Hello players!

The next adventure pack, A Journey to Rhosgobel , is ready for your reading! Check the link below:

Link: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2019/05/27/player-card-review-a-journey-to-rhosgobel/

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.

Have a nice reading and please, leave comments. I'm looking forward to your opinions!

Silblade

Quote

In fact, you pay only 2 regular resources for Landroval, the rest of the resources are “for free”, from Radagast’s pool

Not for free : you had to pay 5 resources for Radagast before that (which you could use to pay for Landroval) and wait 3 turns before Radagast gains this 3 resources (and you still pay 2 more from your heroes). In final, you paid 7 resources and 3 turns to get Landroval (and a 2-willpower ally)

Radagast generate resources, but don't forget you have to pay 5 for him, that means you have to wait 5 turns before he refunds his own price (or 3-4 turns if you considers his 2 willpower)

There are several possible other uses of Infighting, such as moving damage from low defense enemies that you can easily damage to high defense enemies that you can't, or moving damage onto enemies that are otherwise hard to attack (e.g. they hide in the staging area). There may also be enemies that punish you when you attack them, though I can't think of any right now.

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 8:36 AM, Miceldars said:

Not for free : you had to pay 5 resources for Radagast before that (which you could use to pay for Landroval) and wait 3 turns before Radagast gains this 3 resources (and you still pay 2 more from your heroes). In final, you paid 7 resources and 3 turns to get Landroval (and a 2-willpower ally)

Radagast generate resources, but don't forget you have to pay 5 for him, that means you have to wait 5 turns before he refunds his own price (or 3-4 turns if you considers his 2 willpower)

I didn't think about it in long-term, rather in the current-term: you have got 3 resources on Radagast , now you can use it for paying of some Eagles . If you have Landroval , you pay from him 3 resources and 2 from heroes, if you have Winged Guardian , you pay from Radagast 2 resources and you won't touch any resources from heroes. So in fact, you got Winged Guardian for free, because i consider Radagast's resource pool as something extra.
It was an example with Landroval: I expect that players would play Radagast not only for him, but also for other Eagles .

Comments:

Prince Imrahil -- I'm not as high on Prince Imrahil, because of the three defensive strategies I consider chump-blocking by far the least efficient. Yes, you get double duty from Imrahil that way, but it's costing you the resources and card draw you put into the chump. As better defenders and more reliable defensive strategies come into play, his ability doesn't synergize with anything in-sphere except sneak attack in the quest phase. (Like Gandalf leaving play, Sneak Attack in the combat phase readies Imrahil too late to be useful. So all you are left with is the go-away of Rohan and Eagles. The trouble here is that only Vassal/Guardians typically go away for Eagles, and the Vassals are typically going away too late -- and it won't be until SpTheoden and Gamling come around that the Rohirrim are going to ttrigger him frequently. Where Imrahil really shines in a solo deck is with the Silvans, between the events and Elven-King he can ready every turn -- but not for a long time yet.

However, Imrahil does have an advantage in that *any* character will trigger him, so in multiplayer the chances of him being triggered can go up dramatically even without an explicit chump block strategy.

Dunedain Quest -- yes, 2 resources for 1 willpower is underwhelming, but at this point of the game is also standard. The ability to move it around can be situationally useful, though not as useful as Warning/Mark where the movement lets you use the boost multiple times *in the same phase*, not really the case for questing.

Parting Gifts -- Gloin really is the best here, simply because you know where the resources are coming from with him around. While Leadership generates more resources than other spheres because of Steward of Gondor, this only synergizes with that attachment if you put SoG on a leadership hero, not always what you want to do. Two cycles away, Errand-Rider and A Good Harvest fire this card completely.

Landroval -- I prefer Landroval to Fortune or Fate in that he can do something useful while waiting for a hero to die. But it's expensive insurance for something you hope won't happen. Note that a hero has to be destroyed, self-discarding heroes can be retrieved by Fortune or Fate but can't be by Landroval, which is why Fortune or Fate is found more often in actual decks (thanks to pre-errata Caldara) than this card.

To the Eyrie -- it would be a cool card if it cost zero. At 2 cost it's way too expensive to use. The spoiler comment about the utility of Vassal/Guardian is an odd one -- the future where those two are Tactics staples is short lived, as one-shot attackers are displaced by attackers who stay in play, and Defender of Rammas displaces the Winged Guardians, at least for solo decks.

