Gandalf's staff is incredibly good. At first I was thinking he would only be able to contribute 1 resource to the top card of your deck, but with the staff giving him a resource he can play for any 2 resource card, so if you want Steward of Gondor in a deck without leadership and songs he could get it. Even in the first round if the Staff was payed for by 2 other heroes, he could then use the staff to get a resource and get SoG if it was on top of the deck.

Crazy stuff I say!

@Bullroarer, why you say no to Expert Treasure? Once a card is removed from the deck the next card should immediately become face up. It's a passive effect that should take place before the response.

From what I experienced so far there are going to be some timing issues like this while playing Gandalf.

Single hero will be a worthy challenge. Getting him with Treebeard + ents and Radagast with some eagles might be pretty interesting. Since, they are neutral allies that can provide some resources.

Yeah what do you mean by useless cards? Let's say Gandalf has a bunch of resources, uses his ability to pay for a Spirit card and now he has the Spirit resource icon so can't he pay for other Spirit cards in your hand? OR does he only temporarily gain the Spirit icon to pay for that one card on top your deck?

he only has the sphere whilst play the one card so his resources can only be used exclusively for his ability or neutral cards.

Tracker - the reason I said no is that I was thinking that there was only one window, but that clearly can't be right since ignoring Gandalf you could have three ETHs out and still activate them all. So I've changed my mind there.

And regarding #1, the game has started when you draw your opening hand so now I believe it should be an unqualified yes.

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.

for years i complain on this forum about : when you are know how to play and learn how to build up strong deck game is became walk in the park? ut after Nmode come out everything is fine. Now you if you feel game is to easy welcome to Nmode!

I feel that the player cards have seen too much power creep. The player cards have gotten so strong that even many Nightmare Mode Decks just don't feel very "NIghtmare-ish."

My group crushed all three Khazad Dum nightmare decks in one sitting, having to play Into the Pit twice, due to some really unlucky encounter deck reveals, but beating The Seventh Level and Flight from Moria the first time we had ever played them. And, none of us had looked at the encounter decks ahead of time. We just brought decks that we knew were good, and crushed all three scenarios.

They were really fun, but I didn't think that they were difficult enough.

Yeah,Gandalf's ability is a passive, so the next top card should always be turned face up as soon as the old one is played or removed. This should take place before any forced or response triggers.

Playing him with Imladris Stargazer would be nice too. You will be able to determine your next five cards, and even the phase they are going to appear, so a full scale strategy. This could help players not to get i.e. ally cards when on other phases than planning.

His staff seems very strong card and if there is also a shadowfax attachment that has an ability that helps paying for cards of other sphaires (as i come to understand from some posts) it would be an auto include, but with other heroes being of low threat.

So if you fill your deck with 0 cost cards you could play one every phase.. or get his staff and easily play 2 one cost cards each round.. not that 0 or 1 cost cards are that great but it seems crazy to be able to just play 7 zero costs events each round.

Looking at Gandalf's staff, I think we have finally some use for Brok Ironfist, apart from sadly sitting in the box and crying himself to sleep.

Looking at Gandalf's staff, I think we have finally some use for Brok Ironfist, apart from sadly sitting in the box and crying himself to sleep.

Brok Ironfist felt himself pretty good in a monoleadership dwarf deck. Also, can't see how Brok has anything to do with Gandalf's Staff.

Yay for a doublepost!

Oh yes, my bad. I meant Flame of Anor.

Wow he combos insanely well with vilya and stargazer...

Well this goes some way to making up for the initial disappointment I felt after the first preview. If there is only going to be one hero, it's best that it be someone amazing like Gandalf! But the fact remains that there can never now be a saga hero version of Boromir. Here's hoping for an ally though.

Now all I really want from this pack is an awesome Anduril card! I really hope it's not a boon, but if Glamdring and Sting are, it probably will be

And here I sit, still hoping to see ringbearers outside of Frodo...

And here I sit, still hoping to see ringbearers outside of Frodo...

i think this should happen..well, in a way it must.. .sam bears the ring towards the end..so i guess after the Shelob quest, sam will become a bearer for a short time

do you what ive just thought would be cool - Gandalf's Fireworks attatchment card... "discard to deal 2 damage to each enemy in the staging area with less than 3 defence...." or something like that

And here I sit, still hoping to see ringbearers outside of Frodo...

i think this should happen..well, in a way it must.. .sam bears the ring towards the end..so i guess after the Shelob quest, sam will become a bearer for a short time

Such great potential wasted...

indeed - they would have gotten it done twice as fast if old samwise had been given the ring... temptation? never! give me taters!!!

Not that. 6 different, unique ringbeares, one from each box. Giving you choices when playing saga quests, allowing you to approach differently previous saga quest and somewhat affecting overall saga experience.

The Gandalf art reminds me of the Gandalf cover art on the original Ralph Bakshi animated LOTR movie. I'm almost certain it was used as inspiration. I love it too.

Not that. 6 different, unique ringbeares, one from each box. Giving you choices when playing saga quests, allowing you to approach differently previous saga quest and somewhat affecting overall saga experience.

if this was not the saga then yes, but the idea here is to keep to the storyline

Not that. 6 different, unique ringbeares, one from each box. Giving you choices when playing saga quests, allowing you to approach differently previous saga quest and somewhat affecting overall saga experience.

if this was not the saga then yes, but the idea here is to keep to the storyline

You can keep to the storyline by using only Frodo, if you wish. If you do not own the expansion with Frodo - then you're not sticking to the storyline anyways.

Isn't Flame of Arnor breaking the Watcher in the Water?

In the (not hugely likely ) event you could play three Victory 1 cards, without entering the Doors of Durin or killing the watcher.

Or is the unlikelyness acceptable? Perhaps errata on the quest card?

That, plus Black Arrow and Fall of GilGalad. Kinda breaks it, but I guess that if Gandalf uses his spells, he could use them to blast down the door.

if Gandalf uses his spells, he could use them to blast down the door.

ha, in his dreams.....