First review for this card. Orophin is a versatile ally and one of the rare Silvans to target and interact with an ally card that is not in the hand but in the discard pile. There are three types of allies that he will likely bring back :

1) A Silvan ally who was the victim of a treachery during the staging step (for example Galadriel's Handmaiden), or an ally whose main interest lies in his entry effect and which we had to use as a chump-blocker (but which we could benefit from replaying in order to benefit from its entry effect), for example Galadhrim Minstrel.

2) Silvan Refugee if an ally left the game before being able to use Silvan Refugee with The Tree People, or in case this event was triggered with Silvan Refugee while another Silvan Refugee was in play.

3) A Sylvain ally useful in combat but who did not survive a previous attack (for example Greenwood Defender). Furthermore, not only is Orophin from the same sphere as Thranduil, but he can also serve as a transmission belt for it : Orophin returns an ally from the discard to hand, then Thranduil plays it during the combat phase, depending on the needs of the moment.

The ideal conditions and terms for playing Orophin :

• Include three copies of The Tree People, and return a cheap ally such as Galion or Silvan Refugee to hand, for put Orophin into play for free.
• If you have not put Orophin into play with The Tree People, O Lórien! allows you to pay only 2 resources for it. That is a pretty nice cost-stat ratio.
• Have planned at least one copy of Host of Galadhrim to allow him to return several allies to your hand during the game.
• Include Map of Rhovanion to benefit from its Scout trait.
• Play Rúmil, and attach Rivendell Bow or Bow of the Galadhrim to Orophin; include at least one copy of Hands Upon the Bow.
• Include Galadriel to let Orophin quest at 2 without exhausting, when he enters play.

It's a card that is both simple and subtle, flexible enough to pursue multiple goals and fit into varied sets of decks and scenarios.

This event has three notable interests which can be combined :

1) Granting a willpower bonus to all characters (heroes or allies, unique or not) engaged in the quest, just before the quest resolution step.

2) Readying the questing characters to take advantage of their possible versatility (an action triggerable during this phase 3 or later, or good stats usable in combat).

3) Discarding many encounter cards that bother us.

For 2-cost, there are two conditions to be able to take full advantage of it :

• Treacheries must be manageable, obsolete or painless for our deck and our cards in play (which also depends a lot on the scenario, of course)

• We must be able to scry and manipulate the encounter deck. A few steps before playing A Desperate Path we can for example trigger Far-sighted, Interrogation, or Risk Some Light. Another interesting card to play before A Desperate Path is Shadow of the Past if some treachery without serious consequences sits at the top of the encounter discard pile.

I'm writing the first review for this card. This is an effective and versatile ally who synergizes well with a classical Dale board.

1) Thanks to Brand son of Bain + King of Dale (and other attachment(s) on him) and / or Traffic from Dale, he can be played for a very interesting cost-stat ratio around mid-game.

2) Then, Bard son of Brand brings the ability to play an attachment of any sphere on Descendant of Girion.

3) The passive ability of Descendant of Girion eases the payment of that attachment card on him, which triggers Brand son of Bain's drawing response.

4) Finally, in conjunction with Long Lake Trader, Descendant of Girion can shift its attachment to another ally, to optimise the use of that attachment.

He is not included in all Dale decks (maybe because of its printed 4-cost), but it is a nice card that contributes to the mix of power and flexibilty that so much players love in the Dale archetype.

First review for this card. A low-cost and single-task ally ( alter ego of Misty Mountain Journeyman in ) for two main deck types :

1) A Dunedain or partially Dunedain deck that intermittently needs a cheap attack bonus for help finishing a strong ennemy or for destroying a low ennemy whom we are engaged with, before engaging new ennemies or to achieve the quest. Against a scenario with many ennemies, he can synergize with Dúnedain Hunter and Mablung too : you play the Hunter for free and engage a new ennemy during the planning phase, win 1 resource thanks to Mablung, then play Northern Bowmaster with this resource, so that you control two new allies without modifying your initial budget.

2) A non-Dunedain deck in a scenario where some ennemy promptly engage us and we need cheap allies to help destroy him.

First review for this card. Like Kahliel's Tribesman and although it's a neutral card, she is an ally to be used exclusively in a Harad / Kahliel theme deck. Outside of this context, its cost-stat ratio would be just average. But in a Harad deck, it is equivalent to a multi-sphere resource accelerator for the allies, all the more valuable that the "big three" (Firyal, Jubayr, Yazan) are expensive allies that we nevertheless need to play quickly for their intrinsic qualities and to optimize the combo Kahliel + Kahliel's Headdress. Of course she is useful to accelerate the setup of the other allies (Kahliel's Tribesman and other copies of Southron Refugee) too.