Escort for Edoras -- six stars seems way too much. Escort is essentially an event, but while 2 cost is a fair price for 4 burst questing, but the necessity of committing to the one-time shot *before* you need 4 willpower damages the value somewhat. Unless you're trying to get some more mileage out of Imrahil, this Rohan ally gives me less bang for the buck than West Road Traveller will later in the cycle.

Ancient Mathom -- great value, terrific card. Yes, it's deferred, but deferred card draw isn't a terrible thing -- at game start you have more cards than you can afford to play; as the quest continues and you get (ordinarily) one card and three resources per turn the situation reverses. Fine payoff. If you get location lock and can't ever clear a Mathomed location, you have deeper issues than the card and resource you used could have fixed.

Haldir -- nice all around ally, but 2/3 defense is take-a-hit-and-survive territory, not repeatable defense outside quests that feature only weak allies (such as the swarming goblins of the next cycle). The spoiler here is a bit odd -- Haldir neither has enter-play abilities nor synergizes with Silvans entering/leaving play, and at cost 4 won't be the target of Silvan return-to-hand events. He *doesn't* really get more powerful in Silvan decks, though his ranged ability does at least power up Rumil a bit. I think he's more common in early Vilya decks than in Silvan decks.

Infighting -- you're right to focus on Forest Snare -- that's the attachment that allows you to concentrate damage on a hefty but harmless enemy. Another possibility is those with non-immune enemies with Indestructable -- before the keyword is lost, you can pile up the damage and siphon it off with infighting as needed. Absent a pile of damage to move, the dings from guys like Thalin are often too small to bother moving -- however the potential for this card when you *can* use it is great since it's an action, not a combat action. You can nuke a *newly revealed* enemy in staging before quest resolution. Booyah!

Radagast -- even in Eagles decks, Radagast can be uncompelling because it takes so long for his resource allocation to pay for himself. Yes, he provides 2 willpower in the meantime, but Eagle decks tend not to be solo decks in the first place, and expensive willpower generally isn't the best place for a combat deck to invest its resources. Eagles deck were one of the first tribal decks to form, but also one of the weakest, and outside that niche Radagast isn't worth much; however with Fate of Wilderland Ragast + his staff can return their investment much more quickly -- and in the same cycle you have a good number of useful non-eagle Creatures.

Well, for me Prince Imrahil is very good hero, whose ability is used almost in every round. And it needn't be your strategy to voluntarily let your allies die, or make them leave through other effects. I agree, that chump blocking is sometimes necessary, but a bit expensive strategy, which forces you to play other and other allies to be competitive and have a "defense wall" against enemies.
But you get often to the situation, when you have no other choices, if you don't want to let your hero hit significantly, or directly let him die. There are too many enemies with dangerous attacking abilities, and you have to resolve them. Certainly, you may influence that by your deck compostition and adapt your strategy. But often you have to defend with chump blocker, because you simply have no other and better choice. And when you lose some ally, you can change it into your advantage - Prince Imrahil. His 3 Attack is very good value and can help you "revenge" the death of your ally.:)

Dúnedain Quest - yes, it's a Shadows of Mirkwood standard that 1 Willpower = 2 cost. Still, I hesitate to pay this cost, IF the card hasn't any additional value. From that point, The Favor of the Lady is worse card than Dúnedain Quest, still Dúnedain Quest doesn't belong to very useful card. But in Shadows of Mirkwood , you are often glad for every point of Willpower, that's a truth.

I wanted to just simply show, that Eagles can be fairly used even in non- Eagles decks. Same is valid for any trait, but Eagles are mainly concentrated in Shadow of Mirkwood cycle. The good example is upcoming Vassal of the Windlord - cheap, fast, strong and Ranged ally, who can help you effectively boost some attack. It's alike you would have 1 cost event, which adds +3 Attack to any character.

Escort from Edoras is usable even many packs and expansions later, back there he was just brilliant, auto-included card - yes, he reminds rather event than an ally, additionally very fragile to damaging treacheries. But 4 Willpower for 2 cost is a good boosting of your questing effort, if you need to push hard. Frequently, "pushing hard" is one-time situation, where you need overcome overall Threat Strength in staging area, explore location and then travel to the most problematic location. For that, Escort from Edoras is born.:)

Radagast - in solo, monosphere Eagle decks seems oddly. Because I play 2-handed, I play monosphere Eagle deck + support deck. That's a good, comfortable envirnoment for calling these expensive cards, and Radagast may help you with paying Eagles .

I prefer Escort from Edoras for Escape and Hide tests, as only West Road Travellers and Arwen can match him for quite a while.