Now that the latest cycle has wrapped up, what are your thoughts? Favorite Hero, Ally, Attachment, Event of the cycle? Favorite Side Quest? What about card for a certain sphere? Favorite Quest?

Mine are:

Hero- Erestor

Ally- Dúnedain Hunter

Attachment- Sword-thain

Event- The Door is Closed

Side Quest- Gather Information

Leadership- Reinforcements

Lore- The Door is Closed

Tactics- Secret Vigil

Spirit- Elven-light

Neutral- Keen as Lances

Quest- TBD still waiting on Dread Realm.

Hero:

Aragorn (T)

Halbarad (Le)

Merry (S)

Rossiel (Lo)

Dori (T)

Erestor (Lo)

Amarthiúl (Le)

Arwen Undómiel (S)

Ally:

Weather Hills Watchman (Le)

Dúnedain Hunter (T)

Sarn Ford Sentry (Lo)

Warden of Annúminas (S)

Ranger of the North (N)

Ingold (Le)

Honour Guard (T)

Curious Brandybuck (S)

East Road Ranger (Lo)

Ranger of Cardolan (N)

Veteran of Osgiliath (Le)

Derndingle Warrior (T)

Elven Jewler (S)

Longbeard Sentry (T)

Wellinghall Preserver (Lo)

Galdor of the Havens (Lo)

Galadhrim Weaver (S)

Beechbone (T)

Lindir (S)

Guardian of Arnor (Le)

Éothain (Le)

Fornost Bowman (T)

Galadhrim Healer (Lo)

Attachment:

Heir of Valandil (Le)

Athelas (Lo)

Secret Vigil (T)

Star Brooch (S)

Raven-winged Helmet (T)

Hobbit Pony (S)

Ranger Provisions (Le)

Steed of Imladris (S)

Elven Spear (T)

Silver Harp (S)

Elf-Friend (N)

The Long Defeat (Lo)

Favor of the Valar (N)

Sword of Númenor (Le)

Weather-stained Cloak (Lo)

Sword-thain (N)

Event:

Ranger Summons (Le)

Tireless Hunters (T)

Expert Trackers (Lo)

Rallying Cry (Le)

Descendants of Kings (Le)

Boomed and Trumpeted (T)

Leave No Trace (Lo)

Distant Stars (Lo)

Keen as Lances (N)

Dúnedain Message (Le)

Fair and Perilous (S)

None Return (Lo)

Hope Rekindled (N)

Reinforcements (Le)

Horn’s Cry (T)

The Door is Closed (Lo)

Doom Still Hangs (Le)

Hold Your Ground! (T)

Lords of the Eldar (S)

Quick Ears (Lo)

Hour of Wrath (T)

Elven-light (S)

Tale of Tinúviel (S)

Side Quest:

Gather Information (N)

Scout Ahead (Lo)

Double Back (S)

Delay the Enemy (T)

Send for Aid (Le)

Arwen

Sarn Ford Sentry

Secret Vigil

Very Good Reinforcements

Hero: Arwen

Ally: Honour Guard

Attachment: Heir of Valandil

Event: Tale of Tinuviel

Side Quest: Send for Aid

Leadership: Send for Aid

Tactics: Honour Guard

Spirit: Tale of Tinuviel

Lore: Scout Ahead

Neutral: Sword-thain

Quest: Dread Realm

All in all, the cycle is still kind of a mixed bag for me. While Seastan's ranger deck IS amazing, I'm still bummed that Leadership-Tactics Dunedain aggro (aka Secret Defenders) never became a thing in solo, as opposed to the amazing stuff the Noldor got. With that said, my faves are

Arwen

Veteran of Osgiliath

Silver Harp

Descendants of Kings

Send for Aid

Hero: Arwen. Would have liked to be able to say Dori.... Was hoping for a new spirit or tactics Dwarf but sadly...

Ally: Longbeard Sentry

Attachment: Silver Harp

Event: Reinforcements

Side Quest: Gather Information

Here's hoping the next cycle will make an all Dunedain deck real deal. A new Dwarf hero that can replace Gimli so I can run the ally.

Noldor became topnotch in one cycle! As did victory display.

So excited what next cycle wi bring!

