I was going through the On The Doorstep cards and I noticed that this card has no reviews, so I felt like I should leave one. I normally don't like events that boost stats temporarily. But this card offers you a big boost - you get to add Bilbo's total , and to each of the stats of another character. This means you're getting a minimum of 3 of each stat added to another character for one phase, which could be as much as 6 or 9 or even more if you have Sting or Burglar Baggins! And the quests in the second half of the Hobbit saga are tough, so you might end up needing such a huge temporary boost to push through a questing or combat barrier. I didn't use this card much during my first play of the Hobbit saga, but now that I've rethought it, I'm going to give it another better try.

PS: This whole review was prompted because I noticed that this card is right in the middle of the player card list for On the Doorstep despite the other and cards being at the end of the player card list for the other saga expansions. At first I was curious why this was, but then I noticed that it's because they made this card's number 13. Very clever.

PPS. EDIT: I know this card's wording isn't the clearest about whether you add the sum of Bilbo's stats to the other character (e.g. +3 to each stat with unmodified Bilbo) or just his individual stats (e.g. +1 to each stat with unmodified Bilbo). But what convinces me that you add the sum is that the text says "total." If the text didn't say "total," then it would be clear that it adds Bilbo's individual stats and not the sum of his stats. Also because spending a resource and a card just to give a character +1 to each stat for one phase is rarely worth it, especially considering you only get to use cards in quests in The Hobbit saga, which is only 6 quests out of the whole game, and those quests make you want to hang onto your resources to use for other things.

This Elvish cloak is a niche card and has lots against it on the outlook. There are other, better attachments that boost raw defence, it's limited to Noldor and Silvan, limit 1 and it requires to be played against quests that have forests to even gain the +2 defence. However, there are 2 aspects to this card that I believe make it stand out and warrent consideration in deckbuilding.

The first is that is it only 1of 2 attachment cards in the Lore sphere that provides a raw defence boost, the other being Protector of Lórien. In multisphere decks, it may be worth considering your defence boosts to come from Lore if you already have too many cards in the other spheres to help smooth the resources. Cloak may also gain the edge over Protector if discarding cards to fuel Protector is an issue and you would rather the static +1.

The second advantage is that Cloak is a raw defence boost that is not limited to Heros, it can be played on Noldor and Silvan Allies. This flexibility in the right decks, specifically decks that are wanting to use allies are thier main line of defence, makes Cloak a more viable choice. The best allies that come to mind for Cloak are Guardian of Rivendell and Greenwood Defender. Noldor decks in particular that utilise Círdan the Shipwright and Narya can turn two Guardian of Rivendell allies into brutal defence and killing machines whilst making them a bit more durable against those higher attack enemies.

Cloak is by no means a card that has broad applications, nor will it ever be anything but a niche defence attachment in certain decks, but it has it value and will help keep some of your defenders alive.

The utility of this with Gandalf is obvious, as he can set up cards to use his ability with. He can also get guaranteed card draw with Expert Treasure-hunter, at least for players who have access to the Hobbit cards. Revised players will at least get access to Radagast, and this makes a lovely combination with Messenger Raven. Play the Raven, quest without exhausting, use wizard pipe to swap one of your cards onto the top of the deck, then retrieve the raven to guess that card.

This card is wonderful against high-threat bosses that engage through quest effects. The very best of those is Lonely Mountain -- Smaug has 50 threat, and his shadows can trigger re-attacks via keyword. But not if they're discarded first!

Sometimes I wonder what the designers were thinking. This is another card that makes thematic sense (the Hobbits hiding from the combat phase), but not a lot of game sense. Skipping the combat phase at first blush doesn't seem to accomplish much -- since you aren't allowed to attack them, those enemies will be around next turn as well, so all you've done is put off the time of reckoning. Sure, you might be able to put another part into play next round, but if you hadn't wasted two resources and a card draw on playing this card, maybe you'd have that help already.

But on second thought, for a solo player this is the equivalent card to Ever Onward, a criminally underrated card. In the case of Ever Onward, for three leadership resources a solo player can completely ignore questing, and concentrate every character on combat. This can be a game-changer. This card, for a much easier cost of two neutral resources, can send absolutely everyone questing and ignore the combat phase entirely. That is something that on a number of quests could be a game changer.

The fly in the ointment is that unlike Ever Onward, this requires a specific deck lineup -- all Hobbit heroes -- and again I come back to what the designers were thinking. This card was released in the same pack as Pippin, whose only ability was kicking enemies back to staging. And at the time of release there was only one possible all-Hobbit lineup -- LoBilbo, SpPippin, and SpFrodo. This is a deck that doesn't have to engage enemies and has an unkillable defender if they do -- does this really sound like the sort of hero lineup that needs this card? You know who really needs this card? Players on Battle or Siege quests in this very cycle. And they are not going to be running the incredibly lame hobbit deck to do it. The all-hobbit restricted doomed this card to binder fodder, when in a less restrictive mode (say, if you control a Hobbit) it would probably still be binder fodder like Ever Onward, but at least it would be unfairly ignored.

So is there any way to exploit this little card? There's a lot more choice in all-hobbit lineups, and most of them are more useful in the quest phase than Bilbo Baggins. One thing to note is that the attack restriction is only on "you", so if you've got ranged help in other decks, you can stop all your engaged enemies from attacking, and let the bowmen do your dirty work for you while you quest.

Another interesting thing is that the word "you" is missing from the "do not attack". In theory, a non-immune boss simultaneously engaged with all players could be prevented from attacking anyone, while only your deck is prevented from hitting back. If that's true (and at this point in the game, who would ever make an official ruling on it), this might have some powerful sideboard potential in certain multiplayer quests.