I just think this guy is awesome. An absolute stunner if you have a deck he fits. I my past few games, his willpower was always over 10 on the round I wanted to finish the Hunt for Gollum. So, combine him with Gloin or Theodred or Steward of Gondor, throwing in Song of Wisdom also helps, and he becomes some quester. I have a deck where I never before considered putting Steward of Gondor on Beravor (as Lore cards are minority there) but I thought differently yesterday. Besides, the picture is lovely.

Have others had this kind of experience so far?

I think he is very good with Steward of Gondor but not sure if he is that much viable in a normal resource deck. When Steward of Gondor comes into play early, the attached Hero usually saves 15-20 or even more resources at some point. Then the Mapmaker is great to dumb all those surplus resources and give the quest a big go.

If you're not playing Leadership you will have to household with your 3 resources per turn and I'm not sure if you have the resources to fire up the mapmaker that often. If you pay him 2-3 resorces every turn you'll basically play nothing else, good if you dont have any cards in your hand anyway, bad if you need to pay for allies, events and other attachments. Take Faramir, he costs 1 resource more and when you have a stable amount of questing characters he should provide you with 2-5 willpower for free.

My verdict is: Mapmaker is great for getting rid of all that surplus resources from Leadership/Steward that you dont need but in another environment his ability is more for an emergency case when a location or enemy with especially high threat is drawn from the encounter deck.

For most decks, the Map-Maker is a fairly lackluster card. Its okay, but will hardly excel.

However, the Map-Maker turns into a power house in a tightly focused Lore/Leadership deck. Through in Steward and Gloin and you have a late game closer who can rival the abilities of Protector of Lorien.

The thing is, he is only one extra resource cost for what he does compared to others. His stats are as great as those of Erebor Hammersmith for the one extra cost. I think it is unwise to keep using his ability too often throughout the game, it is really the finisher. I now have him, Faramir and Protector and they really rival for the coveted spot of the best sprinter. Ever Vigilant Faramir can still often steal the show, he can usually increase by 14+.

So I completely agree, Map-maker does not fit each and every deck, surelly, but he can be really powerful if things are build around him. And it is not a bad thing to build a deck around resource generation in the first place.