Council of Elrond

This thread is a chance for those who participated in the virtual tournament to provide feedback on the virtual cards. Things we'd like to hear about:

1. Successes. Cards that really worked well and were a pleasure to play.

2. Disappointments. Cards that failed to do what it says on the tin.

3. Too strong. Cards that you thought could be overpowered or might need to be toned down.

4. Too weak. Opposite of above.

I'll start:

1. In Darkness Binds Them bringing some much needed life to hazard-long events and Will of Sauron.
Active RWs!
Bard and Black Arrow
Armory

2. Not many here. Got a bit splattered so my decks as a whole didn't tend to do what they set out to achieve.

3. TNaA. Needs re-tuning. Too versatile for other strats, and not being used for Nazgul cards like Pale Sword and Black Breath.
Possibly The Witch-king Unleashed is a little too good, although I really like the options the cards opens up for the WK.

4. HaEO, particularly when compared to TNaA.
I Know Much About You.

1. Bard, Khamul Unleashed, Hornsx3 and Eye of Sauron
Nice playable strategy for Bard, HHH is a nice card, Khamul does its thing much better now and Eye of Sauron works vs squat.

2. OttS, FTiFD
I fail to see the use of Baduila in a hogs deck, and there are too little freedomains linked to use FT effectively... it makes you very much vulnerable for a few lost in freedomains

3. TNaA
There are too much strong cards that can easily be fetched with this card. I would either make it unique or cannot be duplicated.


4. Know Much About You, Uvatha Unleashed.
Know much fails its target as using baduila later on >>> discarding to prevent it, and Uvatha unleashed requires too much to really work.

1. Never Refuse. Not only did I not have to fear Skin-changers trying to move Saruman, but the 1 CP has cost me a couple of games, so it's well-balanced and exciting. Free sideboarding of spells makes quite a few things possible on the turn your FW comes into play so long as he's being active about it.

Also, the German Promos, which I forgot to account for.

2. Half an Eye is way too cloggy in most instances, and there's no guarantee of being able to hit your opponent with Dragons anyway.

3. Nazgul are Abroad. For reasons stated. Usriev of Treachery; I shouldn't have to be that terrified of a non-unique major item.

4. I Know Much About You. If I have a hazard in my hand, I'm going to hit my opponent with it.

1. Khamul Unleashed rocks , Bard & Arrow, Dwar of Waw, Legolas, Alert the Folk & Anduin all see good play and aren't to strong

the list is long as I test all my decks with virtuals

Ancient Stair, Wondrous Maps work great (especially with Eyes of Mandos),
Armory is nice although I would prefer battle gear items only, as Healing herbs spread everywhere with this card, so Adamant Helmet coming from there would not be too unbalanced I believe.

Reforging + german promos

Black Numeroreans + Umberean Corsairs is nice, still need an Umbar site though from dream cards to make it really pretty

Riven Gate + Terror Heralds Doom is nice, but some MP for this card might be in order

Unsriev is cool, people just forget that hazards are there to protect your stuff so misdirection for everyone is needed vs this card.

Never Refuse is awesome, as CVCC is now even better for fallens, and you do not get send back all the time.

In Darkness Bind them is great addition to the will of sauron, but a heavy roadblock deck might be to powerful with it.

Yes, coming from dream card environment, german promos add a lot to my decks

sry now to 2)
Half an Eye open is to cumbersome ;(
Fate of the Ithil-stone the roll is to hard make it 15 or the cc less
Open to the Summons, people tend to forget, that burning the site where you just played the faction will discard that faction;(
add more to it.

3) TNaA is bad, period, not because of Nazgul but Scimtars or Awefull
Snaga + Troth RIng is over powered only LtCoBR helps here
TW-kU is over the top, bring in RW followers at R&L is the key I believe
Cup of Farewell either split or move but not both too many items are possible


4) look under 2

Interesting that you found Fate of the Ithil-stone roll too hard. I've played such a deck twice and never failed it! The reward is excellent, so the roll and cc should not be easy.

I'm beginning to wonder whether The WKU should not have the darkhaven playability. One really should be at a non-darkhaven site to benefit from all these RWs gathering, i.e. dark-hold, shadow-hold and/or ruins & lairs. In other words, the WK should be out and about.

The Will of Sauron is just such a cool card. All the most interesting games seem to happen when this baby comes out to play.

I found Uvatha Unleashed to be rather nice with a dedicated creature strategy. Thanks to easy movement from they ride together, he can be at an appropriate site by the end of the turn he comes into play. Since it's playable during the End-of-Turn phase, it doesn't even clog the hand much.

I did not participate in the tournament but indeed found that TNaA is overpowered with Scimitars of Steel.

ok, here i go:

1. WKU, TRT, Indur Unleashed, all Plant cards, Snaga, IDBT, The Great Goblin (i'm a bit surprised that i've played it more as a creature than as an event)

2. Dwar unleashed, adunaphel unleashed, under-deeps hero strategy, minion corsairs strat, open to the summons, half an eye

3. Just TNaA, maybe cup of farewell agree with Vastor here

4. know much about you, fair travel in free domain, morannon

1. Horns, Bard Bowman, Woundrous Maps.

2. Shadowfax is cool, but hard to play. First you must be Gandalf , second you rather sideboard Shadowfax after Gandalf enters play, finally Gandalf must be untapped at a site in Edoras. And then you score a ranger ally (which is cool, of course) for 1 MP only... Do you guys think we could virtualise a 2 MPs Shadowfax? Just a thought.

3. TNaA. Cards like 2 or 3 Tribes Present must be out, and I'd say let's add "cannot be duplicated" at least.

4. The 2 new events for plants are nice, though our main problem here is creature shortage: 3 different creatures only which cannot be keyed to many places.