To me, there aren't a lot of situations where Quickbeam is the obvious choice. I mostly see people want to use him, so they make room for him in a deck and build around it.
Radagast and Saruman
Is it me or are they running out of characters?
As it is now we have 96 heroes in all 4 spheres:
Granted, some have more than one version, but still, I can't think of many interesting characters from the books that have been left out.
There is a plethora of characters named off-hand in the books to supply quite a few unique allies, if not heroes.
The game will not be complete until we have a Lobelia Sackville-Baggins hero.
3 hours ago, dalestephenson said:The game will not be complete until we have a Lobelia Sackville-Baggins hero.
Action: Exhaust Bilbo Baggins and move all his resources to this hero. Then discard Bilbo Baggins.
We also need a Silver Spoons attachment that can only go on Bilbo or Lobelia
Lotho Hero
Setup: add 4 resources to his pool
Put a misery and regret token on him once a turn, after 4 tokens are on him discard him.
I just hope when(if) Saruman finally arrives he is a game changer. His power in the books should be reflected in his card. If he's a dori it would be the biggest disappointment ever.
Hmmm thoughts on these cards?
Extremely similar to my Saruman stuff earlier in this thread.
Yeah, I thought your idea of making the cost of Doomed suffer able was perfect, particularly with all the themed isengard doomed cards
At this point Saruman must be the character with the most custom hero versions in the game. I just wish Caleb would get on with it and print him! Please! People, including myself, have been clamoring for him for over 5 years now!
Cool Saruman. I like him being able to play any sphere because he was "Saruman of Many Colours". And only thing I would do differently is have him ready himself from playing Doomed cards (limit once per phase) and have the Palantir exhaust to search your deck for a doomed event card. Showing him casting his spells but hurting while helping all of the other players the whole time. But I really like the staff, you could even add in/switch out a part to the staff that lets you drop another player's threat by 1 or 2.
I thought about giving his staff threat control, but there are very few attachments that do that, let alone attachments that stay in play to consistently reduce threat. So I'm not sure if it'd be OP. The palantir attachment would ready him from playing doomed cards, there actually is already a card "seeing stone" that lets you search your deck for a doomed card. Finally I think the staff should emulate gandalf's and radagast's in that it is flexible, such that there will rarely be a turn in which it is not used (also we need location control. I'm constantly playing 4 player games, we like to play thematic, so we don't always take the pathfinder or asfaloth, it'd be nice if they released more location control).
After getting a lore Radagast, what do you think the chances are of getting a leadership or tactics Saruman this cycle? I know a lot of people are suggesting leadership, as he is the leader of the white council, but it might be cool to see him as a fierce fighter. His ally version is stacked high on attack and I wonder if they would do similarly with him. The only heroes with base attack above 3 are quickbeam and beorn, neither of which can take much else in terms of stat boosting. I'd like a high threat, dangerous tactics hero to pair with grima.
I like the idea of Saruman being multisphere, represents his vast knowledge of the enemy (and yes, Saruman of the many colors is thematic). It makes sense for Radagast to be restricted by sphere (and basically with strategy, you have to take creature allies with him.). But I don't think it would be good for Saruman to be restricted this way, personally. I think he should be more like gandalf, viable in a great many different combos
1 hour ago, breedlove2 said:I thought about giving his staff threat control, but there are very few attachments that do that, let alone attachments that stay in play to consistently reduce threat. So I'm not sure if it'd be OP. The palantir attachment would ready him from playing doomed cards, there actually is already a card "seeing stone" that lets you search your deck for a doomed card. Finally I think the staff should emulate gandalf's and radagast's in that it is flexible, such that there will rarely be a turn in which it is not used (also we need location control. I'm constantly playing 4 player games, we like to play thematic, so we don't always take the pathfinder or asfaloth, it'd be nice if they released more location control).
Valid point forgot about The Seeing Stone. And still not sure about him helping the others with threat thematically, but your version is solid gameplay-wise and would really help the Doomed mechanic, especially since a lot of the Doomed effects are greater than 1.
Well I pretty much stole it from John Constantine . It's literally the perfect way to balance all of the player doomed cards. I can't imagine a better mechanic, and I'm unsure if fantasyflight will even produce a better ability for Saruman. Then again maybe it's broken? Because of Grima, and the power of doom cards. Maybe saruman's ability should be action advantage when your threat raises, or drawing cards, or both.... I don't know, but I'm getting tired of waiting for him. I might just print these out and try them in our 4 player games. See if they are too OP or not.
That's fair and I feel like he'll come out soon. Especially if Doom and gloom Sayers are right and this is the last cycle then Spirit Aragorn and Saruman are sure things haha.
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh I don't want it to end. They should go back in time, make quests for the last alliance (Gil-Galad hero? Celebrimbor? Isildur?). Just keep going back, all the way to Melkor and Feanor. Have an Illuvutar hero with the text "Response: you win the game. This can be triggered whenever."
Edited by breedlove2I made mass threat reduction on playing Doomed for Saruman as a way to offset the inherit disadvantage Doomed mechanic has in multiplayer. Sure, there are fair cards like Deep Knowledge or Legacy of Numenor, they affect all players and it's only right their threat also affects all players. But then, there is "local" stuff like Herald of Anorien, Mirkwood Pioneer, and most importantly - Grima. It is unfair to punish the entire party for the advantage only one player is getting, in case of Grima - 1 resource, which makes him virtually unplayable in multiplayer. That's the flaw of the Doomed mechanic, it cannot target just the right player. So what I did with Saruman's ability is just try to make Grima and non-global Doomed stuff playable in multiplayer.
I even tried to patch this issue up in my "fix the game" pet project long ago:
Yeah, the idea is genius, it's so good I'm not sure fantasy flight can think of a better one to be honest.
If they make a crap Saruman, I might just go with this fan one anyway. I also agree with the other guy (a while back) who said that only gandalf should see the top card of the deck. So either Saruman belongs to a sphere, or he has mechanics to play with other spheres. Since his threat is so high, and if his ability works with doomed (meaning threat will get higher), i think that making him playable with all spheres is fine. Also remember, that this fanmade Saruman doesn't protect players from non-Doomed threat, so it's definitely not broken. And many of the doomed cards are greater than doomed 1, so there is in essence still a cost (just mitigated). Finally limiting it to once a phase is cool (also mirrors gandalf's once a phase ability). This will encourage players not to play more than 1 doomed card a phase.
Seriously it's a great core mechanic ability for Saruman.
Edited by breedlove2Saruman of many colors don’t fit in the game’s timeline. It has to be Saruman the White.
Hmmm instead of having all printed icons, maybe Saruman should gain a printed icon whenever you raise your threat? Only downside is you'd have to bring doom to use him (or attachments to give him a sphere)