Hey all.

Was trying to make a fun, but functional deck that actually intentionally employs Fall of Gil-galad the other day, when I struck on an idea:

Start with Lore Glofindel, and get him killed once I get Fall attached. Then, replace him with his ally version.

Two questions:

1) Is this legal? As far as I can tell, once L-Glorfindel dies, there's no reason I can't play the ally version. I'm using the same logic as when a copy of a unique ally dies and is replaced by another copy.

2) Assuming it is legal, does my L-Glorfindel hero count against the 3 copies per deck limit? In other words, can I only have 2 copies of Ally Glorfindel in my deck, or can I have all three to maximize my chances?

Thanks for thoughts and help!

1) Perfectly legal.

2) Hmm, that's an interesting question. I'd lean toward "doesn't count" but I have no actual idea.

First, yes it is completely legal.

I'm pretty sure that you could still run three of ally glorfindel. Here's why, I'm pretty sure that separate cards count as being different no matter what name they have. For example, I'm pretty sure I could run Gloin hero, and 3x Gloin ally if for some reason I wanted to.

You cannot have, e.g., 2x Core Gandalf and 2x Hobbit Gandalf in your deck, as the 3-of limit is checked by name.

Heroes aren't part of your deck, though (Core rulebook pg. 27 lists the deckbuilding restrictions, then separately says, "Each player also starts the game with 1-3 heroes..."), so in what the OP describes, 3x ally Glorfindel should be fine.

I agree with sappidus. From the rules: "tournament deck must contain a minimum of 50 cards. Additionally, no more than three copies of any card, by title, can be included in a player’s deck. Within these guidelines any combination of allies, attachments, and events can be used in the player deck."

The limit of three is by name, but the 'deck' that is considering those three does not include your heroes, so that name clash is irrelevant.

Sweet.

Those were the answers I was hoping to hear.

Thanks for the assist all. Now to see if the deck is actually any good.