Ioreth is amazing but super well-balanced. Being unique and requiring Lore resources, which are the most expensive resources in the game, it's a high cost for a 0-cost ally, but you do get a great effect. She can keep a hero from death better than other Healers, even Daughter of the Nimrodel who is a 3-coster. I'd definitely add her as a 1-of or 2-of in my mono-Lore decks. With enough card draw, you don't even have to swap her out. Adding a couple of her in a deck with Mithrandir's Advice and Daeron's Runes does almost nothing to dilute the deck, or even 3 copies if I'm running Protector of Lorien to ditch the extras.
A Storm on Cobas Haven
She'd be pretty nice in my Gloin deck. Treebeard would probably appreciate Ioreth's assistance too.
If nothing else, Ioreth is great as a 0 cost ally to commit to sailing tests in a heavy card draw sphere. She's the only 0 cost unique ally, and that strikes me as pretty special considering we only have a one unique ally costing 1.
She is the cheapest ally target for Sword-Thain, which would enable her to use her ability once every round with her own resources. A guaranteed 3 damage healed every round (+ a last ditch undefended attack) seems like not a horrible deal for 2 cards and 4 resources, especially since if you didn't need the healing you just bank her lore income.
Did Ioreth actually do any healing in the book? Wasn't she just an old woman helping out and gossiping about The King's magic healing powers (which were just basic Elven skills that Elladan and Elrohir did on the quiet afterwards)?
Well, we never actually see a named character from Gondor do any healing in the Houses of Healing, so we don't really know, but she's the one that Aragorn asks about Athelas, so we might reasonably assume that she's a bit more eminent than general dogsbody.
Well she worked in the House of Healing and knew about the power of athelas, do I presume she was a healer. I'm only on Book IV on my current read-through of the canon and can't remember esoterica that well.
We know she worked in the houses of healing, but we do not know what her tasks were. Here is the relevant passage:
---
Then an old wife, Ioreth, the eldest of the women who served in that house, looking on the fair face of Faramir, wept, for all the people loved him. And she said: "Alas! if he should die. Would that there were kings in Gondor, as there were once upon a time, they say! For it is said in the old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known."
And Gandalf, who stood by, said: "Men may long remember your words, Ioreth! For there is hope in them. Maybe a king has indeed returned to Gondor, or have you not heard the strange tidings that have come to the City?"
"I have been too busy with this and that to head all the crying and shouting," she answered. 'All I hope is that those murdering devils do not come to this House and trouble the sick."
----
Gandalf when fetching Aragorn quotes her, naming her "wise-woman of Gondor." When Aragorn arrives, he questions Ioreth directly about the stores of the herbs of healing. She is the one who is sent to acquire kingsfoil, if there is any in the city, though it is Bergil who returns with the leaves. I certainly get the impression that Ioreth's role in obtaining that is more significant than that of the herb-master. Also, Ioreth speaks for the healers when she tells Aragorn "But we do our best in this House with what we have, as I am sure your lordship will know."
As for the healing performed by Gondorians, we find Aragorn directing the women to make water hot. We find that Faramir's arrow wound has been tended and is healing. Of Eowyn's broken arm, he states that "The arm that was broken has been tended with due skill, and it will mend in time."
After Aragorn's departure, the patients continue to improve, and Eowyn claimed to be healed in body (save her left arm) in just two days. When complaining to Faramir, she says "It is not lack of care that grieves me. No houses could be fairer, for those who desire to be healed."
In short, thematically it is reasonable both for the Warden to be an effective healing option and for Ioreth in particular to be a healer.
I guess another nice thing about Ioreth is that she's low-commitment. If you never need any healing, you haven't spent any resources, but she gives you the option of taking an undefended attack or tanking a big enemy if you find you need to.
I will probably think of her as a way to splash in emergency healing and let Warden of Healing continue to be the staple when it comes to repeatable healing.
I guess another nice thing about Ioreth is that she's low-commitment. If you never need any healing, you haven't spent any resources, but she gives you the option of taking an undefended attack or tanking a big enemy if you find you need to.
Which would be nice if she could defend =(
I think he means you can field an undefended attack (damage going on a hero) and easily heal off the damage.
I think he means you can field an undefended attack (damage going on a hero) and easily heal off the damage.
Bingo. 3 damage is about the threshold where I start to get nervous about a hero taking too much damage too fast. If I had Ioreth down on the table I probably would be more willing to take the risk.
The spoiled cards are pretty meh imo.
Treebeard seems to like Ioreth, and that's about the only time I would use her.
