Gizlivadi said:
Well, yeah, regarding its playability, it's pretty terrible… Exhausting Palantir and the Noble hero to draw up to 3 cards? and that's only if the three cards were the same type, which is highly unlikely in most scenarios, and if not, raise your threat by 2? Terrible, considering we can draw 2 cards securely with Beravor.
Yes, Beravor has a better draw-ability built in. However, we can't all use her every game, particularly if we're playing a co-op game.
Of course there is a couple drawbacks to using the card (threat generation and exhaust hero). But the argument that it's restrictive because it has to be a Noble hero is a bit misleading as a high percentage of the heroes are Noble (75% of the core set, for example). You still have to deal with exhausting a hero, but since Unexpected Courage makes it into EVERY deck that it possibly can, this is a pretty easy fix. And since some heroes have a fix built right into them, it's even easier (depending on your deck). Boromir (core) leaps into mind as an obvious candidate. Granted using his readying ability and the Palantir will create the need for some serious threat control/reduction. But pair him with a Spirit hero and the threat reduction events and it's definitely doable. Imrahil is also a strong possibility. Pairing it with Denethor and UC GUARANTEES that you can get positive results with it every turn. Or simply putting it in a deck with Henemarth Riversong gets you the same result. And as stated by someone else above, the ability to know definitively what the next three encounter cards are going to be is HUGE, even if it does carry a penalty with it.
So, yes, there is a price for using this card. but I think it's a VERY well-balanced card, and that is SHOULD have that dangerous element to it (just as using the Palantir in the books was). Not too powerful so that anyone is going to cry "broken", but with big enough potential value to make it worth it. And it's also going to require some thought and strategy to get the best use of this card, definitely not an "easy" play that you can just throw into a deck and use without some severe repurcussions if used poorly.
Oddly, for as much grief (or support) as Glaurung gets from people on this board, this card made me think of him… lol. He's always harping about how this game needs to be harder or more difficult to strategize. While I don't think this card makes the game harder, per se, it definitely will require better plans of strategy than just plunking all the easy to use "power" cards into a deck!