So, after finishing my work (sort of ) on "revising" the core set, I decided to take a look at the Mirkwood cycle. And, to my surprise, there were a lot, A LOT less cards in the dire need of "revising" like there was in the core set, and most of them were mostly minor (and some times even unnecessary) ones. Still, I decided to give it a spin, and here is what came out:

I was always oppressed by how much Bilbo's threat cost is inflated for no real particular reason. So I decided to give him some bonus willpower, while lowering starting threat. Also, made his ability a bit more productive in multiplayer.

Keen-eyed Took was always a strange card to me. It was made for bouncing in-and-out, but the little thing is so worthless even for 2 resources of leadershit - so I don't know. Bash me the proes who utilized it for great success.

Originally, an ally with extremely poor stat box and discard-myself-for-greater-good ability.

1 point of defense sitting on 1 health meant "I'm either defending against 1 attack crows or I'm dead, essentially wasting my printed ability. Or even better - crows get +1 attack shadow effect and I'm dead again." So, it technically a 1wp 1hp ally who didn't fit to chump because his ability was about discarding himself. I decided to tinker him around a bit, giving him a little attack boost he can actually use and live to tell the tale, while retaining his iconic ability (and brute-limiting it to once per two turns to prevent abuse).

Original Beornings Beekeepers confused me a lot. Saving 4 resources for this behemoths just to throw them away first thing in a morning? And for what? 1 damage to the staging area? If you're playing tactics, there rarely will be anybody in the staging area past quest phase. And the stats... they're very bad for a 4-cost ally, compared to most of the others. Which is confusing given the self-discard ability, because self-discarders ought to live less that the others, thus must do more in those little times they have. So I decided to change them a bit, throwing a decision element in. Now they're sort of Northen Trackers of Tactics.

Radagast, our ol' overlooked underpowered Istari pal. I've just made him show something for those whopping 5 resource you just paid, plus even more if you have something to do with Creatures.

This card always bugged me by the fact that it costs 1 and for doing literally nothing on it's own. And even by now, Rohan synergy is not that great to justify the cost or deck slot. So let it be a little more appealing to the player, shall it?

Here we go, the last one. So, just let me present it straight:

We have Grim Resolve, a Leadershit (richest resource sphere ever) event that readies everything and costs 5. And then here is We Do Not Sleep, a spirit event that costs exactly the same, targets only Rohans and instead of readying it prevents exhausting to quest. So, it does less, does it worse, costs the same. The only good argument here would be is that it protects against treacheries that target exhausted folk, which are getting more and more absent with time. Also, there are not that much of Rohan characters that would benefit from this another free action. What I was trying to achieve here is making this card a good situational pick where you can actually influence it's magnitude and not overpay for this 2wp-0atk-0df-sort cards that can do nothing but quest and stuff.

Quite good, i like your ideas, both - art and card traits.

Nor am I a stranger would basically become for spirit what We are not Idle became for leadership, or Daeron's Rune's for lore. It makes your deck effectively 3 cards smaller. Probably ok, considering the power of WANI though.

Yep. What else would you expect from a trait giver? Making it cost 1 was already ridiculous.

Also, what if cards like this read "Your minimum deck size is increased by 1"?

Coolcool! Especially like Beorning Beekeeper!

Do not(!) like the art of Radagast though.. And I thought it was cool he could collect resources! But his stats are better this way.

What exactly you don't like about Radagast? I like him a lot. Especially that owl in his back. I feel the urge to make this owl as a separate neutral attachment

Also, while tinkering with Radagast I thought that it's a shame that mount attachments do not have Creature trait.

Very nice! I really like Radagast's changes

Radagast is looks much more useful. Anyway with new istari cards from new saga box maybe he deserve a shot again?

I would like to see Hero version of Radagast and Saruman too

Nor am I a stranger would basically become for spirit what We are not Idle became for leadership, or Daeron's Rune's for lore. It makes your deck effectively 3 cards smaller. Probably ok, considering the power of WANI though.

Daeron's Runes draws 2 cards, so that's not technically true. In any case, I think that any card that lets Spirit draw 1 card should cost 1. Just my opinion.

Also, while tinkering with Radagast I thought that it's a shame that mount attachments do not have Creature trait.

I've thought the same thing many times.

I like the new Radagast card a lot. I honestly had no issues with his previous ability(s) and it was nice that you could splash Eagles into a deck with Radagast, even if you weren't playing Tactics, which you can't do with this new ability. I was also fond of the healing ability so we can keep the big eagles (especially Eagles of the Misty Mountains) in play for a long time, though this gives him better synergy with the current Creatures available in the game and is still pretty thematic.

I still don't think I'd ever play Keen-Eyed Took, especially with that art. The Bilbo art is pretty nice, but it doesn't seem to fit with the card. The card is based on an active and useful Bilbo, not an old Bilbo writing his stories, but w/e.

