I was thinking of a new type of trap that would play into the engagement area instead of the staging area....

Tripwire

1 cost Lore attachment

Trap

Play into the engagement area. Attach to the next enemy you engage (limit 1 tripwire per enemy). Until the beginning of the next round's combat phase attached enemy cannot attack.

I guess it is really a Feint in Lore with the restriction of having to play it during set up, but the advantage of lasting longer. Still a bit more controllable that many of the other traps since we might be able to decide who to engage. Thematically, it is based on the idea than enemy coming to engage you wanders into an area that you have prepared, falls down on the tripwire and looses the ability to act....giving us a free swing.

Falling Net

1 cost Lore attachment

Trap

Play into the engagement area. Attach to the next enemy you engage (limit 1 Falling Net per enemy).

Action: Exhaust Falling Net to declare an attack against attached enemy.

Doesn't stop the enemy from attacking, but gives you more options about how to handle it (attack at appropriate time, then attack again early in next turn before enemy can swing again or ignore enemy this round to deal with other enemies, but then kill him next turn before he can strike again. Thematically I don't have as strong a case for this one, but suppose you could go with the idea that net hampers his movement enough to make him vulnerable.

Seems like playing into this area could be a nice addition to the Trap arch-type (which I really like, but haven't been super successful with).

Thoughts?

Edit: Whoops...just looked again at the spoiled cards and realized how similar to Ambush Falling Net is...Oh well...

My personal favorite idea that I came up with is similar to Hands Upon the Bow. Whether it is on an attachment or an event or something, I don't know but the effect would be something like this:

Response: After a trap card is attached to an enemy in the staging area, exhaust [attached hero OR a Ranger character OR any number of Ranger characters] to immediately declare it as an attacker (and resolve its attack) against that enemy.

If I made it an event where only one character would attack, I think I'd just make the enemy have -2 def to help out. The only thing that sucks about this idea is that all of the traps are designed to do something counter-intuitive to what this card does, which means I'm pretty much "wasting" the trap just to be able to use this effect. If they made a new trap like "Stuck In The Bog" or something that represented holding an enemy still so they weren't able to defend themselves effectively, then make it just give an enemy -2 defense or something like that, it would probably be helpful for this effect.

Oh dear Eru this artwork is so good..

I really want to utilize the archery skills of Rangers and other direct damage cards. New Anborn, Ranger bow, Poisoned stakes, Forrest patrol, Spear of the citadell, Gondorian Spearman, Mighty Prowess, Ranger of the North, Ambush (or if you want to go out of Gondor/Ranger theme even Execting mischief, Descendant of Thorondor or even Thalin) and add Great Yew Bow (yes, even better for old Faramir). So many ways to kill enemies before they can attack or even engage. I wonder if it would be viable strategy. Combine with low threat (Hobbits) and it could really work. Or it would be to slow to muster?

Also, hand upon the bow and hail of stones

I really want to utilize the archery skills of Rangers and other direct damage cards. New Anborn, Ranger bow, Poisoned stakes, Forrest patrol, Spear of the citadell, Gondorian Spearman, Mighty Prowess, Ranger of the North, Ambush (or if you want to go out of Gondor/Ranger theme even Execting mischief, Descendant of Thorondor or even Thalin) and add Great Yew Bow (yes, even better for old Faramir). So many ways to kill enemies before they can attack or even engage. I wonder if it would be viable strategy. Combine with low threat (Hobbits) and it could really work. Or it would be to slow to muster?

I have just made a new proxy support deck: Damrod, Beregond, Denethor. A nice Gondor theme and a ton of direct damage. I stayed with theme, as usual, but I did include Expecting Mischief (neutral theme I would say though it has Thorin art) which is great with Denethor. It is made to support my mono-Leadership Gondor deck of Boromir, Faramir, Imrahil. Of course, these will probably not be very useful against Uruk-hai but any quest with many lower hp enemies should be good. Many enemies in general, I am hoping, because the bigger ones can be slain in combat, the Leadership deck is very good at that. I love the idea of direct damage though, and I have been desperately trying to make the mechanics work. The new cards certainly give hope.

I actually want to ask something. Can the Leadership Anborn kill an enemy when it is revealed, without resolving surge and/or "when revealed" effect, just at Thalin does? I am guessing not because the card says "after" but it would make the ability very useful.

You can see that answer is "no" if you simply compare their card texts.

Well, this is exactly how ruling in this game does NOT work. But as I said, I would agree.