I think I've had a pretty decent score in guesses what cards will appear. But so far I think I've never got close to what certain character's ability could be. So I am interested in your wild guesses, if we actually get Elrond in the Shadow and Flame (or later) and he indeed be a hero… but I have to start with mine.

Elrond

Sphere: Lore

Trait: Noble, Noldor

Threat Cost: 12

Willpower: 4

Attack: 2

Defense: 2

Hit Points: 4

Action: Exhaust Elrond to choose a player. That player reduces his threat by 2.

Too strong? Likely. I actually have little idea what he should do. Well, I have one as he was a good adviser and had a forsight but the former would lead to something like Gildor does and the latter to the like of Denethor. And I think Elrond's should be special. But then what? Give Lore a threat reduction, they've got one (feeble) in Needful to Know (Elrond's pictured even) and the big one with Strider. So it goes with the sphere ok. But I actually don't like the ability much. I think the stats are about right though, would be nice if Lore got a high Willpower Hero now that Glorfindel is sort of taken.

its a tough one- i seem to remember him being gil-galad's minstrel…..what do our minstrels do at the moment?

gleowine - draw 1 card

rivendell minstrel- search for song

Elrond- lore

refresh action- choose a sphere- elrond gains that sphere for the rest of the round

richsabre said:

Do you mean Resource Action? As refresh phase is the last phase of a turn while resource phase is the first phase of a turn.

yeah thats what i meant

yes, i like it. i like what they did with Glorfindel (though undoubtly very powerful) is simple. i think they might go for something similar with Elrond.

I like your idea richsabre, but I'm not sure about Elrond as Gil-galad's minstrel - "herald" is how I remember he describes himself when speaking about the end of the Second Age.

The stats can be whatever, but what I'd really like to see Elrond have a powerful racial trait synergy to be competitive with Dain rather than a one off power or small set of card synergies (like Glorfindel turned out to be). Racial synergies create much more thematic deck building as it actually encourages building around the theme rather than assembling unrelated pieces, although, to be fair, unrelated pieces tend to create a more vibrant deck building experience as it presents more options. I personally like the idea of something like " When a Noldor or Silvan character is damaged, reduce that damage by 1 ". This would help with the major downfall of the majority of the elven cards, their inherent frailty (DotN, Silverlode Archer, Rivendell Minstrel, Henemarth). Also it would make A Test of Will a bit less requisite on some quests if you are running a predominantly elven army. If a power like this was put into place, I would immediately be putting together an elven deck which up to this point there has been almost zero reason to construct. Although something like " All Noldor or Silvan characters cost 1 less to play from your hand " or " When a Silvan or Noldor character is put into play, gain 1 resource on a hero you control " would also be very welcome as narrowly applied resource acceleration.

I really like this take too. I love "racial" or "national" and any trait synergies. It may not necessarily be Elrond as Galadriel or Tranduil could serve that purpose too but definitelly, what I like about the game a lot is to see a thematic deck being a strong deck. It certainly helped the Dwarves and Elves are next in line.

jjeagle said:

But as Maglor took care of him for a short time, he had a good chance to become a great minstrel.

lleimmoen said:

Ah, very nice catch!

jjeagle said:

i was right (sort of) - i searched for a while as to where i d read that- its in the histories of middle earth in an early draft -

elrond is talking about gil galad in rivendell and Bingo (frodo) asks how elrond knows and he says he was the counsellor and minstrel of gil galad- so i dont know if tolkien kept this idea or not

richsabre said:

Ah, that's great - thanks - I didn't know that reference.