3 hours ago, Flrbb said:

The new article on ffg about this pack states that Fastred helps (hidden benefit) against Serpent Guard. I don't get it. The player has to pay the cost each time the enemy engages and also it lasts until the end of the round, so the position of that enemy has no influence so far...

I think, those guys at ffg are getting a bit lazy at designing cards lately. :/

I think the reasoning is, your threat hits 28, so it engages you. You defend it, send it back then drop your threat to 26. You then have a round to come up wit a solution to it.

Also Tactics Imrahil decks can benefit from the new DoCA.

That's a narrow case, but I can see that. Fastred might also be useful against Journey to Anduin's stage one if he can survive the Hill Troll's attack -- when your threat gets to 30, defend the Troll then pop it back in staging, you'll have two more turns to get ready.

A similar effect could be useful in Conflict at the Carrock -- defend against Stuart, pop him back in staging and now the other engaged troll(s) don't have +1 defense for your counter attack. Plus the lowered threat might be enough to prevent Stuart from coming back in.

The real sweet enemies for Fastred are ones with an obnoxious while-engaged effect that could be worse than having the threat in staging. It's too bad Huorns don't make ineffective attacks, they'd be great to return to staging in exchange for threat decrease. But there are some other cards that would be worthwhile:

Dunland Berserker (VoI) attacks you every time you draw cards. With only 2 threat and 2 attack, pop this guy back in staging anytime you can't kill him right away. Other card-drawing while-engaged buffs from that cycle are Boar Clan Stalker & Boar Clan Warrior (Dunland Trap).

Bellach's Maurauder (Trouble at Tharbad) and Giant Swamp Adder and Neekerbreekers (Nin-in-Eleph) do obnoxious things when time counters are removed, so they are other great candidates to pop back in staging if you can't dispose of them. Neekerbreekers are especially perfect -- low threat, low attack, high HP, and very obnoxious end-of-turn effects if engaged.

The passive effect from Guardians (Three Trials) will make them engaged again right away, so you can't avoid their time-removal attack -- however, if you can't damage them, you might as well get free threat reduction (with Mablung, you'd get a free resource as well!)

Southron Sailor and Umbar Captain (Gray Havens) have obnoxious when-engaged effects. Southron Sailor in particular is a lovely target -- he has *0* threat, and his when-engaged ability is to count engaged ships against threat in staging. With only 2 attack, Fastred can defend him all day, continously lowering your threat while actually *decreasing* the amount of threat in staging.

Corsair Seafarer and Serpent's Blade (Flight of the Stormcaller) also have obnoxious when-engaged. The Seafarer gets his attack bumped up by questing/sailing heroes when engaged, Fastred can keep him at 2 attack indefinitely.

Thrashing Arm (Thing in the Depths) does 3 damage at the end of the combat phase. With 5 attack he's a challenge for Fastred to handle, but if he has his defense up his ability could be useful. It's a pity Eye of the Beast doesn't attack, it'd be perfect to pop back.

Faithless Desecrator (Temple of the Deceived) contributes its threat even while engaged, so one of Fastred's downsides doesn't apply. Profane Dead from the same pack is another great target, he attacks when you travel to the right, and with only 1 threat isn't much of a liability in staging.

Umbar Slaver (City of Corsairs) gets buffed when the engaged player spends resources. Pop him back in staging before the planning phase.

Uruk Chieftain (Sands of Harad) can't be damaged while engaged with another Orc. Fastred can get out another Orc while saving your attackers for the Chieftain.

Evil Crow (Black Riders) adds to hide tests when engaged. If you can't spare the attack to kill him, putting him back in staging might be an option, at 0 attack he's not likely to damage Fastred. Black Rider and Rider of Mordor always have obnoxious while engaged effects, but their high threat makes them less attractive in staging and their high attack makes them more dangerous to defend.

Groping Dead, Dead Things, and Candle Bearer (Land of Shadow) all prevent you from lowering your threat when engaged. If you've only got one and can't damage them, getting some rare threat reduction might be worth the extra threat in staging.

Barrow-Wight, Cold-Wight, and Dark-Wight (Fog on the Barrow Downs) all have obnoxious while engaged effects, they could be good targets if you want to enable a card effect they are prohibiting.

That's a minority of all quests, but it's still a fair number.

11 hours ago, Flrbb said:

The new article on ffg about this pack states that Fastred helps (hidden benefit) against Serpent Guard. I don't get it. The player has to pay the cost each time the enemy engages and also it lasts until the end of the round, so the position of that enemy has no influence so far...

I think, those guys at ffg are getting a bit lazy at designing cards lately. :/

Here is the text for Serpent Guard:

Quote

Forced : After The Serpent’s Guard engages you, either remove 2 progress from the main quest, or enemies engaged with you cannot take damage until the end of the round.

So I think the idea behind Fastred is that you have one player that is good at attacking enemies in the staging area (Dunhere, Haldir, Great Yew Bow, etc.). When The Serpent Guard engages you, you happily choose the second option (enemies engaged with you cannot take damage) because you will be sending him back to the staging area this turn anyway, where he can be destroyed.

