Weird as it sounds, the most interesting part of Sword-Thain to me is how it would work in a secrecy deck.

I mean, yeah, I know--secrecy never really worked but some of those cards really ARE very powerful. This could allow you to run two heroes to keep your threat low, sneak in a heavy hitter (and you SHOULD have a way of sneaking in a heavy-hitter if you are running secrecy), play this and BAM--you are back at three heroes. If you can pull of a resourceful as well then all the better.

The biggest problem would just be maintaining sufficient card-draw to get all the pieces together before the Encounter deck can build up too much.

If I'm playing a secrecy deck I'll use Resourceful.

It's interesting to note that Sneak Attack specifies that the ally must still be in play in order to shuffle it, but that still requires a 5 resource investment from 2 heroes in order to set up which sounds a bit unreliable to me. If you can come up with a way that doesn't require to many cards to draw and is cheaper, let me know.

If I'm playing a secrecy deck I'll use Resourceful.

I don't. Resources seem like the least of a problem in my secrecy decks.

By the way, a Spirit hero in this pack: I now think Círdan. There is a Dúnedain hero in the previous deck, there probably won't be two in a row.

I had thought the formerly (partly) previewed Tale of Tinúviel would be the card mentioned in pack 5 but now we have it here. Synergy between Dúnedain and Noldor: I hope that is a powerful card.

Weapon for Gondor and Dúnedain: super-excited about that one as well.

I wish they spoiled us a bit more.

And isn't Fornost Bowman just fantastic? Not only Tactics doesn't usually get willpower on non-unique allies (maybe Dúnedain will be the exception -- the Hunter and Bowman both have 1 willpower), he gets 1 attack printed, and how easy it is to boost it up to 3? Even with non-Dúnedain Tactics decks, you will want to engage an enemy optionally, and another might jump at you due to your high threat (not to mention left-overs from previous rounds). In Dúnedain decks, with Forest Snare, this ally should almost always be worth it. Right now I believe Fornost Bowman can rival the superb Galadhon Archer in their respective roles and decks.

Well, I'm nost that optimistic about Fornost Bowman. It's kinda wierd for a ranged character to rely his damage source on engaged enemies. Galadhon Archer comes 1 resource cheaper, 2 attack instantly (3 if Celeborn is in play) and also deals 1 damage instantly, kinda hard to beat that in my opinion.

He's got a boatload of health, but yeah, not much else. Having to use Forest Snare doesn't really make him more appealing really at all, because that's 6 resources from two spheres. Maybe I'll have a heaping helping of crow later, but I sort of doubt it.

3 health on attacking character is only good in quests with direct damage. Well, maybe some more Dunedian synergy will improve him, but right now I percieve him as a decent card, but nothing else.

Well, he's a Dunedain piece basically. So if you're already using Forest Snare, for example, to activate Halbarad, Sarn Ford Sentry, etc., then it's not really 6 for the Snare/Fornost combo because the Snare is working with a bunch of different effects, not just the Bowman. In such a deck, let's say you have 2 engaged enemies, maybe one brought in during planning with Dunedain Hunter, then the Bowman could be 1 cost with Heir of Valandil with 3 attack. As for his hit points, it seems like almost every quest these days has some archery or direct damage, so the more hit points the better.

I want to see a deck with Forest Snare, this Bowman and Halbarad that can function well and fast enough to get through a couple of first turns alive

I suspect the upcoming 'trap' love will enable this. Either by fetching one or reducing its cost.

Now that's something I'm excited for. Bring on the traps! =D

I must admit that I am less excited about traps than I was at the time of HoN and the Against the Shadow cycle. With so much archery in the game, I feel like traps are more of a sideboard strategy - otherwise you risk having a deck that plays right into the hands of the encounter deck. One way for the designers to address this would be to create a trap card that removes the Archery keyword from the attached enemy. Without something like that, I would hesitate to call any trap-based deck a general purpose solution. It is an interesting archetype, but one that I avoid completely for many recent quests.

