With all aspects of "player setup," including The One Ring, moved to "Setup 7.B" it is now very possible to discard that card due to encounter card effects during Setup 6 or Setup 7.A, or by choice with Hero Galdor's Ability. If it's in the discard pile at Setup 7.B, does it's text still apply and it's setup ability take effect?

We also still do not have an answer regarding whether or not it can be included in a loot deck, and then fished out with the setup.

Or is it that because it's immune to "non-master card effects" none of the encounter cards, galdor or the contract work? Is the text active at this point in the game?

Encounter cards, Gildor, and the contract all qualify as “non-master card effect,” and would therefore affect the One Ring. The only question is whether the Ring’s immunity has taken affect at that point, i.e.: is it in play?

51 minutes ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

Encounter cards, Gildor, and the contract all qualify as “non-master card effect,” and would therefore affect the One Ring. The only question is whether the Ring’s immunity has taken affect at that point, i.e.: is it in play?

I think in the booklet of A Shadow In the East is clearly explicited that you put the ring in play attached to a hero when you place the heroes in play in step 2 of the Setup. Even thought you (by the last rulings) resolve its Setup effect during Step 7B it's still in play (not in hand) so unaffected by non-Master cards.

1 hour ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

The only question is whether the Ring’s immunity has taken affect at that point, i.e.: is it in play?

I would say no, since something like Beorn's immunity (hero) is not in effect while he is in the discard pile, so I can't imagine why the text of The One Ring would be considered active and in play if it were in someone's hand or discard pile.

31 minutes ago, Alonewolf87 said:

I think in the booklet of A Shadow In the East is clearly explicited that you put the ring in play attached to a hero when you place the heroes in play in step 2 of the Setup. Even thought you (by the last rulings) resolve its Setup effect during Step 7B it's still in play (not in hand) so unaffected by non-Master cards.

Correct, the most recent ruling suggests an errata to the rules-as-written in the Shadow in the East book. Again, it seems to be another case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater in response to the Guarded Cards + Gray Wanderer issue.

8 minutes ago, EBerling said:

Correct, the most recent ruling suggests an errata to the rules-as-written in the Shadow in the East book. Again, it seems to be another case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater in response to the Guarded Cards + Gray Wanderer issue.

Actually for now both the ruling and the part in the booklet could still coexist if you put The One Ring in Play in Step 2 of the Setup as per its specific rules, then resolve its effect to search for a Master card in step 7B, as per general ruling about Setup effects of player cards.

I actually tried to ask Caleb a follow up about the recent ruling about the Contracts setup as to clarify situations like this, Thurindir and so forth. Let's see...

4 minutes ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Actually for now both the ruling and the part in the booklet could still coexist if you put The One Ring in Play in Step 2 of the Setup as per its specific rules, then resolve its effect to search for a Master card in step 7B, as per general ruling about Setup effects of player cards.

Except that both effects are listed under the same single Setup instruction (on the card), and the card provides no reason or justification to do the first part and the next part in entirely different steps and reads as if the one should be done immediately after the latter.

On 3/13/2020 at 7:58 PM, Alonewolf87 said:

Actually for now both the ruling and the part in the booklet could still coexist if you put The One Ring in Play in Step 2 of the Setup as per its specific rules, then resolve its effect to search for a Master card in step 7B, as per general ruling about Setup effects of player cards.

I actually tried to ask Caleb a follow up about the recent ruling about the Contracts setup as to clarify situations like this, Thurindir and so forth. Let's see...

Caleb answered me by saying that his recent ruling ovverides any past ruling about Setup effects so right now it seems basically all Setup players effects are moved to Step 7 (after the scenario Setup). I guess the odd part out might be the rules booklet from A Shadow in The East so a safe option could be to ignore the booklet and put The One Ring in play in Step 7.

Would it kill Caleb to admit that protecting Guarded cards in step two isn't worth the grief? I mean, nearly everyone is going to use Strider anyways!

