy card draw. You could play A Very Good Tale in a tactics deck.

The options are pretty mind boggling, when I start to look at the cards, it will be hard to figure what to keep.

The biggest choice will start with choosing heroes to balance his high threat, but the skies the limit after that.

I don't want to say it, but putting him in an Outlands build could be pretty ridiculous.

I started looking at all the cards that i've said, "if I could only find an easy way to have access to this in another sphere".

Many are 0 cost events. Dareons Runes can no pretty much be an auto include in every Gandalf deck regardless of sphere. Deep Knowledge for sphere's that don't have easy card draw. You could play A Very Good Tale in a tactics deck.

The options are pretty mind boggling, when I start to look at the cards, it will be hard to figure what to keep.

The biggest choice will start with choosing heroes to balance his high threat, but the skies the limit after that.

I don't want to say it, but putting him in an Outlands build could be pretty ridiculous.

yeah, don't say it...

This is amazing. Absolutely amazing. At first I thought him being neutral meant he could pay for cards from any sphere by default, and I thought "wow, that's crazy". Only being able to pay for sphere-cards at the top of the deck is probably a wise move. It's also thematic - he's one step ahead.

I don't know if my friends will want to part with their Gandalf allies, though.

That's a serious matter nowdays. Most of the LotR LCG players suffer from strong Gandalf Ally addiction.

I think the thing with Gandalf that's going to balance him out is that it could become easy to clog your hand with cards you cannot play. Right now I feel like a kid in a candy store, but I can only play 1 card per phase so yeah it's great to have test of will on top of my deck, but if a treachery card does not show up and I have no spirit hero, that card is coming to my hand next round and I'm stuck with it unless I have a way to discard it.

Another example, i use Gandalf ability to play top card of my deck in planning, and then shows up an important ally that can only be paid with Gandalf's resources. Stuck again.

Sure there are going to ways to plan around this, Stargazer, Gildor, etc. but without that help, trying to splash a lot of other spheres not represented by the heroes can be a risky game to play, and I'm sure getting stuck with cards that cannot be played and missing opportunities to play cards will happen every so often or even regularly.

Another way around it is not to splash off sphere cards.

Ways to discard cards from ones hand combined with a test of will may give a 2nd shot at playing cards that missed their mark first time around. Of course multiple copies can also help.

Anyway, I think he is going to offer lot's of new deck opportunities, but right now I'm leaning towards him not being as overpowered as my first take was. Heroes like this often bring a difficulty to work around and my sense is he'll be powerful but not so much that every quest is an instant success.