Messenger of the King

Contract.

Side A

You cannot choose more than 2 heroes during setup.

Setup: Choose a non-neutral unique ally from your deck and put it into play. Add the sum of that ally's printed , , , and hit points to your starting threat. Then, flip this card over and attach it to that ally.

Side B

Attached ally loses the ally card type and gains the hero card type

Attached character cannot be readied more than once per phase

Messenger of the King is immune to card effects while attached character is in play.

If attached character leaves play, remove Messenger of the King from the game.

"I am a messenger of the King" he said. "You are speaking to the King's friend, and one of the most renowned in all the lands of the West."
-Pippin, The Return of the King
Justin Gerard

The Land of Sorrow #134. Neutral.

Messenger of the King
Reviews

Too bad that is has to be non-neutral. There goes my idea of using Ally Radagast and finally making him broken. Oh well, Messenger of the King is still a great card in other respects. I guess. grumbles

[Update] Having gone through all unique neutral allies in the game, I genuinly wonder why this restriction was put in place. Allies like Core Gandalf, Saruman and Wilyador would leave play at the end of the round, so that wouldn't be viable anyway. Thalion has build-in Heroic-ness. That leaves Treebeard and Radagast, who both have innate resource generation. However, they may only use those resources for specific ends and are not assigned to any of the usual spheres. Surely that must off-set the advantage of having them produce an extra resource if they were a hero. Am I missing something here?

Caedus 57
I think Treebeard alone is reason enough, amazing stats, resource production smoothing for ents, in-built readying — Alonewolf87 2390
Would Treebeard and Radagast gain two resources? — Jtothemac 477
Yeah, one from their own ability and one cause they are heroes. Of course those resources would be limited by the fact that they are neutral, but both of them can also spend them on their "tribe" allies as if they were of any sphere — Alonewolf87 2390

Some notes on this contract: 1 -- The Ally you choose must be in your 50. 2 -- The "Setup:" occurs after you draw your hand. This means, that if you draw the Ally you wish to use for this, it will be ineligible (assuming you have only 1 copy) 3 -- You can choose any Ally in your deck. I believe this will make this a very versatile contract because you can choose the Ally that best works with your hand or the quest you're one. Or maybe not.

Just wanted to give a heads up to people who are using this because I see a lot of decklists that do not have the MotK Hero they've chosen in their decklists.

Not a true review. I do believe this is a great addition to the game and will create many exciting new options and I look forward to using it when it is finally released.

Madd.Dawgg 34
@Madd.Dawgg Caleb Grace and Matt Newman pointed this out in their interview on Card Talk. They also pointed out that they thought — kattattack22 859
Continuing earlier comment since I can't figure out how to it: They thought this was fine because it's a low chance of drawing it twice with a mulligan. Also they related another instance where players just played a card as intended rather then follow how the effect would go strictly following the rules. I expect everyone is going to just make their intended messagener a hero and draw their hand. It's just going to be easier and avoid unnecessary mulligans. — kattattack22 859
It'd be nice if they just officially made it work "correctly." — NoSoup4you 850
We already talked about a house rule, so you still make a 50 card deck and your MotK starts in play, but I do think the versatility aspect is exciting by itself. And I should listen to listen to that podcast! Thank you. — Madd.Dawgg 34
Since it doesn't say "Search your deck for an ally...", could one not make the argument that an ally in your hand is "in your deck". It says "Choose an ally FROM your deck", so I'd say an ally that you've drawn is still "from your deck". Is there another card with this same wording that would act as a precedent? — StephenMotz 125
I doubt it's true, but has there been a ruling on Stephen's question? — LEGOlas 130
And I quote MEC77:" Contracts count as player cards, but they are never included in a player’s deck and do not count towards a player ’s minimum deck size. Instead, each player may choose one contract to put into play along with his heroes at the beginning of the game with its “ A” side faceup. If a contract places restrictions on the contents of a player’s deck, those restrictions must be met in order to choose that contract." — ludicrous 10
And even if the rules did not specify that the setup takes place at step 2: The MotK card text alters the way the setup of the heroes works, so per golden rule this would still be step 2. The only setup left after step 6. drawing your starting hand are 7. Quest cards and 8. Scenario instructions, while contracts are player cards. Also why would MotK tell you "You cannot choose more than 2 heroes during setup", if you already set up your heroes? — ludicrous 10

This is far and away my favourite contract in the game, and I would go so far as to say that it is also one of the most creatively stimulating cards in the game. Here's why.

What this card basically does is expands your choices for heroes by as many non-neutral unique allies you own. The possibilities are endless! Do you need another hobbit hero for your hobbit deck, but you don't have any hobbit heroes available? Ally Sam Gamgee can fill that slot. Are you making a deck reliant on getting a specific pipe? Ally Bilbo Baggins can make you start the game with a pipe. Do you want to make a Gandalfless-Vilya deck without totally relying on Imladris Stargazer? Choose ally Gildor Inglorion as your hero!

This card opens so many options! You can even use it on allies like Ioreth or Galion to have a hero worth 1 threat! This card opens up secrecy options, theming options, or combo options (like Gamling in Rohan decks).

Some of the best choices include: Birna, Legolas, Pippin, Arwen Undómiel, Súlien, Éothain, Forlong, Gimli, Halfast Gamgee, Rosie Cotton, Bob, Firyal, and Galdor of the Havens and the cards already specified above.

What if you already have a deck with the contract in it but you want to make a different deck usign a Messenger of the King hero? Who cares! Just pretend you have another copy of the card. Realistically, all the contract does is open hero choices. That's why it is so great. Any card that paves the way for creativity is something I give my full support to. Give it a try if you haven't already. Don't own the card? Pretend you do! It won't make a difference.

FolcoBoffin 320
Angbor the Fearless is one of my favorite targets. He guarantees that your threat will be low enough to use Pillars of the Kings and then he contributes 5 points of stats. — LEGOlas 130

How many people actually own this card? People were using this in they're decks before it was released. Hmmmmmm... Suspicious... And isn't it really hard to buy?

And MotK allies shouldn't be a "Expansion" on this site.

nelloianiro 1038
The card had been spoiled well before the release. I'd assume people had been proxying it. The AP Land of Sorrow is out now but it could be difficult to find depending on where you live. The MotK allies expansion helps significantly when building decks on this site. I'm glad it's there! I also believe it is there for compatibility reasons. For example, there neess to be a hero version of a card to count it as a hero when in the building process — Uruk-guy 548
Not necessarily @Uruk-guy. You just have to have the ally you want to use in your deck. also if you draw all copies of the ally it cant become a hero. — Truck 1451
@truck that's exactly right. My comment didn't address that though. I was speaking only about the website interface. — Uruk-guy 548
@Uruk-guy ok — Truck 1451