The remainder of the Dream-chaser cycle

By Estel Edain, in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Now that we know all of the player cards from the first three packs, I thought it might be worth reviewing what we know about the remaining packs. Four is Faramir covers the basics, but there are a few details that we can piece together. Some of this involves speculation, but I'll be clear about when information isn't 100% solid.

The Drowned Ruins

The Drowned Ruins is the pack we know most about: there are likely only two player cards in it whose names are unknown, and we even have some info about those cards.

Argalad: 4 hitpoints and partial text spoilers

Dwarven Sellsword (83)

? [perhaps Leadership event for decks with 2 or fewer heroes]

Marksman of Lorien (85)

? [perhaps Dúnedain support Tactics card]

Woodland Courier (87)

Hithlain (88)

? [very likely Robin Smallburrow]

Interrogation: ability unknown [almost certainly trap support]

Strider (91)

The announcement article says:

you'll find new cards for your favorite Hobbit, Dúnedain, and Trap decks

a new Hobbit ally, and a couple of cards that may allow you to traverse even these strange and deadly tunnels with fewer than three heroes…

Based on the art and the fact that it's Lore, Interrogation is almost certainly the trap support. Robin Smallburrow was spoiled when the cycle was announced. Theoretically, he could be in a later pack and another hobbit ally in this pack. However, FFG has never released two allies from the same sphere in the same adventure pack. Since we already have Leadership, Tactics and Spirit allies spoiled for this pack (as well as a neutral card spoiled) the hobbit ally is likely Lore. By the same reasoning, Robin Smallburrow is unlikely to show up in A Storm on Cobas Haven (which has Ioreth as a Lore ally) and is not very likely to show up in The City of Corsairs, which already has four non-Hobbit allies. My guess is that the unknown Leadership card is the second card in the pack to support 2 hero decks (it doesn't seem like it would fit in Tactics, and I doubt that Inerrogation would be it). There's a chance that the card that supports 2 hero decks or Interrogation also supports Dunedain decks, but it seems more likely that the unknown Tactics card supports Dunedain decks.

A Storm on Cobas Haven

We know much less about A Storm on Cobas Haven. The announcement article mentions that this pack has 10 player cards aside from the hero, like Flight of the Stormcaller did. The announcement article for The City of Corsairs doesn't mention how many player cards are in that pack, but Prince Imrahil is numbered 138 and Prince of Dol Amroth is numbered 146, so the pack only has 7 cards among Leadership, Tactics, Spirit and Lore. It seems likely that whatever sphere gets only one card in the last pack will get three cards in A Storm on Cobas Haven.

Na'asiyah (109 or 110)
? [Leadership]
? [Leadership]
? [Leadership or Tactics, though possibly neutral] (112 or 120)
? [Tactics]
Knife-work (114)
Linhir Sea-captain: partially spoiled
? [spirit]
Ioreth (117)
? [Lore]
Justice Shall Be Done (119)
Based on numbering, this pack has a maximum of 2 Spirit cards and 2 Lore cards. There's a decent chance that it has three Leadership cards or three Tactics cards, though it's possible that this pack has two neutral cards and that one sphere receives fewer cards this cycle (like Shadow and Flame had only one Tactics card). Once The Drowned Ruins comes out, it will be possible to check whether the last encounter card of that pack is numbered 108 or 109, which will tell us Na'asiyah's number. If she's 109, the extra player card in A Storm on Cobas Haven will be Leadership or Tactics. If she's 110, we'll get two neutral cards.
Aside from numbering and sphere distribution, the announcement article says:
an assortment of ten different player cards, a good portion of which focus on combat and healing.

thirty new player cards (three copies each of ten different cards), many of which reinforce the Dream-chaser cycle's focus on powerful allies and secondary effects that can be paid for by the group as a whole.

This refers back to the cycle's announcement, which said:

As a whole, the cycle boasts a high concentration of expensive and unique allies, who come with powerful effects that we expect will excite you to play with them.

So far we've seen Glorfindel, Eldahir, Azain Silverbeard, and Déorwine who clearly fit this description. Sam Gamgee, Ceorl, Robin Smallburrow, and Ioreth are less expensive unique allies with generally powerful effects. There are also some expensive non-unique powerful allies, like Guardian of Rivendell and Knight of the White Tower. Linhir Sea-captain is neither expensive nor unique, and Ioreth is not expensive, so there's a good chance that we'll get a expensive powerful unique ally in Leadership or Tactics (or both) in this pack. Personally, I would love to see an ally version of Aragorn or ally versions of the twins.

The City of Corsairs

The final pack also has several cards that we know nothing about. It's difficult to tell what the number for Inspiring Presence is (spoiled in the announcement for Flight of the Stormcaller). It looks like 140, but that doesn't really make sense: adventure pack numbering is consistently in the order of Leadership, Tactics, Spirit, Lore, and finally neutral, so that would suggest that Knight of the White Tower is the only Leadership card and there are no Tactics cards. It looks a little bit like 142, which could work if there's one Leadership card and two Tactics cards (or vice versa) and Inspiring Presence is the first Spirit card. However, there's a partially spoiled Spirit ally, and allies typically come before attachments and events from their sphere (there are occasional exceptions: Heir of Mardil comes before Orophin, perhaps because Heir of Mardil come right after Galadriel and can work on her). It's also possible that the numbering changed after the announcement of Flight of the Stormcaller.

