Crossings of Poros Spoilers

By Gizlivadi, in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Apparently somehow we got Crossings of Poros spoilers before Black Serpent... weird, but I'll take it. This is probably already my favorite pack of the cycle, and those who've read my posts anticipating certain themes will instantly recognize why. So without further adue and needless to say SPOILERS AHEAD

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For some reason the forums don't let me directly put the images from Imgur, if someone can help it'll be greatly appreciated.

Nice hero.

I like these cards.

Digging the non-unique hero, can't wait to run triple Quickbeam.

This Magic Ring is gonna go in every one of my decks ever.

Just realized that Crossings of Poros is the last pack, not even the fifth.

This pack is fire.

Quickbeam will go well coupled with Lore (Self-Preservation, Wellinghall Preserver). I like readying best on a defender, though, and with only 1 defense and no restricted attachments I don't think he'd do well there.

Beorning Guardian's discarding effect wouldn't be used often, but 3 attack for 3 resources makes him playable, and he can absorb some damage.

Bulwark of the West is an immediate sideboard card for any Leadership deck in a Condition quest. Love it.

Halfast Gamgee is 2 willpower in leadership for net-2 resources without completed side-quests and only gets cheaper, and there's no restriction on where the rebate resource goes. It's great to see a named hobbit who is only referenced and not met in the book.

The Dam Bursts is very narrow and probably only fits in a red/green ent deck. It's a pity it doesn't ready *all* damaged ents instead of just ones you control.

Magic Ring is very powerful and thematic, though at 1-per-deck it'll be hard to plan around it. It'll look good on Lore Aragorn.

Edited by dalestephenson

I don't remember when Spirit cards of this pack - which ones were they?

Hall of Beorn shows Flight to the Sea/Wind from the Sea for spirit, our second encounter-deck-adding card. At least this time the added card has a beneficial shadow.

It also has Emyn Arnen Ranger (lore trap lover), and Followed (tactics trap).

I think that's all we've seen.

There are also others 4 player cards spoilered, not only the six linked ;)

Quickbeam – Non-unique Tactics Hero

Beorning Guardian – Tactics ally

Followed – Tactics attachment

Halfast Gamgee – Leadership ally (He’s not Halfast at all!)

Bulwark of the West – Leadership event

Emyn Arnen Ranger – Lore ally

The Dam Bursts – Lore event

Flight to the Sea – Spirit event

Wind from the Sea – Event/encounter card result of Flight to the Sea

Magic Ring – Neutral attachment

I think that's all.

I feel like the non - unique on Quickbeam has to be an oversight. I can't imagine any reason to make any hero non - unique, let alone that one.

But I do like the hero quite a lot. First hero with a native 4 attack, if I remember right.

And the other cards are pure gold.

The last pack of the cycle. A playercard party as always :D.

This really doesn't make waiting easier :(

I'm glad Magic Ring is both only one per deck and also not unique because it's certainly going to be an auto include in a lot of decks but it ought to still feel special.

Already making a crude proxy magic ring like many an elf before me.

Magic ring is really good. I will also make proxies so I can play with it right now. Halfast Gamgee seem to be a playable card, but not a stapple. Quickbeam will be errated to be unique soon I guess. He is interesting in an ent deck but not really outside of that.

It would be a lot of fun to play a Quickbeam + Beorn smash deck. Together, they're almost powerful enough to take on and defeat a Hill Troll first turn with no other cards or hero actions. With a Boomed and Trumpeted in hand, they would succeed.

The non-unique Quickbeam is an error or an joke?

Quickbeam must've been an error. I wonder if FFG is reprinting the whole AP to fix this glaring error and this pack somehow just got out of the wild. It would explain why the release schedule has been sooooo slow lately and that Crossings of Poros has been stuck "in development" on the upcoming page for so long now. (Hell, while we've been in the Harad cycle, AH LCG released their Core set, an entire cycle and will start a new one, and we're only just now halfway. Crazy! @_@.) I wouldn't mind waiting for a fixed version, but the novelty of a non-unique hero is kind of great. ;)

I wonder if the reason for the delay in releasing The Black Serpent is that they accidentally switched it with Crossings of Poros?

Seems like a decent pack. The Dam Breaks is pretty cool, makes me want to build an Ent deck again, maybe with Quickbeam hero at the helm.

Magic Ring is nice, it will see play.

Most of these cards are solid cards, but they don't really inspire me to run out and build a new deck. I mostly just want to slot them into my existing decks.

Like the cards, especially Quickbeam and the ring. Seems a nice pack for player cards

Why the hype behind the ring? Is everybody that willing to sacrifice 1 threat each turn?

1 healing for 1 threat? Prepostrous! Will only be ever used in situations where a hero's life gonna depend on it.

1 resource for 1 threat? Sounds good on paper. In reality, you're paying 2 for this ring, so you're gonna have to wait 3 turns for it to bring you net profit, and that would be only in terms of resources, the first two times you'll use it to gain a resouece, you'll be making up for it cost and raising your threat by 1 each time you do so. In short the term of 3 turns, it's gonna look like "pay 2 resources and raise your threat by 3 to wait 3 turnd and gain 1 resource". Looks very slow for a game that blows you out with ten 9 attack enemies on turn 1.

Readying for 1 threat is the most decent thing this ring has, but in the current pool with so many readying stuff around, it's really hard to justify for me personally.

I'm not saying it is completely horrible, it has diverse potential, I just don't see why it gets "oh my god this is going into every deck ever" kind of hype. It's 1 per deck. There will be games you won't even draw it.

Edited by John Constantine

The ring has many things going for it.

1. It's neutral, so a first turn play is easily possible or you can use stacked up ressources, because you can out of a specifics sphere cards. Following that you can use it to play a 2cost card of an specific sphere every turn while playing a three sphere deck. It provides an unconditional readying effect for any sphere, too.
2. As hinted in point one the ring provides a good amount of versitality.
3. 1 threat really isn't the world. Even Boromir decks work most of the time without going all out on threat reduction.

But I see your point and I think there are some "archetype" situation where the ring is better or worse:

A good situation: You run a three sphere deck and want a 2 cost ally first turn (e.g. Arwen) done.
A worse situation: You play e.g. a Caldara deck (=mono sphere) and play the ring. If you don't need the readying playing something else probably would have been better.


TL;DR: Neutral, smoothes ressources, unconditional readying option, but probably should have an instant effect to be worth it.

Note I don't garantee that the stuff I wrote up, without playing with the ring, does work out as I imagine, but I think that are points many people see in the ring and should explain why we are so hyped :D
The one per deck rule limits the consistency, especially of a first turn draw, but you probably aren't sad about drawing it later in the game (= It's not bad if you DON'T get it first turn)

Edited by Calvadur