Per reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrlcg/comments/cubfbr/cards_to_come_spoilers/

Ask not who I am, but I have seen
the cards that will soon set the scene
but be aware, those that read on
For if you want no spoilers: be gone
Though cryptic, these messages contain
A peek into the future of this wonderful game

In a reflection, two faces I saw
Both unique, but features identical
One of a higher power, the other not yet achieving its prime
But both in play, at the same time
Yet this card between them split their soul
For they can never be under the same player's control

In a dream, I saw the spirit of Gondor returned
Through a princess from the sea, who's heart had yearned
For her husband across the mountains riding in a sea of green
Together with allies rarely seen
Those forgotten, disregarded folks,
Thrown into binders, or placed between bike spokes
Yet through her power, these allies you more easily will fetch
A daughter to her father, with an ability to match

Told through the long years, these tales I have heard
Of a mission to save a very large bird
But now on the horizon, a pair of wings I saw
and heard the sound of an Eagle, a loud caw
Once nearly defeated, has now come back
With razor-sharp talons, and a deadly peck

A group of people have come from far
Four heroes, but one of them a star
Who's light had recently been ignited
From game's start, a hero knighted
But these heroes walked alone upon the road
With no-one else to carry the load

A son of a father, who died at the gate
And a dwarf who's ancestor shared the same fate
Yet strong and capable he swings his axe
While he continues milling player decks
Though already used by members in an alternate form
This hero comes to help players battle the storm

Would wear a ring with total disregard
And acts as though he is an encounter card
His songs heard from afar, through forest and down
And wights flee when they hear the sound
Yet merry is he, and his wife as well
Older than time, among trees and rivers they dwell

To the west, I saw a creature with elven ear
Singing songs to Hobbits, and all that would hear
Though the songs of gulls he did fear
He has an ability not common in the sphere
Released in a product that already did appear
To those with a friend, this time last year

From sleep, I was woken by a sound
Of many footsteps from underground
Grim faced, yet determined the walked
And behind them ghosts and phantoms stalked
They vanished into the darkness, under the mountain's door
And after that, I saw nothing more

I will leave now, and go back to rest
But I wish everyone in this community the best

--Malbeth

Not sure how much is to be believed, but a work of art none the less.

Just for grins here are my takes:

1. This is the hardest. Some have argued that this will be another two faced card like gollum, perhaps Gandalf or Saruman, yet the line "both in play at the same time" seems to speak to me of a new version of the twins. I wouldn't consider the bottom face in play, but maybe the text says it is.

2. Lothiriel, daughter of Prince Imrahil and wife of Eomer. Spirit ally/hero that provides a discount for expensive allies.

3. Wilyador ally. Eagles decks rejoice.

4. Grey Company contract that allows four heroes but no allies. It might also require one of them to be Aragorn. Alternatively it could be spirit Aragorn who has no threat cost and allows you to play four heroes but no allies.

5. Thorin Stonehelm.

6. Tom Bombadil.

7. Gildor Inglorian.

8. Army of the Dead ally.

I also think #1 atleast has something to do with the twins. Whether a new version or something that they greatly benefit from for some reason.

the one of greater power and one not at its prime one does seem to be a call out to Gandalf white/grey. However, I think it just references that many find Elohir to be the better of the hero version of the twins.

4 seems to be referencing the hobbits, not the grey company

Lothíriel would be awesome, we already know of Tom Bombadil, Thorin Stonehelm and Gildor Inglorion. Wilyador would also be my guess. My bet is on the Grey Company, rather than the Army of the Dead.

Splitting their soul sounds like Voldemort, but this is the wrong game. The part of the reflection reminds me on Galadriel's Mirror, in which Frodo and Sam looked. This might indicate another Sam hero, though it makes no sense to seperate both. Alternatively it could refer to Boromir and Faramir.

