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Liking the look of this expansion so far. Definite possibilities with those Heroes.

This is absoutely staggering! Just what we needed in our group, for Rohan and an elf/"nature" support deck. Both heroes look great. Caleb and Matt - nice work!

So what heroes to use for the first quest...

Yes! I love it all.

Theoden does what he should, and I'm glad to have a spirit Rohan hero that actually synergizes with Rohan. Herugrim is also very cool and fitting to Rohan. I like the cost-based approach with hero-specific cards rather than effect-based. This is much more playable on other heroes than Firefoot or Asfaloth. I'm confused why the art is so different, but maybe that's supposed to be Hama based on the flavor text?

Treebeard is awesome, although he doesn't have any built in ent synergy. I kind of wish he could use his resources to pay for ents of any sphere. I'm thinking a Merry/Pippin/Treebeard deck could be very strong and thematic. Merry could let Treebeard attack multiple times and two lore heroes should provide plenty of healing for Treebeard. Those spheres also give access to both ents and Ent Draught makes the hobbits less fragile. Maybe Treebeard needs errata... (I kid, I kid!)

Ent Draught could be really strong. You only need an ent character and you can attach to any character? This could be huge in a silvan deck. Include a few wandering ents and now Defenders of the Naith can be one of the most versatile defenders in the game. Lorien cloak + Ent Draught + Silvan Trackers...

I don't like the Theoden art, but I love the Treebeard art. Treebeard looks amazing and Theoden looks like a hippie Santa.

I can't wait to attach Herugrim to Eowyn!

Theoden looks very good, although I don't think he quite fits in a tri-sphere Rohan deck, But even then with just spirit and tactics Rohan stuff he works just fine. Being able to play a Westfild Outrider turn one is great, not to mention the plethora of spirit Rohan allies. Treebeard is also pretty good. He is great for both combat and questing in a lore deck, that's just amazing, and if you're running him and lore you'll obviously have healing or the Ent Draught. I think Self Preservation is a great friggin' investment, especially in a mono-lore deck. Use him with Mirlonde and pretty much any other lore hero besides Elrond and you'll start at a pretty low threat.

I forgot to mention, Herugrim is so incredibly good, especially with Eowyn. Both attachments are really good actually. The Ent Draught basically lets you effectively pump him up to five, as long as you can heal him the same turn.

Eowyn with Herugrim is a possibility for Derhelm:) Treeberd wooww

You can swing for 9 with Eowyn in a 4 player game

Elrond + Treebeard + Self Preservation = 7 willpower or 7 attack hero that autoheals every round.

I love it when old cards find new uses.

You can swing for 9 with Eowyn in a 4 player game

Seems like a great way to kill a boss-type enemy. Like, say, the Witch King.

I like how they gave Herugrim a kind of treatment I gave to the reworked Asfaloth, instead of hindering it on anybody but Theoden.

OMG TREEBEARD HERO HYPE ALARM!!!!

don't like his art though.

Theoden Spirit, yes, the guessing I/we did on CotR's Morgul Dolphins were correct.

I like his ability, I think it's the first costreducing ability that lat's you go to zero, bit I might be mistaken.

Didn't expext Spirit though, but quite cool indeed. Nice art too!

Herugrim is nice! Of course, great on Eowyn, but I like how it's also quite good on Theoden Tactics, for he would swing six, so that's better then on this new Spirit version.

Ent draught is a nice Ent attachment, great synergy for the hero, but the ally version of Treebeard wouldn't be a bad fit either.

Teeebeard hero, that we live to see such days, my goodness. I actually expected them to be a bit 'afraid' of making him a hero. His ability is cool, nice thematic touch, buuuraaaruuuumm and make him go berserk for a turn against the forces of Isengard. Will certainly use this against the Saruman boss in the thirth quest.

I'm excited! Boarding the second hype train.

w00t! Treebeard!

What a great card!

nerdgasm!

Grima reduces cost to 0.

Grima reduces cost to 0.

Yeah true that. So not as unique as I thought.

The would actually synergize quite a bit.

By the way, your post made me think that you think that Ent Draught can only be attachet to Ents, while its not. It needs an ent to be played, but can be attached to anybody.

Grima reduces cost to 0.

After all, Stewards Fear wont be so 'over-powered'.

I dont like his artwork, but finally spirit rohans can be decently played.

By Stewards Fear you meant Steward of Gondor?

Wow! I haven't been this excited about a pack for a while! Theoden adds a whole new dimension to rohan. The one issue with that the ally is already boss and I would honestly take elrond over this treebeard any day. I don't know. I guess if you had lets say, 2 self preservations on him and used his affect 4 times a turn, he would be powerful, but most decks I build don't have self pres. again, I think he is REALLY cool, probably one of the coolest released for a while but I think theoden is SO much more powerful.

OMG TREEBEARD HERO HYPE ALARM!!!!

don't like his art though.

Theoden art is really bad and Treebeard looks epic and amazing.

Theoden- the perfect glue thats felt so suspiciously absent for the Rohan trait. The sort of inverse resource acceleration he provides for spirit is a nice touch as well. Not a fan of the art whatsoever. He is in a category with Boromir where the vastly superior version of the hero has significantly worse artwork. (ironically its the same two artists involved). Not a fan that they kept his inflated starting threat cost despite no longer providing a statistical boost via his ability. Oh well.

Herugrim- Just wow, this is going to be a fantastic card to use. As already alluded to in earlier posts, Eowyn can be a great candidate for this attachment. I also like how it gives some more relevance to the previous version Theoden as well...a very smart and probably not a coincidental decision by the designers. Also thought the art was a little strange, whomever the character on the card is supposed to be kind of looks like a Wose and low and behold, its by the same artist as who did most of the Wose enemies in Druadan Forest.

TreeBeard- First of all, man that art is fantastic, love it. This was a very pleasant surprise since while I feel most anticipated another Theoden, I felt like the 2nd hero slot for this box was really up in the air. I really like how his ability is not Ent-centric like the ally version so this version can carve out his own niche and not intrude on territory/gameplay the ally had without making either version obsolete. I also like how his ability will bring to light some older neglected player cards. As already mentioned self-preservation is a match made in heaven. I also think healing herbs and lore of Imaldris could see some play when building a deck focused around him as well

Ent Draught- Pretty straightforward. Will probably use it with our new TreeBeard with the intent of maxing out his ability but not sure i'll try to find space for it outside of that.

Treebeard is really nice. I also like that he is not Ent-centric. But, I do think that he will receive errata at some point. Just like with Will of the West, the ability will start out somewhat balanced, but someone will definitely break him at some point. He has solid stats (well worth the high threat cost), and the ability to damage him to get yourself out of a bind is nice. But, he is just waiting to be broken.

Loved the new cards. Can't say the same about the artwork. Theoden in particular looks terrible and Treebeard looks like a Cthulu type monster.