First of all - it's a paid ability. And its in Tactics, a sphere with 0 resource acceleration.

Second of all, for it to be a "free feint", as you call it, the player must have sufficient enough threat to not engage that enemy automatically in the first place.

Third of all - removing it threat from the staging might be a decent way to go about Tactics questing, don't you think?

Fourth of all - for this "free dagger" you need to stay below the enemy in threat, which is problematic for tactics. Plus, his base attack is below average.

Pair him with Mablung, and it's a free ability.

Pair him with hobbits, and you should be fine. And against high engagement enemies, he is too good.

Agreed, but not as a cheap, repeatable hero action. Westfold outrider is a good example of an appropriate cost.

Pair with hobbits, or don't run mono-tactics. No one said you have to run the shadow with Tactics Aragorn and Beorn.

Nothing is free. In your case, the cost is including the hero that would negate the downside of another hero's ability.

And what is he going to do against those enemies with hobbits? 4 attack is still not enough to take down most of foes, and hobbits are not much of the help on the matter. And, in time, you're going to reach the threat where his ability would simple not activate.

1 resource is not cheap, 1 resource is the whole turn worth of his resources. It's once per turn. Westfold outrider is a bad example, because: a) he's an ally, and a cheap one; b) he can do his action even when exhausted.

Nothing is free. In your case, the cost is including the hero that would negate the downside of another hero's ability.

And what is he going to do against those enemies with hobbits? 4 attack is still not enough to take down most of foes, and hobbits are not much of the help on the matter. And, in time, you're going to reach the threat where his ability would simple not activate.

1 resource is not cheap, 1 resource is the whole turn worth of his resources. It's once per turn. Westfold outrider is a bad example, because: a) he's an ally, and a cheap one; b) he can do his action even when exhausted.

You make a good point. Part of the 'cost' of his ability is that you really want to include Mablung and/or hobbits in your team. That limitation to optimal potential teams means he's not inherently overpowered.

He only has 4 attack when naked. Throw a dagger or two on him and he's a machine. 4 attack out the gate is better than every single hero but Beorn (and Bard or Tactics Aragorn in a way). I actually don't dislike his attack boost on its own, but it's too much when coupled with his engage ability.

And I simply don't agree with you on the hobbit point. Sam is a wonderful hero that can be augmented to help The Shadow take down tough enemies. And Sam would often ready when the engage ability is used. Merry, SMerry, or Pippin can also be great teammates for The Shadow.

Of course 1 resource isn't insignificant, but it also isn't a high enough cost for a repeatable feint. Wouldn't you agree that the earliest rounds are the most crucial? When your threat is low and you're trying to build up your forces? That's exactly when The Shadow is at his best. He can ensure that the other two heroes in his team can dedicate themselves to questing and keeping threat low, while he pulls and kills enemies without a fight.

I don't see how Westfold outrider is a bad example. He has a very similar effect, but at a higher cost: discarding a 2 cost ally. You actually have to draw him and make the choice to sacrifice him for a great effect. I think he's a fine counter example to The Shadow's easy and repeatable action.

I quite like the idea of a seedier, common scout Hero. Anther scout hero would be nice, and I think the basic concept of an ambusher is promising. And I always love to see custom heroes, because they are so much fun to dissect and discuss (and because I'm a coward who won't share his own concepts).

Eomer has 5 attack when "naked".

Sam has more starting threat than hobbits usually do, and if you're including him, then there is not much room left for threat reduction.

It's not repeatable feint. It doesn't reads "Pay 1 resource to choose an enemy. That enemy cannot attack until the end of the phase/round.". It may give you a window to attack an enemy before it gets to act, but it would work only under certain circumstances, which are even harded to achieve hence the hero is in Tactics. "He pulls and kills" - there are a lot of enemies with low engagement costs, there are a lot of enemies with high health+def which will sustain him, he isn't a panacea.

And I do. Because comparing heroes and allies is incorrect in the first place. Discarding a 2 cost ally is not a higher cost. Exhaust and discard technicly would be, but not just discard. You will never see a clear picture when comparing different card types, never. Now what we can compare Shadow to is Tactics Aragorn which is completely bonkers. He can do the engaging stuff many times per round without flinching a finger, and he gets to do it while doing the one thing he is best at - attacking, and technicly, he has that 4 "naked" attack unless the enemies he is facing have printed 0 defense. Oh, and yeah, his armor reduction also helps not just him, but the entire team... and he does not hinders you resource-wise for this. All merely for 3 more starting threat.

I think that having just one of the abilities would be better and slightly more balanced. If you're going to give him both, you better do something to raise his threat a couple points.

