Hey, Boromir is still good 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

I found out about FAQ 1.9 as of 15 minutes ago, in the middle of a four-player game of Battle of the Five Armies that I had been playing. This was one of the four decks, so if you’re wondering about the inclusion of certain cards (like Light of Valinor) and the removal of others (like Gondorian Shield), that’s why.

And guess what?

I had been playing by the FAQ’s Boromir rules before I even knew they existed.

I quested with him on the battle and seige stages, since he got up to 4 attack and defense with Gondorian Shield and Dagger of Westernesse. During the encounter phase, I would gage my combat power, determining whether or not I needed to ready him. If so, I did. I would defend some enemies with him and would use him for attack with Dwalin on tougher ones like Bodyguard of Bolg. Occasionally, he would be used for both. But I still only readied him once a phase.

Boromir is not a lame-duck hero now. He pulled his weight in my BoFA game, participating in all three phases of the game. Your old Get Boromir To Do It deck might not work anymore, but your Let Boromir Do Most of Combat deck is largely unaltered. I say this playing Five Armies, a quest legendary for its enemy swarm. Yes, I was running other combat-heavy decks. But the fact remains that BOROMIR STILL DOES HIS THING. Don’t light his funeral pyre. He’s got Denethor to do that for him. (And his brother.)

Also, there’s no need to cavech about the FAQ and about the designers. If people actually played with the errata’d cards rather than dismissing them because they are less powerful than the original, they might find that those cards still work. Same goes for heroes they say the designers should buff. I’m not saying there aren’t legitimate grievances against the FAQ; personally, I think Háma and We Are Not Idle could have been handled better. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t use them, it just means I’ll have to find new ways to do so. Caleb is doing a great job with this game, and just because one of your decks got rendered useless doesn’t mean you should sell your cards and quit. There were reasons behind the errata, and I will accept them and move forward. Getting hung up over a few poorly errata’d cards distracts us from the rest of the game, which has been amazingly and nearly flawlessly executed. If we complain about the few cards we thought could be handled better, it means that we have a very high standard of what a card should be, and that is because the rest of the player cards are very well designed. We should be grateful that we have this excellence of design throughout our game and not get focused on the minor details.

So give the “new” Boromir a spin. Heck, use this deck against Five Armies. (I’ll post the other three if people are really curious.) Boromir will live through this FAQ, and, with a little help from the community, so will our card game.

Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the deck!