I agree with Beorn. If traps were already rather weak in the AtS cycle, new enemies with archery and "cannot have attachments" invalidate them almost completely. They'll have to do a hell of a job in case they want to make them viable.

I want to see a deck with Forest Snare, this Bowman and Halbarad that can function well and fast enough to get through a couple of first turns alive

I want to see a deck with Forest Snare, this Bowman and Halbarad that can function well and fast enough to get through a couple of first turns alive

I haven't built a good Dúnedain deck yet, so I am not so sure about that. But Beravor, Halbarad, Tactics Aragorn may not be too bad. Though it is true, I would rather see another Lore or Leadership Dúnedain hero there instead of Tactics. One card that works very well in these Dúnedain decks is Tighten Our Belts. You cannot play much on round 1 anyway, so you save the resources and then every hero has three in the beginning of round 2. Then again, the round 1 will be very hard no matter what with the Dúnedain (at least as I see them now). Much easier in coop -- I mean to find a good deck to work with it.

I am saying this without experience but I still believe it shouldn't be very hard to have this guy at 3 attack, and for 3 resources, that is very good. Plus, a Tactics non-unique ally with willpower is always good to see.

I agree with Beorn. If traps were already rather weak in the AtS cycle, new enemies with archery and "cannot have attachments" invalidate them almost completely. They'll have to do a hell of a job in case they want to make them viable.

I am very sad how weak the traps and the whole Ranger of Ithilien strategy is. I had been hoping for a serious power-contender there, with direct damage into the staging area as a real alternative to standard combat. I still have hopes this may turn around with the Land of Shadow, but the hope is very faint.

If I'm playing a secrecy deck I'll use Resourceful.

Honestly, I would play BOTH. Secrecy decks require consistency so you should have a way of making use of dead cards if you draw into a copy of one of them when you can't use it and Resourceful is ALWAYS worth it's secrecy cost (..okay not ALWAYS, but pretty close).

I want to see a deck with Forest Snare, this Bowman and Halbarad that can function well and fast enough to get through a couple of first turns alive

No Bowman because he hasn't been released yet (indeed, at the time he hadn't even been spoiled), but I have a deck with Elrond/Halbarad/Merry(Sp) using Forest Snares for Dunedain effects which beat Nightmare Foundations of Stone last week. I think I got pretty luck on enconuter draws, but still. I also tried it against Nightmare Steward's Fear. Lost that one, but I survived a decent way past the first couple of turns, which is all you asked for.

So I'd say it's doable. Since Elrond can pay for all allies, I could just drop the Bowman straight into that deck and it'd probably work not much differently to how it does now.

I must admit that I am less excited about traps than I was at the time of HoN and the Against the Shadow cycle. With so much archery in the game, I feel like traps are more of a sideboard strategy - otherwise you risk having a deck that plays right into the hands of the encounter deck. One way for the designers to address this would be to create a trap card that removes the Archery keyword from the attached enemy. Without something like that, I would hesitate to call any trap-based deck a general purpose solution. It is an interesting archetype, but one that I avoid completely for many recent quests.

This.

As someone who tries to build general-purpose decks to go up against any scenario I feel like that really holds me back from this deck archetype. Which is sad because it's been getting a lot of focus and looks like it's set to get a lot more soon.

So now we know that Círdan will not be the Spirit Hero of "The Dread Realm" like some people predicted/hoped. He will show up elsewhere. I do hope the Hero of the last adventure pack of the present cycle is going to be Arwen.

Spirit Saruman anybody? No? Oh, well...

Arwen is by far my favourite ally, so if she shows up as a hero I'll be torn. The scenario in itself looks amazing. Really looking forward to seeing how this cycle plays out.

Yeah she is going to need to be one hell of a hero to compete with the ally version....

They know how much we care for ally Arwen so I bet she's going to have a great ability, like "After Arwen Undomiel exhausts, choose a character. That character gains sentinel and +2 Defense until the end of the round."

Jokes aside, I wouldn't mind her having the response John Constantine's custom made hero card had: "When Arwen commits to a quest, ready another Hero committed to that quest". I've been playing around using a proxy of that card and really like that ability.