Ah yes of course, not sure how someone didn't clue into that earlier! Good job guys.

For a 1 cost I imagine it does exactly the same thing as leave no trace but is instead "after an non-unique enemy is destroyed" instead of "after a non-unique location is explored". This makes Keen as Lances far more useful and Rossiel as well.

Really cool hero design and potential to be very powerful in the right deck. Just take note of what enemies and locations you add to the victory display (make sure you remove ones that have the same trait as many other encounter cards in the current quest) and she could quite regularly have both her willpower and defense boost in the same turn. Low starting threat and a nice trait (wish it was noldor though) are also bonuses.

I think this pack is WAY WAY better than Wastes of Eriador player card wise. Only Elven Jeweller is a bit of a dud and even then she is potentially very good in an Erestor deck. The victory display cards we now know tie into this newly spoiled hero and we have (more or less) figured out that none return is also part of this mechanic so it is actually potentially quite strong now.

Distant Stars whilst not overly exciting will be as some have said totally awesome in certain nightmare scenarios.

Descendants of Kings seems like it could potentially be amazing. Defend attacks with all your dunedain characters then before the enemy killing begins ready each one you defended with!!! You could also quest with them all then when enemies engage you (during staging or during combat) you can ready them via this ready to defend/attack. I think in Dunedain engagement decks this card will very quickly be an auto include. Can allow you to utilize the attack and defense of allies like Northern Tracker and Warden of Annuminas who are normally used primarily to quest as well!

The two ent tactics cards are just bonkers.... bonkers I say. That defender is probably one of the best defensive allies we have now. Yes he is exhausted first turn but has sentinel, 3 hitpoints and 2 defense or 5 if you take a point of damage. Wellinghall Custodian can then heal this point of damage but not before it is used to activate Boomed and Trumpeted! This ally also boosts Booming Ent's attack! Ents are just getting awesome and I think now can be quite **** powerful. Fantastic willpower, defensive and offensive output just the slow start which a hero like Leadership Faramir can somewhat mitigate.

Boomed and Trumpeted on its own is insane, 1 cost for a readying effect and +3 attack???? Yes the ent has to take damage first but hey what fairly new scenario doesnt have some archery or weather damage you can just plop on an ent to trigger this effect? Ents are a force to be reckoned with now!

The veteran of Osgiliath has already been discussed to death as it was spoiled so long ago but is also a fantastic new card and breathes new life into Gondor decks.

Finally the spirit side quest? Simple as hell but AMAZING! 5 threat reduction for every player? Yes please!! This is going straight in my decks tonight!

Elven jeweler arrived just in time to help me with Nightmare Voice of Isengard!

Now where is the news article so I can proxy the spirit side quest!

So who would we pair Rossiel with? One round she could be a quester, another a defender, sometimes is the cards fall right, both with readying. I don't see her fitting into more than a supplemental role given her abilities are not constant and there might be rounds where none of them trigger, so how could we round this out?

So who would we pair Rossiel with? One round she could be a quester, another a defender, sometimes is the cards fall right, both with readying. I don't see her fitting into more than a supplemental role given her abilities are not constant and there might be rounds where none of them trigger, so how could we round this out?

Assuming you want to take advantage of out of the wild, you'll probably want to pair her with Merry or Glorfindel. I'd probably go lore for the 3rd hero. Either Pippin, Mirlonde, or Bifur.

With Curious Brandybuck and now Elven Jeweler we have two spirit allies with alternate methods to put them into play (and it's usable out of sphere more reliably than Emery). Is this a new trend for Spirit?

I think 8 make her very hard to secrecy with. If you start with Glor+Hobbit you have 8+6+5=19 threat. If you quest with Glor, you already out of secrecy. If you go two hobbits, you have 20 threat first round.

So, you probable have to go spirit merry if you are really serious about keeping your secrecy alive. Out of the wild is almost useless if you are out of secrecy.

Well Mirlonde, Rossiel, Pippin is 8+8+6 -3 for 19 threat in mono-lore, so there's another option if you're trying to pull off Secrecy. But without Spirit you'll have a hard time. In many quests you only have 1 enemy trait to worry about, so one Out of the Wild would set up Rossiel as a great defender for the whole game. Look for it in your opening hand and you don't even need to stay in Secrecy.

