As soon as you start deckbuilding, every choice you make renders cards "dead cards". I didn't play saga, so all the fellowship cards are dead. I didn't choose a tactics hero, so tactics cards are dead. I didn't choose any elves, so all the Noldor/Silvan cards are dead. etc.

Just because a card *could* theoretically be used more than another doesn't mean it *will* be. The named hero attachments tend to only be for big-name heroes like Aragorn or Gandalf, which I would suggest (based on anecdotal evidence from discussions/deck designs on these boards, and personal experience) see play a lot more than other, lesser heroes. As a result, their "named attachments" see more play as well.

For example, Captain of Gondor is a great card, and I use it in decks. It can attach to a warrior hero, it doesn't name a hero. But I see it show up far less frequently than Gandalf's Staff or Shadowfax, or Vilya and Nenya. Having powerful effects have an additional restriction prevents them overwhelming the game, while still being playable.

The only difference is that name-related cards are dead on arrival

You're twisting the meaning of dead here. Dead means it physically cannot be used unless very specific circumstances, with or without your strongest desire. Let's take two complete opposites: Unexpected Courage and Mirror of Galadriel. UC attaches to a card type(hero), Mirror attaches to a single name. UC can be run in literally any deck that has spirit to pay for it one way or another, it's up to player to choose whether to include it or not. That card is alive. Now let's take the Mirror. You can only play it on two instances of a character - on a Galadriel hero, or a Galadriel ally from leadship that only enters play for one turn. If you are not running Galadriel - you're instantly stripped of the ability to play that card. You're not allowed to do it. Because you don't have that exact hero. Out of 17 from it's sphere, and out of 72 heroes out of the entire game. Want a less open example than UC? Light of Valinor. 15 candidates to choose from, most are even decent. You have a clear and distinct choice to make.

Why even bring Fellowship here? They're no more than improved objectives for LotR Saga.

DukeWellington, yup. I find it strange you're still talking to a raving madman who can't make any sense out of the words he utters.

All I'm saying, is it is going to be really weird when Grima gains the Strider title... or Denethor or old man Theoden. I feel everyone else is scrappy enough they could pull off the job.

Treebeard the Strider.

There are currently 72 released heroes. I won't be taking different versions of a single hero into account for the simplicity. If a card only interacts with a single specific hero, it means it can only be used in 100/72=1.38% situations that are available to you in terms of heroes you're running. Simply put it: you don't use said hero = you got yourself a dead card, congrats.

Just as something to compare, if a card interacts with a Warrior hero, then we got (100/72)*20=27.77% cases where that card can be used within current hero pool. Do you feel the difference?

But in fact, of the non-saga attachments that name a specific individual, there are only two where the named individual has only a single hero card and no ally -- Bill the Pony (free with Sam Gamgee) and Firefoot (+2 attack with Eomer). And we know a Sam ally is coming.

In practice, there are two heroes that have attachments that can only go on them, have only one hero version, and have an ally version that self-discards, making it an unlikely target. Those two are Elrond (Vilya), and Galadriel (Nenya, mirror).

So how does that affect the effective card pool? At BGG I posted a series of analysis on 100 decks submitted by different people, and both Elrond and Galadriel were used in 13 of those decks. There were 49 decks with Lore heroes using cards from Dwarrowdelf and beyond, so Elrond was in 27% of the possible decks, a far cry from 1.38%. There were 36 decks with Spirit heroes using cards from Ringmaker and beyond, so Galadriel was in 36% of the possible decks for her.

But what about their toys? Vilya was in 10 decks, Nenya in 11, and the Mirror in 5. As a percentage of Elrond/Galadriel decks the percentages are high (77%, 85%, 45%), but Vilya was in 20% of the Lore decks, Nenya was in 31% of the Spirit decks, and Mirror of Galadriel was in 14% of the Spirit decks.

So how does the usage compare to unrestricted attachments not associated with any particular trait? In Lore decks I identified eleven such attachments, only three of which boasted a higher percentage of usage (Burning Brand, The Long Defeat, and Protector of Lorien). In Spirit decks I also identified eleven such attachments, with only one (Unexpected Courage) with a higher percentage of usage than Nenya, and another four ahead of the mirror (Ancient Mathom, Silver Harp, Miruvor and Favor of the Lady -- with Silver Harp essentially being a Noldor attachment).

So even those most specific of attachments are seeing considerable use in the current pool, being much *better* used than the average card. Now the problem of course is that the popular by-name attachments are of course associated with popular heroes. That's why I'd like to see cards particular useful for less popular heroes, though not (of course) restricted only to that hero. Dori needs help, but a card that can only be played on Dori could well join him in the coaster pile.

How does the usage compare to the Warrior attachments? Excluding saga boons, there's a grand total of one attachment requiring the "Warrior" trait, the captain of Gondor. This could've been used in 24 decks and was actually used in seven of them, a 29% rate for the possible decks, and if we expand to all Ringmaker tactics decks it still has a 20% usage rate, the same as Vilya, less than Nenya, and more than Mirror of Galadriel. While the Warrior attachment is more flexible, it's not actually more popular.

Meanwhile, some other generically-traited hero attachments got very little love. For example, the two Noble-related attachments weren't used at all, Heir of Mardil being left out of all 20 possible decks and Palantir being left out of all 61 possible decks.