Knife-work feels a bit underwhelming, and seriously...how often will you use that justice be done card effectively?
It's a fun idea, but if your game goes ok you shouldn't need it. And if you are losing in this game, you're usually going down badly.
This card will hardly save your skin, or the rest of the table me thinks.
In a deck presenting CS Aragorn and Faramir ally, Ioreth quests for 2 (I cannot imagine CS Aragorn without Narsil). Not bad for a 0-cost ally.
In an Outlands deck with Sword of Morthond attached, she's sick. A questing machine for just 1 resource, since healing is situational and one might not use her each turn for her effect. Warden might be better in the long game for healing purposes, but his healing modus operandi probably necessitates usage more often than Ioreth, ergo he's a worst candidate for the Sword than her. Plus, in an Outlands deck the 2 resources he costs to enter play are important, since he has to fight with the Herdsman, the Hunter and, if picked in deck-building, Gleowine, as to who will hit the table. Hirluin may pay for the first two of course, though wouldn't it be better if one had the opportunity to play a non-Lore Outlands ally, a Lore Outlands ally/Gleowine AND a healer in the same turn?
As for her art, it's one of the masterpieces in this game.
It's official: Ioreth is a GILF.
It's official: Ioreth is a GILF.
I'm out.
The spoiled cards look fun, and I'm looking forward to a major ship battle.
The Linhir Sea-captain, together with the second quest in Flame of the West, makes me think that at some point we'll get Angbor the fearless, lord of Lamedon, When the Grey Company and the Army of the Dead approached Linhir, all the Corsairs and Gondorians fled, except for Angbor. He gathered an army that marched to Minas Tirith, arriving shortly after Aragorn left for the Black Gate, and saw to the defense of the city.
I love the effect and especially the flavour text on Justice Shall Be Done, but I'm not a fan of the card name. It sounds triumphalist (and perhaps the art supports that interpretation), and its certainty ("Shall") doesn't fit with Tolkien's theme of eucatastrophe in the darkest moment. Listen to what Gandalf says at the last debate, shortly before the flavour text:
His Eye is now straining towards us, blind almost to all else that is moving. So we must keep it. Therein lies all our hope. This, then, is my counsel. We have not the Ring. In wisdom or great folly it has been sent away to be destroyed, lest it destroy us. Without it we cannot by force defeat his force. But we must at all costs keep his Eye from his true peril. We cannot achieve victory by arms, but by arms we can give the Ring-bearer his only chance, frail though it be.As Aragorn has begun, so we must go on. We must push Sauron to his last throw. We must call out his hidden strength, so that he shall empty his land. We must march out to meet him at once. We must make ourselves the bait, though his jaws should close on us....We must walk open-eyed into that trap, with courage, but small hope for ourselves. For, my lords, it may well prove that we ourselves shall perish utterly in a black battle far from the living lands; so that even if Barad-dûr be thrown down, we shall not live to see a new age. But this, I deem, is our duty.
Aragorn is not sacrificing himself and his army for victory, but instead for a slim chance of victory. "Justice Shall be Done" is too confident.
I realize this is a minor point, and I'm only making it because the designers are so consistently close to Tolkien's theme (for which they have my kudos!) that even minor departures stand out.
If nothing else, Ioreth is great as a 0 cost ally to commit to sailing tests in a heavy card draw sphere. She's the only 0 cost unique ally, and that strikes me as pretty special considering we only have a one unique ally costing 1.
She is the cheapest ally target for Sword-Thain, which would enable her to use her ability once every round with her own resources. A guaranteed 3 damage healed every round (+ a last ditch undefended attack) seems like not a horrible deal for 2 cards and 4 resources, especially since if you didn't need the healing you just bank her lore income.
I hadn't thought of this. Treebeard decks will get a huge boost. In a solo deck with Glorfindel and Elrond, you could use Stargazer to play Sword-thain with Vilya on Ioreth. At that point she lets Treebeard quest or attack to his full potential basically for free.
Edited by GizlivadiEstel, I like your take on JSBD, you seem well-versed in the Lore.
Dat new healer... She's da sh*t.
I remember during the first cycle, I was wondering if they ever make a 0-cost ally. I thought such an ally would be 0/0/0+1 with no ability. That would have been boring, I know, but at the time it also would have been a pretty good card as the 1-cost chumps were few.
The game has progressed much, and though the design team is doing much better job now (not releasing anything as easy-power as Steward or Courage), it also rarely releases poor cards. I know we got a super-chump Squire, and a 0-cost Hunter; however, here we have a 0-cost ally with an actual powerful ability (albeit for a cost).