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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.

Try flight from Moria again and see how it goes......pretty sure you just was extremely lucky...

Taking iniative and zigil just got much better with Gandalf!

Somebody may have already said this, but won't this be very good for the Riddle's quest in the Saga box? I can't remember exactly how that works, but it seems like it would take the guessing element out of it entirely.

Somebody may have already said this, but won't this be very good for the Riddle's quest in the Saga box? I can't remember exactly how that works, but it seems like it would take the guessing element out of it entirely.

Fortunately you have to guess, then shuffle your deck, and then discard the cards from your deck. So Gandalf won't help here.

It wouldn't take it out entirely, as deck is shuffled before discarding. It would, however, provide you with the needed knowledge in case you're going to spend Bilbo resources for additional guesses.

Good point about Gandalf helping with the additional guesses. This could definitely allow you to spend your Baggins resources with 100% accuracy. To be honest, I'm not too concerned with a new hero helping out with an older quest, but the designers will definitely have to keep an eye out for future interactions like this for newer quests.

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

Precisely this. It is *extensively* clear in the books that Sam is a ringbearer. In the "Return of the King" sets he will have to be a ringbearer.

Just ran a deck with Gandalf, Bifur, and Glorfindel Spirit on NM Into the Pit. Crushed it twice.

Gandalf is crazy good. Card draw is really phenomenal with him. It is possible to play a few cards a round with his ability too. Gildor will be a very good card with him to put cards back into the deck. Word of command really working now.

I must say I am a bit concerned about Gandalf being a non-sphere, an the potential risk that the player may be locked out with cards in hand.

Tracker, since you have played him already:

1. I wonder how much you think Bifur was a factor in your success? Is he necessary or only convenient with Gandalf hero?

2. If there is no top-deck manipulation in your deck (no Imladris Stargazers or similar) would then Gandalf's non-sphereness be an issue?

I guess all I am asking is how much do you have to build around Gandalf being neutral.

I think, Bifur is an excellent pair for Gandalf due to his low threat and ability to grab useless resources from Gandalf if needed.

Bifur is an extremely good hero for any multisphere deck, as he can alone pose as two Lore heroes, sort of. In my harbor master deck where Bifur is a single Lore hero, I could field behemoths like Gildor Inglorion on turn 2 without any stewards and else.

Just ran a deck with Gandalf, Bifur, and Glorfindel Spirit on NM Into the Pit. Crushed it twice.

Gandalf is crazy good. Card draw is really phenomenal with him. It is possible to play a few cards a round with his ability too. Gildor will be a very good card with him to put cards back into the deck. Word of command really working now.

I must say I am a bit concerned about Gandalf being a non-sphere, an the potential risk that the player may be locked out with cards in hand.

Tracker, since you have played him already:

1. I wonder how much you think Bifur was a factor in your success? Is he necessary or only convenient with Gandalf hero?

2. If there is no top-deck manipulation in your deck (no Imladris Stargazers or similar) would then Gandalf's non-sphereness be an issue?

I guess all I am asking is how much do you have to build around Gandalf being neutral.

1. Yeah obviously I choose Bifur to pass Gandalf's resources, and that was certainly helpful at times in the early game, especially to get Gildor in, but late game I was not doing this at all. I used gandalf quite a bit to play the top card during planing for 2 cost spirit allies or attachments and later in the round if an event was on top he could play it, and possibly another event after that. So, Gandalf's resources were always being put to good use and I never felt like they were just piling up. I suspect this would be the case even without bifur, since if it was not for the high cost of Gildor I might not have had to pass any resources at all, but Gildor was essential to the deck as you'll read below.

Another thing thing that was good about Bifur is he is only 7 threat, so he is a really good fit for the deck with a starting threat of 26. Sure it would be cool to have Elrond, Gandalf, Glorfindel, but starting at 32 threat is usually a death sentence for even some of the most powerful heroes in Middle earth, and I was testing my deck on nightmare scenarios, JAtA and Khazad-dum scenarios, which it did fine on, almost made some of them easy, but not always.

2. I found Gildor to be almost essential to the deck. There were 6 cards that could could only be played by Gandalf and burning Brand needed to be played from the top of the deck to attach to Gandalf. There were numerous times when these cards showed up in my opening hand or I got cornered into having to draw them. With Gildor i could get those cards back in the deck to play again. I had Stargazers in the deck but took them out because Deck manipulation became Gildor's main role. Without him I could easily have gotten stuck with cards in my hand that were essential to the deck and now were unplayable.

So, yes I think top deck manipulation is going to be key if you are playing sphere specific attachments on him or you are splashing spheres that are not represented by any of your heroes. But if your doing any of the above it should not be an issue.

I can't say enough about how powerful his staff is. The extra resource early game is pretty incredible. Mid late game I was using it for card draw, and since I had Burning Brand on him I did not need the shadow removal, but it is another great option without the brand.

I think the most important thing to maximize Gandalf is readying effects. I had all 3 Unexpected courages on him If they showed up, and they usually did since card draw was so good in the deck, Expert Treasure hunter just became one of the best source of card draw in the game for a Gandalf deck at least.