Edit: As I am waiting for a Saruman hero (who is mistaken for Gandalf or vice versa), it probably refers to Saruman who cannot have Gandalf in his deck. Saruman the White is Head of the Istari, while Gandalf needs to die in the fight the Balrog first to become the White.

A spirit Aragorn as a fourth hero without allies sounds plausible.

My guess on the last one is actually a contract... oath of eorl

Also, I dont know how much stock to put into this random reddit post. I've been part of the game for only 2 years. Have things like this come out before?

Not to my recollection, but I don't think it's a random reddit post and I don't think it's a play tester either...

13 hours ago, Bullroarer Took said:

Not to my recollection, but I don't think it's a random reddit post and I don't think it's a play tester either...

Hmm . . . Care to elaborate? 🤔

This is pure supposition, nothing more. I think this is FFG/ANA branching out their advertising/social media and this is the equivalent of our Friday article.

22 hours ago, Bullroarer Took said:

Just for grins here are my takes:

1. This is the hardest. Some have argued that this will be another two faced card like gollum, perhaps Gandalf or Saruman, yet the line "both in play at the same time" seems to speak to me of a new version of the twins. I wouldn't consider the bottom face in play, but maybe the text says it is.

2. Lothiriel, daughter of Prince Imrahil and wife of Eomer. Spirit ally/hero that provides a discount for expensive allies.

3. Wilyador ally. Eagles decks rejoice.

4. Grey Company contract that allows four heroes but no allies. It might also require one of them to be Aragorn. Alternatively it could be spirit Aragorn who has no threat cost and allows you to play four heroes but no allies.

5. Thorin Stonehelm.

6. Tom Bombadil.

7. Gildor Inglorian.

8. Army of the Dead ally.

Awesome list and I agree with most of it.

1. Really feels like Saruman the White, or perhaps Gandalf the White. As it could refer to the passing of power from one to the next. And being able to have Saruman and Gandalf both in play but not under one player's control.

2. Totally Lothiriel, but I'm expecting something more akin to Gamling where after you discard a Gondor ally, return it in your hand. That would drastically improve the spirit Gondor allies.

3. Stoked!

4. Hobbits maybe?

8. Grey Company I'm leaning more towards

Does anyone else also want Wilyador to fetch Athelas for us to get some tactics Healing whenever you defeat an enemy? Haha

I want there to be Saruman but I don't see it. I make a solemn promise: If there is Saruman in the upcoming cycle, I'm going to purchase every AP and Deluxe box up to the one where Saruman is released.

1 hour ago, General_Grievous said:

2. Totally Lothiriel, but I'm expecting something more akin to Gamling where after you discard a Gondor ally, return it in your hand. That would drastically improve the spirit Gondor allies.

I already posted this on the reddit page, but...

I would love it if it gave the opportunity to return Gondor allies to hand for some benefit. Might seem silvan like, and I am not sure what the worthwhile benefit would be. Resource generation? Threat reduction? Card draw?

But the ability would pair incredibly well with prince imrahil: tactics version could go fetch out of deck, and after their limit use in combat, Lothriel could return to hand. Or if playing with leadership imrahil, the return to hand readies. Also, if you play with the tactics version of her husband, you get the benefit of the attack boost. I'd love that combo.

Just remembered we are probably getting a Thorongil card this cycle...

1 hour ago, player3351457 said:

I already posted this on the reddit page, but...

I would love it if it gave the opportunity to return Gondor allies to hand for some benefit. Might seem silvan like, and I am not sure what the worthwhile benefit would be. Resource generation? Threat reduction? Card draw?

But the ability would pair incredibly well with prince imrahil: tactics version could go fetch out of deck, and after their limit use in combat, Lothriel could return to hand. Or if playing with leadership imrahil, the return to hand readies. Also, if you play with the tactics version of her husband, you get the benefit of the attack boost. I'd love that combo.

