Hey Guys

It's already a month since the core set was released and I guess most of us have already a large number of run-throughs under the belt.

So, obviously there are a lot of cards that are really powerful and some that just don't quite do the trick. I think there are a lot of cards that are very conditional, i.e. that can be extremely powerful when played in the right situation, but as often as not just sit on your hand until the end of the game.

Considering cost, overall level of power and playability, which card do you consider the most powerful? (Out of the core set cards and considering play in a pool consisting of core set cards only).

There are a lot of really strong cards in my eyes, but one card I always play and always helps me a great deal is: Steward of Gondor. Resource management is really important in this game and often I want to cast that 4-cost ally but just never seem to have enough resources. SoG is insane, an extra two resources per turn is a power-up that is unmatched by any other card in the core set. Especially in a two sphere this deck, having SoG in the early game often decides between winning and losing. Also the relative low cost at 2 makes this card very easy to play.

(Although it sucks that if I play it in the planning phase I cannot instantly use it to play other allies or attachments)

What other cards do you have in mind?

Two words: Northern Tracker.

Every game we play he either shows up and we win or he doesn't show up and we are overwhelmed by locations and our threat levels hit 50.

There are some sweet cards out there but our game ALWAYS comes down to that. Tonight for example, Leadership had the 5 point card that readies all characters so we decided to quest everyone then ready them back up to fight the 3 enemies out there. We ended up with like 27 willpower committed. We were looking forward to blowing out the current quest card then we drew encounter cards for the staging phase. We got 2 of those 5 threat strength locations to add to what was already out there. The threat strength was 30 and we had to then burn 3 cards from our hands just to break even. From that point we had to throw all our resources towards the Spirit deck drawing as many cards as it could to get at least 1 Northern Tracker. The Spirit player drew one the next turn (after we helped him draw like 5 extra cards) and played it and we began recovering almost immediately.

I don't think any card is most powerful in all situations - for instance, I've had great success with my three-sphere deck regardless of whether I got Steward of Gondor into play or not. Sure, it helps generate resources, but you need something worthwhile to use those resources on. The one card, I find useful in almost all situations is (surprise) Gandalf. But I'd like to highlight another card, I like getting into play, namely Unexpected Courage, in particular when playing Beravor. UC lets me use Bera's power an extra time (or let's me quest/defend/attack and then draw cards), which let's me draw more cards, giving me more options. Other heroes can also make good use of UC, say Glorfindel or Denethor to name a couple. Just my two cents.

The Berevor / Unexpected Courage combo is awesome and have been using a lot of late. I always end up exhausting my entire deck with nearly all my cards in hand, especially with Gleowine as well.

I agree with Northern Tracker as well. An extremely good Ally.

faith_star83 said:

Slight thread jack, but what are you basing that on? The planning stage is green in the game flows which means actions can be played generally through that phase.

You should be able to play SoG, then the action on SoG then use those resources for more allies/attachments or whatever else you want.

The only time this sometimes isn't possible is in a multi player because each player takes turns to play attachments/allies, so if for instance the first player had SoG played on him by another player the first player wouldn't then be able to bring more allies/attachments into play that round, as s/he would have already completed that step for that round.

IMO.

Elven Archer said:

The first time I played (and easily beat) the third scenario, I almost felt like I was cheating once my partner and I had gotten two of her Northern Trackers in play. Especially when you have more than one, their ability to quickly or immediately nullify and explore any Locations in the Staging Area is just fantastic, especially considering that they can save you from having to deal with some very nasty travel effects. The amount of progress they make themselves, and the amount of Threat they remove from the Staging Area (which speeds up your questing progress), makes the Northern Tracker hands-down my favorite Ally. On a related note, I haven't had much of an opportunity to be overly impressed with Lorien Guide, and perhaps the only drawback to Northern Tracker that I can think of (apart from the cost, which I still think is reasonable or maybe even a little low), is that your goal while using them is 100% opposite the goal of using Lorien Guide (e.g., wanting Locations active versus wanting them to stay in the Staging Area).

I also agree with the OP about Steward of Gondor being an extremely powerful card, and as others have mentioned, Unexpected Courage is essentially an amazing card in almost any situation; very rarely will a free, additional action not be useful in some way or another.