Hero: Arwen, Don't have her yet but I believe it will be her

Ally: Wellinghall preserver

Attachment: Silver Harp

Event: Fair and perilous

Side Quest: Send for Aid

Favourite quest, difficult to answer. Most of them had interesting stories and mechanisms, i can say that apart from Carn Dum -mainly because being so difficult was more like a puzzle after all- I liked all of them. Still do not own the last one though

I hope next cycle will bring some Noldor allies that can be used as combat characters, and some Dunedain attachments to make them top tier

I liked this cycle very much, there really was not a dud of a quest. If anything it was Ettenmoors, it sounds like a quest that should be very challenging, but then it ended up being kind of a walk in the park. Carn Dum was too hard for me to be very replayable, but I definitely appreciated the challenge. But about favorites:

Hero: Arwen

Ally: Derndingle Warrior

Event: The Door is Closed

Attachment: Secret Vigil
Side quest: Scout Ahead, but definitely have used and will use Gather Information more frequently

Quest: Wastes of Eriador

Hero: Aragorn

Ally: Honor Guard

Event: Doom Hangs Still

Attachment: Favor of the Valar

Side-Quest: Send For Aid

Quest: Wastes of Eriador

I loved the player cards in general throughout this cycle, but found a few of the quest only slightly interesting. I still haven't played the Dread Realm, but I really enjoyed the Wastes of Eriador and Battle of Carn Dum, both those quests were difficult and intriguing. Escape from mount gram is incredibly simple and dull, I understand what they were trying to accomplish and appreciate the attempt, but it did not work out very well, hopefully NM mode will fix it. The Ettenmoors really excited me as I love conflict at the carrock, but it was way too simple. Those safe locations were not necessary for such an easy quest. Most disappointing. Treachery of Rhuadur was fine but slightly forgettable.

My thoughts? This has probably the worst cycle so far.

Noldor has been good, but not as good as Silvan.

Dunedain has been unsatisfying.

Player cards in general were not as good as I expected. Mostly because they often didn't help againts the new quests. And has there been any good tactics card instead of Ents?

3 quests have been good, 2 not so good (Mount Gram, Dread Realm), 1 crap (Carn Dum).

Heroes have been ok, but also not as good as usual. Again, tactics got the short end here.

Plenty of new ideas, a lot of which didn't work. I'm thinking of Honor Cards, Mount Gram scenario, Northern Ranger and Dunedain in general. Side quests have been a good idea, but IMO there have been too many encounter side quests. Another good idea was the addition of Amarthiul as anobjective ally, but why in hell did the took him away for the two hardest quests?

All in all my disappointment weighs more than my excitement about this cycle. I wasn't too happy about the story/theme either (way too many ghosts and fighting Thaurdir all the time). And as the next cycle looks even worse themewise, I am not sure if I am going to continue to buy the next AP's.

Hero: Aragorn
Ally: Honor Guard
Event: Fair and Perilous probably just slightly beats out Horn's Cry
Attachment: Silver Harp
Side Quest: Gather Information

Really, really liked this cycle. I agree that Ettenmoors and Escape from Mt Gram were both underwhelming. Carn Dum is so hard it's difficult to like, but even so, there are some really solid quests in this cycle. I like all 3 quests a lot in the main box (Chetwood, Weather Hills, Deadman's Dike), Wastes of Eriador is great, so is Treachery at Rhudaur.

Side-quest mechanic was hands down the best thing introduced in this cycle, it's not even close. Side quests are a great part of the game from both a player SQ and an encounter SQ perspective. I love everything about side-quests.... except that Delay the Enemy doesn't really have a place. But that is a miss on one specific card, the idea of side-quests as a whole I think is really fun and good.

If you think tactics got the short end on heros... I don't know what to tell you. Aragorn(T) is so amazing it's crazy. He's a top notch hero, and considerably stronger than any other hero in the cycle except maybe Arwen (but probably including Arwen). He's good in a low threat Scorpion style deck, he's good in multiplayer to take threatening targets away from your allies, he's just all around good.

There have been some great player cards and some not so great ones. I really love Honor Guard, he helps out so much. The idea of Horns Cry is great, I was trying to make a deck out of it, it didn't quite work. Fair and Perilous is great though. Victory Display is a little wonky, and I wish Valor actually worked. It's almost there. Almost.

Still, quests are fun, there are a lot of good cards, a great new mechanic introduced, really good effort, about the best we can reasonably expect.

oh. and one more thing; the artists just killed in on this one. Best card art for a cycle, definitely!

Hero: Aragorn (T)

Ally: Ranger of Cardolan

Attachment: Silver Harp

Event: Boomed and Trumpeted

Side Quest: Gather Information

Leadership: Veteran of Osgiliath

Lore: Distant Stars

Spirit: Fair and Perilous

Tactics: Derndingle Warrior

Quest: Wastes of Eriador

While I have enjoyed this cycle, I admittedly have spent less time with it than probably any of the previous ones. Through no fault of the game itself, infact I cant think of the state of the game being in a better place especially where its at now and where its going, but have just been enjoying some other hobbies and life of course always getting in the way. Infact despite owning all the APs I have yet to even attempt the last two quests and those I have played have probably only been just a few attempts each. Maybe once things slow down after the holiday season and we go into a small lull before the next deluxe I'll be able to put in some more time and greater appreciate all the great things we've received this cycle and this year

If you think tactics got the short end on heros... I don't know what to tell you. Aragorn(T) is so amazing it's crazy. He's a top notch hero, and considerably stronger than any other hero in the cycle except maybe Arwen (but probably including Arwen). He's good in a low threat Scorpion style deck, he's good in multiplayer to take threatening targets away from your allies, he's just all around good.

