Unless I am mistaken, this is the first (non-fellowship sphere) hero with a different keyword than other versions in different spheres (unless one of the Aragorns isn't sentinel, but I can't think of any that aren't). I wonder if that is going to be a new thing.

Tactics Aragorn is not a Sentinel. He also has different Traits (Dunedain Ranger Warrior) from Leadership (Dunedain Noble Ranger) and Lore Arargorn (Dunedain Ranger).

Unless I am mistaken, this is the first (non-fellowship sphere) hero with a different keyword than other versions in different spheres (unless one of the Aragorns isn't sentinel, but I can't think of any that aren't). I wonder if that is going to be a new thing.

Tactics Aragorn is not a Sentinel. He also has different Traits (Dunedain Ranger Warrior) from Leadership (Dunedain Noble Ranger) and Lore Arargorn (Dunedain Ranger).

Ah, thanks for pointing that out. I thought one may have been, but I couldn't think of which off the top of my head.

Okay, so - Gimli is the second lol . . .

New Legolas & Gimli! Oh boy! Gimme!

Dwarven shield can be good in a Gloin undefended attack deck. Typically you're looking for him to have two Citadel plates and Song of Wisdom so he can pay for Warden of Healing infinitely with Elrond. So you take two damage, gain two resources, heal two damage, spend two lore resources to ready Warden, repeat. Attach a Burning Brand to cancel shadow effects. With one Citadel Plate and one Dwarven Shield, you can actually net a resource from this combo. It has a lot of pieces, but could be interesting to play.

Is it possible now a revaluation of the card Common Cause? :-)

It seems at least thematic :-D

Common cause is that card that I see plenty of uses for, but never get to use. It's not in my hand when I see a good chance for it, and it's there when no one needs it.

Wonder when we will get a spirit Aragorn.

I still hope we get it this cycle. (Harad cycle)

Something no one has noted yet: Gimli and Legoals don't have to be in the same deck to trigger each other. You could run Legolas in a Noldor/Silvan deck on one hand and Gimli in an all Leadership Dwarf deck on the other, and still benefit from the extra actions (and have an easier time triggering them). Oh sure, it defeats the thematic fun of running a three hunters deck, and it goes against what the designers are trying to encourage in this cycle, but that way you can actually use their ranged and sentinel to help each other that way.

Love this design idea. Unlike Elladan and Elrohir, you don't have to have them both on the table to be good, but it's better when you do.

Wish the knives could go on a Silvan character, but they're still nice to have. I rarely run Tactics in my Silvan decks, and I always run Galadriel, so it's nice to have a way to boost attack without the red sphere.

I haven't proxied a card since Arwen (ally), but since I'm working on the saga box right now I can't resist.

I may even go back and work on some of the previous boxes with these two.

I just realized too, the days rising could go on gimli. If he takes damage, he gets the resource from the shield, if he doesn't, he gets the resource from the days rising.

Getting back to the art for a moment, it looks to me like Gimli is standing on the wall at Helm's Deep and Legolas is unaffected by the snow as the Fellowship attempts the high pass.

Yeah once I realised the Gimli art was on the wall of Helm's Deep I instantly liked it a bit more. It is sort of a weird setting for his art piece though as the alternative art versions of Legolas and Gimli show them fighting side by side at Helm's Deep so it is strange to get the exact same setting for Gimli while we get a new setting for Legolas.

Either way both cool settings for the art.

There have been so many good combo ideas it's going to be hard to cut to 50!

I wonder how Tactics Aragorn, Tactics Legolas and Leadership Gimli as a combat deck would run....

include x3 quick strike and x3 Hands Upon the Bow (maybe x3 Battle Cry as well?) so you can still use Gimli's ability on Legolas.

Unlikely Friendship still allows first turn Steward of Gondor on Gimli (into first turn Dwarven Shield or Steed of the North as well if you wish). Tactics allows for Ring Mail, Rivendell Blade etc and leadership allows for StwB, Steed of the North etc.

Tactics and Leadership is also the basis for a good Dunedain deck.

Hmmmmmmmmm time to get building!

Edit: Gimli's ability is great on Tactigorn if you don't use it on Legolas allowing him to defend and then attack as well.. (and quest with Steed of the North).

