Hi players!

It's exactly one week from the publishing of the first article about Leadership sphere. Now the Player Card Review is going on with the next sphere, specialized in combat - Tactic sphere .

Link : https://visionofthepalantir.com/2019/01/22/tactic-sphere-core-set/

I just remind you, what's all about (skip it, if you have already read the article from Leadership sphere):
I made a deep analysis of each player card, mention the positives and negatives of each card, possible combos and synergies and overall conclusion from my point of view. I set the goal of describing each card in at least 450 words , in 500 words at the best. It's written in " progression mode ", and it's because of 1) new players, who wanna to start this game from Core set in progression style, 2) the progression mode seems to me more challenging than "normal style" with accessible all cards from all expansions and adventure packs. I wanted to create such complex and detailed reviews because I think it's rare material in LOTR LCG community. And I think that each card, no matter how strong or weak, deserves own attention, not only that cards we usually use in decks.

I hope you enjoy the article about Tactic sphere. Don't hesitate and comment, I'll be happy for your responses with own observation, experiences and opinions.

Silblade

I cannot see any ratings for Gimli and Legolas unfortunately.

7 minutes ago, Amicus Draconis said:

I cannot see any ratings for Gimli and Legolas unfortunately.

Thanks for the feedback, the images were corrupted, so I replaced them. It should work fine again. I went over it myself and all ratings should be visible again.

The poor generic leadership allies are disparged compared to their leadership brethren. For Veteran Axehand, I'd agree with you -- I like having my stats concentrated rather than split, because while the Axehand is less flexible he also provides twice the attack. With that said, with Dain out and Axehand at as a 1/3/1/2 ally, I've frequently sent the Axehand questing because I didn't need the extra attack, but you can practically always use more willpower. In this respect, I'm not convinced the Axehand's 1/3/1/2 is superior to the 2/2/0/2 of a Guard of the Citadel in a Gondor deck (LeBoromir + Visionary Leadership). I don't put much stress in having one defense, once you get past the first two cycles 1 def + 2 hp means chump blocking.

For Horseback Archer, I'm not seeing him as superior to Silverlode Archer. Yes, the Silverlode is considerably more fragile, but you don't defend with a 3-cost 1def/2hp ally if you can possibly help it, and in the stat you're actually paying for (ranged attack) they cost the same -- which makes Silverlode relatively better in two respects, as attack is harder to come by in Leadership and three resources is easier to come by. Both cards are hard sell in a full-card-pool world because of their lack of abilities, but I think Silverlode Archer maintains his attractiveness, such as it is, for longer.

If we're going to mention a possible boost for Horseback Archer based on Rohan, it's worth remembering that in your stereotypical Silvan Deck (Celeborn + Galadriel), Silverlode Archer will quest for two then attack for three when he comes into play.

One subtle advantage of Quick Strike relative to feint that's worth remembering -- Feint won't work on immune enemies, but Quick Strike *does* work since it's considered a framework attack. Most immune enemies are tough enough that (except for a tricked-out Gimli) you can't take them down with an immediate Quick Strike, but once they're banged up it can be handy.

I'm not a fan of Blade Mastery. Despite its flexibility, I'd rather play a 1-cost attachment than an emergency +1.

However, that brings up the problem that in the core set, 1-cost attachments aren't as good as they'll be later. Dwarven Axe is the *only* weapon in the core that can give a hero (any hero) an unconditional +1 attack. It actually takes longer for a better/cheaper replacement to come along for non-dwarf heroes than for dwarf heroes in tactics; since dwarves get the Dwarrowdelf Axe in KD, while a +1 attack for any hero has to wait for Dagger of Westernessee. Dwarven Axe is overpriced in the full card poll, but for Mirkwood tactics decks there's not really a better alternative. (Blade of Gondolin is as good for non-dwarves against Orcs, but plenty of quests have no orcs and few quests have only orcs.)

Horn of Gondor was not "one of the first errata at all". Horn of Gondor received errata in FAQ 1.8 (Jan 2016), and many cards had been errata-ed before then, including five player cards in the core itself, two of which (Feint and Thicket of Spears) were in tactics. If Horn of Gondor had received errata earlier, maybe poor Master of Lore wouldn't have been nerfed. I'm not thrilled at all with the errata in its current form, but in the core with few alternatives to chump-blocking, it's still worth including.

