Gandalf hero and ridiculous helper cards like his Staff just previewed!!

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4974

Word of Command just got hecka better. Also, Keen-Eyed Took!

Speechless.

Not seeing like any downsides to him either other than his threat is high and no Gandalfs in player decks then. But who cares! He's a beast! Staff is Ridiculously good too, and even the event!

The artwork on flame is gorgeous.

Oh yeah! I knew it would be Gandalf!

Nice! I like that one of his staff's modes is Dawn Take You All!

I like him, only being able to play neutral cards with him (or the card on top of your deck) will be quite a burden though.

This is awesome! I hope it is available to buy early at Gen Con like the Black Riders was last year.

So amazing. If you can resist shouting "You cannot pass!" when playing Flame, then you have no soul.

I think the new Gandalf hero is cool, but I was really hoping he wouldn't show up. I'm glad his threat is so high so people might be deterred from playing him because I don't want to be required to give up my Gandalf allies. At least we're at a point where Gandalf allies aren't required to be in decks. Rapier makes a good point about him being neutral, but some songs can change that pretty easily.

I think the things that I'm most excited about are the other spoiled cards. Gandalf's Staff will work with any Gandalf card, though the hero and the Hobbit Gandalf are obviously the better targets. Gandalf's Staff gives even more reason to keep OHaUH Gandalf in play. 4 willpower plus 4 attack or 4 defense is good enough each round, but now we can also draw cards, get resources, and get rid of shadow cards.

Flame of Anor works for all Istari characters, so that means you can pop that card into eagle decks with Radagast, and make him more useful too!

I like him, only being able to play neutral cards with him (or the card on top of your deck) will be quite a burden though.

I don't think it will be too big of a problem. His Staff, Steward, Zigil Miners (so great with Gandalf!!) can pour extra resources on your other Heroes, and Errand Riders/Blue Mountain Traders will make use of Gandalf's excess ones. Plus Stargazers, etc. can maximize the top deck card plays. Word of Command 3x helps find this stuff plus provides a deck shuffle for Gandalf.

Finally. After so much wait!

Oh man, the thought of running a Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel deck... I hope they make Narya so we can have all three elven rings.

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.

And now I can unpack my Taking Initiative.

Well, if blue mountain trader didn't get an errata, playing with Gandalf might change that

I love how you will be able to play Hidden Cache more easily.

Bad thing is that now, keen eye took is officially out.

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

I hope game will introduce more mechanics that put cards from your hand/discard pile to the top of your deck.

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

Oh yeah?! Well, it sounds more like it keeps getting more and more into the hand!

Waaaay too cool!

I love this box already.

Gandalf + Elrond/vilya = win!

Why everyone are trying to pair Gandalf with such major threat bearers? Am I the only one who can see him being a good match with extremely low threat pals, the hobbits?

So mind-blowing!

I don't think he's over powered at all, having him be neutral and not able to pay for sphere cards in your hand means that you have to really put some thought into how to best use him. Great design! Like other thoughtfully designed cards, it makes you go back and reexamine previous cards and makes old cards useful again.

I like him with Lore. You've got ability to fetch songs which would help him out, Word of Command, and Gildor would be very helpful to get something back on top of your deck.

Are there other cards that let you put a card from your hand into or on top of your deck?

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.

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

The basic game mechanics of LOTR are pretty stiff ( clever, solid, thematic but stiff ) you don't draw 2 cards per turn and you can't spend clicks to draw cards, so they are giving us many different ways to work around this. I can't really see any bad in this and i can't really disagree with your whole statement more.

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.

Nobody is forcing you to play him.

Try spirit pippin instead.