Let me state that I don't think Bilbo to be Grimbeorn or Eowyn in terms of power but I like him all the same.
Bilbo is the hobbit with higher effective willpower with ability to damage enemy in staging area. A couple of turns plus sting on Sam means 3 damage which is enough to dispatch a lot of orcs enemy.
I think we are now close to be able to play two hobbit decks against many quest.
Edited by Halberto37 minutes ago, Halberto said:I would expect mitrhil shirt or Anduril.
More probable the first one. Fits in spirit too. Attachemt to hobbit or dwarf hero. Plenty of good target.
That is already Ring Mail, I wouldn't want this as a guarded attachment in Spirit.
To all of you who are saying Bilbo costs to much at 9... I agree. He’s probably my favorite character and I feel so disappointed they didn’t “right the wrong”. At six he would be great, seven good and eight fine. I hate playing by house rules but... this makes me sad.
I really like the potential of hobbit pony on him. If you run him and thalin, you could drop two damage on enemy when they are revealed from the encounter deck.
Bilbo is clearly meant to be played with Sting. Get it out of your deck, play it, attach it to the next enemy (no location) and Bilbo takes care of it on his own, as long as your threat is low enough and the enemy is not immune. Bilbo also makes sure, that the threat of the extra enemy does not count (sort of) and as soon as it is dead, attach Sting to Bilbo and he has the stats fitting his threat cost, not counting his quest boost. And before someone complains, that he needs an attachment to be worth his stats, look at Galadriel: While she has an awesome ability, she cannot use her willpower for questing, so without Nenya she is even more overpriced than Bilbo (5 extra threat compared to 3). And yet this has not stopped her from being a top hero.
56 minutes ago, Amicus Draconis said:That is already Ring Mail, I wouldn't want this as a guarded attachment in Spirit.
It's pretty obvious IMO that if they were to do it they would give it a different ability.
Awesome cards in this package. Especially for my belowed hobbit decks. Many hours of deckbuilding are planned ^^.
ooh, some direct damage goodies! New Bilbo looks amazing (barring the 9 threat cost...) and with Sting equipped, yeah that is some consistent direct damage. Add in some goblin-cleavers for extra fun. 
Bilbo Baggins cost 3 more threat because Sauron HATE HIM.
This pack is great as the other packs in this cycle, the eagle, Beon, Hobbit decks are all get more interesting.
Looking forward for the guard keyword.
Edited by JsBingleyI think Bilbo's 9 would be easier to take if he could also find Guarded cards in your deck. As is he's overcosted again, and since the neutral card is known it won't be a Bilbo-specific attachment that reduces the threat of both versions. OTOH, the neutral card *does* at least allow Bilbo to partake in Hobbit secrecy decks, since Bilbo+Shirefolk+Hobbit+Hobbit is <20 threat. Both Bilbo's extra card and Bilbo's direct damage to staging are especially welcome to Hobbit decks -- and guarded cards also work best for turtle decks, which secrecy decks generally are.
So last pack lore Radagast?
The toymaker is overcosted by 1, there are a ton of 2wp for 2 resources options out there. So if his discount is 1, you aren't getting a discount and need a second card in hand to even get your value
Drinking song is great when you have a hand full of uniques. Lot of songs in recent packs. Love of tales could make a comeback...
Round shield is nice for 0 cost...
Bilbo art is great!
Edited by player168331110 hours ago, stimpaksam said:I wonder what that Burglar trait will do if anything.
Let's see if we get an event card played only if you control a burglar hero to detach a player guarded card by attached encounter cards without need of defeating it...
Well I guess Secrecy Hobbit decks have one more amazing tool now at their disposal with The Shirefolk. Gaffer Gamgee is also amazing, providing attack cancellation and sinergizing quite well with Raise the Shire and Tom Cotton. Drinking Song is also a good event for both drawing and getting rid of cards in your hand that are not really useful at the moment. I guess I will try thinking about a good Hobbit deck right now.
If the Erebor Toymaker reduces the cost of the next attachment by 2 it could be an awesome card.
1 hour ago, Halberto said:Let's see if we get an event card played only if you control a burglar hero to detach a player guarded card by attached encounter cards without need of defeating it...
I cannot imagine any cards will interact with the trait. It's more flavor text than anything. Can you imagine any other character with that trait? I could be wrong of course but I'd bet big we will never see anything make use of that trait
1 hour ago, player1683311 said:I cannot imagine any cards will interact with the trait. It's more flavor text than anything. Can you imagine any other character with that trait? I could be wrong of course but I'd bet big we will never see anything make use of that trait
Today he is the only character with that trait. It could be used by designers to trigger some effects limiting it's use to Bilbo and maybe few other characters in the future.
Guarded cards fetching effects? Not sure. As of today I agree it's just flavour text and nothing else
Woodman and Dale were the same just few packs ago so we can have hope..... Traits allow great creativity and the possibility to build great synergies from one day to another.
39 minutes ago, Halberto said:Today he is the only character with that trait. It could be used by designers to trigger some effects limiting it's use to Bilbo and maybe few other characters in the future.
Guarded cards fetching effects? Not sure. As of today I agree it's just flavour text and nothing else
Woodman and Dale were the same just few packs ago so we can have hope..... Traits allow great creativity and the possibility to build great synergies from one day to another.
I thought of the woodman trait as I wrote that, but you could figure that there are lots of woodman, but really only one burglar, that's what makes him so special! Again, I could be wrong!
