How splashable is Gandalf hero?

By Gizlivadi, in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Gandalf, without a doubt, is the most splash-able hero released to date. He can pay for any card (made easy with his Pipe), give you card draw, resource acceleration, and shadow cancellation with his Staff, and his willpower, attack, and defense allow him to fulfill any role a deck may lack, and do it extremely well at that!

With the upcoming release of Shadowfax, he will become even more splash-able and powerful allowing him to function better in multiplayer (giving him ranged and sentinel in addition to whatever awesome effect it may have).

Glofindel may have low threat, but he is nowhere near as versatile as the Grey Wizard.

Not to mention our future Narya attachment! I hope it has an incredible ability.

Just to be clear, secrecy will not be a case where Gandalf is not "splashable", because "splashing" term means combining several spheres in one deck, which has nothing to do with secrecy.

Well, at least it's got a little to do with it. Starting with a low threat level gives you some time to collect the required resources in a three sphere deck.

Anyway, the best hero ever and also very splashable is, of course, Théodred.

Gandalf, without a doubt, is the most splash-able hero released to date. He can pay for any card (made easy with his Pipe), give you card draw, resource acceleration, and shadow cancellation with his Staff, and his willpower, attack, and defense allow him to fulfill any role a deck may lack, and do it extremely well at that!

With the upcoming release of Shadowfax, he will become even more splash-able and powerful allowing him to function better in multiplayer (giving him ranged and sentinel in addition to whatever awesome effect it may have).

Glofindel may have low threat, but he is nowhere near as versatile as the Grey Wizard.

Just wondering,

Where you Lord of the Winds, Gwaihir? I miss him and his videos and I somehow I think you're related to him.

Dunno why, so just tell me if I'm wrong. :unsure:

Alas, yes. This is Gwaihir. I have recently picked up a second job so I do not have time to make and edit videos anymore. I am sorry to have let you and the community down. I still get together at my local shop to play once a week, but don't have the extra energy for the videos. I do miss making them.

Well, good for you! That shouldn't be a bad thing! You didn't let me down, I just liked your vids! Take care and till your Eeryies recieve you at your journey's end

Here's why I think Glorfindel is more splashable, especially for solo play (and why many people think he's broken):

Splashable: easy to pair with any two heroes of other spheres.

You can take any two heroes and build a functioning deck with him. He really only needs 2 or 3 cards (depending on how quickly you think you can draw LoV) and opens access to a few others (Asfaloth, the spirit staples like Test of Will and Counsel of Elrond), should you choose to build a little more around him. He doesn't need to be the focus of the deck, you don't need to throw that many spirit cards, and he'll quest for three, attack for three every round for five threat. If you're that worried about resources, you can throw in a song or an errand rider. He is so easy to just throw into a deck that I don't use him that much anymore because I'm bored with him.

Gandalf requires a lot more thought. You're going to have to include his Staff and Pipe, and probably Flame of Arnor. Then you have to decide just how high will your starting threat be? How are you going to mix and match the spheres of your other heroes? How many cards will you throw in that only Gandalf can play? How much readying and what kind can you include to get the most out of his stats? What will be his primary role in the deck? This is why Gandalf is a much better card. You have to think about how to use him and build with him. Glorfindel is often splash and go, you can build around him if you want to, but you don't have to.

And this part is super subjective, but when I put Gandalf in a deck, I feel like I'm building a Gandalf deck, and the rest is how I want to flesh that deck out. When I throw Spirit Glorfindel in a deck, I'm doing exactly that: throwing him in because he's really darn useful and easy to add in. Which, to me, makes him the more splashable hero.

Can you show me some viable decks that have Splorfindel and don't have spirit cards, or have 3 spheres at once?

I imagine he would be pretty good in a three sphere secrecy deck..

I beat nightmare Conflict at Carrack on solo with a spirit/lore/leadership, with Glorfindel filling the spirit slot, Bilbo Baggins for lore and Théodred for leadership.

