A player in the LOTR LCG FB group has posted this month's player cards spoilers (some of which I am extemely excited about). So, without further adue, here are the as of yet unspoiled cards:

What can I even say. The words Orthanc, Isengard and Doomed in the same card again. I wanted this for so long.

I'm kind of surprised (in a good way) they printed another Harad ally.

lol i think you just beat me to the punch. i knew you'd be excited to see doomed again. what do you think about the card?

2 minutes ago, Kakita Shiro said:

I'm kind of surprised (in a good way) they printed another Harad ally.

yeah, and given the other Harad mechanics, he seems really good for the trait

2 hours ago, dr00 said:

lol i think you just beat me to the punch. i knew you'd be excited to see doomed again. what do you think about the card?

The power of Orthanc cannot be lightly thrown aside indeed... Hoping Caleb learned his lesson from the Ring-maker cycle lol! As for the card, I absolutely love it. Sure, it costs 3 and asks for doomed to draw cards, but with reduction and/or Loragorn the doomed is just gravy. Drawing cards is always really good, especially if you can splash it into whatever event you play, and I'm so glad they gave the doomed themed ally 2 willpower.

Steward of Orthanc seems pretty sick. Card draw in neutral sphere is a big deal. And his stats are fairly respectable as well.

Sooooooo if you don't want to use his Response because you for example play multiplayer.... Is he worth 3 resources for 2 willpower? I would say no but wouldn't be surprised if people think different about that.

Holy dang that Woodman is good. I can think of several locations you want to just axe outright. Annuminas has a couple.

Not getting why Backtrack costs 1 resource, you already investing the card slot in your deck, card from your hand to merely juggle the resources you already possess. And you need to have those resources in the first place (quest progress equal to or greater to the location quest points).

Kahliel's Tribesman seems awesome.

Proud Hunters gonna be awesome.

Eryn Galen Settler is another proof of the power creep among allies.

Steward of Orthanc gonna be huge.

2 minutes ago, John Constantine said:

Not getting why Backtrack costs 1 resource, you already investing the card slot in your deck, card from your hand to merely juggle the resources you already possess. And you need to have those resources in the first place (quest progress equal to or greater to the location quest points).

Kahliel's Tribesman seems awesome.

Proud Hunters gonna be awesome.

Eryn Galen Settler is another proof of the power creep among allies.

Steward of Orthanc gonna be huge.

Yeah but power creep among encounter cards is keeping pace too =) What, you don't wanna get rid of 2 Gates of Annuminas as one action?

I meant stats. 1/2/0/2 for a 2 cost Lore ally is unheard of. As well as not long ago spoiled 2/2/0/2 spirit ally at the cost of 3 with a free quest ability.

9 minutes ago, Crabble said:

Sooooooo if you don't want to use his Response because you for example play multiplayer.... Is he worth 3 resources for 2 willpower? I would say no but wouldn't be surprised if people think different about that.

3 *neutral* resources, which can be a huge deal.

10 minutes ago, Crabble said:

Sooooooo if you don't want to use his Response because you for example play multiplayer.... Is he worth 3 resources for 2 willpower? I would say no but wouldn't be surprised if people think different about that.

probably not. I don't think I'd run him if I seriously never planned to use his Response. If his trait was something more useful than Isengard perhaps, but it's not, so.. Maybe if you're desperate for willpower? Maybe?

I'm perhaps most intrigued by the Settler, but I could see all of these cards being useful in the right deck/scenario.

If you're looking for willpower in a mono-tactics deck, 3 resources for 2 willpower is a great deal. Non-unique is gravy.

Backtrack is a killer sideboard card.

I also like that it isn't confined to a particular phase, so you could use it in planning in conjunction with Ancient Mathom or Ranger Provisions or Elf-stone.

1 minute ago, dalestephenson said:

If you're looking for willpower in a mono-tactics deck, 3 resources for 2 willpower is a great deal. Non-unique is gravy.

if you're playing mono tactics than willpower is somebody else's job in multiplayer. Or were you just saying that generally and not in response to Crabble? If so, yeah, I'd definitely run him, because Tactics could use some more card draw as well.

For solo mono-tactics it's a great deal without the card draw, and the card draw is also desperately needed.

In multiplayer I wouldn't expect mono-tactics generally to give deck space for a 3-cost 2-wp ally, even if resource-rich (Mablung), but there can be exceptions. One of my Dori-fellowships has a supporting hobbit deck meant to churn out the attachments for the mono-tactics deck:

http://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/112/dori-eagles-and-hobbits

In this case, the tactics deck is the questing *and* fighting deck, the hobbit deck has very few allies. The Warden would fit great in the tactics deck to provide cheap additional willpower and card draw, and the hobbits can absorb the extra doom cost easily thanks to SpMerry and a low starting threat.

In multiplayer I wouldn't expect Tactics to have the need to quest.

52 minutes ago, awp832 said:

Steward of Orthanc seems pretty sick. Card draw in neutral sphere is a big deal. And his stats are fairly respectable as well.

Neutral is not a sphere.

Is Steward of Orthanc the best card we've seen this cycle?

Galadriel/Hama with Keys of Orthanc: Recoup the cost of feint with the Keys, recoup Hama's discard with the Steward, recoup the cost of doomed with Galadriel. You can feint every turn for free.

Meanwhile Race Across Harad is still officially listed as "On the Boat" which means it's at least two weeks for most of us. (I love the merger.)

6 minutes ago, Seastan said:

Is Steward of Orthanc the best card we've seen this cycle?

Galadriel/Hama with Keys of Orthanc: Recoup the cost of feint with the Keys, recoup Hama's discard with the Steward, recoup the cost of doomed with Galadriel. You can feint every turn for free.

He's a minor nuisance in multiplayer if you use him too much, though.

51 minutes ago, John Constantine said:

Eryn Galen Settler is another proof of the power creep among allies.

Not denying that there is some ally power creep, but I'm glad Eryn Galen Settler has the price/stats he does. Allies that discard themselves should not be too expensive, and at the same time they should have decent stats to that you are actually losing something substantial by triggering the ability, making it more of a decision.

Yeah, I don't think the Settler's stats are out of line. He's still far worse than Quickbeam, and if you are in secrecy the Ithilien Lookout is very similar but cheaper. He seems like he will be functional in the right deck, but probably not worthwhile in most decks. That's the perfect level of balance, imo.

46 minutes ago, Teamjimby said:

Yeah, I don't think the Settler's stats are out of line. He's still far worse than Quickbeam, and if you are in secrecy the Ithilien Lookout is very similar but cheaper. He seems like he will be functional in the right deck, but probably not worthwhile in most decks. That's the perfect level of balance, imo.

Quickbeam is unique.

50 minutes ago, Seastan said:

Not denying that there is some ally power creep, but I'm glad Eryn Galen Settler has the price/stats he does. Allies that discard themselves should not be too expensive, and at the same time they should have decent stats to that you are actually losing something substantial by triggering the ability, making it more of a decision.

I am not saying it is a bad thing, quite the contrary - I think it took them too long to start adjusting the stats apropriately (check out the Mirkwood Pioneer). Inflated stats is exactly the way self-discarding allies should be approached, and I was advocating this way of their design for a pretty long time (you may notice that in my reworks of old cards), but unfortunately, numerous previous instances of such allies had atrocious stat boxes.