I forgot to ask, John, where do you normally find most of the art you use - because it is awesome.

joezim007, I would probably say the top of discard pile.

Slothgodfather, you won't believe me... the google image search!

What do you search for in the Google image search? I can never come up with anything that good.

Most of these were found with "elf fantasy art".

fair enough. I know I was struggling for good ranger art, but was trying to find humans and there is definite a lot more/better elf art out there.

Valinor Phalanx is pretty sweet, but I think that with the number of cards that we have that can cheat an ally into play for free/cheap, they'd never create an ally that powerful. Interesting to think about though.

Just an idea like this...

Valinor Phalanx can only be played from your discard pile.

After Valinor Phalanx is destroyed, add him to the victory display.

It would pretty much cover most of the cheap/free way to place him into play. I think the "To the sea! To the sea!" would still apply, just like any "reduce price to play next card by X" as they dont specify if they have to be played from your hand. Now its more a question of fitting it in the text box...

But now for the actual card, isnt hp=X a bit... well, I sometime hand up with +15 card in my discard pile with a high draw/discard deck (thx to Noldor!). 9 is a high cost, but for such a beast... good thing it cant have attachements!

Do remember that damage against it would not place damage tokens on them, but remove cards from your discard pile instead. And if there is ever 0 cards in your discard pile, then Phalanx would have 0 health too, which means it'll instantly die.

Oh I got that, but it can sponge a big chunk of damage this way. Not really a issue, just that this ability alone (health = # cards) make it even more super good (negated by its price... exept when you do discard card to reduce it!).

But its the 2 ability together Im unsure of. Either cancel the damage and reduce maximum health by 1 or take 1 damage and reduce actual health by 1, which in the end, will result in the same effect, except of course for these nasty encounter effect for having character with damage on them. so I understand why the second is better, exept if there was more cards counting the # of discarded card (or a 2nd Phalanx!).

I actually love both idea, but I prefer having the discarded card being counted in an event card just like the Eternal love! Btw, I love it!. I would (and this is just my opinion) prefer if the Phalanx had a static health (5 pts?) with its current ability of putting back cards to cancel damage (probably once per turn).

In a world where there is a lot more "play from your discard pile" cards, that hero might be interesting:

And, of course, what Doomed would be without good ol' Saruman?

Really like the concept of the phalanx including the way its health is linked to your discard which avoids damage but also removes cards from your discard pile and puts them at the bottom of your deck which is fairly detrimental for Noldor discard decks. I agree there needs to be a way to stop him being cheated into play though, playing it with say Vilya or Elf Stone shouldn't be possible because of its amazing stats and ability. Then again if you cheat it into play early game it is probably only going to have a few hitpoints which means it won't be very useful for defending, still 4 questing and 5 attack in an ally is insanely good so it does need to have some sort of limitation to playing it, perhaps even just text that says sometime along the lines of "If you paid less than 6 resources to play this card or put this card into play discard it". That way cards like To the Sea or Grima or whatever can reduce its cost but only by 3.

I really like the concept of very expensive yet powerful allies that have restrictions but can turn the tide of battle if you can afford to play them. So long as they can't be cheated into play and you have to pay close to the full cost or the full cost I think they wouldn't be that overpowered and so long as you put restrictions on them and perhaps make them unique so only one copy can be in play I think they could be really cool while not being overly powerful. This would also give you something to spend resources on towards the end of a game as many decks with resource acceleration can find themselves with very high resources towards the end of a game with nothing to actually spend them on. I also really really like the idea of allies that are not just one individual but a group that has banded together, we get plenty of enemy cards that depict groups of enemies so why not player cards as well?
What I think the main issue with cards like these would be is if you are able to completely clear staging as well as engaged enemies in a quest towards the end getting out allies like these would only make you more powerful and would only increase your massive advantage over the encounter deck, then again they are just allies so can still easily be discard by MANY effects and we are only seeing more hate for allies lately so perhaps this balances because of how much hate there is for allies (and chump blocking for that matter) in recent quests.

here are a few very rough ideas:

Riders of Rohan (Unique)

9 Cost Spirit Ally

Traits: Rohan. Warrior.
3 Willpower
5 Attack

2 Defence

X Hitpoints

Ranged

Cannot have Attachments
Action: Exhaust Riders of Rohan to declare them as an attacker (and immediately resolve this attack) against a non-unique enemy in the staging area. If the chosen enemy is not destroyed by this attack it gets +5 Engagement cost until the end of the round.

