+ Heir of Mardil = readying on demand

In Service to the Steward is a great card when you want to use Gondorian Shield on a non Gondor hero and your playing multiplayer and someone else had the Steward.

Wouldn't Dunedain Warning + Gondorian shield provide the same benefit as In Service to the Steward + Gondorian shield? Only better, because you can attach multiple copies of Dunedain Warning and even move them around.

It would alone, but it's not strictly superior because this also would make the character a target for other Gondor attachments, or a recipient for Denethor's resource sharing.

I like Denethor's ability in combination with Heir of Mardil, to ready a noble target at the point wanted. The Gondor noble heroes (the Faramirs, the Boromirs, Elanor and Imrahil) probably aren't as interesting to ready as the Noldor/Silvan that Arwen could do the same trick with, but Heir of Mardil is in-sphere for Denethor, and he may come by resources more easily than Arwen does cards. (Though Elf-friend would enable more cool attachments than this one does.)

Of course having the Gondor trait has other uses. I was referring to Joe's comment that it's a great card to use Godorian Shield on a non-Gondor hero. If that's your goal, then I don't think it is.

Really like these leadership cards.

Gondor lacked card draw, now they have easy access to it. Should be easy enough to set up with Steward of Gondor, Gaining Strength, Gondorian Wealth etc.

Have been waiting for a leadership Denethor. I thought he might arrive in the saga. Good to see him at last though. His power for a good start is undeniable. His errand rider esq ability also seems very solid.

Gondor is getting love! This is a great day.

A point about Rod of the Steward: it's not limited in uses in any way. In many deck types resources have a habit of piling up in the late game, especially in Gondor if you're running blood or fire. Rod could help you dig for a late game answer. Whether that be a Feint or A Test of Will or whatever, it could really help close out games.

I really like Vanish from Sight. Being able to enter secrecy mode whenever you need it is very valuable. Sure, you need two heroes or less, but with the Strider attachment in a future AP, that doesn't seem that bad of a hindrance. Denethor is a nice hero. He's pretty much your banker. Cool stuff. In service of the Steward, I like this card as it allows you to splash non-gondor characters into a gondor deck. That just opens up the doors like elf-friend did. To me, that's always a good thing.

Not so keen on the healer. One card for 1 heal? Nah, I'll pass. Last Stand: why do you have to be restricted to only warriors!? Lame... Rod of the Steward. Ok I guess, seems costly though. But meh.

Honestly to me the stand out of the pack is Vanish from Sight. Now to wait for Strider.

oops didnt mean to post that... how do take down a post?

Gondorian Fire avalaible for everybody, not a Stewards dependant yet

PD: the artwork is each time much better, till where? i am really wondering!!!

This is a great pack. I'm still disappointed we got yet another 3 defense Leadership hero (after Erkenbrand and Amarthiul, c'mon! give us SOMETHING to use besides Sam!!) BUT, every other card of the pack is absolutely great, especially Rod of the Steward (no limits makes it so good in mono-leadership Gondor) So yeah, this pack is pretty **** awesome. And even if Denethor is not the Leadership hero I wanted, I still see how he can be good in a 2 or 3 sphere Gondor deck with Mablung or Damrod. I will look for some use for him, but in any case, the Rod of the Steward is the biggest piece Gondor has gotten in a while. Love it!

Great pack, fantastic Denethor version. I love the Guardian of Rivendell, but the art on that card is awful.

Rod of the Steward looks super good.

2 resources for one card is a pretty poor exchange rate. Granted, it doesn't have a limit which will probably be abuseable.

In Leadership, especially mono Leadership, and with no limit, this is amazing. If you dumped all your allies and have a pretty good boardstate but no cards, I'd gladly spend 2-6 resources to draw 1-3 cards, since Gondor can get them back pretty easily.

In Leadership, especially mono Leadership, and with no limit, this is amazing. If you dumped all your allies and have a pretty good boardstate but no cards, I'd gladly spend 2-6 resources to draw 1-3 cards, since Gondor can get them back pretty easily.

Quoted for truth. Just last night, playing a few games with my old mono-Leadership Gondor deck, running out of cards to play with countless resources available happened every single time. A draw engine would've been most welcome, even an expensive one.

Of course having the Gondor trait has other uses. I was referring to Joe's comment that it's a great card to use Godorian Shield on a non-Gondor hero. If that's your goal, then I don't think it is.