At least the Horseback Archer can survive an Evil Storm.

Yes, Horseback Archer is less fragile, though with access to Sneak Gandalf the Leadership deck is less likely to be 35-and-over in the first place. On the other hand, Silverlode Archer is much more likely to be hit by Necromancer's Reach, since it may help it with the questing sometimes.

Having two hit points on an ally instead of one is a good thing, certainly. But having willpower on an ally is *also* a good thing. I like the Silverlode Archer better, and while reasonable people can disagree on that point, I think it's certainly fair to say that Horseback Archer is not obviously better.

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Rain of Arrows is a cheap, but very much situational event. You are dependent on a small band of characters, which have to be ready. In addition, you have to wait until a suitable occasion in order to strike with this event “effectively”. Too many preconditions and relatively weak effect condemn Rain of Arrows to be rightfully often ignored card.

In my opinion Rain of Arrows is more a multiplayer card, where ranged characters are in use anyway. This also means there are more enemies likely to be revealed from the encounter deck and damaged by Thalin in the process. Thanks to Sentinel characters like Gondorian Spearmen it does not matter, who will defend the attack. With an optional engagement one can most of the time engage two enemies, depending on player count and threat even more. Combining all these cards can kill enemies with up to three hitpoints.

You probably want to use the card in the combat phase before enemies attack, so your ranged characters will be ready anyway (barring other encounter effects like the King Spider's). And the Horseback Archer would only increase damage dealt to an enemy by two, while with this event he can spread the damage evenly across several targets at the additional cost of a card and a resource. Especially when compared to Swift Strike Rain of Arrows is cheaper and will deal at least as much damage (you would not waste RoA on a single target). And compared to Blade Mastery it also increases damage by one with the difference of exhausting an additional character and hitting at least an extra enemy. I would rate RoA as good as Swift Strike or Blade Mastery at three stars each.

I put a copy of Rain of Arrows in my direct damage deck (fellowship Dori and the Damage -- includes heroes Argalad and Thalin to go with Gondorian Spearman/Spear of the Citadel -- need to redo it when TaBilbo comes out), but I don't recall ever using it. When you've got the damage going, having two different enemies only one hp away from death is pretty rare, certainly less common than having a single enemy two away from death.

The card I loved using was Hail of Stones. If you've got a bunch of combat allies standing around, you can do some serious direct damage with it, and they don't even have to be ranged. It only works on staging enemies, unlike Rain of Arrows, but I prefer killing 'em before they engage (preferably before the quest resolves).

Of course it depends on the scenario. In the Seventh Level with Thalin it is quite common to have enemies with only one hitpoint left. And when you are engaged with say two undamaged copies of Dol Guldur Orcs and only have one Horseback Archer and two Veteran Axehands available for killing them, then you can use Rain of Arrows and your dwarves to kill all enemies. Without this event you would overkill one copy of Orcs by one and be short by one for the other one (and how often can one put one into one sentence 😃 ?).

Khazad Dum is certainly the king of two-HP enemies, though the swordsmen/spearman often come into play as shadow effects. With one deck Thalin + Gondorian Spearman is generally enough to keep them under control. But it's certainly the cycle where Rain of Arrows is most likely to be useful.

Good to read all of your responses, guys.:) I'm going to answer some of them because they bring quite interesting questions and perspectives.

@Amicus Draconis For the maximizing effect of Rain of Arrows it surely needs a bunch of encountered enemies. That means, in a multiplayer environment you have the greatest chance to use Rain of Arrows properly because it's the higher probability that one of the players encounters more than 1-2 enemies. Still... when enemies swarm everyone, you can choose only one player to deal 1 damage to his enemies. Bad luck you can't strike every encountered enemy with all players. I see it as one of some weakness of this card. In Seventh Level, I rather use combo Thalin - Longbeard Orc Slayer, where Thalin deals 1 damage and Slayer ends with most of the Orcs by his coming to a game. Yes, Slayer costs 3 resources more than Rain of Arrows and in addition, he is from another sphere. Still, Sneak Attack exists.:) I like that the ability of Slayer works in a more global way than at Rain of Arrows. Additionally, you may get rid of some threats from the staging area, whereas Rain of Arrows needs enemies to encounter you (and so you somehow must manage overall threat strength that round). Thanks to this combo, the Seventh Level can't terrify you by a large swarm of enemies. Figure in other cards like Gondorian Spearman or Swift Strike and you mustn't fight with most of the enemies at all (up to 3-4 HP).

