Can someone explain to me some uses for the action on Kahliel's Tribesman? (Also, does that art look a little strange to anyone else? His arm is so tiny!)

Elladan is going to enjoy Proud Hunters.

In my opinion Proud hunters is really good. But what about " Eryn Galen Settler "? I miss the word "area" after the word staging...

47 minutes ago, Authraw said:

Can someone explain to me some uses for the action on Kahliel's Tribesman? (Also, does that art look a little strange to anyone else? His arm is so tiny!)

The Tribesman is awesome since you can tweak your Willpower after encounter cards are revealed in the quest phase, or boost Jubayr's defense after shadow cards are revealed. Or you can boost Yazan's ranged attack if he needs a little extra firepower. He's just really versatile. Or he can just be fuel for Kahliel's discard ability, which we need more cards for.

5 minutes ago, donkler said:

The Tribesman is awesome since you can tweak your Willpower after encounter cards are revealed in the quest phase, or boost Jubayr's defense after shadow cards are revealed. Or you can boost Yazan's ranged attack if he needs a little extra firepower. He's just really versatile. Or he can just be fuel for Kahliel's discard ability, which we need more cards for.

Ah, yes, that's what I was missing. After the fact questing/defense boosts and the ability to participate in ranged/sentinel. That's pretty cool!

Like Donkler said, the timing flexibility is a big part of it. You can wait until after staging to see if you need (or don't want) the extra willpower. You can wait until after the shadow card is revealed to see if you need an extra defense (kind of like Honour Guard). The action becomes stronger if you are able to ready and take advantage of the buff multiple times (via Kahliel's readying ability, for example).

9 minutes ago, Teamjimby said:

Like Donkler said, the timing flexibility is a big part of it. You can wait until after staging to see if you need (or don't want) the extra willpower. You can wait until after the shadow card is revealed to see if you need an extra defense (kind of like Honour Guard). The action becomes stronger if you are able to ready and take advantage of the buff multiple times (via Kahliel's readying ability, for example).

Not to mention the guy isn't unique so you can put multiple copies on the table. Two of them in play, plus Kahliel with a Harad in hand to discard, which btw wouldn't be hard to pull at all, and you can easily boost WP/ATK/DEF by 3. I also want to add that, in this game, it is possible to quest and attack with several characters at the same time, but for defending you can do it only with just 1 defender at a time. This new Harad ally is the equivalent to defending with several characters at the same time. I don't know you guys but I find this particular quality to be awesome. Until now we had to rely on attachments and events to boost defense, now we can do it with allies as well

The stat boost from the Tribesman lasts until the end of the phase, and Kahliel's ability allows you to ready Harad allies. Even if you only have one copy of the Tribesman, you can easily benefit from the boost in multiple aspects of the game. The Tribesman is even useful late-game, because you can just discard an extra copy to trigger Kahliel's ability. This archetype has only existed for a month now and is already quite flexible. Impressive.

As Sprotte mentioned Eryn Galen Settler seems to be a straight up misprint. Can anyone else confirm that? Would be a real bummer...

Can I use The Seeing Stone to get a Steward of Orthanc from my deck (or a Guard of Henneth Annun, Mirkwood Pioneer, etc.) ?

The Doomed keyword is printed in the text of the card but not as a keyword applicable for the card itself but to be granted to an Event card.

I don't know if a keyword needs to be an 'active' keyword with a direct effect when the card is played or in play to be considered as such, or if it's sufficient that it be printed on the card?

It doesn't count as having the Doomed keyword.

5 hours ago, Sicaire said:

Can I use The Seeing Stone to get a Steward of Orthanc from my deck (or a Guard of Henneth Annun, Mirkwood Pioneer, etc.) ?

The Doomed keyword is printed in the text of the card but not as a keyword applicable for the card itself but to be granted to an Event card.

I don't know if a keyword needs to be an 'active' keyword with a direct effect when the card is played or in play to be considered as such, or if it's sufficient that it be printed on the card?

Nope, and that's why I hope Caleb gives the Doomed/Isengard/Palantir theme a bit more support so The Seeing-Stone becomes more relevant. And yeah I know technically it doesn't have to be Isengard and Palantir themed. He could just print any random event or ally and give him Doomed and it would help The Seeing Stone (as he did in the Ring-Maker cycle), but I really hope more Doomed cards deal with the themes of Isengard and the dangers of corruption, like this Steward did. It really is to me the direction in which the Doomed keyword should go, theme-wise.

While we're on the topic of allies which discard for effect, I wish that the Eryn Galen Settler had been a Rohan ally instead. Gamling makes that whole archetype much more viable. The Settler's ability is fairly conditional, so if I'm going to play 2 resources it would be nice to (have the option) to get the ally back. In any case, Woodman still has zero trait synergy, so I will be adding this ally to the growing list of sideboard fodder.