Your right and I didn't really think about this.

11 player cards in this AP:

3 leadership

2 tactics, lore, and spirit

2 neutral

Oops. I assumed all cards were in this thread, but didn't pay much attention. Just noticed the one Tactics card and assumed.

Wow...Heed the Dream is great.

Indeed. Amazing for setups and combo decks which need to find a particular card quickly. I'm predicting it will be a staple in many power-decks in the future.

Denethor is also great. Extra resources right from the start will always find a place in the best decks (let's you play Steward of Gondor or OHUH Gandalf in turn 1 without any extra help). His ability and starting threat of 8 makes him a direct contender with Théodred (Denethor - Arwen - Grima gives you an opening with 7 resources o_O). I'm wondering if Denethor's resource smoothing can make Heir of Mardil earn some more love as well.

None of the other cards (in the OP at least) are compelling though. Rod's Stewart is meh outside mono-leadership decks with a heavy resource generation. Guardian of Rivendell is too expensive for my taste (even for a Noldor deck, paying 3 and discarding 2 seems a lot), has no special ability and his stats seem non-optimally distributed. Imladris Caregiver and Last Stand are flat out bad. Last Stand is ridiculously situational and I'm guessing it won't be included in any deck any time soon (actually never).

Overall, when you consider Glorfindel ally is coming in this pack, him alone makes this AP a must-get. Nonetheless Heed the Dream is also a 5-stars card imo which should see a lot of play. Denethor is a cool hero. When is this arriving again? Can't wait to obtain it!

Hadn't thought about Denethor + Heir of Mardil. Thematic and awesome. I think he'll open up some great options for various decks, even if I'm not including him in mono-Leadership Gondor any time soon.

When is this arriving again? Can't wait to obtain it!

It should arrive to the States in about a week. For us, it'll probably be 1-2 months.

Hey, they stole Denethor's ability from the Shadows Over Gondor custom set I made a while back!

That's just as bad as when they stole Elf-friend from Ian's First Age set!

Or when they almost exactly stole my custom Narya to make the real one!

Come to think of it I also mentioned the idea of a quest with lots of objective attachments where the heroes would be searching through a dragon's lair for treasure, and then a year or so later we got Ruins of Belegost! How dare the designers give us exactly the things we want!

Vanish from Sight + Desperate Alliance combo for the win

Anyone saying the healer isn't great is dead wrong in my book.

First off with Elrond he heals 2. Secondly he doesn't exhaust like Warden of Healing so can quest and heal in the same turn.

Third he has two hit points so doesn't die to direct damage effects straight away. Fourth he gets boosted by Lords of The Eldar.

Finally in a Noldor deck his discard to heal is no drawback. Discard two Elven Lights (or lords of the Eldar or glorfindel ally) and then return them to hand to draw cards and to have them ready for more discard to heal. It gives way more flexibility to Elven Light too, late game if you really don't need Arwens resource boost you still have a great use for Elven Light.

I personally have been waiting for a card like this for a long long time.

Warden of Healing is possibly the most unthematic card in my decks and this new Noldor healer is going to instantly replace Warden in my decks. I do think I might have to include a third copy of lords and a little more card draw to the spirit/lore deck to make this healer truly shine and work a bit better but I am insanely excited and happy we got this card.

Personally I'm looking forward to using Vanish from Sight to build a Secrecy deck with Elrond and Gandalf as the heroes.

Vanish from Sight + Desperate Alliance combo for the win

Makes sense... one of your heroes just vanished from sight!

I think, Heed the Dream is what Gandalfs Search should have been in the first place.

In Leadership, especially mono Leadership, and with no limit, this is amazing. If you dumped all your allies and have a pretty good boardstate but no cards, I'd gladly spend 2-6 resources to draw 1-3 cards, since Gondor can get them back pretty easily.

Quoted for truth. Just last night, playing a few games with my old mono-Leadership Gondor deck, running out of cards to play with countless resources available happened every single time. A draw engine would've been most welcome, even an expensive one.

That's the reason why my most successful mono Leadership Gondor ran Balin for access to King Under the Mountain, and it worked great. Now that won't be necessary if I want to run a thematic Gondor deck. I really love this card.

Wow.