Although I don't think there is any one most powerful card (I can't even begin to think of a most powerful Hero), I think my contenders would have to be the following:

Leadership: Steward of Gondor, Celebrian's Stone, Sneak Attack (I see this card becoming only more powerful with new cards), Grim Resolve

Tactics: (I'm least familiar with this sphere) Thicket of Spears (although the requirement sucks)

Spirit: Northern Tracker (my vote, if I had to pick), Unexpected Courage

Lore: Self Preservation (amazing with Gloin), Forest Snare

Neutral: Gandalf (duh)

Hero:Aragorn

Ally:Gandalf

Event:sneak attack

Attachment:Throne of Gondor

servant of the secret fire said:

*cough* Steward *cough*

Nice thread.

I really like Sneak Attack. What a card in combination with Gandalf (obviously) but also with Beorn for instance (although I am yet to try the combo - and to design purple red deck). I would add Ever Vigilant to this strategy as well - you get to defend and attack with a mighty ally for the cost of 2. And you can even use Sneak Attack to quest (but only for a phase either way), at least I understand you can, I had thought otherwise, still have not read the official FAQ on this one.

There are so many useful cards, of course. So many great attachments. I have just remembered playing Magic so many years back and could recall that attachments were mostly useless as far as I was concerned. Here where your heroes are to stick the whole game, attachments are so useful even though you can still lose them (but not very likely yet). The three biggies there (and mentioned) would be Celebrian's Stone (if you play that striding ranger rascal), Steward of Gondor and Unexpected Courage. But all spheres have been equiped greatly already. Blade of Gondolin is so mighty with Legolas. And Forest Snare can be a great relief.

As for the allies, the Spirit sphere seems poorest safe the mighty Northern Tracker. Yes, what a card. I like Beorn very much (not least thematically) although he is rather expensive.

Spirit heroes also seem weaker than others but Dunhere is great. Glorfindel I like most perhaps - I tend to be bias with Noldor.

Well, I am sorry not to have answered the question yet, just ranting about. I will now. If I had to cast a vote, it would have to be GANDALF.

Kløve said:

Nah.I use it on Aragorn and Aragorn is the King.A King needs his throne .

lleimmoen said:

Seconded

I will say Steward of Gondor is extremely strong, especially in a deck which has Leadership as the minor (i.e., one hero) sphere. If I don't draw it in my opening hand in such a deck, I take a mulligan.

The Forest Snare would be another candidate for me, and Stand and Fight for its ability to include any ally you want into a Spirit deck.

But yeah, Gandalf for obvious reasons is the power card of the current game.

For me the rankings are:

1. Gandalf

2. Northern Tracker

3. Steward of Gondor

Let's not forget the most powerful encounters:

1. Hummerhorns (w/o Dunhere a massive pain in the a**)

2. Nazgul of Dol Guldur

3. Hill Trolls...

Gandalf, hands down; if only because you can use him no matter what sphere(s) your deck uses. Winning a game without Gandalf showing up at least once is a rare occurance.

pumpkin said:

Agreed, and one of the playtesters confirmed this in a threat on BGG.

Gandalf for versatility, and Northern Tracker for all the times I thought "aaah... I hope a northern tracker will show up on my next draw to deal with all those locations"

Not only would I agree that Gandalf is the most powerful card, but I don't think it's that close. Unexpected Courage, Steward of Gondor, Northern Tracker are all great cards, but the grey wizard wins this one going away. Incredibly Powerful in effect, versatile in application, and should be included in every possible deck no matter your sphere or number of players. In a four player game, everyone packing Steward actually hurts you. Everyone having a handful of Gandalfs is going to lead to you crushing the scenario.

For Solo play, it's Gandalf by a landslide, in a 2 player game, it is probably still Gandalf, but by a narrower margin. Northern tracker scales off the charts in games with more then 2 players and becomes the strongest card, because in any of the quests, there will be lots of locations in play.

Troopershark said:

I completely agree. In multiplayer, the Ranger dominates the game. The fewer the players, the less effect locations have. In a solo game, you can travel to one location each turn. In a 4-player game, you can travel to ONE location each turn. It is nigh impossible to keep up with the locations coming out in the 4-player game. It's Northern Ranger or die with those numbers.

Elven Archer said:

Nothern tracker has saved me so many times from brown lands wen i play solo.Especialy wen i have an active location on the quest card and at the second phase of the second quest 2 brown lands are in the staging area.Thank you nothern tracker.

ClydeCloggie said:

Took all three of my answers! Well, I've never been able to use Stand and Fight very well, but the other three...

Honorable mention to Sneak Attack, Faramir and Unexpected Courage.