And I do. Because comparing heroes and allies is incorrect in the first place. Discarding a 2 cost ally is not a higher cost. Exhaust and discard technicly would be, but not just discard. You will never see a clear picture when comparing different card types, never. Now what we can compare Shadow to is Tactics Aragorn which is completely bonkers. He can do the engaging stuff many times per round without flinching a finger, and he gets to do it while doing the one thing he is best at - attacking, and technicly, he has that 4 "naked" attack unless the enemies he is facing have printed 0 defense. Oh, and yeah, his armor reduction also helps not just him, but the entire team... and he does not hinders you resource-wise for this. All merely for 3 more starting threat.

I just realized that I've been over-exaggerating the power of The Shadow's engage ability. His ability is still more versatile and reliable (and costly) than that of Tactics Aragorn, who requires quick strike or similar cards to pull enemies out of staging during the quest phase. But then I compared The Shadow to Haldir (one of my favorite heroes) and I see that Haldir's pseudo-feint is in many ways more powerful than The Shadow's. Haldir doesn't need to pay a resource, and he can use his ability to save another player from an attack. Meanwhile, The Shadow is much less useful when paired with high-threat players, who will attract the enemies and eliminate the feint aspect of the Shadow's ability. But I still think his engage ability is very good for single player combat, when engagement is entirely under one person's control. Hama is also worthy of comparison, since he can cycle feint and pay 1 resource each turn, without being required to kill the enemy outright, though with the additional cost of card draw.

But even if we were to ignore the usefulness of his ability in combat, The Shadow is wonderful for questing. His ability to remove enemy threat from the staging area is useful for any team. While I completely agree that tactics needs a boost to its questing capabilities, I don't think this is the answer. And it's not as though The Shadow forces you to run mono-tactics. I would gladly pay 1 resource to remove 2-4 threat from the staging area, or to pull a particularly sticky enemy from staging. The Shadow can pull Bill Ferny on turn 1, removing 3 threat from staging and accelerating the removal of a very annoying enemy. I think there needs to be some limitation to his engagement ability. Maybe it can't be used during the quest phase? Maybe it can only be used during X phase?

I don't mean to imply that he breaks the game or is too powerful to exist, and I'm sorry if I've seemed dismissive so far. It's just that his ability solves a tough problem in a very straightforward, easy way.

Hama need to attack, need the card in the discard, you need to also discard a card from hand and pay for the event.

Haldir is one of the best heroes of the game. But he is offsphere for being a pure combat card and sometimes the deck reveal some cards that engage, which is somewhat common since he was released.

Aragorn is OP, but you still need to use events to help him and his high threat works against his Feint move. To feint you need to kill someone, so you need enough attack + quick strike, Feint + kill the guy, etc. Anyway, he is OP, but he is Aragorn and is printed. We cant do much against it. Same with Spirfindel, Dain, TBoromir, etc.

The Shadow ability is very reliable, you dont need to draw anything. You always can save one resource and if you playing him, you are playing low threat, which has its weakness and strengths. His ability is too versatile and all uses are event card worthy, even if they need some kind of condition.

Anyway, that is you card, you can do whatever you want =D

I like that Shadow better. The cost of a resource definitely helps prevent it from being too powerful. I was thinking that raising your threat by the enemy's threat would also be a good cost. That way he'd be similar to Fatty, except that you'd permanently take that enemy out of the staging area at the "cost" of having to fight the enemy yourself.

The two Orthanc characters are pretty cool as well. exhausting the characters for one progress or damage seems like a relatively steep cost and the reliability of having Doomed cards show up to trigger these makes the abilities something weak, but they make up for it a little with a "bonus stat point". If you can get multiple copies of each of these guys out and reliably play Doomed cards, then they can be pretty strong, especially when accompanied by a little more location control/direct damage from other cards.

The two Orthanc characters are pretty cool as well. exhausting the characters for one progress or damage seems like a relatively steep cost and the reliability of having Doomed cards show up to trigger these makes the abilities something weak, but they make up for it a little with a "bonus stat point". If you can get multiple copies of each of these guys out and reliably play Doomed cards, then they can be pretty strong, especially when accompanied by a little more location control/direct damage from other cards.

Those two Orthanc allies would be wonderful in a Grima deck. He's the most reliable source of Doomed you could ask for.

Of course but sometimes you don't want to use those abilities during planning because you'll want to know what the best targets are after staging. Still shouldn't be too much hassle.

Simple yet effective design. I like it!

Orthanc Scout and Hunter does not need to exaust to trigger. They are not powerful enough to deserve that and their abilities need other cards or lots of doomed to do something, since pinging for one at location/enemies does not do anything unless you can do it a lot.

The new Shadow is much more manageable while still being really strong.

Arwen has a cool and useful ability! I´m not sure why did you penalize her with +1 threat and being incapable of triggering her ability on herself. She is not powerful, just useful.