Ultimately, it's not about the number of decks a card *could* be in, it's about the number of decks a card *would* be in. A high percentage isn't necessarily the sign of a good card, of course. If 3x Test of Will has to be in every Spirit deck, that reduces the amount of deck space available for everything else. If you're doing a Gandalf-Elrond-Galadriel deck and stock it with all their toys, that's going to consume a significant portion of the deck. One thing the powerful-but-restricted-by-name cards actually do positively is keep these powerful cards from being auto-includes in a wide range of decks. If you could attach Vilya to anyone, it'd be in more than 10 decks. If you could attach Nenya to any Noldor, it'd make a ridiculous combo with Light of Valinor. Trait restrictions, trait enhancements, and the spheres themselves are all ways of *fragmenting* the card pool to avoid generic builds. It's a feature, not a bug.

The real problem, IMO, is the coaster. Every card that is useful in *some* deck will see play. But cards that aren't useful won't get played, no matter how many decks they could theoretically be in. Since the pace that the pool grows is slow and fixed, every coaster released is an opportunity missed, and every new card that grants new life to one or more old cards is a godsend.

John's error is that he conflate playing a deck with building a deck. The only time you have any dead cards is when you draw them during a game and are unable to play them. If I draw Vilya during a game, I guarantee you I will be able to play it (the first copy) because I would never include it in my deck without Elrond in the game.

As several people are pointing out, name specific attachments are often played more frequently then non name specific attachments. In fact, if I were to be so kind as to restate John basic point in a stronger, more reasonable, form, I would say that the problem with name specific attachments is that the game designers essentially force you to include them in your deck when running the specified hero. With Vilya this is not as big a problem, but with Galadriel and her ring I think it is a valid point. It is similar to the complaint about outlands, the deck building is not an exercise in creativity because once you choose a theme a lot of the deck slots are taken up by must-include cards.

THAT is a valid point worth talking about. The idea that preferring one type of card means that you are selfishly hating on those that don't share your preferences... doesn't make sense.

More posts about this card than the recently released quests. :/

Well, it makes sense if you consider that not every country has the new set available, but spoilers are.

Psycho made some good points about the value of this card. After reading his post I am a bit more interested, but I'm still skeptical (okay, so I'm usually skeptical until I play with it a bit, but still).

The no-aragorn thing does bug me. For different reasons. Whether or not you can put it on other people, players are going to want to put it on Aragorn. Thematic players are anyway. I will. Now, while it does make me a little squeamish to be having "Lady of Rohan" attachments that can be attached to Treebeard (a joke, a joke) sure, I get it, I can understand it from the point of view of game design. But, BUT.... I should still want to put "Lady of Rohan" on Eowyn, it should still be a good attachment for Eowyn.

Strider is a terrible attachment for Aragorn. He's 12 threat which makes him about the worst for secrecy, and because of the Sword that was Broken, you want to use him in a deck with a lot of allies. Core set Aragorn has an ability that is completely obfuscated by this card, and so even if I was running an Aragorn/Sam secrecy deck with Strider, who does Strider go on? It goes on Sam. Obvious. And that makes be cry inside.

Strider is a terrible attachment for Aragorn. He's 12 threat which makes him about the worst for secrecy, and because of the Sword that was Broken, you want to use him in a deck with a lot of allies. Core set Aragorn has an ability that is completely obfuscated by this card, and so even if I was running an Aragorn/Sam secrecy deck with Strider, who does Strider go on? It goes on Sam. Obvious. And that makes be cry inside.

I disagree with this completely. Well, I agree that core Aragorn is a bad target, but lore Aragorn is the perfect target. In most secrecy decks, you inevitably creep above 20 threat and then accumulate a bunch of secrecy cards that you can't play. Aragorn lets you reset back to secrecy and dump those cards.

With him and Sam, you would put it on Aragorn. Think about Aragorn and Glorfindel running around, with LoV on Glorfindel and Strider on Aragorn.

I too thought about that last option Teamjimby. It's still a shame though that this pretty much invalidates the in-sphere Wingfoot in that setup. But hey, Wingfoot still definitely has a place in non-secrecy Loragorn decks.

When I read that support was being added for 2 hero secrecy I was pretty excited. Secrecy is an awesome theme that in some ways I feel hasn't reached its potential yet. This card is neat but doesn't totally blow me away or anything.

Merry-Theoden mono-tactics!

Bit late to join the party, but pretty much this.

I really like this card.

It's a great addition as a secrecy card for all spheres, but it is also a temendous boost to mono tactics willpower.

Glorfindel/Haldir!

An intriguing line up. You just need access to Tactics for the weapons, right? Or are you going to boost the attack only via Fair and Perilous?

Yeah, I think I did bows with A Good Harvest, but fair and perilous is great, especially with Strider on Haldir.

Yes. Please, let me know which quests you have taken the couple into and how they fared...

I much prefer Glorfindel decks where he is a center of attention than those where he by his super-low threat allows the party to have a good time. The angelic individuality fits the theme best for me. And for a long time, Rivendell Blade had been stuck in the shelf; now it is a primary card in such a deck, allowing Glorfindel to shoot across the table and into the staging area.

Thematically, while Aragorn is Strider, he doesn't really run around with an abundance of characters and even if your are at the 5 character limit, the Sword that was Broken is still 3 cost for 5 WP. I do agree that it doesn't work with LeadAgorn at all since it negates his readying action completely but I think it's great for LorAgorn and even TactAgorn.

yea, the more I argue for it the less I like it for any of the Aragorns... here is to hoping it will be good for the Spirit version?