Hi to all!

I have a special surprise for you in form of the Final conclusion and overal evaluation of the whole cycle Shadows of Mirkwood (with Core set). I evaluated each sphere separately and chose THE BEST CARD and THE WORST CARD for every kind of card within the given sphere (Hero, Ally, Event, Attachment).

https://visionofthepalantir.com/2019/10/08/shadows-of-mirkwood-cycle-conclusion/

This article is the last one from my progression series, which concerns Shadows of Mirkwood. I hope you enjoy whole cycle and I'm looking forward to the next expansion Khazad-Dum, full of tenacious Dwarves.

Feel free to comment and share your own opinion, which cards you see as the worst or the best and why and which sphere is most favourite for you.

Silblade

My thoughts on this topic are as follows:

Dáin Ironfoot is of course a great hero, but in the mirkwood cycle alone there are not so many dwarf allies and heroes to play with. There are 6 allies to this point, of which 1 is utter trash (Brok), 2 are too expensive for their stats and abilities (Orc Slayer, Map-maker), 2 are great with a potent, yet no always useful ability (Miner, Hammersmith), and 1 is an amazing attacker, even without an ability (Axehand). Even if only including the latter three in a deck or fellowship, this means up to 9 extra attack and willpower, which is crazy. Even when not playing a dwarf deck, he is an amazing defender with 2 extra hitpoints compared to Denethor.

Now the question is, what defines the best hero of a sphere? Great stats or an amazing ability? The stats always come at a price with high threat, which most likely will make the game harder, due to earlier engagements. On the other hand, a great ability makes the game run smoother. And Théodred is an example of such an ability: An extra resource each round goes a long way to facilitate playing those expensive cards, especially in Lore. Sure it would be good, if he had an extra point of willpower, but I never felt, that I makes much of a difference. Aragorn requires you to spend a resource to get an extra defender or 3 extra attack, so I just imagine Théodred as spending a point of willpower so to speak to get an extra resource, which in my opinion is very much worth the trade.

And due to his low threat and awesome ability, Théodred is my favourite Leadership hero at that point. You can splash him into a lot of decks, that want access to his sphere, and he does exactly what his sphere does best: handing out extra resources. The low willpower hardly makes a difference: you start a little bit weaker, but you gain much more momentum over time.

My least favorite Leadership hero would be Glóin, as he only really works in specialized decks. Sure he can defend once or twice, but with only 1 point of defense he is very fragile and without healing he will not help you for long.

For the rest of the Leadership cards, I share your opinion.

Now on to Tactics: I agree with your heroes and the worst ally, but for the best ally I would pick the Winged Guardian, because I very much value a strong defender, even though he can get expensive over time. But I'd rather have an expensive defender than replacing my allies every other round due to chump blocking.

The best Tactics attachment for me is Support of the Eagles: an extra unrestricted 3 attack or 4 defense for the whole phase on a Tactics hero? Yes, please, I'll take that any day. Just be sure to include 3 copies of Guardian, Vassal, and The Eagles are coming each to find your cards quickly. The worst attachtment for me is Born Aloft: Returning an ally to my hand hardly gives me any benefits aside from using it on Eagles. Sure I can profit twice of enter or leave play effects, but Sneak Attack does this job so much better, as it works in any phase and only costs 1 resource instead of paying a second time for the ally. I prefer to let my Vassals attach to Eagles of the Misty Mountains and for the Guardians I prefer the less resource and card intensive way of just paying for their forced effect instead of taking them back to hand and paying full price again. Thus the title for worst attachment goes to Born Aloft. And it is not even spelt correctly.

For Tactics events and Spirit Heroes I agree again.

The best ally in Spirit for me is the Northern Tracker, as he singlehandedly solves the most unfun way to lose this game: location lock. Just throw them into your deck and they will take care of the staging area. And if you happen to not need their ability, they can pass as some decent warriors. It really is hard to pick the worst Spirit ally, as they all have their benfits.

But allies that need to be discarded for some use are in the lower ranks of my popularity list. At least the West-fold Horsebreaker can use his stats, whereas the Riddermarks Finest just stand there grazing before they maybe can explore a location. And with some Trackers in the mix, the horses are just not needed. Therefore they are the worst Spirit allies in my opinion. And please keep in mind, the Lórien Guide has effectively 2 willpower, when there is a non-unique active location. Do not be too harsh with her

There is hardly anything better than just straight out cancelling a nast treachery for one single resource, thus A Test of Will is the best spirit event (probably the best event in the game) and Unexpected Courage is the main reason why I have three core sets.