That is a great idea and would be pretty cool. The only thing that is making me think something different is the poem/riddle lines, so let's break it down:

In a dream, I saw the spirit of Gondor returned
Through a princess from the sea, who's heart had yearned
For her husband across the mountains riding in a sea of green

- This pretty much confirms without a doubt it's Lothiriel, princess from the Sea falling in love with horseback riding husband over grassy fields leaves little room for any other interpretation.

Together with allies rarely seen
Those forgotten, disregarded folks,
Thrown into binders, or placed between bike spokes

- Ok so here it seems to be not referring to a generic Ally trait in particular as there are lots of good Gondor and Rohan allies. Unless they mean Rohan and Gondor builds in general are less popular, but I still recall hearing something somewhere about a Gondor Spirit allies. And there are three terrible Spirit Gondor allies that you discard from play for an effect and these are: Minas Tirith Lampwright, Damrod, and the recently released Derufin. Now we can already "Tactics Imrahil sneak attack" them into play because of the Gondor trait but no one does this because they are still having to be discarded for not an amazing effect. So what could it be that would make us even want to play these three characters, and the most likely to me would be some kind of saving from the discard pile to the hand/shuffle into deck ability. Other options are cost reduction for Spirit Gondor allies, potentially some other effect triggering off their discarding such as placing a resource on a Gondor Hero or Eomer (which would be cool since it works with Leadership Eomer to help him recoup his cost), or something else entirely. Perhaps there is a clue in the final lines?

Yet through her power, these allies you more easily will fetch
A daughter to her father, with an ability to match

-This last part makes me wonder if they mean match as in work together or match as in identical power with her father? The latter would be fun but not super original and to my recollection there hasn't been two heroes released with the same ability yet. But still worth considering as it could be the same as Tactics Imrahil's ability but with different traits: "spend 1 Spirit resource to search the top 5 or 10 (in reference to the easier to fetch) cards of your deck for an ally that shares the same trait and put it into play" perhaps her ability could be played at any phase, or put into play until the end of the round in order to allow the Lampwright to be able to work better. Then she could have Gondor, Rohan (since she marries Eomer and they also have some great discarding effect characters) and Noble.

To me it really comes back to the mention of helping terrible characters. So it begs the question what would make these characters worth playing over the far better Gondor (or Rohan) allies that could potentially be brought into play? Her ability, whatever it is could be restricted to Spirit or even more specifically Spirit Gondor allies to force that theme, but then it just makes her a worse summoning version of her father. So it leads me to think she either has two abilities, or a different ability altogether that will help those three mentioned Gondor Spirits allies. It doesn't make sense to me to have her be able to discard an ally for an effect as there are cheaper/better Gondor allies you can discard, and if you discard for an different effect than you can't trigger their discard ability. If she had something trigger in addition to their discard effect than that is certainly an option (and if it was Gondor allies in general that are discarded from play generating an effect it would help the terrible Denethor ally as well) or a way to recur that Ally. It certainly is interesting and as someone who has longed for Gondor to be as strong as some of the other powerful builds like a Noldor, Outlands, and Silvins I would love to see a boost to the factions and especially the worst cards in those factions.

If this is a new way of doing previews, I'm totally into it and it's sweet! I'm enjoying trying to decipher the riddles.

Another thought for the is the two identical characters could be the long rumoured and hoped for Blue Wizards.

On 8/24/2019 at 1:00 PM, Bullroarer Took said:

This is pure supposition, nothing more. I think this is FFG/ANA branching out their advertising/social media and this is the equivalent of our Friday article.

Huh, that is a possibility. It doesn't really seem like something out of FFG's drastically orthodox playbook, though. Well, I suppose it's a moot point.

On 8/24/2019 at 10:00 AM, Bullroarer Took said:

This is pure supposition, nothing more. I think this is FFG/ANA branching out their advertising/social media and this is the equivalent of our Friday article.