So I start with the only utter disappointment in the pack. The Last Stand card seems just utter awful. So, you need a Warrior and printed attack, that is just terrible. There just are no good candidates really. Gondorian Spearman could be one, but still, just one extra damage? If it at least was not printed, then Boromir could help, but this way? The printed really is a sucker there, else there could be a great combo with ally Beorn (after you Sneak him for the phase, for instance) against mighty foes who deal enough damage...

Now. The Lore and Leadership Noldor guys are great for hero Erestor decks, obviously. Especially if you have Narya (giving Leadership) there. The Leadership guy is really expensive but once there he has the fighting prowess of Gildor (exactly 2a, 3d, 3h). And the Healer is great in a deck for obvious reasons, just what was missing in a way from the discard deck: healing.

Absolutely love Denethor. Like how he has the same stats of the Lore counterpart, but since his ability has nothing to do with exhausting, you will free his defense, too. Being 8 threat, there might be a point of adding Staff of Lebethron as well. But I see him best with Boromir and Faramir (naturally). 5 resource to start with in such a deck is just amazing. I used to have Gondorian Wealth (which is not a very strong card) in the deck just to have a chance for 4, now 5 guarantee will turn things round big time. Fill it with allies, and whenever you get A Very Good Tale, there is a good chance to exhaust allies worth of 5 cost who can bring another 4 or 5 to play. Simply amazing set up boost. Imrahil is great but Leadership Denethor will have OP sayers screaming soon, I believe. Heir of Mardil will become much more reliable as well.

The Rod seems pretty good, but I will start with just 1 copy, I feel.

I am happy I had guessed the Leadership resources in Heed the Dream. The card seems superb, too. However, I do not side-board, so I will have to choose these double-colour cards carefully. What I like about them is that the initial ability seems perfectly playable on its own.

[edit] Re-reading the card, the funny thing is that the discard cost of the Guardian only applies when played from hand, so Elrond will send him guarding with Vilya "for free".

Anyone saying the healer isn't great is dead wrong in my book.

First off with Elrond he heals 2. Secondly he doesn't exhaust like Warden of Healing so can quest and heal in the same turn.

Third he has two hit points so doesn't die to direct damage effects straight away. Fourth he gets boosted by Lords of The Eldar.

Finally in a Noldor deck his discard to heal is no drawback. Discard two Elven Lights (or lords of the Eldar or glorfindel ally) and then return them to hand to draw cards and to have them ready for more discard to heal. It gives way more flexibility to Elven Light too, late game if you really don't need Arwens resource boost you still have a great use for Elven Light.

I personally have been waiting for a card like this for a long long time.

Warden of Healing is possibly the most unthematic card in my decks and this new Noldor healer is going to instantly replace Warden in my decks. I do think I might have to include a third copy of lords and a little more card draw to the spirit/lore deck to make this healer truly shine and work a bit better but I am insanely excited and happy we got this card.

Yes. Really, there were still times, even in the late game, with my Erestor deck, when I did not have use for card that would be discarded at the end of the round. Having another option, and a **** strong at that, is excellent. Noldor discard decks have just got stronger, yet.

Hadn't thought about Denethor + Heir of Mardil. Thematic and awesome. I think he'll open up some great options for various decks, even if I'm not including him in mono-Leadership Gondor any time soon.

Why not? For the lack of Willpower? The mono-Leadership is all about allies anyway, and the two resources at start should easily compensate for 1 willpower on round 1. And as I said before, we are not going to see a 3 willpower Leadership Gondor hero, not ever I think. Yes, the start might still be problematic, in terms of questing, but with the new tools, getting to that state when you combo everything, should be considerably easier. I used to save Boromir as a safety cushion for defense even though I planned no attacks of my own. Well, now Denethor can play the role, freeing the 1 willpower (or 2 with Visionary Leadership) of Boromir's. And indeed, Heir of Mardil is now all but guarantee to trigger, and there are good options to choose from. Just a pity the card is unique...

Denethor solves another problem I sometimes used to have. Granted, ally Galadriel may not be the best card in such a deck, because the Leadership attachments are not so plentiful. The dilemma was always when I got her and Steward of Gondor on round 1, considering whether I should play her hoping for the Steward to be among the five cards (statistically not very probable but it did actually happen more than once) or play Steward first, then Galadriel and then rue that I have no attachments (beside the Steward) to choose from. With 5 resources, you can first play Galadriel and then Steward. Just a very minor point, I know, but I felt like mentioning.