@dalestephenson Thank you for noticing that Horn of Gondor wasn't the first errata'd card at all. From some reason, I thought it was.:) I made a little adjustment in the article.
To be honest, I can hardly imagine any situation, where Silverlode Archer could overtake Horseback Archer . As @Amicus Draconis pointed out, one Evil Storm is enough to kill Silverlode Archer. To kill Horseback Archer you "need bad luck", 2 Evil Storm . 1-2-0-1 of Silverlode vs. 0-2-1-2 of Horseback is in my sight worse stat distribution for Silverlode. When you decide from some reason to send Silverlode to a quest (what is for me odd because you, therefore, thwart the 2 Attack + Ranged keyword, which you could use in order to help you or your other players), then he is very vulnerable to treacheries like The Necromancer's Reach , which totally "shutdown" Silverlode, if you haven't A Test of Will or Eleanor . Silverlode then has a useless one point in Willpower, because he can't resist any damaging treacheries, and in addition, he is not born to be a quester, but he should help you in attacking effort. I know that in Core environment Leadership sphere struggles with the sufficient amount of Willpower and every single point is good in questing. However, I don't want to pay 3 resources for questing Silverlode, who is endangered by single treachery. In his case, 1-2-0-2 would make me bigger sense. Still, we are talking about the Core environment. But in the future, I think you get better options than save a place for vanilla Silverlode Archer.

Yeah, Quick Strike can help you in a situation, where even Feint can't serve. You make a good point.:)

Core Tactic attachments work well in Shadows of Mirkwood cycle, because you either meet many Orcs and/or you use Dwarfs to attack (mainly Gimli ). I also hesitate to include Dwarven Axe into a deck without any attacking Dwarf , because 2 cost for 1 mere Attack reminds me a bit The Favor of the Lady (2 cost for 1 Willpower). In other words, bad exchange, and if Dwarfes can't get +2 Attack, I would completely to ignore this attachment. But again...in Core set, you haven't many options and you are glad for any permanent effect. Blade Mastery can help you one round, but it comes and leaves the play very quickly. I think it's a fair and useful event, though with expanding cardpool you somehow can't find a free place for this sympathetic, but no astonishing event.

It's easy for me to imagine a situation where Silverlode Archer would be more useful than Horseback Archer. It's very simple and very common -- you need more willpower, and you don't need more attack. That happens *all the time*. Now it's true that no one would put Silverlode Archer in a deck expecting to him to be used just for questing; that's not his strength. But in a mono-leadership or leadership-heavy deck, you're also going to be running Faramir, and paying for 3-cost allies isn't going to be a problem. So you've got an ally that eventually provides 2 ranged attack *or* 2 willpower, and that doesn't stink.

However, he is fragile, and if used as an emergency quester is vulnerable (in the first cycle) to Necromancer's Reach or Exhuastion (JTR) or Rockslide (Emyn Muil). He's also vulnerable, questing or not, to Evil Storm *if* threat is 35 or over and also Swarming Insects (JTR). So 5/9 quests in the first cycle can kill him outright if threat is 35+, 1/9 if it's under 35. If we peek ahead to Dwarrowdelf we'll find considerably less of these sort of treacheries, plus a quest (Redhorn Gate) that kills Horseback Archer outright.

However, I think we're both missing an important point when we compare the relative merits of Silverlode Archer and Horseback Archer -- the two cards practically never compete for deck space! Even if you're running a leadership/tactics deck, the splash hero isn't going to be paying for 3-cost allies, especially non-unique allies with no special abilities. Silverlode Archer is competing with Son of Arnor (same cost, same attack, useful ability), and Horseback Archer is competing with Veteran Axehand (same stats, lower cost). While Silverlode Archer *does* have 1 willpower and Son of Arnor does not, when would you choose Silverlode Archer over Son of Arnor? When you need ranged attack. When would you choose Horseback Archer over Veteran Axehand? When you need ranged attack. I'm not sure there's much point in comparing allies to allies in a different sphere, in a vacuum. The question we should really be answering is "When would you want to put this card in your deck, and what would you use it for." In both cases the answer is "multiplayer, and you think you may need to add attack to another deck." (Though in the first cycle there's also the "you need ranged for Rhosgobel combat".)

