https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/7/10/the-dread-realm/

So hyped for Sword-Thain. When trying to think of uses for Defender of the West I kept thinking it'd be so much more useful if the ally could have attachments usually restricted to heroes. Now my dream will become a reality.

People I will consider for promotion firsthand:

Arwen

Bill the Pony

Ingold

Having your allies come back to bite you is nasty.

Sword Thain seems pretty cool, it is very expensive though.

Ally Beorn as a hero! I'm so excited for Sword-Thain. Amazing.

My dreams of a cloak deck is almost complete

Sword-thain looks like an extremely good and abusable card. It costs 4 which can be a lot but having an extra hero that gathers resources can be huge in decks with low resource generation, and it is also a great way to smooth your resources (though then again, Resourceful can do pretty much the same thing without having to have a unique ally). In the Elrond Gandalf deck or any Elrond deck it can be extremely useful due to all the unique allies that deck uses and it's capability of playing expensive cards for free. In a hobbit deck as well it can be really good, since you'll probably use stuff like Elf-stone and Timely Aid to get big allies such as Beorn or Gildor into play. Having suddenly a Beorn or Gildor hero in a hobbit deck can be huge. Really really interesting and all around good card.

Other than that, I'm excited for that unique leadership weapon! Andúril maybe? They said it works with Gondor and Dúnedain.

Sword-Thain is brilliant. It opens up so many combos... Caldara for 3, Mithdrandir's Advice for 4, all the 4 cost event-repeaters for free, Dori with UC and Self-Preservation+Beorn... what an amazing card!

"I've lost Gandalf, Elrond, and Glorfindel, but I'm not giving up! I've still got Barliman Butterbur and he's wielding a scary knife..."

Also, it seems like our villain is named Dacchanar or something?

Bill the Pony... nice. Bofur can finally be a hero. Ally Gimli might make a better hero than hero Gimli.

With desperate alliance you could control 5 heroes. Your partner gives your mono lore deck Aragorn to reset threat and you cast mithrandir's advice to draw 5 while your at it. Not a bad deal.

Bill the pony can't have attachments sadly.

hero Gwaihir just because!

How many resources per round does Radagast gain?

If the answer is two, then ally Treebeard becomes obscene.

The card says the ally has to be in a sphere. Colorless allies like Radagast and Treebeard are not eligible.

Aw dang. You ruined my plan Duke! Ally Treebeard + Steward of Gondor! Lol. Probably for the best. Also, just looking around at what allies work and I was wondering: Can ally Faramir do his action more than once per phase?

The card says the ally has to be in a sphere. Colorless allies like Radagast and Treebeard are not eligible.

I'm using a lot of colorful words right now. Nice save Caleb/Matt.

Also... how does Landroval work?

Also... how does Landroval work?

LOL

Can ally Faramir do his action more than once per phase?

Yes... Ally Faramir with various hero readying effects will be very powerful. Hefty startup cost though.

Also... how does Landroval work?

I would think that after a card is destroyed its game text is not active. So if hero Landroval is destroyed, he cannot trigger his response and is just placed in the discard pile.

Lots of things to think about with this card.

Though I wonder... Could you use Rallying cry to return a Sword-Thain hero/ally after it leaves play? At what moment does it cease being a hero?

And for Defender of the West, does the card stop working after Sword-Thain is attached or do you keep passing your new hero around?

So many questions.

Here's my idea for Sword-Thain:

Player 1 has Bifur, Erestor, X

Player 2 has Monospirit

Player 2 puts Emery into play for free. Bifur takes a resource from Player 2. Player 1 puts Sword-Thain (assuming they drew it with Erestor) on Emery. Assuming you get lucky with card draw, this is a pretty easy way to get an extra hero on round one. Emery can also be given to any player!

Though I wonder... Could you use Rallying cry to return a Sword-Thain hero/ally after it leaves play? At what moment does it cease being a hero?

And for Defender of the West, does the card stop working after Sword-Thain is attached or do you keep passing your new hero around?

So many questions.

Just purely my gut reaction, but I'd say the moment that character is destroyed, it's returned to it's original state. I would agree that Defender of the West basically stops working on the ally it's attached to if you make it a hero. This is a crazy card though, can't wait to see what shenanigans this cycle throws out for us to use it with.

Good choice for a card to spoil methinks. We can discuss this one for the next five months easily