Rule of the Steward 2.0

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would increase the density of allies and add A Very Good Tale. if availaible the Soldier of Gondor would perfectly fit in.

i am not a big fan of Blood of Númenor would rather use Dúnedain Warning or if staying in theme the Livery of the Tower

the Envoy of Pelargir is the natural cheap gondor-ally (cost effectively 1 because of his refund)

would discard for it:

• A Fair Exchange (or reduce to 1) u do not have sooo much diffrent uniques
• 2 Blood of Númenor
• 1-2 Ancestral Armor (sooo expensive and with Hauberk of Mail and Dúnedain Warning Beregond should have enough and in desperate need the Livery of the Tower should help)

I agree Livery of the Tower is probably a better pick than Blood of Númenor and more thematic.

Ancestral Armor is there for denethor and also helps out with 4 threat cards coming up during The Riddle-game.

The previous version had more allies but during the games I played I found that the Soldier of Gondor still often missed with only 20 allies. And adding even more is off the table. Without Boromir the only big buff to allies is Visionary Leadership. The focus is less on allies and more on general support and defending with Beregond.

if you go more hero than ally-fokused, then i would include a few Unexpected Courage and some Open the Armory to find the precious armors better. and, if denethor should defend, then i would put in 1 Shining Shield.

good cost-4-cards and flexible to use are Keen as Lances

i never played the free-bonus-artifact -contract but it was told to me, that zero-cost cards are sometimes an issue, and then Cram seems to be a good addition or more thematic Wealth of Gondor both seems of more use to me than A Fair Exchange

(and The Riddle-game seems not thematic to gondor to me, but its your game ;) )

Wait didn't I include Unexpected Courage?? Thought I did.

And yes I did check the ratios for the riddle game you need a lot of 0 and 2 costs' then 3 and 1 and a couple 4's. Should be ok in that regard.

A Fair Exchange is in there because I play several key unique cards at 3. It allows me to exchange a dupe of one for another I don't have yet. It comes in handy to get a Steward of Gondor Incase you open two Visionary Leadership etc.

I did consider the Shining Shield but with Beregond I'm not expecting my threat to sky rocket, so the value there seems less than the Ancestral Armor.

Open the Armory is nice, but has some drawbacks: it is a 1 cost that is a hit or miss. Granted I do play a fair bit of armor attachments but the fact that it is a one cost also throws off the raid for the contract. There are typically very few 1 threat encounter cards in a scenario so I really don't like to increase the number of 1 costs.. also the reason why Envoy of Pelargir is no longer included in this version anymore. Maybe I can swap some one costs around to fit in a copy of Open the Armory, it is ok as a one off, but wouldn't want it much higher than that.

I'll let the Keen as Lances idea marinade a bit, quite like it. A random 5 threat card does appear in the riddle game at times, and if anyone can afford to play it, it will be the actual steward of Gondor.

Ah nvm, Unexpected Courage is there.

The contract indeed may not be the most thematic, but the power boost is too big for me to ignore.

Rod of the Steward seems a bit excessive when you have access to the Stone of Elostirion from setup. So maybe I can drop that one for Open the Armory. Then to up the ratio of 3-cost cards a little bit, Ingold is not terrible either. Maybe at one or two copies... will need to playtest.

yea i overlooked courage.

if u want to go the power/effective road, then it seems better to me take Prince Imrahil over Prince Imrahil and include some tactics. then you can include the best card for gondor: Gondorian Shield

for cost 3:

Master Ironsmith and Fierce Defense or Théodwyn and Veteran of Osgiliath if not wanting go tactics

The Favor of the Lady also a good safety cost 3