No one is put off by needing to discard a card/resource each turn to fuel their abilities? Love the abilities, but they seem expensive...

No one is put off by needing to discard a card/resource each turn to fuel their abilities? Love the abilities, but they seem expensive...

feel the same as you. Unlikely Friendship is perfect in that it's all the things you need to fuel this for a turn, but to me, the combo is an all-or-don't bother, so you have the scenario of choosing who to send to the quest with no enemies in the staging area.

Legolas is still questing with a base 1 and must decide when he commits to ready a different hero, and you're not readying Gimli, i don't think it's worth it unless you also have a way to ready Legolas with something like Unexpected Courage or something.

even then, i feel i'd rather put UC on someone else and save my cards

that said, i like Gimli's ability though, even outside of Legolas. 1 resource to ready any hero when he defends is basically Coragorn's ability for any hero you want. even if you don't use this on Legolas, that's pretty strong imo, and it's great for heroes like Glorfindel with high questing and attack/defence

He seems designed specifically for splashing in Spirit/Silvan into a deck that uses other spheres and traits. Discarding cards is GOOD if you are the lone Spirit hero. It let's you reliably use Elven-Light from turn one. Exhausting him is pretty rough though, unless you put your one Light of Valinor on him, which is a good deal if he is the only elf you have. It seems like a good design. Using him on Theodred or Thalin seems pretty reasonable.

No one is put off by needing to discard a card/resource each turn to fuel their abilities? Love the abilities, but they seem expensive...

Legolas is expensive if you don't have a spirit card that wants to be discarded. But Legolas is a 1-wp, 3-attack ranged character -- he's not going to be questing *unless* it's worth a card to ready a questing hero.

Gimli's ability puts me off even less, since you only use it when you know you're going to need it. Add that he's leadership and 1 resource doesn't seem bad. Add that the Golden Shield/Day's Rising combo can generate a resource whenever Gimli defends, it *really* doesn't seem so bad.

Consider Elrohir for a moment, tied at the hip to his brother. No one is put off by his ability, even though it costs one resource and can ready only himself (useful if he needs a second defense, less useful for his 2 attack). Gimli has a similar ability, and can't ready himself, but he can ready any other hero on the table, and I think that's more powerful.

No one is put off by needing to discard a card/resource each turn to fuel their abilities? Love the abilities, but they seem expensive...

Legolas is expensive if you don't have a spirit card that wants to be discarded. But Legolas is a 1-wp, 3-attack ranged character -- he's not going to be questing *unless* it's worth a card to ready a questing hero.

Gimli's ability puts me off even less, since you only use it when you know you're going to need it. Add that he's leadership and 1 resource doesn't seem bad. Add that the Golden Shield/Day's Rising combo can generate a resource whenever Gimli defends, it *really* doesn't seem so bad.

Consider Elrohir for a moment, tied at the hip to his brother. No one is put off by his ability, even though it costs one resource and can ready only himself (useful if he needs a second defense, less useful for his 2 attack). Gimli has a similar ability, and can't ready himself, but he can ready any other hero on the table, and I think that's more powerful.

I'm in the process of actually converting a deck that runs Elrohir, Elladan and Tactics Aragorn to Tactics Legolas, Leadership Gimli and Tactics Aragorn and pretty much the main things that I need to change/include in the deck is extra readying effects and extra/alternative defense. Even though Elrohir can only ready himself there is no limit to his ability and he has an inherently higher base defense than Gimli (so long as you are running Elladan and why wouldn't you be). He is also a better recipient for attachments as he can receive Elven Mail, Cloak of Lorien etc. as well as the Steward/Shield combo. He too can receive Heir of Mardil and so long as he has Elven Mail attached he can receive day is rising as well.

Pretty much Gimli can defend once and then allow a second exhausted hero to ready and either defend or attack and thats it.

Elrohir can keep defending until he runs out of resources, 9 resources? 10 defenses if need be.

What I like about the ability is the little boost it gives to Legolas. Especially if he can then make additional attacks after receiving that boost and even more so if he already took part in Hands Upon the Bow or Quick Strike earlier in the turn rather than questing. He could potentially take out 3 foes in one turn similar to Elladan except he places progress each time he kills an enemy as well!