Overall, Gandalf is pretty fun to play with, although there is a lot of deck manipulation and fiddley bits that might not make him a hit with all types of players, since it's a bit of work to set him up the way I was playing him, but there are other ways to play him, so he is not pigeon holed into one type of build which is great, and should fit into decks that just want to draw cards and play them without all the concern of getting dead cards stuck in hand.

One other thing, card draw was almost an issue sometimes, since drawing cards might mean i could get stuck with a card in my hand I could not play. So even if I had 3 Expert Treasure hunters in play with 3 questing heroes, i might only trigger it at all especially if I did not know what was below the card on top of my deck. If the next card was one that needed to be played from the top of the deck, I was would then be stuck drawing it next round, and now had to rely on Gildor to get it back in the deck.

So, drawing the whole deck like crazy was a bit counter productive, and I began to take a more cautious approach, but even so, by round 10 I'd usually almost gone through my whole deck, and this is leaving out many of the powerful draw cards that many of my other decks had relied on in the past. A large part of this is due to Gandalf's passive form of draw by playing the top card of the deck every so often, but his also came with the same risks I mentioned above, so it's a really interesting way to play.

That's why top deck manipulation is going to be key for the style of deck I was playing.

Have you used Will of the West?

Thanks, Tracker, lots of very interesting observations. Certainly would not mind if you posted your decklist at some point

Now I cannot wait to play hero Gandalf myself. I like deck manipulation very much so this playstyle is very tempting.

I am happy to hear that his positive abilities overshadow the drawbacks. And good to hear he is "fiddly" but not "awkward" to use.

Have you used Will of the West?

No, I thought of that, but it seems like a few step process. I'll first have to discard the card, then I will need Will of the West, and then hopefully the card will show up in way that I will not get stuck drawing it again, if it ahows up at all now that it has been reshufled into the deck, and if for some reason i get stuck drawing the same card again then It was all for nothing.

There might be some potential there, since Will of the West will at least give me another chance but it's not a solid solution like Gildor, and he also removes the need to discard the card first. Of course you get all that for the the cost of 5 resources. But with Biffur and Gandalf Staff I can get him in to play on turn 2 or when ever he shows up. I started to run 3 copies of him since he was so crucial. The extra copies are also nice combo with Flame of Anor, and Gildor in play can even make sure it happens.

I think another option if it's an ally and I'm playing spirit is to find a way to get the card in the discard pile, and if it is a splashed sphere ally use stand and fight.

Protector of Lorien + Will of the West may be a pretty good salvation to your fear of drawing whole deck too fast problem.

Question about Gandalf staff and the Lonely mountain scenario hobbit #5.

Smaug makes additional attack if he is dealt a shadow card with a burgle effect. Smaug is also immune player card effects.

So, can Gandalf Staff be used to remove the shadow card, or does Smaug's immunity prevent this?

Smaug is not being targeted by the staff, it is the shadow card, so I'm not certain. If the shadow card could be removed it would make the scenario way easier.

It's been already discussed many times. You target shadow card, not Smaug, so yes - you can discard it. But, if shadow card was already revealed and had burgle effect - discarding it will be of no use, as his additional attack will be already in motion.

You could discard the shadow card from Smaug for the reasons Trololo described, but you can't do it with Gandalf's Staff because it only applies to non-unique enemies.

You could discard the shadow card from Smaug for the reasons Trololo described, but you can't do it with Gandalf's Staff because it only applies to non-unique enemies.

Right, should have gone back and read the card. Thanks.

I do not like the new Gandalf hero. This must have been raised before by someone, but you can build some ridiculously unbeattable solo deck with him.

I just tested a deck with :

Gandalf/Galadriel/Denethor

1 dwarven tomb

1 will of the west

2 legacy of numenor

3 Elrond counsel

3 Cram

3 Blood of numenor

3 fire of Gondor

3 daeron's rune

3 wealth of Gondor

And plenty of 0 casting cost cards (love of tales, healing herbs, expert treasure hunter, a good harvest, etc).

Basically, in your first planning phase you play until you reach dwarven tomb or will of the west (you activate Galadriel end draw it), then when the second card (dwarven tomb or will of the west) is on top of your deck, you play will of the west.

Then you start with a full deck and a will of the west in the discard, you play all the cards of the deck (playing the dwarven tomb on will of the west). When the deck is finished, you play will of the west and restart a loop.

If you are stuck with a card you cannot play in hand, you use the daeron's runes.

With each loop, you gain 3 will and 9 threat (elrond counsel), you lose 8 threat and earn 6 ressources with the 2 legacy of numenor.

So running a number of loops you want, you can choose to start the questing phase beeing at :

= 0 threat

= Xxxx ressources on each of your hero

= each hero at + xxxxx wi

Plus with cram and denethor, you can have the card you want from the encounter deck on top

Plus, if you are in a scenario, where you need to kill an enemy, you have Denethor with 3 Cram with Blood of numenor and fire of gondor and xxxx ressources on him to deal with the combat.

I cannot see that deck lose to any quest (healing herbes infinite to pass rhosgobel), except may be for Dol guldur if Gandalf is prisoner cancelling his ability.

Some cards need to be errataed !!

EDIT : no errata needed, gandalf power is limited once per phase, I will read the cards completely next time, sorry

Basically, in your first planning phase you play until you reach dwarven tomb or will of the west

Gandalf may only use his ability once per phase. You play the first zero cost card in planning, then you have to wait until the quest phase to do it again.