Glaurung, two new Istari cards that Radagast can use are: Flame of Anor and Wizard's Pipe. Original Radagast has 1 base attack, so unless you know that there is a very costy card on the top of your deck - probably not worth the trouble. Wizards Pipe - again, not that much, unless you have some stuff going on (like Elrond, Expert Treasure Hunter, Zigil Miner, etc.). Yep, they can make him a bit more useful, but it's not worth building around in my opinion.

joezim007, I would continue your sentence with: "...unless that card does nothing immediate itself" about spirit cards that draw something.

About the Radagast - my problem with old Radagast it that he were weak stat-wise, costing 5 resources (even neutral, but hey) and his ability required a build up. This one can jump into the fray and immediately kick some ass. His price reduction also spreads through the board, so in multiplayer you can include him even if you do not run the eagles while your buddy does. I think this new Radagast would fit better in the new encounter environment where you're pressured constantly with the flurry of attacks and Time X keyword and stuff like that.

Well, sorry, but that's best what I could find around. Hobbits are usually depicted being fat, sitting and eating, or being Bilboes. I was forced to search by a Halfling keyword, and even there was a short of fitting stuff.

About Bilbo - really? It seemed to me that lore Bilbo was sorta old, especially compared to the Saga Bilboes.

Radagast is looks much more useful. Anyway with new istari cards from new saga box maybe he deserve a shot again?

The new Istari cards don't really help him out that much. Flame of Anor and Wizard Pipe are both very situational cards (though they certainly help each other out). The card that really would have been nice for him is Gandalf's Staff, but that is limited to just Gandalf.

Wizard Pipe can be useful for several things:

1) Trading a (currently) useless card with the card on top of your deck. If you use it every turn, it's essentially a 1-time 1-card draw. "Currently useless" can have many meanings:

- A card you can't afford this round

- A card that is the wrong sphere for you to be able to afford this round

- Situational card and the situation isn't here

- Unique card that is already in play

-

2) Put a high-priced card on top of your deck for Flame of Anor, so Radagast can attack for 5 or 6 one time.

3) Put a card on top for Zigil Miner and/or Expert Treasure Hunter to guarantee a hit.

4) Put Hidden Cache on top of the deck to make sure its ability is used, especially with the cards in #3.

5) Put a card on top for a quest's test, so you can know the right answers

6) Put an ally on top to be discarded for Caldara

7) Play a card from your hand with Vilya

etc....

But it still feels pretty weak unless you're specifically using it to facilitate a certain engine in your deck: Zigil Miner, Expert Treasure Hunter, Caldara, Vilya, etc. If you ARE building around those engines, then you are using mostly Spirit or Lore, so Radagast has little other usefulness, in which case, you have to weigh his cost of 5 very carefully. There's always the option of Vilya and/or Elf-Stone, which would be really nice, but you can't necessarily count on it. Also, if the deck centers around Spirit and/or Lore, then his abilities become useless, unless you want to use him to splash in some cheaper eagles, though he then can't heal them cuz the cheap eagles only have 1 hit point. He just becomes a 2 willpower quester that you can attach Wizard Pipe to, which would be great if he didn't cost 5.

Well, sorry, but that's best what I could find around. Hobbits are usually depicted being fat, sitting and eating, or being Bilboes. I was forced to search by a Halfling keyword, and even there was a short of fitting stuff.

About Bilbo - really? It seemed to me that lore Bilbo was sorta old, especially compared to the Saga Bilboes.

I don't fault you for the images. I know it's tough. As for Bilbo, the original art doesn't really portray age. He has light-colored curly hair, that's all. You can have that at a young age and his face doesn't show that he's old.

Sorry I duplicated points about Radagast in my last post. Took me a while to write it, so MNT beat me to it. I do like the new Radagast and his abilities. I also like the old Radagast's abilities. If you kept his old text box but upgraded his stats (or lowered his cost to 3 or 4), I'd be all for it. Any of these would be great fixes, but I do like how your new Radagast is more useful in multiplayer.

I don't like the blind eye! And as Glaurung said, I loved the healing ability too.

I also agree on Bilbo's art, but hey it's cool that you're doing this already and I know how hard it is to find any art, let alone great art. We Do Not Sleep is greatly fixed, man I hated that cost.. The cost just made it a useless card, considering the amount of Rohan characters released back then. NAIAS should cost 1 imo, drawing is always usefull, especially in spirit decks. I really like Westfold Horse-Breakers art!

I would happily give a cost of 1 to the Nor Am I a Stranger, but it's just a trait. And not even a good trait in the game terms, I can't justify making it cost so much.

It's not just a trait. It's card draw without any restrictions. 1 resource for 1 card isn't that bad, especially when there's an additional effect. I know adding a trait isn't useful in and of itself, but it is still useful and only gets more useful as time goes on.

1 resource for 1 card is a lot. I only put self-replacement mechanic because the card that triggers it is useless by itself. It's a blank card. You get no benefit from playing it, and you shouldn't pay for this, given the questionable benefit of this card even in a long run.