So for example, in Beorn's Path Silverlode Archer is kept out of the LeAragorn/Theodred/LoDenethor deck -- it could pay for it, but Son of Arnor is more useful in a solo deck. When a companion deck is created for Dol Goldur with SpEowyn/Thalin/TaGimli, Horseback Archer *and* Veteran Axehand both make the cut (hey, allies are limited), but the ranged attack is useful without TaLegolas as a hero. At the end of Beorn's Path when the companion deck is revised for a solo run at Return to Mirkwood, the Horseback Archer's ranged is now useless -- and the Veteran Axehand is also gone, because the eagles replaced generic allies.

So there's a specific use case (non-unique tactics ranged attack in multiplayer) for Horseback Archer. When do you get something better for that role? Depends on what order you get cycles in. Breaking it down:

Mirkwood -- no replacement. Vassal of the Windlord is ranged and cheap, but is a one-shot attacker.

Dwarrowdelf -- no replacement. Trollshaw Scout has identical stats for 2 cost, but having to discard a card to keep him on each attack is crippling for card-draw-poor tactics.

Numenor -- no replacement. No options at all.

Ringmaker -- Galadhon Archer. Only 2 cost *and* it does a point of damage incoming. Yes, he's fragile, but it's not like Horseback Archer is an archery sink. Replaced.

Angmar -- Fornost Bowman. 1/1/1/3 and +1 for each engaged enemy, so unless your tactics-heavy deck is *strictly* ranged attackers is going to be better.

Dreamchaser -- Marksman of Lorien. Same cost but 0/3/0/2 stat line *and* a -2 defense attack when entering play. Replaced. The Mithlond sea-watcher can provide 1/3/0/2 for 2 cost if an ally is on top your discard, but isn't 1/1/0/2 without ranged if an ally isn't an top.

Harad -- no replacement. No options at all.

Ered Mithrin -- Warrior of Dale. Doesn't start ranged but has slightly better stats 0/2/1/3, but a weapon on him gives him ranged and +1 attack, with weapons one less. Replaced.

So depending on how a player progresses through the cards, Horseback Archer could become obsolete quickly or not at all in his role. In the full card pool, his only role is to provide some non-unique ranged attack in a Rohan deck, where he's thematic and (with SpTheoden) one cheaper. There's only one page of such decks at ringsdb.

What about Silverlode Archer? When does he get competition in leadership for non-unique ranged attack?

Mirkwood -- no replacement. No options at all.

Dwarrowdelf -- no replacement. Dunedain Wanderer is ranged and has superior 1/2/2/2 stats, and is 1 cheaper -- if you are in secrecy, which you almost certainly aren't with 2-3 leadership heroes. At 5 Wanderer is a cruel joke.

Numenor -- no replacement. No options at all.

Ringmaker -- no replacement. No options at all.

Angmar -- no replacement. No options at all.

Dreamchaser -- no replacement. No options at all.

Harad -- Greenwood Archer. With a 0/2/0/1 statline he's slightly worse, except that he only costs 2 resources. Also readies a hero when he enters play. I put this guy in solo leadership decks, because 2 attack for 2 cost in non-unique in Leadership is something special.

Ered Mithrin -- no replacement. No options at all.

So unless you have Sands of Harad, Silverlode Archer is your *only* option for non-unique ranged in leadership. Even if you have Harad, you could justify having both in a Silvan deck for multiplayer, though there's only two creators who included both archers in a Celeborn deck.

Of course, just looking at the non-unique ranged options ignores the other competition for ranged attack -- unique ranged allies. While you generally wouldn't want three copies of a unique attacker, having three different unique ranged attackers would be an improvement on the non-unique options. On the Leadership side, only Orophin fits the description -- at 2/2/0/2 he's strictly superior to Silverlode Archer even without his enters-play ability, but you can't have him in bulk. On the tactics side, you have exactly three options, Rumil, Legolas, and Yazan, all of which cost more (and of course, are far superior.)