23 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

Would it kill Caleb to admit that protecting Guarded cards in step two isn't worth the grief? I mean, nearly everyone is going to use Strider anyways!

So true. I've always agreed with him about every other rule change or card errata but this...come on.

I personally house rule that player cards with Setup effects trigger during step 2 and The Grey Wanderer should read, " Setup : Search your deck for a non-Guarded attachment with a printed cost of 1..."

I believe he also did this to make the Messenger of the King contract less OP. There are some allies like Lindir that can make for some crazy starts.

30 minutes ago, stimpaksam said:

I believe he also did this to make the Messenger of the King contract less OP. There are some allies like Lindir that can make for some crazy starts.

Yeah, even though I am not terribly fond of this ruling I think it was also made heavily with Messenger of Kings in mind, to avoid having some stuff trigger before you have finished setting up everything else (like having card in hand before drawing the hand and wondering what to do in case of a mulligan [even though Thurindir old ruling said to keep those card in hand even though you were going to mulligan, but MotK Lindir case would be something different than Thurindir or MotK Bilbo] or some strange shenanigans we have not yet thought about or involving some cards in the last couple of packs)

11 minutes ago, Alonewolf87 said:

or some strange shenanigans we have not yet thought about or involving some cards in the last couple of packs)

I haven't thought about that. I guess I wait and see what we get there. Maybe SP Aragorn, or another card, will have some crazy effect that makes this ruling justified...

1 hour ago, dalestephenson said:

Would it kill Caleb to admit that protecting Guarded cards in step two isn't worth the grief? I mean, nearly everyone is going to use Strider anyways!

Also it's not actually needed, since in Step 2 there is already an encounter deck, so Guarded cards would still work. If they are involved I guess it's more to avoid having them pull out stuff from the encounter deck that they shouldn't.

Well, maybe not. What if you played a guarded attachment and the thing that guards it is to be removed from play during quest setup? What if you chose durin's axe and it cleared the deck of certain locations and the quest setup read "each player search the encounter deck for a different location"? I guess I could see how messing with the encounter deck before the quest setup is problematic, but I agree with previous individuals who say to just the delay the guard until the first planning phase, or just specify that guarded cards can't be chosen.

Or just cut us a break and give us a free guarded card. We only have one hero after all.

5 hours ago, stimpaksam said:

I believe he also did this to make the Messenger of the King contract less OP. There are some allies like Lindir that can make for some crazy starts.

If that was a motivation, it strikes me as a poor one. Yes, it would allow Lindir to draw three cards at hero setup, not affected by the subsequent Mulligan -- but that's the only ability Lindir's got, so overpowered it is not. I broke down the unique allies as MotK targets here:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2377638/breaking-down-messenger-king-targets

Part III is the ones with "enters play" abilities, and Lindir is the *only* loser from the timing change -- a number of possible targets (LoFaramir, LoMablung, Meneldor, Tom Cotton) have quest-specific benefit from coming in later, and two (Orophin and Gwaihir) can benefit from Galdor's ability with the new timing.

I suppose the new timing makes MotK decks weaker *in general* due to the chance you won't get the hero you wanted and designed the deck for -- but that comes at the expense of nerfing you before a quest begins for no particular reason and is about as unfun as possible.

4 hours ago, player3351457 said:

Well, maybe not. What if you played a guarded attachment and the thing that guards it is to be removed from play during quest setup? What if you chose durin's axe and it cleared the deck of certain locations and the quest setup read "each player search the encounter deck for a different location"? I guess I could see how messing with the encounter deck before the quest setup is problematic, but I agree with previous individuals who say to just the delay the guard until the first planning phase, or just specify that guarded cards can't be chosen.

Or just cut us a break and give us a free guarded card. We only have one hero after all.

Durin's Axe clearing all locations out would give you a break -- but Durin's Axe clearing out the location you *wanted* to pick is more likely to happen and harms you. On average using Guarded with pre-setup encounter deck would work against the player more often than for it, I think.

But I agree that allowing a free guarded card wouldn't be a terrible thing.