I'm guessing most people, if you've played a deck multiple times have cards you just fon't play, or don't play that often. In our play group, the guy who invariably plays tactics never uses thicket of spheres, and I don't think I've ever seen Dark knowledge put into action, I'm sure you each have you own examples.

The question is, what do you do with these cards? on the one hand, useless cards are useful (!?!) for discarding - Eowyn's effect is the most obvious example, but I'm sure there are others i've momentarily forgotten.

On the other hand, more cards bulk out the deck. Is it better, to thin out the dead cards, increase the chance of drawing stuff you want, but then face the situation where you want to discard cards to boost Eowyn's willpower, and everyone's saying "i don't really want to discard, all these cards are really useful."

so what do people think? does a good deck need bad cards to work?

Thicket of Spears, Rain of Arrows, Stand Together. Oddly enough, all those are Tactics cards. Lore has Gandalf's Search that I removed ASAP, not sure if I kept Beorn's Hospitality for long either. Common Cause is a bit too situational to be of every day use. That's Events, pretty much all the Allies and Attachments find some use (except Power in the Earth and Nor Am I a Stranger).

Dark Knowledge for me is perfect on Denethor, who is great at blocking even as his vanilla self, throw in Burning Brand and/or Protector and he is a wall that "none shall pass".

My list of "never play":

Dark Knowledge (was replaced by Burning Brand in my decks), Thicket of Spears (I dont play mono Tactics, maybe this card will see use with the tactic song), Rain of Arrows, Swift Strike, Stand Together, Eagles are Coming, Beorning Beekeeper, Brok Ironfist, Longbeard Orc Slayer, Strength of Will, Power in the Earth, Westfold Horsebreaker, Mustering the Rohirim, Nor am I a stranger, Gandalf's Search, Beorn's Hospitality, Second Breakfast (it does nothing worthwhile and has the ugliest picture in the game).

These cards are either useless in my opinion or plain too expensive to cast for what they are doing.

All other cards have seen action in one or another of my decks.

Yeah MightyJim...there just seems to be some cards that aren't yet worth playing, or will never be worth playing. Most of us agree on what those cards are, but not always (as is the case with dark knowledge, though I never play it). It seems to always be more useful to pump your deck with good cards even if you are going to end up discarding some throughout the game.

DurinIII said:

I agree. I would rather have good cards that I have to discard than have "bad" cards sitting in my hand when I've got no need to discard them. I find that sometimes even good cards just aren't useful in all situations and that can make throwing away a "good" card much easier.

I can see where some cards may be useful when more cards that carry a trait would be useful but there are some that I will most likely never use. The green ally that you can exhaust to draw a card for example. Why? Green has so many card draws and you need beefy allies to block, not 1 HP paper tigers.

I disagree on Stand Together. It costs nothing and can be the difference between a hero getting killed or not.

One of the most seemingly overplayed cards that I find horrendous is Favor of the Lady. 2 Spirit for 1 WP? Why not just have a better questing hero or Protector of Lorien...or an ally with 1 WP...or....yeah. Not to mention that there's a lot of cards that remove attachments. Blue tends to be such a resource drain that I can't fathom spending 2 resources for that. Just take Eowyn and slap Protector of Lorien or +2 WP stone on here and that should carry you through most quests.

When I saw the title Gandalf's Search and Beorn's Hospitality, I was excited. To this day, it has remained a great disapointment to find out how bad these two cards are. Just terrible. And there are few that are as bad, if any.

I put Thicket of Spears aside right away. Now that the Song of Battle will be coming, it may become reasonable, even very useful at times.

Rain of Arrows, I'll probably never play.

Fortune or Fate, the same thing - although I have already considered it, and may some more.

Nor am I a Stranger does not seem very good. I have already utilized Mustering the Rohirrim - but this does not apply. And for the Éomunds effect, I think not.

lleimmoen said:

Let me little bit disagree with you About Hospitality. Beorn Hospitality is cool card for tournament game. If you have this card played in the last round you will heal all your damage and your last scores will be much better.

BeeGentle said:

Thalin for me is the sole reason to have FotL. WP1 doesn't cut it, while his ability especially on Eastern Crows quests is very, very nice. Protector I prefer to use for defending, not that I generally have a ton of cards to toss out. Celebrian's Stone is also tied in another deck, so options are limited.

BeeGentle said:

Chances are a 1 WP ally is only going to have 1 hit point, leaving them very vunerable to any card that deals 1 damage (all exhausted characters, all characters controlled by players with threat over 35 etc.) It's also nullified by 'when revealed' effects such as on Ungoliant's Spawn - all characters get -1 willpower until the end of the phase. For a character like Eowyn who's ALWAYs going to be questing, an extra boost to her willpower is ideal. Also, unlike Celebrian's stone, it's not unique or restricted.

Glaurung said:

True but there are ways to heal continualy throughout the game, which I think are more fit and they help not only the final score but the advancing of the play.

I would consider Beorn's Hospitality if it said all characters of one player or all heroes in the game. As it is, I think you can do better with the Daughter (in general) or Selp Preservation (Gloin and such strategies) or even Lore of Imladris which I am not a big fan of. I rarely come to situation that the damage would be spread over all of my heroes.