The main problem is that Loragorn is so much better than him, and that tactics itself offers better alternatives. I guess that Tactigorn works better in multiplayer decks, but in solo mode I only once used him successfully in my last deck (so he is not that bad) against Dread Realm.

Just for interest, could you tell me the other heroes of your Scorpio deck? The idea of it sounds great!

Good topic. All my picks, except wellinghall preserver, are from a mutiplayer view.

Hero: Aragorn (aka scorpagorn, great fun to play in multiplayer and say: "get over here!" when you nick a foe from the other end of the table)

Ally: Wellinghall Preserver (3wp self healing lore ally is just too good to not take this spot)

Att: Secret Vigil (awesome in multiplayer on 3-4 threat foes)

Event: Keen as Lances (also great in multi player, when all the players put it in their deck)

SideQ: Gather information (everyone pick a card. nuff said)

@Leptokurt:

The Scorpagorn deck is built with Aragorn (T) Merry (T) & Pippin (L)

It's mainly a multiplayer deck I think.

The idea is to buff up Merry as much as you can with readying effects like fast hitch & rohan war horse.

Then whenever you kill a foe with merry & aragorn (+any allies needed) you get to ready Aragorn, and pull a foe across the board your way.

Now with all those readying effects you get to ready Merry and you rinse & repeat.

Good stuff.

edit: here's the scorpagorn deck OP for you https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/150667-tactics-aragorn-ready-for-errata/?hl=aragorn

Oh, and I too like this cycle. More and more so even.

Haven't played all the quests yet, but player card wise it has been a good batch.

Not every cycle should be like dwarrowdelf in power, and even in there there were a number of coasters.

The ringmaker cycle was great too. This game has become better since Caleb & Matt took over.

IMO the AtS cycle was the worst. The Heirs of Numenor box had some good cards, sure.

But then in AtS the good cards are few and far between packs if you don't use outlands.

Caleb & Matt's team really have to go and try to beat that cycle for the "worst cycle yet" crown.

another thing I like to do with Aragorn (T) is in multiplayer, having player 1 run Aragorn (T) with whatever, and having player 2 run Haldir of Lorien. -1 def on enemies makes killing them with haldir's sniper shot easier, and player 2 packing Lore also means you can play Noiseless Movement, further improving Aragorn's Scorpion ability!

Heh, we've played that way. And it works great.

Tip: Legolas & Haldir make a great pair. Access to Rivendell blade, Bow of the Galadhrim & Hands on the bow to name a few.

Also, I literally just posted on the deck forum in a deck o mine how good a add Noiseless movement to that deck was.

Funny that you mentioned it just now here too.

Oh, and I too like this cycle. More and more so even.

Haven't played all the quests yet, but player card wise it has been a good batch.

Not every cycle should be like dwarrowdelf in power, and even in there there were a number of coasters.

The ringmaker cycle was great too. This game has become better since Caleb & Matt took over.

IMO the AtS cycle was the worst. The Heirs of Numenor box had some good cards, sure.

But then in AtS the good cards are few and far between packs if you don't use outlands.

Caleb & Matt's team really have to go and try to beat that cycle for the "worst cycle yet" crown.

I see what you mean, but I'm not sure I agree. I've come to appreciate the less shiny cards, so I quite like the cardpool of AtS. Dwarrowdelf is for me the worst cycle, as it really started power creep in the form of spirit Glorfindel of course, who I never play, as well as Elrond and maybe Aragorn which allows some very powerful combo decks.

Just to help memories back, AtS enabled the Gondor archetype (some good allies, and Visonary Leadership, Strength of Arms), it also marked the start of the Ranger-Trap archetype (two third of the lore cards of this cycle), the Record attachmentd, Caldara, and of course Outlands.

I would not argue though that AtS got the short hand hero-wise: Hirluin and Caldara enable a very particular deck, Faramir his not really good, Mirlonde Pippin and Theoden are niched

Less shiny card using is fun, no doubt.

But if you want to beat the majority of the quests you just can't use a half baked deck.

This means these cards are mostly for a theme or certain quest niche deck.

Which is fine by the way.

I understand you defending the AtS cycle, and I'm not saying it just sucks or anything.

To me it is just the worst cycle on player cards to date.

IMO the cycle's Leadership got no interesting cards almost. Just too many outlands to get the gondor trait going.