When I first saw Hasty Arrivel I felt it was not doing enough and was created in the wrong sphere (which would be Leadership). In my mind it was a resource acceleration that made a 3 cost ally cost 2 and also dealt damage to it! Not good enough for costing one card. After thinking a while, I realized it can put into play allies from any sphere (so being better then first look) and that the card deal damage, so feel more like a tactic card to me. Not sure if this card would see much play outside a deck that want to play non-tactics cards, but has a niche to play so is a good designed card.

In almost every deck Southerner is a worse 2wp 2 cost ally with a little improved stats with an ability that want to quest every round. This card as printed today would be a binder card unless we see reasons to play Bree or Scouts in our decks. I think that you can safely give him -2 threat to enemy target, just to give him a little bit of usefulness by being a "3wp" if you have a enemy in staging, so filling a niche that he is useful at.

I really like Hidden Blade! His +2 is a lot less reliable then most tactics cards we have, which is OK, since it is a non-combat sphere. Perfect and elegant card.

Didn't you noticed that Squint-eyed Southerner can enable Hidden Blade?

I really like Hidden Blade! His +2 is a lot less reliable then most tactics cards we have, which is OK, since it is a non-combat sphere. Perfect and elegant card.

I don't see how it's a lot less reliable than the tactics weapons that we have. Every ranger hero has 2 Willpower to start, so the hidden blade is a 1 cost weapon that gives +2 attack against a good fraction of enemies. If you boost them up to 3 Willpower, then there are very few enemies left that can overcome the boost.

The Rivendell Blade, I grant you, is extremely reliable, since most enemies have 2 defense. The Bow of the Galadhrim's +2 is pretty reliable in multiplayer, but it requires a Silvan character with ranged. The Dagger of the Westerness is a favorite of mine, but its +2 depends on engagement cost, which is great for hobbits and other low threat decks, but not as good for a Dunedain ranger deck. And lastly, The Spear of the Mark is pretty unreliable, unless you go all out for a Dunhere deck.

All in all, I think the Hidden Blade would be +2 more often than not, which would be an extremely powerful addition to a lore deck. I actually think the card should require the attacking hero to have a higher willpower than the enemy's threat. That would reward clever use of cards like Secret Vigil, Squint Eyed Southerner, and willpower boosting attachments to get the full effect.

I really like Hidden Blade! His +2 is a lot less reliable then most tactics cards we have, which is OK, since it is a non-combat sphere. Perfect and elegant card.

I don't see how it's a lot less reliable than the tactics weapons that we have. Every ranger hero has 2 Willpower to start, so the hidden blade is a 1 cost weapon that gives +2 attack against a good fraction of enemies. If you boost them up to 3 Willpower, then there are very few enemies left that can overcome the boost.

The Rivendell Blade, I grant you, is extremely reliable, since most enemies have 2 defense. The Bow of the Galadhrim's +2 is pretty reliable in multiplayer, but it requires a Silvan character with ranged. The Dagger of the Westerness is a favorite of mine, but its +2 depends on engagement cost, which is great for hobbits and other low threat decks, but not as good for a Dunedain ranger deck. And lastly, The Spear of the Mark is pretty unreliable, unless you go all out for a Dunhere deck.

All in all, I think the Hidden Blade would be +2 more often than not, which would be an extremely powerful addition to a lore deck. I actually think the card should require the attacking hero to have a higher willpower than the enemy's threat. That would reward clever use of cards like Secret Vigil, Squint Eyed Southerner, and willpower boosting attachments to get the full effect.

As you said, all tactics weapons work 90% of the time in their decks. They have easier time triggering.

Hidden Blade is reliable against low threat enemies, but there is a lot of strong enemies with 3-4 threat that are common. Also, most bosses are 4-5 threat and against then that Hidden Blade is most required. I think hidden blade would work 70%, maybe a little less of the time. And that is OK, since its a weapon in a non-combat sphere, so it is not supposed to be as good.

Boosting WP is hard, costly and generally temporary. Unless you relying in Celebrían's Stone which is off-sphere, cost 2 and unique, you will have a hard time finding a good card that can be easily slotted.

Didn't you noticed that Squint-eyed Southerner can enable Hidden Blade?

I did, still not good enough. He is off-sphere, cost 2 (so a lot harder to play), the enemy need to appear and stay alive for the turn, so next turn you can commit Southerner to -1 threat him. Man, this is a lot of work! Two cards across two spheres and letting enemy to stay in stating for another turn or attack twice. Hidden Blade can do work alone, Southerner alone doesn´t do much.

Just saying that you can safely buff Southern. Hidden Blade is already cool and good enough.

John, you remind me of MNT.

John, you remind me of MNT.

Mutant Ninja Turtle?

My Neighbour Trololo, a user who also created cards and also was able to find stunning art for his custom cards!

Was able? Hitting up google search with a "desire name" + "art" is not that of a big deal

Ah, well, I never seem to find anything. Deviantart is also really hard to find anything usefull.