On 2017-7-20 at 1:17 AM, dalestephenson said:

Repeatable threat reduction is great. Putting enemies in staging *after* you defend isn't so great.

tell that to Dunhere

Also no one mentionned Fastred's synergy with the "staging area direct damage" Rangers of ithilien, Lore Faramir plus Great Yew Bow. In the early days of the Trap archetype I would have loved to see that guy.

8 hours ago, dr00 said:

tell that to Dunhere

You know, the *very next sentence* after the one you quoted was this:

Yes, he'll form a great combo with Dunhere, especially if you can boost Dunhere's attack, but I'm wondering how useful he'll be *outside* a Dunhere deck.

I'm still wondering. He'll also work with Haldir in another deck, he'll work against certain enemies in a variety of quests, with some setup he'll make a nice combo with Great Yew Bow and/or some traps, TaAragorn can pull enemies out of staging--I'm not claiming he's Spirit Pippin, I'm claiming he's only useful in narrow circumstances. His special ability mimics one of the game's more annoying shadow effects.

Let's compare Fastred to the other repeatable threat-reducing heroes:

Dwalin: reduce threat by 2 for destroying an orc. Something you want to do anyway; not useful at all in some quests.

Galadriel: exhaust to lower threat by 1 and draw card. Both positive effects; the cost is really that her exhaustion isn't good for anything else without her ring.

Merry: exhaust to lower threat by a just revealed enemies threat. Cost is exhaustion, though with 2 wp and Hobbit Pony it's not a great cost.

Nori: reduce threat by 1 after playing a dwarf from your hand, something you want to do anyway

Beregond: lower defending player's threat by 1 when defending and taking no damage. Something you want to do anyway.

Fastred: after defending, put enemy back in staging -- something you *usually* don't want to do at all, since it increases threat in staging and prevents normal counterattacks.

He's certainly interesting, but he's the first repeatable hero where he would want to do the hero action that triggers the threat reduction; but then might not take the threat reduction because of the side effects.

Defender of Cair Andros also opens up interesting possibilities with Hirgon, I think. Quest successfully, bring the DoCA in for 3 cost instead of 4, and then raise threat by 1 to give him +1 defense. If you start near 30 threat, that could easily be a 3-cost/4-defense/3-hit point ally on the round he enters play. I haven't tested it out yet, but I like what I see.

Fastred makes Dunhere much easier to play, as has already been noted. Also seems like a good enabler for Trap decks - which mostly want to send their enemies back to the staging area; it's much easier to control which enemy hits the trap that way. Mostly his ability really boosts staging area attack; if you aren't interested in that (in whatever form), you aren't hugely interested in Fastred. Might be able to do something interesting with Hama and Forth Eorlingas. Might even be able to do something janky with I Am Not A Stranger to get another high-attack hero attacking the staging area too.

How about Fastred + Desperate Alliance? Get an unwanted enemy off another player and lower their threat by two for zero cost.

Finished my first game and while I did win it, I would have threated out the next turn. I think I only drew two locations the entire game. After one go I would say it's a hard quest, but not an 8, at least for solo.

I was hoping to get a bunch of games in this weekend but life intervened. In any event I did get in a second attempt and it turned south quickly. Scooped on turn four with a dead hero and only one ally in play. So the quest CAN be a brute.

On 24/07/2017 at 4:10 PM, Bullroarer Took said:

I was hoping to get a bunch of games in this weekend but life intervened. In any event I did get in a second attempt and it turned south quickly. Scooped on turn four with a dead hero and only one ally in play. So the quest CAN be a brute.

I've only got a couple of games in so far, but i've not come close to a win yet. Seems brutal in solo. Maybe its just the styles of deck i've tried so far.

Two wins for three tries. This one definitely has a "turn the corner feel to it".

On 22/07/2017 at 6:27 AM, banania said:

Also no one mentionned Fastred's synergy with the "staging area direct damage" Rangers of ithilien, Lore Faramir plus Great Yew Bow. In the early days of the Trap archetype I would have loved to see that guy.

I finally got around to playing this last night, and with this particular strategy in one deck (Lore Faramir plus Great Yew Bow). The problem I have with that style is that it's hard to get Faramir up in attack high enough to kill enemies in the staging area, even with the effective +2 attack from The Black Serpent and the enemy you're attacking. I beat the quest, largely because the other deck (Elrond, Eowyn(t), Kahliel) was so strong and the Harad allies are really good - Jubayr in particular is epic against quests with a fair number of 3 attack non-unique enemies. I'm thinking that Gondorian Fire might be a way to make Faramir more effective?

I do like Fastred though. His ability isn't that big of a problem, if you plan around it. My stupid mistake was to think that his ability could combo with Hobbit pipe, but that specifies event card threat reduction (reading fail on my part), so Frodo in that deck was useless.

Black Serpent, though, is *such* a good quest. Challenging but not in a *smashed in the face* way. You can think around it. Very good!