Spirit really got the shot end of the stick, with maybe 5 widely usable cards.

The lore trap theme got it's cards sure, but it didn't work until Damrod showed up to fix it, as Faramir just plainly went againt it's theme. (what were they thinking!?)

In hindsight tactics got off with the most usable cards over all.

Jumping back to Scorpigorn for a hot second, him and the leadership Faramir hero work really well together. I feel as though leadership Faramir has gone under the radar a little bit but I've had a lot of success with him especially in a Dunedain-esque build with the handful of options to engage enemies outside the normal engagement step. So especially once Aragorn drags someone over, Faramir can pop a strong ally back up to attack it. Simple enough but effective. (this obviously is best in multi-player when theres enough enemies on the table to justify the combos)

Less shiny card using is fun, no doubt.

But if you want to beat the majority of the quests you just can't use a half baked deck.

This means these cards are mostly for a theme or certain quest niche deck.

Which is fine by the way.

Firstly, I would debate your second point on terminology. A 'half baked deck' to me would mean that the deck is not especially well built rather than making any comment on the quality of the cards used in it. I have a Dwarf deck which I built when I was still very new to the game, thus it's not that well built and I could do much better if I built it now. But I keep it around and use it to play each new quest blind as they hit OCTGN to get a feel for the quest before trying it with other decks. It still beats a lot of quests on the first attempt just because of Dwarves, but it would be one of the first things I'd think of as a 'haf baked deck'.

Secondly, I would also argue that 'less shiny' doesn't necessarily mean worse. Just less in your face "Look how awesome a card I am and acknowledge my greatness!" The vast majority of cards in the game I would say are less shiny than Glorfindel, Light of Valinor and Asfaloth, but that doesn't mean they're inherently worse for beating a given quest. That's actually something I felt when trying to come up with my picks for favourite stuff from this cycle - very few cards really stood out to me as being truly amazing so that I'd immediately throw them on my list, but at the same time I feel like this cycle had a lot of very good cards, they're just mostly less flashy, and/or some of them are only really good in the right kind of deck rather than just being able to just drag and drop into anything you feel like.

(Also, unless you're counting Nightmare, the majority of quests are not so hard that you can't get away with using some less well-favoured cards in your decks in any case)

I'd love to see a multiplayer aragorn/Faramir deck, Pharm, I tried to make Faramir work myself with Veteran of Osgiliath, but it just barely fell flat.

By the way, my opinion on this wrap-up:

Hero- Amarthiul: really good hero overall, thematic win and overall great idea to finally get a hero out of an objective ally? How amazing would be a Lord Alcaron Gondor herwo with some kind of doomed ability like Grima? Or a Celador reducing your threat depending on Rangers you control? Or a Nalir?

Ally- Guardian of Arnor, enabling mono-leadership Dunedain.

Attachment- Weather-stain... just kidding. How much I wished this cloak was some kind of defensive capabilities for Rangers of Ithilien. I would go for The Long Defeat, quite a multiplayer card but really powerful. Overall, the cycle was full of good attachments: the helm, the hobbit pony, the silver harp, elf-friend, favor of the valar, etc.

Event- The Door is Closed, the level of power of this card, man

Side Quest- Send for Aid, just for theme

Leadership- Guardian of Arnor

Lore- The Door is Closed

Tactics- Horn's Cry

Spirit- Arwen

Neutral- Keen as Lances

Quest- The Weather Hills

I'd love to see a multiplayer aragorn/Faramir deck, Pharm, I tried to make Faramir work myself with Veteran of Osgiliath, but it just barely fell flat.

Aragorn (tactics) - Faramir (leadership) - Amarthiul

Allies:

Dunedain Hunter x3

Weather Hills Watchman x3

Gandalf (core) x3

Defender of Rammas x3

Veteran of Osgiliath x3

Guardian of Arnor x3

Ranger of Cardolan x2

Gimli x2

Events:

Valiant Sacrifice x2

Descendants of Kings x3

Sneak Attack x2

Feint x2

Attachements:

Secret Vigil x3

Sword that was Broken x2

Dunedain Mark x3

Dunedain Warning x3

Celebrian's Stone x1

Horn of Gondor x1

Captain of Gondor x2

Rohan Warhorse x2

Steward of Gondor x2

Everything pretty straightforward here. Havent added anything from Dread Realm yet, Fornost Bowman would prob be the one card from that I'd try to add. Would be nice to add Treebeard ally to have a huge guy for Faramir to ready too. Defintely some cuttable items here for other cards. Horn of Gondor isnt super necessary, Secret Vigil never feel super super useful, Celebrian's stone can probably get cut as well. Obviously pairs well with a lore/spirit deck for question and healing

Check out the Valor deck I posted on Strategy section for a good Leadership Faramir deck