There's only one Tactics card spoiled here, and no Tactics cards were spoiled in the announcement for this pack. I'm guessing that's because Mighty Warrior is in this pack (which wasn't clear, since it was spoiled in a card fan for The Mûmakil).

Some first impressions:

I love the art and flavour of Backtrack, even though I'm not sure how often it will see play.

The art on the tribesman looks like it could be art for an enemy card, since very few characters look fierce and furious like this one. Possible exceptions include Erebor Battle Master and Azain Silverbeard. Some characters, such as Tactics Théoden, Alt-art Aragorn, and ally Damrod, look fierce and determined, but not furious. The art does fit the flavour text, though.

Resource generation in Tactics is worthwhile. If you want to run Proud Hunters in a mono-Tactics deck, there are 8 Tactics heroes (Gimli, Legolas, Elladan, Boromir, Prince Imrahil, Théoden, Éomer, and Éowyn) and no unique allies with the Noble Trait, and 3 Tactics heroes (Elladan, Mablung, and Aragorn) and 1 unique ally (Yazan) with the Ranger trait.

In terms of power creep, Eryn Galen Settler is the first 2-cost non-unique ally (without a drawback) whose willpower plus attack equals 3. (Wandering Ent enters play exhausted, and Lindon Navigator forces you to discard.) Defense usually only matters on allies if the ally has relatively high defense and hit points, and Defender of Rammas is the only (non-Ent) 2-cost ally that's good as a repeated defender. Willpower and attack, however, are always useful. Even among unique 2 cost allies, the Settler's stats are only clearly inferior to Quickbeam, and roughly equal to Ceorl, Mablung, and Ghân-buri-Ghân. I don't necessarily see this as a problem, since it makes the decision about whether to use his ability more interesting. I imagine that the Settler will see play in a decent number of Lore decks for raw stat efficiency, and a sometimes-useful ability. As the designers develop the Woodman trait, it's interesting that all the Woodman allies so far have abilities that can interact with locations.

The art on Steward of Orthanc is reminiscent of the art on another steward, ally Denethor. Aside from the worthwhile ability, 2 willpower in neutral can be played round 1 in trisphere decks. It reinforces the sense that most Istari-related cards are neutral.

56 minutes ago, Gizlivadi said:

He could just print any random event or ally and give him Doomed and it would help The Seeing Stone (as he did in the Ring-Maker cycle)

I don't think The Seeing-stone allows you to search your deck for a card that can gain the doomed keyword, since (for example) Mirkwood Pioneer doesn't have the doomed keyword itself, although it can gain it.

3 hours ago, Estel Edain said:

I don't think The Seeing-stone allows you to search your deck for a card that can gain the doomed keyword, since (for example) Mirkwood Pioneer doesn't have the doomed keyword itself, although it can gain it.

Yeah, I am aware of that, i was talking more about the doomed keyword hereon forward and how it was a bit too random theme-wise in the Ring-maker cycle IMO (but my post still applies to Close Call and Waters of Nimrodel)

It seems Stewards are very powerful, both Orthanc and Gondor.

18 hours ago, danpoage said:

While we're on the topic of allies which discard for effect, I wish that the Eryn Galen Settler had been a Rohan ally instead. Gamling makes that whole archetype much more viable. The Settler's ability is fairly conditional, so if I'm going to play 2 resources it would be nice to (have the option) to get the ally back. In any case, Woodman still has zero trait synergy, so I will be adding this ally to the growing list of sideboard fodder.

I would expect Woodman to be developed in the next cycle. That seems common to spoil upcoming Traits. Mirkwood gave us Dain, Blood of Gondor gave us Children of the Sea...

The power creep is good, long awaited, and is most welcome.

Mighty Warrior ... what could i do with this card?
Attaching Rainment of War or Vigilant Guard to a card with Mighty Warrior attached seems very expensive for its effect.

Put Mighty Warrior on Sam, add Captain of Gondor, Rainment of War, a Hobbit Cloak and Fast Hitch. Optionally engage an enemy lower than your threat, ready, defend for 6, then attack for 5.

Put Mighty Warrior on Gloin and add Vigilant Guard. Should pay for itself quickly.

Put Mighty Warrior and Rainment of War on Vigilant Dunadan. That makes him a 4 attack, 3 defense, 5 hp ally who doesn't exhaust to defend with a side quest in the victory display. Get Arwen ally out to bump him to 4 defense with sentinel.

Pity Tides of Fate would only boost his defense by three "for that attack". It'd be awesome to have a 7 defense ally who doesn't exhaust to defend.

3 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

Put Mighty Warrior and Rainment of War on Vigilant Dunadan.

Can Mighty Warrior go on an ally?

6 minutes ago, Seastan said:

Can Mighty Warrior go on an ally?

Ah, pity. We need more attachments that can go on allies.

I like that Mighty Warrior + Gloin + Vigilant Guard

4 minutes ago, Sicaire said:

I like that Mighty Warrior + Gloin + Vigilant Guard

Yeah, but on the other hand, Song of Mocking.