I have my doubts. I think if they were going to start attempting such unorthodox teasers, they would at least do so through their own forums rather than reddit.

It was on Twitter that FFG first told us that they had a bunch of reprints coming, so that indicates to me that they are branching out their social media. Obviously that poem is way to long to tweet, but it also represents a LOT of work from someone. Just feels like an inside job to me.

I wouldn't even call these spoilers, just teasers (if you can call it that) wrapped up in a unnecessary obfuscated poem. It's a throwaway account, this is the only post they've made, so if that's the case and they do have some info, why not go all out and actually reveal something? Until actual spoilers are revealed, I'd give this guy's words a heaping pile of salt. I vote for elaborate troll.

It appears the third stanza is right on the money... I think we should pay this a bit more attention now.

Third, fifth, and seventh are all confirmed now (Lothiriel; Forth, the three hunters; and Tom Bombadil). So it seems likely it’s all accurate.

On 8/23/2019 at 9:14 PM, Bullroarer Took said:

Just for grins here are my takes:

1. This is the hardest. Some have argued that this will be another two faced card like gollum, perhaps Gandalf or Saruman, yet the line "both in play at the same time" seems to speak to me of a new version of the twins. I wouldn't consider the bottom face in play, but maybe the text says it is.

2. Lothiriel, daughter of Prince Imrahil and wife of Eomer. Spirit ally/hero that provides a discount for expensive allies.

3. Wilyador ally. Eagles decks rejoice.

4. Grey Company contract that allows four heroes but no allies. It might also require one of them to be Aragorn. Alternatively it could be spirit Aragorn who has no threat cost and allows you to play four heroes but no allies.

5. Thorin Stonehelm.

6. Tom Bombadil.

7. Gildor Inglorian.

8. Army of the Dead ally.

A bit late to this party and with 4/8 already (5/8 if we count Gildor as a confirmed card, which is not the case) discovered it'll be less thrilling to venture, but oh gosh it's so fun!

@Bullroarer Took did a fantastic job here, so my take will be to re-think some of those unconfirmed paragraphs:

1. Leaning towards a double-sided hero, à la Gollum, but I see it as just one hero: Gandalf. Grey and White version but with the same name (just Gandalf), for consistency reasons (if not we could have Gandalf the X + Gandalf ally/hero at the same game). Unchecked .
2. Lothíriel. Checked .
3. Wilyador hero. Yes, it's a bit lame to give the hero treatment to a FFG-made character instead of Gwaihir or Meneldor but oh well. Maybe it appears on the story of this Vengeance of Mordor cycle, too. Unchecked .
4. Forth, the Three Hunters contract card. Checked .
5. Thorin Stonehelm (I can be picky that they didn't show the hero card properly, but given the promo card and the confirmation on the product page that we'll be receiving a dwarf hero on the first AP, this is a no-brainer). Checked .
6. Tom Bombadil. Checked .
7. Gildor Inglorion. I'll also be picky here: all the odds are for this card to be in this cycle, because Thorin is in here too and because it seems that after this cycle there'll be a hiatus for the game (you can watch Andrew Navarro's AMA), so it should be the best and only cycle for him. But I'll put it as Unchecked .
8. Army of the Dead contract. Could be awesome as an ally but for me is very fitting to be a contract card, as the Oath that bound that people to serve Aragorn. Unchecked .

Tfw second version of Gandalf hero and still no Saruman hero.

Are we convinced the "four heroes but one of them a star" is referring to the three hunters contract? Why the four? For saga? Though the last line does give it support...

1 hour ago, player3351457 said:

Are we convinced the "four heroes but one of them a star" is referring to the three hunters contract? Why the four? For saga? Though the last line does give it support...

I was about to post this exact thing. I see nothing in that stanza to support this referencing the three hunters.....not even the last line. What load were the three hunters carrying? ( the burden of trying to catch their companions?...that’s a stretch) And they didn’t walk upon a road..they gave chase across country.