The partially spoiled Spirit ally comes from a card fan in French that was posted on the discord spoilers chat on May 18. I can't find the image on Edge's website; I'm guessing it was taken down because it was spoiling cards before FFG had announced the last pack. The Spanish fan that spoiled Na'asiyah was posted at the same time and is on Four is Faramir, but this fan wasn't copied there. Here it is (contains some quest spoilers, especially if you understand French):

.eJwNxssRgyAQANBeKICfLEGbcVYkSEaBYdeTk96

Súlien (possibly a different name in translation) is a Dúnedain scout. The announcement article says that this pack contains three new Gondor allies. If Inspiring Presence is 142, we'll likely see:

Prince Imrahil (138)
Knight of the White Tower
? [Leadership or Tactics card] (140 or 141)
? [Tactics Gondor ally] (140 or 141)
Inspiring Presence (142)
Súlien
? [Lore Gondor ally]
? [Lore card]
Prince of Dol Amroth (146)
If Inspiring Presence isn't 142, the order of these cards can move around a bit, and it's possible that we get 2 Leadership, 2 Tactics, and 1 Lore card.
We might get a second neutral card in this pack, but it makes sense for this pack to only have 8 player cards. Like The Thing in the Depths, the previous pack had 10 player cards and this quest has two new encounter sets (one sailing and one on land).
Hold the Line is the name of a card whose art was spoiled in the recent Second Breakfast article (Denethor and Sons; right clicking on the image to save it gives the name). It seems like a Gondor themed defensive event. It might well be Leadership, since the deck it illustrates is mono-Leadership, though I could imagine it as Tactics. It might be in the last pack, which has a focus on Gondor, or the second last, which has more free card slots.
Cards that can spend resources for additional effects
The announcement for Flight of the Stormcaller said:
About a quarter of the cards in the Dream-chaser cycle have effects that can be boosted through the expenditure of additional resources.

Every single combination of spheres has a card in the Dream-chaser cycle that can be boosted in this way. It was a lot of fun to both dream up effects that would encourage players to pool their resources, as well as the combinations of effects that married the themes of two spheres together.

Counting heroes, there are usually 60 player cards in a cycle. Since we've seen a card from each sphere which is boosted by resources of the same sphere and there are three other combinations from each sphere, I expect to see 16 of these cards (just over a quarter of 60). So far, we've seen:
Leadership
Dwarven Sellsword (boosted by Leadership)
? [perhaps Hold the Line] (boosted by Tactics)
Ceorl (boosted by Spirit)
Eldahir (boosted by Lore)
Tactics
Déorwine (boosted by Leadership)
Azain Silverbeard (boosted by Tactics)
? [likely in The Drowned Ruins or The City of Corsairs, since Knife-work is in A Storm on Cobas Haven] (boosted by Spirit)
Knife-work (boosted by Lore)
Spirit
Inspiring Presence (boosted by Leadership)
Tides of Fate (boosted by Tactics)
Sam Gamgee [slightly different, since the players as a group can't pay the cost, but the effect can be triggered by other players] (boosted by Spirit)
? [likely in A Storm in Cobas Haven, since Inspiring Presence is in The City of Corsairs] (boosted by Lore)
Lore
Heed the Dream (boosted by Leadership)
Arrows from the Trees (boosted by Tactics)
Robin Smallburrow (boosted by Spirit)
Ioreth (boosted by Lore)
I hope this info is useful. If some of my guesses seem wrong, if you can read the number on Inspiring Presence, or if I've missed any information, please contribute to this list.

Impressive. I had not seen the french fan before. That Súlien ally looks cool! Also, I doubt the name will change in translation as you suggest, as elvish names like these don't really have a translation in different languages.

Impressive. I had not seen the french fan before. That Súlien ally looks cool! Also, I doubt the name will change in translation as you suggest, as elvish names like these don't really have a translation in different languages.

She's Dunedain. You can see enough of the trait.

Impressive. I had not seen the french fan before. That Súlien ally looks cool! Also, I doubt the name will change in translation as you suggest, as elvish names like these don't really have a translation in different languages.

She's Dunedain. You can see enough of the trait.

Yes, I saw that she's a Dúnadan, but the name (like that of all the Dúnedain) is still elvish.

Edited by Gizlivadi

Very nice summary, I was just wondering if someone had compiled all of the spoilers together in one place.

Man, I really hope we get Elladan & Elrohir allies this cycle, that would be so cool. It would be like getting all new Elladan and Elrohir heroes too since they'd finally be able to be used independently from one another.

3 willpower spirit girl? I'm in love <3

I think I'd play her even with a blank text box.

Great thread. These are my favourite types… I try to attempt to create them myself but I fail terribly in comparison: well done! Now, to read the rest of it...

Hold the Line would make a perfect thematic sense for a Leadership card boosted by Tactics resources.

When I first read about expensive unique allies in this cycle, I immediately thought of Elladan and Elrohir. I am skeptical now we should get them (seems not enough space or time for it to happen) but I would certainly like to: matching the spheres of the hero brother, please!

Edited by Fingolfin Fate

The larger the cardpool, the better Caldara becomes. Case in point: Sulien.

Yeah, definitelly, the ally Glorfindel has made a big difference (and Caldara decks had been ok before him, of course). It is just not a very fun deck to play -- at least for my style of gaming...

I think I'd play her even with a blank text box.

Maybe she has a negative text box.

It would not be unreasonable.

Súlien will certainly not have a strong ability (unless she also has a big disability) since her stats add up to 7 with 3 willpower for 4 cost. I could almost see having to pay a Lore resource to keep her in play (together with some positive ability) but then we would get two Spirit cards with a different sphere boost in a single pack which seems very unlikely.

Did I mentioned how I love all these armed-on-art character cards with low/nonexistent attack? I did? Ok... :D

Did I mentioned how I love all these armed-on-art character cards with low/nonexistent attack? I did? Ok... :D

Maybe she only knows how to parry.