I just wanted to make a quick post about a few cards that I have really come around on this cycle. Now there were a lot of good cards, but this isn't just about those, it's about the ones that I personally overlooked when they came out, diamonds in the rough if you will. So if you haven't been trying these cards, I encourage you to do so. If you're like me, you'll be pleasantly surprised. And I apologize to tactics players because I find that most of the tactics cards this cycle were either pretty straightforward not to merit this list, or not quite good enough. Honorable mention to Honor Guard (who is a bit too obviously good) and to Horn's Cry (which is just barely not good enough). Also, anyone please feel free to add to this list if you have a card that you were pleasantly surprised with this cycle!

Scout Ahead: Many people sung the merits to me of Scout Ahead before I believed them. But once I really started using this card I started loving it. At first I thought it just wasn't worth giving up a whole turn of questing, and what if you don't hit something nasty to exile out of the deck? Then you've like wasted it, right? Wrong. This card is really strong, because not only can you exile whatever you don't like, you can also stack the deck the way you want it, making the next round of combat a breeze as you know what all the shadow cards are, and you can feel safe probably for the next turn of encounter cards too, and on top of all that, many nasty cards are less nasty when you set them up as Shadow cards, and that is just super-fun.

Dunedain Message: Side quests are good. Getting your side quests is good. I'm running 3 of these, which means most of the time you are only a few easy steps away from getting absolutely anything you want out of your deck, or Sending for Aid, also solid. Give this a try, even if you think it might not be worth a card slot, it probably is with Gather Information if you're running One-Of anything.

Fair and Perilous: While its fun to think of ways to abuse this, normally I don't do the whole Celebrian's Stone thing or whatever other ways you can boost your willpower to insane levels and make this card killer. It's good enough without that. Lots of Silvan/Noldor have high willpower and this works well with pretty much anyone with the trait. Sometimes even an extra 2 attack can make all the difference. I am looking at you; Haldir of Lorien.

Galadrhim Weaver: I'll be real honest, I did NOT like the text "can not attack or defend" when I first saw this card. But even so, it's still worth it, for being able to shuffle basically whatever you want back into your deck so long as you're careful. I have totally played a game where I played 4 or 5 Test of Will cards when I only actually have 2 Test of Wills in my deck. And it was all because of Weaver. Really, really great when you are using Mirror of Galadriel so you have a very high chance to grab whatever it was out of your deck and put it back in your hand.

Silver Harp: Maybe a bit obvious, but yeah, it's solid. At first I was really sort of down on the 2 resource cost... but it's worth every penny when you are using Mirror of Galadriel. For 3 resources (harp + mirror) you get "action: search the top 10 cards of your deck and take whatever you want and put it in your hand" I'd say that's pretty good! Also good for Erestor, naturally.

The Long Defeat: I wish my deck weren't quite so tight that I could afford to put this back in. I really like this card. I am going to restructure my deck in the next couple of days when I get my hands on the Dread Realm, maybe it will find its way back in there. It is just SO cheap for what it does! 2 cards for everybody, or 5 hp. If you don't need the hp, pretty much you can always use the card draw.

And where is Dori hero? Mouhaha!!

Scout ahead is very strong, also a good combo with Door is closed.

Yeah for me there have been a couple cards that really have impressed me after I originally glossed over them.

Veteran of Osgiliath has impressive stats when you hit 40+ threat, and I originally thought he was cool. But since only in late game do I ever go above 40 I didn't really think he was worth it. But after realizing he is not unique and if you get 3 of them out they can go crazy! Valor in general has impressed me with how powerful it is even though it is limited to a few cards. Horns cry and Hour of Wrath can trivialize combat for a consequential round, and I would say overall after using a Valor deck a couple of times, it has proven to be one of the best decks out for me.

Reinforcements. A very niche card (requiring 3 leadership resources from different heroes) but oh so powerful in the right deck (A Very Good Tale).

Amarthiul. Keeping 2 enemies engaged turns out to not be that hard.

Dunedain Hunter. He appears to have a huge downside but it's often mitigated by allowing you to avoid an enemy's nasty When Revealed effects. He also allows you to trigger once-per-phase engagement effects during the planning phase.

Distant Stars is another card I'd recommend in the 'overlooked' department. It's use obviously depends on the quest. In Weathered Hills you can remove the Exposed Ridge without triggering new orcs so you don't get auto damage anymore. In Deadman's dike this guy can negate the discard mechanic by fetching the location that returns cards (itself included) to your draw deck. In Wastes of Eriador you can switch a difficult location for the Warg Lair which has only 1 progress but a nasty threat and travel effect you don't want to see during questing. etc. It's useless in some quests though, so definately a sideboard card.

I created a tri Tactics deck with Aragorn, Theoden and Mablung focusing on the eagle allies.

Hour of wrath seemed like an ok card, nothing great, until that moment when I got swamped in a 4 player game with 6+ enemies.

One Thicket of Spears and an Hour of wrath later and every enemy on the board was gone.

It is one of the cards that I will not overlook again.