My worst Spirit attachment is indeed Nor am I a Stranger. It gives potentially a readying effect with Éomund or We do not Sleep and a willpower buff from Astonishing Speed. In any case you need to built some sort of Rohan deck, which I rarely do and We do not sleep is ridiculously overcosted anyway. And I never would dream to use Nor am I a Stranger to play Ride to Ruin, which would be a waste of a card and a resource. At least Power in the Earth has a 1:1 willpower to cost ratio, which only gets beaten by Faramir and is matched by Henamarth Riversong and Celebrían's Stone. If nothing else, it helps you combat location lock, though there are better options available.

My favourite Lore hero is Beravor: She is versatile in her actions and card draw is the second area next to resource acceleration that will help your deck getting up and running fast. The worst Lore hero for me is Glorfindel: His ability is expensive and limited , his threat is very high without in-sphere readying available, so you need access to spirit to use his stats properly and leadership for his ability. And even though Bilbo has a high threat cost himself, his card draw is more useful than Glorfindel's healing. And with Protector of Lórien, A Burning Brand and Fast Hitch, Bilbo can become a capable and reliable defender.

The best Lore ally for solo players is Henamarth Riversong to a point where he renders the quest phase trivial. The Longbeard Map-maker on the other hand really is as bad as he looks. Far too expensive for his stats and his ability is garbage. I would rather pay some extra for Gildor and have a stellar ally without downsides.

The best lore event again is hard to pick: Nothing comes close to Daeron's Runes but these are not yet available, so I will also pick Secret Paths and Beorn's Hospitality, for the reasons you stated.

A Burning Brand is so strong, that it works as a joker against almost everything when defending and the Errata will be justified, when it finally gets official. And while I do not think that the willpower debuff on Dark Knowledge is detrimental, as not every hero will be questing and therefore have no use for their willpower, the best Lore attachment just makes this one more or less obsolete.

For the neutral cards, I will agree with what you have said once again.

Yes - the main moment of glory for Dáin Ironfoot comes in the next expansion. Still, when I played with Dáin Ironfoot with only Shadow-of-Mirkwood-Dwarves, the boost is striking.

I understand THE BEST/WORST …. as the card with best "mix" of stats, cost, abilities etc. Starting Threat can also be considered as the measure of quality. In this case, Théodred has perfect Starting Threat and amazing ability, but the combination of stats/ability is sad, unfortunately. I don't mean clearly stats/ability, because hero with the bad stats, but with the super-ability can be THE BEST HERO. The problem is, that Théodred must be sent to a quest in order to gain a resource. And if he is not boosted by some attachment or event, then you HAVE TO quest for only 1 Willpower in order to generate resource. Sending character to the quest means exhaustion. And exhausted character can't become involved anyhow else in the other phases (namely combat). And Théodred is capable attacker, yet he in 99 % won't become an attacker, unless you prepare him (Unexpected Courage, Common Cause).

Where Théodred adds 1 resource, Glóin may generate many times more resources during a single turn. That's why I prefer Glóin over Théodred. Self-Preservation and/or other healing effects are necessary. With it, Glóin becomes a resource-generation-monster.

I see that many fans would pick up Winged Guardian as THE BEST ALLY. I use him in progression mode, within Shadows of Mirkwood cycle, frequently. Here I haven't any arguments, because I see both allies very close to each other - one is expert in defending, while other in attacking, both activities are important and both allies do their work well. Here I chose according to my own preference and I fully understand your choice.:)

It's truth that post-errata Horn of Gondor loses some of its glamour. And I agree that Support of the Eagles boosts the chosen character by a mad amount of stats. For Support of the Eagles, you actually need the support of the other Eagles (the card name is really pertinent). So you need the cooperation with other cards, while at Horn of Gondor it suffices when you just defend. The probability of a death of some ally is pretty high, so you gain some resources for that. To be honest, I use Horn of Gondor less and less, I actually can stand without this card. In the sense of Shadows of Mirkwood and in the sense of Tactic sphere, which NEEDS resource generation, Horn of Gondor shines and can help you a lot.