I could not resist, I already made a deck with the new tactics Bilbo Baggins. I have to say, that contrary to my initial statement he can be very very good...
The only thing a Burglar does right now is to not increase Smaug's threat. Still I can imagine a card like Word of Command or The Seeing-stone for Burglars to fetch guarded cards from the deck. For instance:
Burglar's Sense: Tactics event, cost 1
Play only if you control a Burglar character. Action: Search your deck for a card with the guarded keyword and add it to your hand. Shuffle your deck.
Ever as he climbed the same white gleam had shone before him and drawn his feet towards it. - The Hobbit
Note there is no requirement to exhaust, as it has only a few targets in the deck.
5 hours ago, player1683311 said:The toymaker is overcosted by 1, there are a ton of 2wp for 2 resources options out there. So if his discount is 1, you aren't getting a discount and need a second card in hand to even get your value
There's quite a few 2-for-2, 6 unique characters in spirit and lore, but for non-unique characters there are three that are fire and forget and all are fragile -- Galadriel's Handmaiden, Ethir Swordsman, and West Road Traveler. Then there's a few others with drawbacks -- Escort for Edoras (one-shot quester), Lindon Navigator (have to discard to keep after questing), Curious Brandybuck (goes away after exploring active location), and Wandering Ent (enters exhausted). 3 cost for 2 willpower is more common for fire-and-forget questers, though a number of them have cooler abilities IMO.
One thing the Toymaker has that other 2-wp questers mostly don't have is the dwarf trait. The only other 2-wp non-unique dwarfs are Dwarven Sellsword (ongoing cost) and Longbeard Elder. In spirit there's only Bofur, so I can see the Toymaker being popular in a dwarven mining deck, especially if those become more attachment heavy in response to Thror's Ring.
I'd have to play with Bilbo to really assess his ability in full, but I am increasingly finding that the threat cost of heroes is less important as the game develops. Back in the old days sub-30 threat total was important, but now a 9 threat hero seems like no biggie (and perhaps it's just that T-Eowyn has thrown the curve so much with her ability, which is *so good*). I can definitely see the advantages in Bilbo. I really want to try out a direct damage deck in which all the heroes deal damage each round (Thalin, Bilbo and Argalad - am I forgetting some other options...?).
Good hobbit support here, and Sting looks very tempting for a guarded card.
2 minutes ago, monkeyrama said:I'd have to play with Bilbo to really assess his ability in full, but I am increasingly finding that the threat cost of heroes is less important as the game develops. Back in the old days sub-30 threat total was important, but now a 9 threat hero seems like no biggie (and perhaps it's just that T-Eowyn has thrown the curve so much with her ability, which is *so good*). I can definitely see the advantages in Bilbo. I really want to try out a direct damage deck in which all the heroes deal damage each round (Thalin, Bilbo and Argalad - am I forgetting some other options...?).
Good hobbit support here, and Sting looks very tempting for a guarded card.
The problem with Argalad is that he would reduce the enemies threat, and then Bilbo would have less willpower. I'd agree I'd like to make the deck you describe, but those 2 particular heroes abilities clash. It could work anyway, just not consistently I think.
1 minute ago, player1683311 said:The problem with Argalad is that he would reduce the enemies threat, and then Bilbo would have less willpower. I'd agree I'd like to make the deck you describe, but those 2 particular heroes abilities clash. It could work anyway, just not consistently I think.
Yeah, that's true. Although what you could do instead is to choose the order of activation so that you clear off enemies that are ready to be offed with Argalad, and choose your moments to activate him. I can't recall off the top of my head, but would Bilbo's willpower be reduced by Argalad's action is you activate Argalad after staging and before quest resolution?
Actually, given the order of activation, Argalad need not affect Bilbo:
'A lasting effect created by a player card ability must be calculated at the time that the ability is triggered, and that effect is not recalculated if the game state changes.'
So activate Bilbo's response when he quests, then later activate Argalad for the same enemy. The fact that Argalad has reduced the willpower later does not affect Bilbo's response, since they are both player card abilities, and therefore not recalculated. Does this logic hold?
25 minutes ago, monkeyrama said:Yeah, that's true. Although what you could do instead is to choose the order of activation so that you clear off enemies that are ready to be offed with Argalad, and choose your moments to activate him. I can't recall off the top of my head, but would Bilbo's willpower be reduced by Argalad's action is you activate Argalad after staging and before quest resolution?
Actually, given the order of activation, Argalad need not affect Bilbo:
'A lasting effect created by a player card ability must be calculated at the time that the ability is triggered, and that effect is not recalculated if the game state changes.'
So activate Bilbo's response when he quests, then later activate Argalad for the same enemy. The fact that Argalad has reduced the willpower later does not affect Bilbo's response, since they are both player card abilities, and therefore not recalculated. Does this logic hold?
I was thinking the two abilities would counter each other.
Bilbo select an enemy and gets stat boost equal to enemy threat until and that phase. When argalad activate he reduce enemy threat. So even if triggering argalad after staging the reduction would apply to Bilbo boost.
Unless I understood Bilbo wrong the response effect allow to choose the enemy while the stat boost is not fixed at that moment. It could goes up or down depending on enemy threat variations. If the enemy is discarded before quest resolution I assume Bilbo stat boost will be 0
But I understand you point. You could be totally right at it.