X is equal to the number of Rohan Allies you control.

When this card enters play, if you paid less than 6 resources to play this card or put it into play discard it immediately.

Dwarven Company (Unique)
9 Cost Leadership Ally

Traits: Dwarf. Warrior.

3 Willpower

3 Attack

3 Defense

X Hitpoints

Cannot have Attachments.
Whenever Dwarven Company is declared as an attacker it gets +1 attack until end of phase so long as a Dwarf hero is also participating in the attack (limit once per round).

If Dwarven Company is damaged while defending against a non-unique enemy attack you may discard Dwarven Company to discard that enemy.

X is equal to the amount of Dwarf heroes you control +2
When this card enters play, if you paid less than 6 resources to play this card or put it into play discard it immediately.

Silvan Host (Unique)

9 Cost Lore Ally

Traits: Silvan. Warrior. Ranger.

3 Willpower

5 Attack

2 Defence

X Hitpoints

Ranged.

Cannot have attachments.

As long as Silvan Host is ready, all Silvan and Noldor characters gain Ranged.

At the beginning of each combat phase as long as Silvan Host is ready you may deal up to 2 damage distributed amongst enemies engaged with players.

Exhaust a hero with the PRINTED Silvan Trait to ready Silvan Host.

X is the number of Noldor or Silvan heroes you control +2

When this card enters play, if you paid less than 6 resources to play this card or put it into play discard it immediately.

Some of these are probably way too powerful or are useless but I wanted to have a crack at them anyway just for fun. They all have WAY too much text as well It would be great if FFG did something sort of along these lines but actually playable and balanced and without a million lines of text!

Printed Silvan Trait to avoid Boromir with Elf Friend readying Silvan Host to destroy everything in play and the Dwarven Company has lower stats than the others as it will inevitably be boosted by Dain.

That's a fantastic bet for a hypotethical Saruman hero

I like the host, with a couple thoughts.

Not sure why it can't have weapons, armor, or mounts (especially mounts). I think discarding an ally is pretty costly. As a result, I honestly don't think you need the once per phase cap. If someone wants to sack 3 allies to ready it 3 times to clear the board I say good job.

I think the absolute best thing about the card (or any "host" card) is the restriction against putting it into play. Make people pay the cost so that the extreme power is justified. It makes it so stuff like Caldara can still exist.

Nice card .. what about making the hosts WIL, ATK & DEF to X, where X is the number of Rohan allies in play? For the Cost .. 9 - X?

Well, then you would play it for 0 with no other allies around, and then spam other allies to blow it out of proportion

Well, then you would play it for 0 with no other allies around, and then spam other allies to blow it out of proportion

Öhm .. 9-X, where X is 0 ist 9, or miss i something?

You meant that "9-X" is an entire cost? How do you intend to fit 9-X into the cost box?

You could print 9 in the cost box, then have an ability that lets the cost to pay him by X. In any case, I don't like the idea of making an ally cheapest when it is at its strongest. Seems silly to me.

How does this version of Sruman work with hero Gandalf? Is he considered to have his icon when playing a card from the top deck? Also, the "you may" part of the second ability is redundant as it is already a response.

I would say Saruman's ability is static and therefore updates with the changes on the field, so he'd have the icon when Gandalf gets his.

I guess at this short window when Gandalf has all 4 printed icons, Saruman would copy them for that same time window.

Then he would be Saruman of Many Colors!

I have no idea what am I doing

I think that card need some kind of readying effect to be viable.

4 wp

1 attack

1 def

3 hp

At the end of the quest phase, if he is ready .... ^^