I defintely agree that Gimli's ability is a little better hence me using his new version but sticking with the old version of Legolas.

I play to essentially use Gimli's ability to ready Legolas only if he has been used for Hands Upon the Bow or Quick Strike and otherwise I will use it to ready Tactics Aragorn or Elrond across the table with Elven Mail attached so that they can perform additional defensive duties. If I defend with Elrond or Aragorn before Gimli they can perform an additional defense with Gimli's ability which is especially handy if Elrond has Burning Brand attached.

I plan to set up Gimli with Steward/Shield and Armoured Destrier so that he can defend multiple attacks each turn and discard shadow cards while at it whilst also readying Elrond, Legolas or Aragorn to defend an additional attack/perform an additional attack. Not going to use Dwarven Shield as Steward and Unlikely Friendship will generate more than enough resources on their own and I would rather the shadow discard and readying from Armoured Destrier anyway. When possible he will also receive UC to defend up to three attacks per turn (four with his readying of another hero).

Doesn't really compare to a loaded-up Elrohir but this way I can spend Leadership resources more quickly and more safely, will have more resource ramp and card draw through Unlikely Friendship and Legolas albeit his old version replaces Elladan to also provide progress while destroying foes although without inbuilt readying.

I can't remember, but is it legal to put Fellowship sphere cards in your deck in a non-saga quest and pay for them with A Good Harvest?

It's certainly true that Elrohir's ability to repeatedly ready and defend is an advantage over LeGimli, also his 3 starting defense (with his brother). My point is that the resource cost for Elrohir's ability isn't really seen as a knock -- leadership resources are cheap, and 1 for readying isn't bad at all, if you need it.

Elrohir's edge in attachments is slight. I'll grant that for a defender the ability to get an Elven Cloak is better than LeGimli's ability to add on Boots of Erebor, since defense is more valuable than HP. Elven Mail Gimli doesn't need -- if you spend the same 2 resources on Dwarven Mail for gimli instead of Elven Mail for Elladan, you end up with the same 3 def/6hp/sentinel line for both, with one restricted slot used. But Gimli has the advantage in being sentinel from the start, so doesn't have to wait for Elven Mail for Day's Rising (or less likely, Raven-winged helm). Elrohir's big advantage isn't in what's attached, it's how often he can use it once he's completely set up.

However, Elrohir's self-readying is just going to enable Elrohir defending, which is an improvement over LeGimli if what you need is another defense by Elrohir. LeGimli's ability is better if you need defense for another deck, and Elrohir doesn't have sentinel yet, or if what you need is attacking, or if you don't actually need either an emergency defender *or* attacker, but have some hero with a useful power who is exhausted. Just one resource and a garden variety defense, and Gimli can ready Elrond for Vilya, or Galadriel for card/threat reduction, or Gandalf/Cirdan for Narya, or LoDenethor for scrying, or Beravor for Cards. You wouldn't construct a Elladan/Elrohir/LeGimli deck to turn Gimli into the designated defender, but I think Gimli's flexibility makes him more useful in a wider variety of decks.

I can't remember, but is it legal to put Fellowship sphere cards in your deck in a non-saga quest and pay for them with A Good Harvest?

Illegal. =(

I wonder, though, if you can in a Saga Adventure use A Good Harvest to declare for Fellowship resources to pay the cost for a non-Fellowship card that needs Fellowship resources (such as Overcome By Fear).

I wonder, though, if you can in a Saga Adventure use A Good Harvest to declare for Fellowship resources to pay the cost for a non-Fellowship card that needs Fellowship resources (such as Overcome By Fear).

Action: Name a sphere. Until the end of the phase, you can spend resources of any sphere when paying for cards that belong to the named sphere.

You aren't paying for a card that belongs to that sphere, so no.

Edheliad said, "Based on the art I won't be buying this pack."

I mean art's really important to me too and these aren't my favorite for these characters but that's pretty extreme!

I like their abilities. Gimli's is obviously better without Legolas but I like putting LoV on Legolas with his knives. Anything that gets LoV off Glorfindel!