Comparing cards to future cycles is all nice and well, but when evaluating the cards of the core set in a progression style I see no point in taking cards from the third next cycle or later into account. I am more concerned about which card will perform a certain task in my current card pool better and not whether I might find a superior card several expansions away and therefor take another option.

How much does willpower cost in the Mirkwood cycle and the core set?

Let's see:

Radagast gives 2 Willpower for 5 resources (0.4 wp / r). Quite a bad value but luckily he also counts as resource generation.

Guard of the Citadel, Wandering Took, Erebor Hammersmith, Gléowine, Keen-eyed Took, Favour of the Lady, Dúnedain Quest, Westfold Horse-breaker and The Riddermark's Finest give you 1 Willpower for 2 resources (0.5 wp / r). This is the most common value and aside from Gléowine they are not unique (and you would not use him for questing anyway). Dáin Ironfoot improves the Hammersmith to a top quester.

Faramir, Eagles of the Misty Mountains and Haldír give 2 Willpower for 4 resources (0.5 wp / r). Same willpower per cost but better willpower per card. Though Faramir usually gives more willpower through his ability.

Gildor Inglorion has 3 Willpower for 5 resources (0.6 wp / r). Quite expensive for an ally, hero-like stats and a useful ability, though you cannot use more than one without Valiant Determination which is not even released yet.

Lórien Guide (sort of), Éomund and Rivendell Minstrel give 2 Willpower for 3 resources (0.67 wp / r). The latter 2 also have other useful effects.

Gandalf gives 4 Willpower for 5 resources (0.8 wp / r). Powerful enter-play ability but leaves play at the end of the round.

Escort from Edoras, Westroad Traveller and Celebrían's Stone give 2 Willpower for 2 resources (1 wp / r). Escort from Edoras gets discarded after questing and Celebríans Stone is unique. The Westroad Traveller on the other hand has a good ability, though she is quite fragile with only 1 hitpoint.

Henamarth Riversong and Power in the Earth (sort of) give 1 Willpower for 1 resource (1 wp / r). Henamarth is unique, fragile and has another ability which requires him to exhaust. Power in the Earth is cheap willpower, though it gets discarded when the location it is attached to leaves play.

There are of course a lot of other characters like Northern Tracker, Longbeard Map-maker, Dúnedain Watcher and Silvan Tracker which can quest, but they are even more expensive (3 or more resources). Dáin again makes the Map-maker more effective while the Northern Tracker has a top notch ability.

So as you can see with the exception of Faramir's ability, you will always pay at least as many resources as willpower is returned with the most common (and still useful) value of 1 Willpower for 2 resources. If we now ignore all unique cards in the above list and all cards that are one-time use only, that leaves you with Power in the Earth, Westroad Traveller, Rivendell Minstrel and Lórien Guide, if you want to get a better return than 0.5 Willpower per resource and have three copies in play at once for more than one use.

Due to the unavailability of reprints, we can't predict what the progression will be for any individual player. Sands of Harad just got reprinted. Wilds of Rhovanion was the most recent deluxe. Mirkwood cycle is on the reprint list. It's entirely possible that a new player now working with the core set is more likely to move on to Harad (where Greenwood Archer makes Silverlode Archer obsolete) or Rhovanion (where Warrior of Dale makes Horseback Archer obsolete) than that they will go through Mirkwood cycle and KD/Dwarrowdelf, where neither of those cards have competition for what they provide -- 2 ranged attack for three cost.

Now, I realize the premise of the series is to look for a progression-style analysis, in context of the card pool at the time the card was first released. I also realize that there are players with access to the full card pool who will make progression-style decks and don't like to play later cards against earlier quests. That's OK, but even the analysis posts have red spoilers for upcoming cards. Horseback Archer has one after a comment that they are going to squeezed out because the Eagles are coming -- there's some truth to that, but why? Except for the disposable Vassals, they *don't* provide ranged attack. It's simple really -- there aren't many tactics allies available. There's only 9 total tactics ally cards in the core set. Leadership has 15 ally cards. So you might want Horseback Archer *even if* you don't need ranged, just because you need bodies, while Silverlode Archer has more in-sphere competition.

