Hmm, thinking about it I do see that the card draw is overly cruel to the poor encounter deck Potential triple whammy of positive effects.

Alternatively:

Response: After Hero of Gondolin defends against an attack, discard a card from your hand and deal 1 damage to each enemy engaged with you. Draw a card for each enemy destroyed by this effect.

Well considering most things have 2+ HP, doing 1 damage to them during defense is not likely going to ever kill them unless you took earlier actions to damage them through other card effects. Or you could keep enemies around with 1 HP left for the next round of defense before you could get "reliable" use out of this effect. The fact that this pretty much only kills Carrion Birds reliably shows that it isn't really too OP. Sure, with the spear you can take out a 2 HP guy. But we haven't really seen 2 HP enemies that often, and you can't compare new cards to the old quests due to natural power-creep anyways.

I'd definitely keep his stats the same and just make him 10 threat.

I like it! Just don't dig too deep...

I like it! Just don't dig too deep...

Can't help thinking that it would be thematically more apt as a new version of Balin (or possibly Thror?).

Well considering most things have 2+ HP, doing 1 damage to them during defense is not likely going to ever kill them unless you took earlier actions to damage them through other card effects. Or you could keep enemies around with 1 HP left for the next round of defense before you could get "reliable" use out of this effect. The fact that this pretty much only kills Carrion Birds reliably shows that it isn't really too OP. Sure, with the spear you can take out a 2 HP guy. But we haven't really seen 2 HP enemies that often, and you can't compare new cards to the old quests due to natural power-creep anyways.

I'd definitely keep his stats the same and just make him 10 threat.

That seems pretty strong. You can't look at cards in isolation. You need to consider the entire career pool.

Can't help thinking that it would be thematically more apt as a new version of Balin (or possibly Thror?).

Yes, probably.

I like it! Just don't dig too deep...

Can't help thinking that it would be thematically more apt as a new version of Balin (or possibly Thror?).

Agreed. In any case I really like this card. It gives us a more "thematic" approach to the dwarf trait. Plus it turns Zigil Miner into a dual threat... card draw and resource generation. Kinda kills Erebor Hammersmith though, despite the fact that he is a dwarf and would normally have good synergy with ZM.

How would that wording interact with Dwarf cards that are played as they are discarded? Seems like they would no longer work.

How would that wording interact with Dwarf cards that are played as they are discarded? Seems like they would no longer work.

The original intention was to not affect those cards, but it seems with the current wording it will. I need to think of something...

Ok, will this properly take care of business?

I would probably put Desperate Alliance and Will of the West in that deck

This guy, plus Thalin, plus a Spear of the Citadel = 3 damage to every enemy before they get a chance to hurt you.

That seems pretty strong. You can't look at cards in isolation. You need to consider the entire career pool.

The spear is only to one enemy, not every enemy, so at best you get a reliable 2 dmg to every enemy. I'm not saying it isn't powerful. I'm saying it likely isn't killing guys without a lot of extra work to actually get card draw out of the effect.

I would probably put Desperate Alliance and Will of the West in that deck

Oh, man...

Cool card!

Nice mechanic, but how how do you explain it thematically? The more enemies on his tail the faster he runs?

With ranged and sentinel, he's obviously quick on his feet and can cover a lot of ground in a fight. I like that his ability is actually counter to his keywords, so if he's not using those keywords to partake in fights that aren't his own, then he is able to cover more ground rooting out various threats.

Still, it's strange. The more enemies he's engaged with, the better he is at scouting.

I do love the effect apart from that though.

I feel like it is part of the Dunedain flavor of wanting to engage enemies, like expert tracker. The idea is that the enemy is being drawn into a trap. As the enemies are drawn out the locations from which they come are no longer a threat. I don't have a problem with the flavor.

Nice mechanic, but how how do you explain it thematically? The more enemies on his tail the faster he runs?

Dunedain loves to engage, Lore loves to place progress. And drawing cards.

If you want a thematic explanation: he observes the movements and gossip among the massing of the enemies, and it gives him "information" about the surrounding areas in the form of progress on said locations.

Not quite a creative card per se , but something I'd like to see

This one I created myself, except for the image (I applied the same reasoning behind Gandalf Hero - Gandalf Ally; I reduced each stat by 1 while increasing hit points by 1):

Wow, that's a cool Saruman! I think the idea of raising your threat to grant a resource icon is clever, but the bad thing is that it doesn't work with Doomed, so no combos with Keys of Orthanc and Isengard Messenger and whatnot, which would be so great to revisit. How about "Action: Give the next card you play this round doomed 2. Until the end of the round, Saruman is considered to have the printed resource icon of that card. Limit once per round." That could help more towards fitting him into a Doomed strategy which is what your version strikes as trying to do. Now obviously that would be a bit harmful in multiplayer, but that's why there could be an attachment, for example, that protects the other players from 1 doomed card or something. Finally, since you'll be raising your threat anyway and Saruman himself starts with 14, I'd make him 3 willpower and 2 defense, I know that's changing the model from the ally, but he just needs to pull his weight.

Just something to ponder. Anyway I love your version! I always like it when people come up with more Saruman heroes as he's my top most wanted hero in the actual game.

Last "piece of art" for today; it took me more than a few minutes to actually find the paragraph in which Tolkien "described" Saruman's Staff. The image I got from Pinterest (the artist is credited as always).