We're already halfway through the Angmar Awakened cycle, and no word have we had of the Encounter keyword for player cards since the Lost Realm minisite mention that said the Ranger of the North would "introduce" the Encounter keyword in player cards. Do you think they have some in store? Did they scrap it?

I find hard to believe that they produced two cards (event and ally) just for them to synergy together with nothing else in mind. There are still three packs on this cycle and a hole new Deluxe box and cycle who also will feature a lot of Funedain cards as we have read, so I guess we will have more of this

Time will tell. However, I'm doubtful. The requirements are big.

Yes, the preview articles have been misleading so often that I now basically ignore what is said and just look at the cards.

I'd like to have an official response from FFG as to what happened with this keyword. Seems like they scraped it altogether for being subpar (more like the Ranger of the North is subpar, not the keyword), in which case I want that Leadership event and neutral slots back with different cards. Or maybe they will expand on it next cycle? What are your thoughts?

I think it was a test run. It's a fairly unusual mechanic with little precedent in other games. There is also the issue of how many cards with the keyword there should be. At a high count, it could get somewhat ridculous (still a very niche strategy).

It's easy. For such cards to work, you need two copies per player card (one with encounter card back, one with a player card back), essentially lowering the effective card count per pack. Unaccepatable.

It's easy. For such cards to work, you need two copies per player card (one with encounter card back, one with a player card back), essentially lowering the effective card count per pack. Unaccepatable.

I agree, but that seems like an obvious answer they should have come up with when developing the whole expansion + cycle, not after release.

I'd like to have an official response from FFG as to what happened...

Thanks for the laugh.

It's easy. For such cards to work, you need two copies per player card (one with encounter card back, one with a player card back), essentially lowering the effective card count per pack. Unaccepatable.

I agree, but that seems like an obvious answer they should have come up with when developing the whole expansion + cycle, not after release.

Thing like this can be afforded in a boxed expansion, as those have inconsistent card count. Not in AP, though.

Ha, yeah, that was intended to be rethorical, much like me asking for those card slots back. Oh well, yet a couple more wasted cards...

I really like the Ranger of the North in multiplayer. We made a lot of good use of them in 2-player with one player using Dunedain and the other player using a Secrecy Victory Display manipulation deck. Once we had thinned the deck a bit, we were able to get them out pretty consistently.

I'd love to see some more cards with the Encounter keyword. I want to see one that sticks a softball into the encounter deck--maybe just a Doomed 2 Treachery or something.

I would love to see more of these types of cards. Some of my favorite moments is when an ally comes out when least expected to help in a major way. Being able to seed the encounter deck is a lot of fun. I would've rather have more of the Encounter keyword cards than the Victory Display stuff we got. Victory Display is fine, but I don't find it as nearly as fun. Looks like it was this cycle's "Doomed" keyword; a great idea that never fully matured.

I think RoTN is pretty good actually. His stats are fantastic, ranged and sentinel, and a comes into play ability to boot. What's not great is how hard he is to get to show up. While I do appreciate that if he is a shadow card he is essentially a "no shadow effect" -which is itself good, it's sort of a bummer to miss out on him. I wish they would have given him a shadow effect of "put RotN into play under any player's control" or something like that.

The other problem with RotN is that you have to pay for something now for a benefit you will reap... you know, whenever, maybe. If I'm paying for something now I want the benefit now. Or I at least want to know I'm going to get the benefit soon (like in the case of Ents). I don't want to pay for a card and have to wait an unknown number of turns for my investment to pay off.

The sad thing is that they could have sidestepped this easily by making Ranger Summons a 0 cost event, and adding the text to RotN, "when revealed: 1 player may pay 1 resource to put RotN into play under their control." that way the only immediate cost of the Ranger Summons is the opportunity cost of having that card when you could have had another card. It's still a cost, but at least it's not a cost in resources.

I would use this card so much more if ranger summons was indeed 0 cost and you had to pay the resource when the ranger appears. Whats more even though the event would now cost 0 and would see far more play it doesn't really make the card THAT much better because if you don't have any resources when he appears during staging (spend them all during planning) then you can't pay for and obtain him so it would actually have an additional drawback if they designed it like this.

So no initial cost and investment that may never pay off. Only the cardspace in your deck.

still costs 1 but you only have to spend that when the ranger appears. Built in drawback that you may not be able to pay for him/you need to save at least one resource if you know a Ranger of the North might appear.

so it makes you think about using resources more carefully, actually adds a drawback to the card but makes it far more playable and just all round seems like a far better design. I'm actually fairly boggled now why they did not design it like this...

I guess they really wanted to include the drawback of having to spend a resource and not knowing if you will actually even get

anything back for it.... which yes is in leadership which has plenty of resource acceleration but you usually want to play this card within the first few turns (or at certain strategic points like right before the encounter deck is going to get reshuffled and has almost run out) at which point even a single resource can be critical so using one on something you may never see can be very hard to justify.

Just have Ranger of the North say something like:

When Revealed: The players as a group may spend X (up to 4) Leadership resources to deal X damage to an enemy in play or place X progress on a location in play.

Build a scrying deck with RotN, Minas Tirith Lampwright and Palantir/Scout ahead/Risk some Light and you are in for some fun

Good for Multiplayer. More so if someone plays gondor.

I think it's strange that Dunedain Summons specifically lists Ranger of the North by name. They could have gotten so much more mileage out of that card if it were generic, maybe just list a trait and say "Shuffle one of your set aside Ranger allies with the Encounter keyword into the encounter deck."

I would also love to see Eagle allies with the Encounter keyword. But make the 'summon' event generic! You really don't need to introduce a separate event card for every ally with that keyword.