But the premise of the series isn't the premise for my comments. I'm interested in what subset of the card pool would justify playing either core Archer, and I can't address that without taking a look at what the alternatives actually are. It's not meant to be a criticism of the article for not mentioning that Greenwood Archer obsoletes Silverlode Archer. No reason it should mention that. If any future spoilers should be mentioned, I think they should be hints about how a core card is *useful* later in a different way than in the core, as was done with Veteran Axehand.

I marvel at and envy your free time.

@Wandalf the Gizzard Hehe, don't think it was created in a couple of days.:) I have started with the Core set in autumn last year, but I was very motivated to complete it. The Core set contains 73 different cards, ready to analyze. So it lasts me quite a long time, however, I wrote it during the evenings, when all "life duties" were done. I think that AP won't take up so much time.:)

@dalestephenson Yeah, you hit the hammer right to the nail :), it was meant like the reviews in a progression mode - what the given card can offer us in the "progression environment", what are weaknesses and strengths of the given card and how it is playable. Of course, the utilization of some cards is changing during the time, when our cardpools are gradually expanding. But in most cases, I have tried to avoid too many spoilers. If I felt it that it is necessary to some spoiler mention, I mentioned. Some understandable spoilers even won't appear because I haven't the knowledge about all published cards, possible combos and synergies.:)
Anyway, you are right that in Core set we are very limited by available options. We know that some cards worth it for changing as soon as possible, but it is better to have Silverlode Archer or Horseback Archer than have nothing. Especially these two, because they are somehow unique - they are only Ranged allies in Core set. And if you want to interact with the engagement area of other players, excluding Legolas, you haven't many choices.

Still, I think that even with Core set available you are able to deckbuilding to some extent. In these key moments, when I am deciding about including or not some of the cards, I realize, that some cards I use with different frequency. I take it by a process of elimination. Which card was useful for me? Which saves a day? Which creates some good combo? And which card has remained in my hands completely unutilized? From these experiences, I decide, which card does worth it and which does not. The decision differs of course, if you play monosphere, dual sphere or trisphere decks. While in monosphere deck you try to fulfill the deck up to 50 cards (what is impossible with 1 or 2 Core sets) and so you include cards, which you personally don't need, in trisphere you aim only for the key and most important cards, so that each card must fulfill own task, for which you choose it. And so, there is high probability that for example Silverlode Archer appears in your mono- and maybe in dualsphere deck because you lack other possibilities, but in trisphere deck you welcome only that useful cards - for weak cards, there is no just free place. And I think that Silverlode Archer is the example of such card, which remains aside, because of reasons mentioned in the previous comments and in the review itself.

Everything is matter of opinion, of course. So Silverlode Archer won't fit into my deck, well others can see it in a different way. That's okay. Don't be afraid, I'm interested in your own opinions and observations. It's good to see that some cards can have the variable usage and the variable price for each player.:) I decide to judge cards in progression mode, even if I suspect that future cards can raise up some older, unutilized cards ( Brok Ironfist - so horrible ally in Core set, but wow - Dáin Ironfoot and a couple of Dwarf-synergy cards can make from Brok real beast, I was personally surprised). Something similar can happen to Silverlode because he has Silvan trait and Silvan-synergy exists (although I haven't many experiences with this kind of synergy, because of limited knowledge of full cardpool).

Oh, I'm sorry, it's all about Tactic sphere, but I wrote only about the cards from Leadership sphere, what a fail.:D

Well, Horseback Archer , he lasts in my deck for some time, but because of Eagles, he vanishes. Still, I somehow find some free place for non-Eagle allies, like Gondorian Spearman or Veteran Axehand because they are cheap and they aren't dropped in for a moment (like Vassal). Beorn is also good, well for that 6 cost I hesitate to include him. Either I must have support from the Leadership sphere, or run Tactic monosphere deck.