With this setup you've got 2 silvans who can take advantage of Silvan Tracker. Pair it with a Celeborn deck to round out the Silvan part of the equation.

Distant Stars only requires a character not a hero! Definitely makes it a lot stronger especially for 0 cost.

Another good lineup for the new hero could be Galadriel, Glorfindel, Rossiel. Play one Elronds Counsel and Galadriel's ability can then keep you in secrecy at 19 threat (barring doomed etc). Glorfindel quests and Rossiel defends (and quests if possible via unexpected courage or whatever) and then Glorfindel plus allies attack. Mirror would help you fetch Out of the Wild or whatever card you need to set up (none return) Rossiel and then the extra card draw would help you to further manipulate the victory display/encounter deck via Scout Ahead, Leave no Trace etc. Would also keep Keen as Lances and The Door is closed very thematic in such a deck (Galadriel is on the art for both).

Why is the jeweler... A jeweler? Not seeing the connection.

So glad that Spirit gets another ability in flash.

Well, now we know where the "floating leaves" art is...

Treebeard + Ent Draught + Boomed and Trumpeted = a ready hero that can battle-quest for 11

I really want to do this for Peril in Pelargir. Treebeard just freaks out and destroys the Leaping Fish.

I was hoping to see Círdan, Galdor or some other renown characters, but... Rossiel??

She could be named Arwen and also be appropriate in terms of theme, isn't it?

I have been hoping for Cirdan as well, but he could be the unspoiled Spirit hero or he could show up in pretty much any cycle like Elrond and Glorfindel. I do find it hard to believe they wouldn't complete the set with all three Elven rings and their bearers.

I'm curious about Elven Jeweler. if the discard mechanic is the equivalent of O Lorien and Heir of Valandil, I'm also hoping we'll see a universal Noldor stat boost soon. And some more recursion or something that lets us play cards from the discard pile. (Feels like I've asked this before, but has the latter been confirmed?)

What if we got Narya and it could be attached to either Gandalf OR Cirdan giving a different effect depending on the user?

Also a nice ability for Gandalf (slightly overpowered though!) from Narya could be "While Gandalf is committed to the quest other questing heroes get +1 willpower. While Gandalf is making an attack other heroes participating in this attack get +1 attack."

I'm curious about Elven Jeweler. if the discard mechanic is the equivalent of O Lorien and Heir of Valandil, I'm also hoping we'll see a universal Noldor stat boost soon. And some more recursion or something that lets us play cards from the discard pile. (Feels like I've asked this before, but has the latter been confirmed?)

Btw, Elven Jeweler is great in a Caldara deck. :-)

Thought so, thanks for finding it. And sorry, but why is the Jeweler good with Caldara?

She lets you discard cards, and Caldara needs to have the right cards in the discard pile to work properly.

She lets you discard cards, and Caldara needs to have the right cards in the discard pile to work properly.

I takes a lot of luck, but the Jeweler enables a first turn Caldara sacrifice. It takes a lot of luck, but if the right allies are in your hand you can discard them to play the jeweler and discard Caldara to put them into play. Heck, you could then play Fortune and Fate the next round.

I know, it takes the perfect draw, but this sort of on demand option has not been available until now.

I'm not so sure about the Victory Display mechanics. Here are my reservations: One-By thinning the encounter deck of Locations and Enemies you are more likely to hit Treacheries which are usually the worst cards. Two-It is going to take some time to start to benefit from the effects of Victory Display manipulation as you won't see your effects until after the first shuffle which at that point may be too late. Three-You will have to devote significant deck slots to these Victory Display cards in order to see them early and will be cutting cards that are more universally useful and can help you out right away. I'm not writing it off completely and am willing to play test it but I remain skeptical.

The main downside of this Victory Display stuff is that it will be probably unplayable in solo or with 2 players, but will be extremely good with 3-4 players.

I sure as hell hope they make this playable in solo, or else... I'm gonna rant about it.

Yeah, I think the victory display stuff will work best in 3-4 player, because thinning the encounter deck becomes more useful when you go through it multiple times. Also, in multiplayer you can have everyone run 3 copies of Keen As Lances and they will feed off of each other.

Valid points. However, scrying is by far most effective solo, and I think the Victory display thing should benefit from scrying.