I've been thinking about including Expert Trackers in my decks but am somewhat reluctant.

Has anyone else used this card as of yet and if so how useful has it been?

Also because of the way it is worded can you exhaust a scout or ranger character belonging to any player/deck or only one that is controlled by the cards owner?

I had it in a deck for a while, but it's a tricky one - it never felt like a card I was desperate to have in my hand, although it could clear out a location before questing if you combo with Dunedain Hunter. The 0 cost is nice, and some rangers and scouts are really cheap to drop into play, but I wasn't too blown away by it, to be honest. A nice idea, but unless the enemy is 3 or 4 threat, it seldom clears out anything.

I've seen it played a few times, and it's nice to have, but often too I saw the player using it decide it was more worthwhile to keep characters like a Son of Arnor ready for combat than to exhaust them for this card. But if you've got a Snowbourn Scout hanging around, no problem.

Ithilien Tracker seems to be the best ally to use this with. 2 cost in-sphere, has an ability that only affects the first enemy that enters play, so if you have more than one copy you can exhaust the unused one to put some progress. I think this card is decent, but I don't think I would include it in a solo deck.

Just today I stumbled on a wonderful synergy between this card and Idraen: engage an enemy, exhaust her to play the card, use the progress to explore a location and then ready her!

Nice!

Just today I stumbled on a wonderful synergy between this card and Idraen: engage an enemy, exhaust her to play the card, use the progress to explore a location and then ready her!

This may well be the best way to do it, and a nice idea! Will have to try this soon, it's a really cool idea!

Yeah, Ricedwlit beat me to it, but I have also used the card with Idrean and found it to be amazing.

I've used it a couple times in secrecy decks with Celduin Travelers or Ithilien Lookouts. It can be useful, but like Grandspleen said I often need the action and can't afford to exhaust anyone. I could hold back a Celduin Traveler from questing, but most of the time I won't get to use it anyway and now I've just wasted 2 willpower. Or I could use the Lookout, but I often need them to kill the enemy.

So yeah, it's good with Idrean. Pretty marginal with anyone else.

I've tried to use this card a lot actually. Love that artwork. The problem is Asfaloth who is just way better. With Idraen the problem is not really readying her, she's easy to ready with this card, or Asfaloth, or the Riddermark's finest, or just by having a lot of willpower. The problem I always run into with Idraen is giving her things to do. Probably because I only really play multiplayer, she doesn't have ranged or sentinel, and its very hard to give her these without sacrificing your ability to ready her.

Wow, didn't even think of using it with Idraen, that's brilliant.

Let's house rule it: place 2X progress instead if the character is both a Scout AND a Dunedain

Yeah, I had played it with Idraen also. But it was about the only real good combo in the whole deck. The rangers feel very under-developed as of yet. Mind though that I was playing pure theme: rangers and nothing else. But really, Idraen is great with Expert Trackers: more often than not I was able to clear a location in the staging area for the cost of the event alone, no resource spent, no characters exhausted.

It doesn't reads "you control", so it might be pretty useful in multiplayer.

But exhausting is part of the cost so you can only exhaust your own characters for it regardless.

But exhausting is part of the cost so you can only exhaust your own characters for it regardless.

Then what the point of some cards having the "exhaust a character you control" type effect, while other don't?

That is part of the ongoing inconsistency in wording of this game. It is a shame really because it makes even the most veteran players doubtful about the rules sometimes, haha.

Why this one specifies that you must control the Silvan ally in question, and Expert Trackers doesn't? Both are pretty recent cards.

Because you CAN, in principle, return other player's allies into their hand (for example, see Meneldor's Flight) but you CANNOT exhaust an ally that is not under your own control.

If the card says you can do it, you can do it. At present there are no cards that allow you to exaust other player's characters, I think, but there is no reason they couldn't make one in the future.

If not otherwise specified, you can't pay a "cost" with other players' assets. You have to use those that are under your control. So yes,"Return an ally you control to your hand" is redundant, and "Exhaust a character you control is also redundant." The first part of those cards (all the words that come before the word "to") is the "cost," so unless the card explicitly states otherwise it has to be paid with your own cards/resources.

GrandSpleen, I generally agree with what you are saying and I actually don't want to go into nitty-gritty rule discussions but... what makes you think that the words before "is" are part of the cost of a card? I don't think that's true and hence the "you control" phrase is not redundant on The Three People. (On a side note, if the card text said "do X to Y", then yes it would be part of the cost as per the "paying costs" paragraph in the rule book, page 25.)

Typo! I meant to write "to" (fixed now)

Because you CAN, in principle, return other player's allies into their hand (for example, see Meneldor's Flight) but you CANNOT exhaust an ally that is not under your own control.

It reads: exhaust allies you control.

It doesn't.

Looks like you found a phrase that is actually redundant ("you control" on A Very Good Tale). Congratulations.

Common Cause, Hands Upon the Bow, Helm! Helm!, Late Adventurer, Quick Strike, Rain of Arrows, Ravens of the Mountain - all have that wording. And Helm! Helm! is a very recent card to have that sort of "mistake".