Beorn is so expensive, though I found in my spirit/tactics deck that resources would pile up late game -- at least after I replaced the resource-sucking Eagles with later tactics allies. But the other factor is that with TaGimli as one of my heroes, I found that getting sufficient attack wasn't that much of a problem. My priority went towards defensive allies, which the core set lacks. Gondorian Spearman stayed in because of the combo with Thalin, but when the eagles came in I dropped both Horseback Archer and Veteran Axehand in favor of Eagles. Vassal of the Windlord could give me a when-needed boost then buff Eagles of the Misty Mountain, while Winged Guardian was my go-to defender until I got to Heirs of Numenor and added Defenders of Rammas. I dropped Eagles entirely when I got Treebeard and Booming Ent in the Ringmaker cycle.

Beorn is actually included in the killer deck, the only tactics card, because he's a powerful Sneak Attack target, and because with Steward of Gondor on Eowyn she can afford to bring him into play with Stand and Fight.

I'm not fond of Brok Ironfist even in a dwarf deck. Sure, he gets boosted with Dain, but for his cost I can play several other dwarves and let them be boosted with Dain instead. I did see a Gandalf/Vilya deck that put 3x Brok Ironfist in it. Not only can you play him for free with Vilya, you can Wizard Pipe him on top of your deck and use him as powerful fuel for Flame of Anor.

Saw that Beorn in the deck you mention. Quite interesting and original using, raising Beorn from the "graveyard".:) The point is of course you don't need the Tactic resources at all because of Stand and Fight (or else Sneak Attack ).

Hmm, before Defenders of Rammas there are more or less many chump blockers and heavy tanks. Nothing between it. Maybe Watcher of the Bruinen can be proclaimed as a proper defender, however, I haven't used him in any Tactic deck yet, because he needs "ammunition" in form of cards. So with the support from Lore deck, he could serve well, but... I hesitate to adjust the whole strategy because of one non-unique ally.

Otherwise, I'm quite satisfied what Core set offers for allies. They are all somehow usable, even that Horseback Archer is solid.;)

Another nice article from Silblade. And I'm glad I read it, since I hadn't considered that if you kill a one hit point enemy with surge when it is revealed, you don't have to resolve the surge. I freaking HATE SURGE!

The only other comment I have for now is about the strategy of using Citadel Plate on Gimli. It's useful of course, but if a "When Revealed" effect ends up stripping the attachment from him, he can end up dead. Which is annoying.

Thank you, Vince79!

Truth, thanks to Thalin you needn't solve the Surge from Eastern Crows anymore. Only thing players shouldn't forget, is triggering Forced effect, which commands you to shuffle Crows back to the encounter deck.

Yes exactly, you should guard with attention the shadow effects of some cards, which force you to discard attachment from defender / any hero you control. The worst thing that could happen, is undefended enemy with shadow card, which commands you to discard all attachments. One more reason for usefulness of Hasty Stroke .:)

Hey guys, I have made just a little update in the article of Tactic sphere. I felt that some short introduction of the sphere was missing, so I finally add the intro.:) These "intros" will take a place at the beginning of every next review article.;)

On 1/23/2019 at 4:14 PM, Silblade said:

@Wandalf the Gizzard Hehe, don't think it was created in a couple of days.:) I have started with the Core set in autumn last year, but I was very motivated to complete it.

Sounds like you started about the same time I did. I started last September, and I've also been very enthusiastic about it.

On 1/23/2019 at 12:10 PM, dalestephenson said:

Due to the unavailability of reprints, we can't predict what the progression will be for any individual player. Sands of Harad just got reprinted. Wilds of Rhovanion was the most recent deluxe. Mirkwood cycle is on the reprint list. It's entirely possible that a new player now working with the core set is more likely to move on to Harad

As a relatively new player, I've been trying to fill the holes where I can. The Angmar Cycle has recently become available, but I'm missing The Lost Realm. Anyway, my intention has been to progress through the game in order, we'll see if that's possible. I have all of the Shadows of Mirkwood packs except the Dead Marshes. Then I have the Khazad-Dum box, but the Dwarrowdelf packs have been unavailable.

All in all, right now I'm missing one deluxe box, four saga boxes, and 13 adventure packs. Wish me luck in completing them. Fortunately (?), I've been stuck on Escape from Dol Guldur for awhile now, so moving on hasn't been an issue yet.