I love Northern Tracker on the board, cleaning the staging area from locations is huge advantage. But it's quite challenge to get him on the board, because of the saving resources for "quick events" like A Test of Will or Hasty Stroke. So playing him is matter of 3 rounds, in my opinion. In 3 rounds, West Road Traveller can already constantly contribute by his 2 Willpower. With The Riddermarks Finest as THE WORST CARD I can't agree. Probably each of us has a bit different strategy during the game, but I like this Rohan from one reason: he serves as "the first aid" if I need urgently to explore some active location/location from the staging area. Though it costs his life, I used his ability many times for cleaning nasty locations, thus decreasing Threat Strength from the staging area/exploring active location, so free place for a new active location is created.

Nor am I Stranger is horrible, useless card. The reason, why I chose Power in the Earth, lies in very little potential if some character becomes Rohan. Such character can be the part of some synergy strategies, while Power in the Earth has no potential at all. -1 Threat Strength to location doesn't worth it.

Denethor and Beravor are both just good and I couldn't decide, which hero should I highlight more. The decision fell upon Denethor, because of personal preference.

I can also imagine Gléowine as the BEST ALLY. I was also speculating about Haldir of Lórien.

Whoa, tell me please more about the errata of A Burning Brand. I didn't know that something is coming. However, some sort of restriction I would understand, because it's really too much powerful. Maybe something like "once per round".

Well, the difference between a 2 willpower hero and Théodred in questing is most likely 1 progress token per round, and this token I gladly trade for an extra resource every round without any further setup. In addition, he can pass resources to other players which I value highly due to almost exclusively playing two-handed or 2 player games. And true, Glóin may generate three resources a turn, but you risk him dying to an unfortunate shadow effect and then he needs healing or becomes a simple quester/attacker. With the right card pool he can become amazing (Song of Wisdom, Elrond and Warden of Healing), but there is some way to go yet.

While Support of the Eagles needs the support of eagles, they are easy to find in a deck with The Eagles are coming, even though Support itself does not have the eagle trait. But Horn of Gondor also needs other cards to work, without allies, it will not do anything at all. Granted it works on any ally being destroyed, but I prefer to have a solid defender in the first place, that is why I have chosen the Winged Guardian. And with such an ally and a tower defender with Dúnedain Warnings and a Burning Brand, the Horn of Gondor just barely does anything for me. It is great to ease the loss of an ally, but I just plan to not lose them in the first place.

Thanks to Théodred or Steward of Gondor on a Spirit hero, I have plenty of Spirit resources to spend on my Northern Trackers. And due to A Burning Brand, I do not even bother with Hasty Strokes in most cases, except for the likes of Road to Rivendell.

West-road Travellers have one fatal weakness: a single Hitpoint. I love their willpower and their ability, but they are so fragile: Without cancellation they are dead when the first Necromancer's Reach comes out. And while they provide plenty of early willpower, they cannot get rid of location lock. In a single player game, they might be sufficient, as locations do not turn up every round, but the more players there are, the harder the Northern Trackers dominate.

Yes, we definetively have different strategies and tastes in card and that is a good thing, otherwise we would just be playing the game equally and then a many cards would not see play. With the Trackers I do not need first aid location control: They clear everything themselves, even if it takes an extra round compared to the Riddermark Finest.

Power in the Earth does have some use against locations where you cannot/do not want to travel to like Great Forest Web, Necromancer's Pass, Enchanted Stream, Gladden Fields, The Eaves of Mirkwood, Fens and Mires and Dry Watercourse. Granted the Trackers offer a permanent solution for these and thus I have not used this attachment after the Core set. But for Nor am I a Stranger to work you need more work than with the Eagles and their Support. Mustering the Rohirrim only gets you Éomund and this combo is just too unreliable for me, I would just pick Unexpected Courage any day. This only leaves Astonishing Speed as We do not sleep and Ride to Ruin are too expensive or a waste of cards. At least Power in the Earth can be permanent.

Concerning A Burning Brand: Hall of Beorn already has the new version in the databank, check it out: http://hallofbeorn.com/LotR/Details/A-Burning-Brand-CatC?Lang=EN