Is Asfaloth without Glorfindel wort the cost? as the titel say, what say you?

I'd say no. At least to the possibilities spirit sphere offers. And it is only one marker a round, you have to be very luck nowadays that your location misses just one counter...

I say yes, though it's not for every deck. It's still the most flexible repeatable location control you can get. Any location, any action window. I think the main reason people don't think it's worth it is that they're too used to the more powerful effect with Glorfindel and judge in comparison to that rather than on the independent merits of the base effect.

If you're not playing with Glorfindel, then yes.

Sideboard card for location-heavy quests.

I've played Asfaloth without Glorfindel before, and IMO it is not worth it. It simply takes too long to clear a location with Asfaloth if the mount isn't attached to Glorfindel. You could make a case for it if you had a lot of other progress-token-placing cards in your deck, but even so it's probably not worth the deck space.

ringsdb.com:

357 Asfaloth decks

239 also w. SpGlorfindel

17 also w. LoGlorfindel

11 also w. ally Glorfindel

That leaves 90 decks that thought Asfaloth was worth including without a Glorfindel, though some portion of those (most?) may be multiplayer decks meant to play with another player's SpGlorfindel.

For a totally unmeaningful contrast, here's how many decks other 2-cost Lore attachments went into:

618 A Burning Brand

245 Ranger Spikes

95 Ambush

71 Poisoned Stakes

I think he could be worth it if you have other effects that also place progress tokens. If you're running Northern Trackers, for instance, Asfaloth could let you pick off the worst locations a turn or two earlier.

In general, though, I don't think Asfaloth is worth it as the lone location control card in a deck.

In general, though, I don't think Asfaloth is worth it as the lone location control card in a deck.

imo, Asfaloth, with or without Glorfindel, is a fine piece of location control, but it's rarely enough location control on its own (again, with or without Glorfindel)

Don't forget that you can also play with Lore Glorfindel.

I could see Asfaloth as a supplementary location control card without Glorfindel, but not as the primary means of location control.

I wonder if the 11 decks running ally Glorfindel in dalestephenson's Rings DB check realized they don't get the full benefit of Asfaloth. Or perhaps they include Sword Thain for Glorfindel + Asfaloth to make it work.

I wonder if the 11 decks running ally Glorfindel in dalestephenson's Rings DB check realized they don't get the full benefit of Asfaloth. Or perhaps they include Sword Thain for Glorfindel + Asfaloth to make it work.

I just checked -- there are now 12 decks with Asfaloth and ally Glorfindel, but just five of them also include Sword-Thain.

If you are running cards like Northern Tracker and/or tactics Legolas - then yes.
If you are not running other location control cards that can combine with Asfaloth - then no.

Even at just 1 progress it can be extremely handy when combined with Legolas or Northern Tracker as it allows you to either clear the active location (by placing 3 progress on it during the combat phase instead of just 2) or locations in staging (Any locations NT leaves with only one quest point remaining can be instantly cleared with Asfaloth) much more efficiently and regularly.

I definitely would not include Asfaloth if I didn't plan to use him alongside cards such as the two I mentioned and would never use him as the only location control card in a deck without hero Glorfindel as it just will not be anywhere near what you need for most quests.

I really really wish he worked on the ally verison of Glorfindel and think that in hindsight the designers would have allowed this for sure had they planned a bit better etc. I am extremely tempted to house rule that Asfaloth can be attached to ally Glorfindel but I am a stickler for the rules so can't bring myself to do so!

so pretty much what everyone else has already said in this thread

I really really wish he worked on the ally verison of Glorfindel and think that in hindsight the designers would have allowed this for sure had they planned a bit better etc. I am extremely tempted to house rule that Asfaloth can be attached to ally Glorfindel but I am a stickler for the rules so can't bring myself to do so!

consider Windfola or Arod or Shadowfax that can all be attached to ally versions of said heroes (even when it wouldn't be practical or in the case of some, ally versions who don't exist yet)

i feel that if they designed it today, it'd say "Attach to a hero [or Glorfindel]." and then all the other text would be the same, i'm very tempted to house rule it, but it's not strictly worded on the cards, so i'll probably never do it

for such a simple thing, our feelings on the matter are quite complicated lol

I've set up a Noldor deck ( www.ringsdb.com/.../3814/noldor-test-1.0 ) with Asfaloth and Windfola but without Glorfindel (hero) and Eoywn. I added those mounts because that deck will probably be played with another deck with Elfhelm, which brings a new aspect/use of Asfaloth to my initial post. I will test that deck and then I can probably report back.