Edited by Nerdmeister

I beat nightmare Conflict at Carrack on solo with a spirit/lore/leadership, with Glorfindel filling the spirit slot, Bilbo Baggins for lore and Théodred for leadership.

I would enjoy to see this.

I beat nightmare Conflict at Carrack on solo with a spirit/lore/leadership, with Glorfindel filling the spirit slot, Bilbo Baggins for lore and Théodred for leadership.

I would enjoy to see this.

Well I didn´t record it so you will have to rely on my account :P

Been some while since I did it but iirc the deck was mostly centered around threat reduction combined with "O Elbereth Gilthonial" (pre-errata) and "Map of Earnil", lore providing the draw with Bilbo and "Daeron´s Runes" and leadership providing the resources with "Errand-Rider" and Théodred´s ability as backup to "Steward of Gondor" (seeing as the most expensive and important cards were spirit). And of course Asfaloth since I had lore access anyway. In the late game the errand-riders doubled as chump-blockers against the 2 trolls immune to Elbereth.

As I said, it´s been awhile so might have forgotten some details, but this should be about the gist of it.

Edited by Nerdmeister

My Sporifindel, Loragorn, Tactomir deck (with neutral and leadership cards thrown in) can beat every quest in Gondor and Isengard except for Morgul Vale and Tharbad fairly easily.

I beat nightmare Conflict at Carrack on solo with a spirit/lore/leadership, with Glorfindel filling the spirit slot, Bilbo Baggins for lore and Théodred for leadership.

Obviously a combo of the three best heroes should do the job! Theodred and Bilbo are such an awesome team, possibly one of the best hero pairings (especially for beginners, as they're easy to play) and Glorfindel has these super stats plus low threat.

I beat nightmare Conflict at Carrack on solo with a spirit/lore/leadership, with Glorfindel filling the spirit slot, Bilbo Baggins for lore and Théodred for leadership.

Obviously a combo of the three best heroes should do the job! Theodred and Bilbo are such an awesome team, possibly one of the best hero pairings (especially for beginners, as they're easy to play) and Glorfindel has these super stats plus low threat.

Well trololo did ask for some more info on which kind of deck with Glorfindel could pull off a 3-sphere combo, so just thought I would share it.

Even if the answer is so obvious to you and did not illuminate anything new to such a skilled player and all-around world-class gentleman as yourself, I deemed that trololo would be delighted to bask in but a fraction of your awesome lotr-awareness insights ;)

I think you misread some things there Nerdmeister. Tone is an awfull thing on the internet; proved yet again.

I beat nightmare Conflict at Carrack on solo with a spirit/lore/leadership, with Glorfindel filling the spirit slot, Bilbo Baggins for lore and Théodred for leadership.

Obviously a combo of the three best heroes should do the job! Theodred and Bilbo are such an awesome team, possibly one of the best hero pairings (especially for beginners, as they're easy to play) and Glorfindel has these super stats plus low threat.

Well trololo did ask for some more info on which kind of deck with Glorfindel could pull off a 3-sphere combo, so just thought I would share it.

Even if the answer is so obvious to you and did not illuminate anything new to such a skilled player and all-around world-class gentleman as yourself, I deemed that trololo would be delighted to bask in but a fraction of your awesome lotr-awareness insights ;)

LOL, love it!

Yeah, like gandalf DK said, I didn't want to mock you. I've been laughed out a lot (here) when telling something obvious like Theodred and Bolbo being awesome like hell. I was just glad thats finally someone mentioned the awesomeness of these two pals.

I was just enthusiastic (should have probably used BOLD CAPS)! :D

I think you misread some things there Nerdmeister. Tone is an awfull thing on the internet; proved yet again.

Mayhaps I did, but I also put a cute itty-bitty smiley at the end.

In the world of written communication, they too provide some of the tone.

edit for being late:

Glad you liked it lepto. The tone was meant to be somewhat ligth :)

Edited by Nerdmeister

I was somewhat hoping for an Army of Darkness explanation for TheoBilbo being so great. :P